I just read online (
http://rt.com/usa/news/investors-currency-digital-fund-868/) that somebody went and started a bitcoin ponzi scheme. Fairly natural, right?
What I am wondering is, if this was actually illegal, since the money was not "fiat currency." If it is, would that mean that a ponzi scheme based on, I don't know, WoW gold, would be illegal too? Does that mean all those websites that don't even accept money, but say "you visit this link, and the next 2 visitors will visit yours" are illegal too, because they are ponzi-ing website pageloads?
Just wondering. Either way, it feels weird somehow.
Bitcoins have a monetary value and fraud is illegal.
There have been several (apparent) ponzi schemes using bitcoin. Because of the anonymous nature of bitcoin and the bitcoin community, people are especially vulnerable to these schemes. You have to be very careful about who you give your bitcoins to.
BTW, a pyramid scheme is not the same as a Ponzi scheme, although they can be similar. Many people use "Ponzi" when they mean "pyramid", like you did, in your example.