Quote from: bittycoin on June 22, 2011, 04:36:26 AM

There's a fun new game where you can double your bitcoins:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=20087.0

The operator is very open about how it works:

New players pay off old players x2
The game ends after nobody plays for a week
The operator keeps the btc left in the pot at the end of the game

There's even a Google Spreadsheet showing all the contributions, fees and the payouts. Kudos to Jordoss for running such an open and transparent game!

Since it's no secret that those at the bottom of the pyramid will lose their bitcoins, is it moral to play if you get in early?

Or is it immoral to participate in an activity that is guaranteed to enrich a relative few at the expense of the relative many?

Full disclosure -- my greed won out, and I bought in! It's only been running for a day, so chances are people who join now will get a double!

And it's all in fun, right?

Classic Ponzi Scheme. The older players (i.e., the early adopters) get paid by the new players.
This keeps going on until there are no new players.

The twist is that you know this coming in. Kinda like playing musical chairs. You know people are going to loose.
Everyone hopes to be in a chair (i.e., have BitCoins) when the music stops (i.e., people stop paying).

Is it moral to play? You have to decide that yourself.
Is it immoral to participate in an activity that is guaranteed to enrich a relative few at the expense of the relative many? Hmmm. Capitalism Huh

I'm not a lawyer (and I only know what you have wrote), however I assume this is not legal.
Not because it's a Ponzi. I would say this is not a Ponzi because of full disclose.

I think it is not legal because it is gambling, and the government doesn't want unregulated gambling. The government says that [they] want to protect people from [being] ~~so they will not get~~ scammed. I think they just want their cut (but that is just me

).