庞氏骗局什么时候是庞氏骗局？

在上一次加密货币牛市期间，我与一些我敬佩的人就庞氏骗局的本质发生了争论，他们是“加密货币批评角”播客 Bennet Thompson 和 Cas Piancey 的联合主持人，以及化名加密货币交易员和叛逆模因制造者 Poordart。方案，以及它们与区块链协议的关系。

简而言之，我试图论证“庞兹经济学”在金融领域无处不在，包括加密货币。

这是 Node 时事通讯的摘录，该时事通讯是 CoinDesk 及其他领域最关键的加密货币新闻的每日综述。

您可以在此处订阅以获取完整的新闻通讯。

这场争论是在一位前 CoinDesker 将当时热门的加密货币项目 Ohm 与庞氏骗局进行比较后开始的，该项目旨在引导采用的新颖尝试。

它的目的是讽刺地肯定 Ohm 的财务激励措施，如果成功，它可以作为 DeFi 的储备货币，就像美元对世界的作用一样。

我的对话者对美元是庞氏骗局的想法感到愤怒。

但是，不是吗？

据我所知，庞兹经济学并不是一个真正的词，但它是一种可识别的性质。

当你看到它时你就知道了。

当一个项目通过隐含或明确的财富承诺（无论是否欺诈）来激励采用时，该项目就是“庞氏骗局”。

它源于以查尔斯·庞氏 (Charles Ponzi) 命名的正式定义的投资欺诈，庞氏以高回报的承诺引诱投资者，并“劫彼得付保罗”。

另请参阅：诈骗者就是这样耗尽您的加密钱包的

庞兹经济学这个术语是由作者罗伯特·菲茨帕特里克（Robert FitzPatrick）在一本关于多层次营销计划的书中普及的，《庞兹经济学：多层次营销不为人知的故事》，他在书中说，像纽崔莱和安利这样的公司的运作方式就像金融金字塔，因为资金主要通过欺骗性的招聘技巧，大部分都流向了高层。

由于游说努力，传销在美国是合法的，它提供了销售产品或服务的合法业务的幌子。

如果你留意的话，类似的庞氏经济激励措施随处可见。

经济学家海曼·明斯基（Hyman Minsky）使用“庞氏金融”一词来描述僵尸企业，这些企业在功能上已死亡，但通过不断获得新的资金来源而继续运作并履行债务承诺。

其他几位经济学家认为，如果政府不断通过发行新债券来偿还现有债务，国家债务可能会成为“庞氏游戏”。

如果资本被用于生产性用途，庞兹经济学甚至不一定是一件坏事——但它几乎从定义上来说确实增加了后来采用者的风险水平，他们可能面临金融体系的崩溃，除非它是可持续的或成功清零。

这是比特币背后博弈论的一部分，毕竟，人们购买比特币时通常希望它会随着时间的推移而变得更有价值，因为它相对于美元保持价值，或者被广泛采用。

The question is when does ponzinomics cross the line and become legitimately fraudulent? It’s not often the case that crypto scams are called Ponzi schemes when regulators are involved, like in the recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indictment of HyperVerse on Monday. After the scam imploded, and authorities got involved, they found Australian “blockchain entrepreneur” Sam Lee operated a scam that defrauded investors of $1.89 billion.

The HyperVerse story has been getting a lot of mainstream attention in part because of the “staggering” figures involved, as U.S. Attorney Erek L Barron put it, but also because of how weird it is. Apparently, Lee and his co-conspirators Brenda Chunga paid an actor to pretend to be a CEO and somehow, likely over Cameo, received endorsements from celebrities including Chuck Norris and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

See also: 6 Kinds of Crypto Scams and How to Avoid Them

Court documents describe HyperVerse (also variously called HyperCapital, HyperFund and HyperNation) as a “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that attracted investors with the allure of high returns from crypto mining and other false promises including a metaverse. “The only thing that HyperFund mined was its investors’ pockets,” SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement.

Obviously, nothing was built with the money that was raked in from around the world. What’s interesting, when considering how Lee and Chunga reportedly spent the money, is that the alleged scheme does not even seem very profitable. Sure, they bought cars, property and designer clothing — but, considering the nominal figure raised, it seems like the HyperVerse Ponzi operated for so long because it paid out incoming revenue to existing users.

The scheme had an MLM component to it, which is how Chunga got involved when she was recruited in 2020 and invested $500. Recruits were promised passive income at a rate of 0.5%-1% per day, or an “accelerated” program. Chunga, one of only six “corporate” presenters, and the only one named besides Lee in the documents, received more than $3.7 million from the HyperFund platform and directly from recruiting investors in the U.S.

Things worked until it didn’t, and eventually unraveled when withdrawals were frozen in 2022. By the end, the promoters were attempting to bilk investments by selling users $10,000 NFTs and promising a “university-level blockchain education.” Very rarely can Ponzi schemes survive, eventually there is no one left to trick. Perhaps that’s another similarity with certain cryptos.

标签：庞氏骗局 骗局