Re: Like Bernie Madoff "Digital Asset"
Actually, crypto is quite different than Madoff's classic Ponzi scheme. Don't get me wrong. Cryptocurrency is an RBI (Really Bad Idea). But a Ponzi scheme it is not.
My understanding is that what Bernie Madoff did was to claim he had developed a sophisticated investment strategy involving using futures contracts to leverage mundane investments in S&P 500 stocks thereby achieving much higher yields than simply buying and selling the same stocks would yield. The scheme was exceedingly complex. So much so that no one understood it. It probably wouldn't have worked. Didn't matter. Madoff skipped that messy investment step. Buying and selling stock is risky. A man could lose money that way. Instead, he simply paid out "dividends" and withdrawals using money from the incoming investment stream and the existing capital pool.
That's illegal because it can rip off even relatively cautious investors.
Crypto mongers OTOH are quite open about how their business works. You print your own money and "investors" line up to exchange stuff with real world value for your freshly minted notes. But that's nuts? People would have to be crazy to exchange real assets for monopoly money?
Yep. Nobody said the world wasn't full of crazy people.
Crypto is really quite odd. And it's probably imploding. But it's nature is not misrepresented. And it's not illegal (except in China).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
