Ponzi schemes are financial frauds which lure users under the promise of high. Actually, users are repaid only with the investments of new users the scheme: consequently, a Ponzi scheme implodes soon after users stop it. Originated in the offline world 150 years ago, Ponzi schemes have then migrated to the digital world, approaching first the Web, and more hanging over cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Smart contract platforms Ethereum have provided a new opportunity for scammers, who have now the of creating "trustworthy" frauds that still make users lose money, at least are guaranteed to execute "correctly". We present a comprehensive of Ponzi schemes on Ethereum, analysing their behaviour and their impact various viewpoints.
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Bartoletti et al. (2017) studied this question.