PonziCoin ICO Exits
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PonziCoin was a literal and honest smart contract ponzi scheme. The rules were straightforward and users came in droves to play. Significant sums were lost. As far as we can tell, no criminal action was taken and users accepted their losses.
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
About PonziCoin
"The World's First Legitimate Ponzi Scheme. Because money doesn't grow on trees... unless you're BitFinex." "With PonziCoin, the latest outrageous phenomenon to hit the space, there’s no need for deeper study or scrutiny: the half-joking, half-serious project clearly described itself as a boldfaced Ponzi scheme." "San Francisco dev Rishab Hegde just coded up the now already infamous PonziCoin ERC-20 token."
"And yet the project still offers its tokens anyways: a real head-scratcher for a U.S. dev who falls under Securities and Exchange Commission jurisdiction. Perhaps, though, that makes it all the more impressive that the PonziCoin ticker symbol is (SEC)" "Bolder yet, the PonziCoin whitepaper links to an SEC warning on “Ponzi Schemes Using Virtual Currencies.”"
"Buy PonziCoin tokens (symbol: SEC) from the Smart Contract with ETH at the current price." "Every time 100 tokens are sold, the Smart Contract doubles the current price." "At any time, you can sell your PonziCoins back to the Smart Contract for 1/4 of the current price." "The entire Ponzi Scheme is run through a verified Smart Contract so there's no way for anyone to run off with all the money."
"This WILL be a top 5-10 market cap coin by end of year. Send ether to the Smart Contract through this website to buy your coins now before it takes off. Think about the Lambos you'll soon own." "We suggest shilling this coin heavily to your family and friends like a fucking sociopath. Creating posts on how this coin will 1000x by April on /r/wallstreetbets, /r/cryptocurrency, /biz/, and making several youtube videos promoting PonziCoin is also encouraged."
"Now the best name in the game. PonziCoin. The most amazing fact about this project is that PonziCoin was one of the most honest companies in blockchain history. The website of PonziCoin ICO claimed that this project is a scam, but somehow it managed to raise over $250,000 before the founders of the company have disappeared with the money. Can we blame PonziCoin founders? Good question." "Everytime 100 tokens are sold, the Smart Contract will double the price that newcomers can buy in at, but also the price that you can sell the tokens at! So everytime 100 tokens are sold, your PonziCoins' value doubles! HODL and watch it soar. If you do somehow lose money, it's because of sell walls and whales trying to accumulate (and maybe Roger Ver somehow?), don't play into their hands." "If you're allergic to making more money and want to cash out to buy pizza/drugs/Lambos, sell your coins back to the Smart Contract through this website for ether! If you've HODLed for long enough and shilled hard enough that enough people have bought in afterwards, your gains will be through the roof."
"When you buy PonziCoins, you are paying ether into the PonziCoin's Smart Contract balance, think of it like an ether bank account. Whenever you wish to cash out, the Smart Contract will pay you the ether you are owed out of its balance. Every time 100 tokens are sold, the Smart Contract will double the current price it allows people to buy coins from it and sell coins to it." "You can always cash out at 1/4 of the current price, so to make money you would need to wait till the price triples from where you bought it (200-300 tokens must be sold after you buy yours). If you believe 300 tokens will be sold after you buy in, you're basically guaranteed to double your money or more!"
"It's a literal pyramid scheme. You are fairly likely to be one of the last people to buy PonziCoins, so another 100 tokens probably will not be sold and the price may not ever double again, in which case you could lose up to 75% of your investment. There's also a small chance the contract runs out of money or gets hacked in which case you could lose all of your investment." "Yes, it's not a good crypto scam if it doesn't involve pre-mined coins. I have pre-mined 200 PonziCoins for testing purposes and also because I like money."
"This has gotten crazy out of hand, I apologize but we will no longer be selling PonziCoin on this site because this was a joke. I cannot terminate the contract but I will not be selling any coins that I own."
"We hope everyone had a good laugh :) But we have to shut down. This was a parody art performance/joke. I did not "run off" with the money, I never sold any of my PonziCoins, and the contract was drained from other users withdrawing. Please be careful when investing in shady cryptocurrencies, especially ones that look like pyramid schemes - it's a zero sum game and money doesn't appear out of thin air."
This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.
The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.
Include:
- Known history of when and how the service was started.
- What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
- What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
- Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
- Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
- How were people recruited to participate?
- Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.
Don't Include:
- Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
- Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.
There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.
The Reality
This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:
- When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
- Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
- How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
- Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.
What Happened
The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.
| Date | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| February 2nd, 2018 12:00:00 AM | Main Event | Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here. |
Total Amount Lost
The total amount lost is unknown.
How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?
Immediate Reactions
How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?
Ultimate Outcome
What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?
Total Amount Recovered
There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.
What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?
Ongoing Developments
What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?
Prevention Policies
Which policies could have prevented this event from happening?
References
- ↑ https://medium.com/@ducktator/ico-scams-hall-of-fame-dc915f1189af (Jan 17, 2022)
- ↑ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ponzicoin/ (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ https://www.coinbase.com/price/ponzicoin (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ Bitcoin, titcoin, ponzicoin: jokes and scams fuel a cryptocurrency gold rush | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ PonziCoin (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ PonziCoin (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ PonziCoin (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ PonziCoin: The Latest Pyramid Scheme That Will Make Broke (Jan 20, 2022)
- ↑ Developer Shuts Down Fake Cryptocurrency PonziCoin after Things Go "Crazy Out of Hand" (Jan 20, 2022)