Here’s how a crypto ponzi scheme looks like

So I just came across one of the most impressive and smartest crypto projects I’ve ever seen. In fact, the entire scheme is so full of genius – if people buy, you get dividends; if people sell, the price lowers until people buy again, which gives you MORE dividends. You literally can almost not lose as long as you have iron hands and not sell.

It is a joke of a crypto project and an outright, self-confessed Ponzi Scheme, but a really good social experiment, which was why I thought this was too golden a joke not to share.

There’s no end to scams and ponzi schemes in the crypto world, with so many people being cheated of their money because they’re just chasing crypto gains without having the slightest clue about stuff like how to prevent their coins from being stolen, how to spot and avoid shitcoins, and all the other essential stuff that it takes to navigate this crazy crypto universe.

The latest news is that another shitcoin ICO called Prodeum just exited the scene after scamming millions of investor dollars and left this message on their website:

Out of the coins I study, I would say about 10% of them end up to be scams / ponzis / shitcoins. And my personal investment mantra is, as long as I spot a major red flag which makes me feel uncomfortable about the project, I’m out.

But I’m not here to nag today. In fact,
I’m here to tell you about a new coin which declares itself as an actual ponzi scheme.

Yes you read that right. But before you click the exit website button on the top left, let me explain why you should listen and continue reading.

If you want to get educated on how a ponzi crypto scheme looks like, this is literally the best way to learn!

Whether you want to put money in or not is up to you (I wouldn’t recommend it though), but at least you can be almost certain that you probably won’t be losing your money unlike what happened with folks who lost their life savings in Bitconnect just to learn this same lesson.

Allow me to introduce: Proof of Weak Hands coin (PoWHCoin).

I’ve studied so many dubious coins, scams and ponzi schemes in the crypto space (*coughs*Bitconnect*cough*Legit Coin) that I’m blown away by how the developers of POWHCoin have nicely tied almost every element into this single project.

This is the smartest, most hilarious, and most ingenious coin I’ve ever seen. You should take a look here so you can get educated on how to recognise a crypto ponzi next time.

• Pyramid schemes? Check. They openly tell you they’re one.
• Wanna invest? They tell you that you’re throwing, not investing, money into this, and even call you “fools and madmen” before you click through to buy.
• Pays dividends? Hell yeah.
• Anonymous or invisible team? Check.
• Get rich quick scheme? Check.
• Pump and dump scheme? Check.
• Shilling? Check.
• Advisory team? Nope, but there’s an inspiration team alright! (imo, CryptoNick and CryptoChick ought to be on that list too!)
• Shady whitepaper? Check.

Wanna cash out? Worried you can’t cash out if the website goes down like the sites above?

The contract address is: 0xA7CA36F7273D4d38fc2aEC5A454C497F86728a7A

Click on their Whitepaper link (top of toolbar) and watch how it redirects you to the SEC investor alert document on crypto LOL.

If you appreciate humour OR wish to get into a Ponzi Scheme OR wish to get educated on how a Ponzi Scheme looks like, you can play around with the website features here:

https://powhcoin.com/

This coin literally cannot crash! Check out the smart contract and you’ll see why – the instructions are built into it!

I played around on this website for an entire hour and have no regrets. This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in crypto. Btw, did you spot all the little subtleties in the website? Each time you refresh the coin price page, it even gives you a good old quote like “Bag-holders like you are why we can have nice things” or “Buy high, panic, sell low, repeat.”

Whoever built this deserves an award for their level of wit, sarcasm and humour all combined into one. And you know what? I’m so amused that I’ve just donated USD 50 into this just to show my support for the creators.

Update: Unfortunately, PoWH has just been hacked and most of the ethers locked in the smart contract have now been stolen. I’m more bummed over the fact that the developers didn’t take the money and run, because I’d rather my money be given to them (I contributed it as a tip as I mentioned) instead of the hackers. Read the problematic smart contract for POWHShadow here, and the one for POWHcoin here.

Someone actually invested threw 232 ethers into POWHShadow and his money is now locked up forever in the smart contract, with no way for him to withdraw. At time of writing, this is worth close to USD 250,000!!!!!

I went to stalk whoever that poor dude was, and it looks like he certainly invested threw his entire holdings into the problematic ponzi scheme (NOT POWHCOIN, BUT POWHSHADOW. GET THE DIFFERENCE RIGHT) even though he was warned by the creators before purchase.

I pity those who threw in their life savings – you were literally warned by the creator that this was a ponzi right from the start.

P.S. Can someone else recreate this as a social experiment? I’d really love to see it run till the end of time just to find out how sustainable this could be!