MLM schemes are a scam because the premise is that you'll make money, but there is no creation of value and the increase in value just comes from the increase in users. Once you saturate the market, the last people to get in are left holding the bag. They lose their money so someone else could get it.
Cryptocurrencies increase in value as more people use them, but they don't fall to zero as a result of becoming widespread, because their sole value isn't for speculation. They can also be used as a currency.
Now, some of these valuations have built into them the assumption that their use as a currency will ultimately become widespread, because otherwise they would be worth a lot less than they are. But less isn't the same as zero, and volatility doesn't matter if you are using it as a currency because then you're not holding enough of it for a long enough period of time to be exposed to a major change in value.
With a MLM scam the value doesn't just have volatility, when you run out of suckers the value crashes to zero forever. With cryptocurrency the speculators can lose their shirts and at the end of the day you can still buy Bitcoin with cash and then use it to pay for a VPN.
Avon, Amway, Vector, Mary Kay, etc have been fleecing suckers WAY longer than Bitcoin has existed. I don’t know where they your “MLM’s go to zero” idea is coming from. Sure, many MLMs go to zero. But so do many cryptocurrencies.
Avon et al are the people at the top of the pyramid. They don't go out of business, they keep running the scam until they get arrested or run out of suckers. And P.T. Barnum said something about the latter.
It's the suckers whose "investment" in one of these things goes to zero, which happens all the time.
There are cryptocurrencies that go to zero, but there are also government currencies that go to zero. They go to zero when people stop using them as a currency, not when they become so widespread that you've saturated the market for suckers.
Ah, I misunderstood. Touché, that is a fair distinction. It's hard to know how widespread leverage is used in crypto investments. One of the scary things about cryptocurrency investments is the lack of regulation, letting unsophisticated "investors" easily take on ludicrous amounts of risk. It's not uncommon to see 100x leverage offerings at crypto exchanges [1][2][3]. If used, it obviously can result in "investment goes to zero"—or worse—situations.
I feel like people should be made aware of the risks and if they haven't misled you about what's at stake, you're an adult and you can place your bets.
That isn't a scam, it's a gamble. It's the same as going to a brokerage and selling short, or buying a piece of land sight unseen. They are not allowed to lie to you. You are allowed to be an idiot and lose all your money.
Cryptocurrencies increase in value as more people use them, but they don't fall to zero as a result of becoming widespread, because their sole value isn't for speculation. They can also be used as a currency.
Now, some of these valuations have built into them the assumption that their use as a currency will ultimately become widespread, because otherwise they would be worth a lot less than they are. But less isn't the same as zero, and volatility doesn't matter if you are using it as a currency because then you're not holding enough of it for a long enough period of time to be exposed to a major change in value.
With a MLM scam the value doesn't just have volatility, when you run out of suckers the value crashes to zero forever. With cryptocurrency the speculators can lose their shirts and at the end of the day you can still buy Bitcoin with cash and then use it to pay for a VPN.