*SEC-S17W3- "Let's talk about the Ponzi scheme" .

The word Ponzi sounds so scary to me right now. I detest it with every thing that I owe dear. I have been a victim of this scheme on several occasions and as such, I didn't even want to be associated with it. To me, it carries the notion of deceit, theft, greed and every sort of wicked deeds. It has denied me of a precious relationships and opportunities that could have made me more responsible than what I am today.

Hmmmmm, anyways, I will like to write about it as this contest topic suggests.

The contest tips will provide a guide as I explore this topic the more.

Have you ever heard about ponzi schemes?

I have heard about ponzi schemes over the years. It comes in different forms. The first time I knew of it, it was just about inviting people to a particular business name with a registration fee of which you have a certain percentage. Later it graduated to those ponzi schemes having some goods to back it up, but still built basically as ponzi schemes.

These later times, it has been given a more modernized name network marketing.

Have you been offered to invest in any of these schemes?

The answer is yes!. On several occasions, I have been invited to be part of the ponzi schemes with mouth watering benefits ands incentives. The way they projects it's profitability is such that you cannot resist it as a person. Most of the underlying principles involved in registering, being a member and earning are not well opened up or explained to you until you have parted with your investment cash.

It is now in the process of trying to earn and recoup your initial investment, that every truth about it will be laid bare.

I have even invested in some unknowing to me that it was a ponzi scheme. Some of them were well packaged that you will think that it is a genuine business.

However, I was able to retrieve my money from some, printed some profits while most of them burnt my fingers.

Take MMM for example, I was invited to join by a friend of mine. It was working for me as I earned about NGN300000 (842.69 steem) per month from both my investments and my referral bonuses. It was so nice that I had to even introduce my family members and anyone without cash, I will offer to invest my own money for the person and recoup it as the returns drop. It was really nice that it lasted upto a year. But, it crashed after one year and that was at a point that I invested even my brother's money which he gave me to help him complete his building project that I was handling for him. But it failed and it was as if I used the money and lied to him. But thank goodness that some persons were victims as well and they had to explain to my brother before he could accept the loss.

It was a terrible situation for me then. It ruined so many relationships that I built then.

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Do you know how to detect Ponzi schemes?

I will not be able to detect all the schemes in ponzi because most of them come in a subtle way. Like I said earlier on, it has been so modernized that it is difficult to identify. Things like high profit earnings, you don't need to work, just bring two persons and they refer their own two each, bla bla bla, makes it easy to identify them back then. But nowadays, it is packaged in such a way that it is becoming more difficult to identify.

They present products, they even have a physical offices, they win awards of excellence, they even offer retail profits. In fact, one needs to be extremely careful not to fall a victim these days. It takes one who is simple eyed, and who is not desperate to be able to avoid them.

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Do you think Steemit is a ponzi scheme?

Granted there are so many ponzi schemes in the crypto industry. We have seen them playing out recently during the bear season. Where many token owners dump their holdings to make profit. For such ones, they ensure that the capped amount for the token is the total and circulating supply, they pump it and boom, they sell them off, thus becoming rug pulls.

Steemit is not a ponzi scheme. It is well defined and its operation is straight forward and well understood. Knowing the frequency of mining and when we expect the last token to be mined makes it very legit. These have been seen playing out over the years.

Knowing and seeing that tokens that are mined based on upvote received makes it more legit. So no singular person has a complete hold on the remaining number of tokens to be supplied into the market.

Granted, when I first heard about Steemit was when I was trying to come out of a Ponzi scheme that had drained all my money. I was just looking for a way to sink the little money I had so that it doesn't go down the drain. Hearing of steem for the first time, my mind went to Ponzi but when it was explained to me, I decided to give it a trial.

From my experience and from the number of years I have been on the blog which is approaching 4 years now, Steemit is far from being a Ponzi scheme. It is not anything close to it.

Most person's that I introduced Steemit to when I first joined thought that it was a Ponzi scheme and they refused to join. Now, when they hear that I am still in the syy, they regret joining. One that was just signed up by bossj23 told me plainly that she could have joined then. That she thought it was a Ponzi scheme.

Therefore, I have not just been told that Steemit is not Ponzi scheme, I have also verified it and experienced it that it is not a Ponzi scheme. I am proud to be a Steemian.

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Conclusions

Ponzi schemes are bad, it is deadly and can be a force for bad when embraced. . It is a way of using other people's sweat to enrich yourself and in the process causing heartaches for them.

If it is possible, let us avoid such business schemes and propositions.

I will like @mesola @sahmie @kouba01 @yancar to take part. here