Im going to breakdown why i believe bitcoin to be a pyramid scheme, I may be wrong or missing info on some points so please feel free to correct me or debate me if the need arises.  Briefly, Bitcoin was intended to be a new form of currency to offer an alternative to the current fiat currencies used globally. The main advantage of bitcoin is that its anonymous and decentralised from governments and financial institutions using the blockchain technology. This means that money can be moved around the world and stored without it being used for investments by these financial institutions, which of course has been a problem in recent years.  So why am i saying its a pyramid scheme? Obviously this tech sounds great, but here are the issues - Bitcoin is really only bought now on speculative basis, meaning people are buying it with the express purpose of selling it at a later date for a higher amount. Only 1.3% of bitcoin transactions are used to actually buy anything. Of course people will not want to buy anything if they know that they can make money from holding it, no one wants to tell the story of how they bought a pizza thats now worth $100 million.  Currently Bitcoin is not a good currency for mass use, although its relatively easy to make transactions, the fluctuation of price puts people off. If i were to get paid in Bitcoin for example and the price halved, it would mean i would mean i basically did my months work for half the price, yeah i could hold onto it, but i got bills to pay. Essentially to be a widespread currency there has to be a fairly flat value, different currencies do change in value of course but nothing like crypto, in fact governments have to work hard to keep it quite flat so it can be used by the general public.  So if people are only buying for speculation, the popularity is because of that, the currency argument is secondary and really an argument to get people to invest into it.  If we look at the numbers of who holds bitcoin, we can see it take on a pyramid type shape, with the few who own the most at the top and everyone else at the bottom. The top 0.38% of wallets hold over $790 billion in bitcoin, this is spread between less than 150k wallets. On the flip side around 97% of wallets collectively own less than $50 billion and this is spread between around 40 million wallets. Now keep in mind the value is speculative and rises depending on what others coming in are willing to pay, the new people coming in are buying at a premium which raises the price further, meaning those at the top increase their value by huge amounts anytime someone invests at a premium, which is the basis of a pyramid scheme.  Then we might look at who owns these huge amounts of bitcoin at the top, 3 wallets own nearly 3 % of all bitcoin at the very top, these are likely to be the people that created it or invested extremely early, most likely theyll have some connection with the creators if they arent themselves, the rest of the top 0.33% are said to be corporations and rich people that got in early. Corporations pour a lot of money into bitcoin for various reasons but the point is that the wealthiest are still at the top making money for nothing from the average person.  So you might say, 'well this is just the structure of loads of investments, look at stocks, gold etc, you have to find someone else whos willing to buy it'. The difference is of course that there is intrinsic value behind stocks, there might be cash in the bank or the could be positive earnings which could mean you make dividends, the whole point is that companies 'produce' something that can grow the business and make income. Gold is a physical metal that is relatively scarce, it can be used in manufacturing, for jewellery etc, it doesnt make money but it has intrinsic value that can be worth something to someone. Bitcoin does not have intrinsic value, it cant make you money, you cant rent it out or use it for any production.  Theres always a fiat currency comparison made, people will say 'bitcoin is just the same as normal currency all the stats youve given could also be attributed to fiat currency'. Of course this is true but the difference being, no one, especially not rich people, hold their cash in the hope that it would be worth more later. Fiat currency is simply a means to spend acquired value, its really just a temporary measure that is extremely liquid and is accepted worldwide. Comparing Bitcoin to this is really a false equivalency.  Now the wider point here is that people are really looking for a work around of providing value and in some respects it makes sense because you could argue that a lot of peoples value is not being fairly rewarded, especially when you hear of ceos getting 100k x what their average worker gets. But there needs to be an understanding that you cant really work around this, either the value is there or its not and most likely if you have a middle man who youre selling your value to, they are going to make a lot more off of it than you. In fact those at the top are just giving you hope that you can make a lot of money, meanwhile profiting off of your investments. Also keep in mind, if you do make money, its most likely because some greater fool has given you theyre money hoping some other fool will give them their money.