>"The Quadriga cryptocurrency exchange that saw millions of dollars disappear just as its founder died was a "fraud" and Ponzi scheme, according to the Ontario Securities Commission."<p>There is one school of economic thought which says that all fiat currencies (including cryptocurrencies), and any asset which is a derivative of those things -- are ultimately all Ponzi schemes...<p>I'm not sure that I believe that, but, I do know the following:<p>First food had value, because you could eat it.<p>Then gold had value, because you could trade it for food.<p>Then dollars had value, because you could trade dollars for gold.<p>Then stock shares and cryptocurrencies had value, because you could trade them for dollars.<p>Then increasingly complex derivatives had value, because you could trade them for stock shares...<p>Perhaps all that we are really debating then, is what can be traded for what, when, and for how much, and will the transaction work or not?<p>If all of this comes down to a belief that something will be tradeable in the future for something else at a given valuation -- then wouldn't any future failure in the ability to make such a future expected transaction for the expected amount of future exchange -- be indicative of a Ponzi scheme (intentional, unintentional?), of one type or another?<p>Well, I for one wouldn't know.<p>It might make for an interesting debate among economic theorists, however...