from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes#2010s
"In August, 2012, Trendon T. Shavers (aka “Pirate” and “pirateat40”),[106] the founder and operator of "Bitcoin Savings and Trust" (BTCST),[107] a non existent company advertised over an internet forum, disappeared from the public scene.[108] Shavers raised at least 700,000 Bitcoin in BTCST investments by running it as a Ponzi scheme. The fact that BTCST was run using Bitcoin, makes this a unique instance of a Ponzi scheme. It allowed Shavers to initially stay completely anonymous, making it possible for him to just disappear with the money from his investors. Although some called it a pyramid scheme,[109] BTCST is generally considered a Ponzi scheme. At the time he disappeared, somewhere around August 31, the 700,000 BTC were valued at around US$4,500,000. However, since Bitcoin prices increased significantly since the time it happened, they could now be worth more than US$500 million. The SEC has charged Shavers with fraud."
So he COULD have just paid back all of his investors their original amount of US dollar investment, with interest, and still would have been able to keep many millions of dollars due to the fact that bitcoin prices have gone up to where his 700,000 bitcoins are now worth 910 MILLION dollars, .91 BILLION and will soon be 1 billion!
But if you think about it he didnt have to disappear...he could have used the massive jump in value of bitcoin to actually pay his investors back more money than they invested and still keep millions and would have never been reported because everyone would have been happy with their investment! I really dont understand why this guy thought he could get away with it as if he is immune to the NSA spy grid and the smartphone tracking systems...or just simple police tactics....anyone can be tracked down especially in modern cities, greed really makes people stupid I guess!!
I mean at least Ross Ulricht didn't scam anyone! he stayed honest to his customers till the end as far as Ive heard and it was a few bad eggs at the FBI who ended up getting busted for pocketing millions in bitcoin that disappeared and again greed got the best of these cops who thought they could just steal this bitcoin thinking it was totally anonymous when in this situation it was obvious that they were the only ones who possibly could have stolen them and their greed blinded them to THAT easy to think of fact ...and so they didnt stop to think about that simple reality that noone else could have stolen the bitcoins but those ATF or FBI agents in their position, so their greed screwed them over too...Bitcoins are looking more and more like the ring from Lord of the rings, these guys are going full Gollum for these millions and billions worth of bitcoins! HAH and i heard an uncle once say "Bitcoin is just another pyramid scheme where youll get stuck with a bunch of worthless bitcoins that youll never be able to get rid of! " HAH If it were only that simple! NOPE Bitcoin is NOT just another pyramid scheme.
its proven its technology and its actually finite which is hard for people to wrap their minds around...its actually based on something intrinsically valuable and its market value is irrelevant and arbitrary and will keep going up as long as more bitcoins are mined and more users use bitcoin and at only 1 million current global users its a sure thing that more people will join and with 3.4 billion global internet users thats a 3000% increase if we got every internet user to use bitcoin...price is gonna go up from that like it has been, because isnt growth of users and volume what really drives the bitcoin price up? its use and value as a currency? One that is universal, global, digital, or paper, AND one that doesn't decrease in value with INFLATION! It cant be printed like fiat and so it will keep going up BECAUSE we use fiat and always will until we start using bitcoin as our main currency which will NATURALLY happen as Ive said, more and more people will simply use it because they wont be able to afford not to!
There is great incentive to use buy and sell in bitcoin and accept bitcoin as payment or as your paycheck even...its smart to use bitcoin because its constant rising price is like a reward and more and more people will want to make that extra money they can make by using bitcoin! Full adoption rate would be when all 3.4 billion internet users would be using bitcoin from the 1 million current... and the total number of internet users will also keep rising and will eventually rise to close to 7 billion which is the total earth population, and not counting small babies.
in the near future Pretty much everyone will be using the internet and everyone also uses money so its obvious that everyone will eventually FIGURE OUT to use bitcoins as naturally as opening up a bank accounts or using a debit card and in fact more people will get SICK of the high rates and fees with debit cards and bank accounts and just start using bitcoin instead! that they can store their money or get paid in a currency like bitcoin that like Gold doesn't decrease in value but INCREASES in value over time, but unlike gold can be easily transferred digitally using smartphone or paper wallets, and so unlike gold it can be used to transfer money from the USA to China or Africa or across the street...it uses the internet so you can use it to buy things online...and its fast and wont inflate, more and more people will keep using bitcoin, user base will keep growing!