###Introducing SmartPonzi, a Ponzi scheme simulator based on Ethereum
SmartPonzi is a novel concept for a "financial game/simulation" leveraging the amazing features of Ethereum and smart contracts. If you are new to the term Ponzi scheme here is the Wikipedia definition :
"A fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator"
Why is SmartPonzi different ?
Contrarily to a human being, a digital smart contract cannot take arbitrary decisions and will follow a predetermined set of instructions. SmartPonzi is programmed so that he will still pay new investors from old investors funds, but he certainly won't take your money and run. The scheme will eventually collapse if certain conditions are met but could go on indefinitely as well. We have published the source code which can be audited and matched against the program currently on chain, to ensure full transparency.
So Why SmartPonzi?
SmartPonzi is essentially a game, you can make money or lose money with it, but more importantly, it should also simulate the financial dynamics of a real world Ponzi scheme and yield very interesting data in the long run. The informations obtained will be used for research purposes and shared publicly.
How does SmartPonzi work?
SmartPonzi will credit its investors a 7% profit on investment, compounded daily.
Choose your investment size and click on the "Invest" button, your funds will be locked for 1 day.
At the end of one day, if there is enough balance in the contract, you will be able to either :
-
- withdraw all of your funds and profits and quit
-
- withdraw just profits and stay
-
- stay and recalculate your profits.
Please note : If you choose the last and more profitable option, you will also have to hit the "Recalculate Profits" button to credit yourself with profits for new day. If you forget it you will miss profits for that specific day.
The longer you stay invested the more profits you will cumulate. If you choose to withdraw your profits at the end of each day, you will not benefit from the effect of "compounding", which means that your profits will grow slower, but your "exposure" will be reduced. Now consider that you will be unaware of other investors moves, but you will still be able to see the contract balance (or if you are an advanced user you can setup a log event to monitor incoming deposits). You will have to judge based on this information and choose the best move in order not to lose your money and keep on making profits.
SmartPonzi is a Ethereum ÐApp so it does not relay on a central server or particular libraries other than web3.js
Screenshot : http://i.imgur.com/LBlNP2s.png
Contract lives on chain at address 0x9e48a065af4d02257d9c9c83d78e7c06e7bf2449!
How to connect
Clone this repo
$ git clone https://github.com/smartcontractor/smartponzi-dapp.git
Start a geth node
$ geth --rpc --rpcaddr="localhost" --rpccorsdomain="*" --unlock=primary --rpcport="8080" console
Open index page with your favourite browser, click "Network" and type 127.0.0.1 as hostname and 8080 as port, click "Connect"