RE: Pyramid, Ponzi and Crypto Scams
You said,
"So to round it up I would say Bitcoin and the many other alt coins which you can exchange for Bitcoin are definitely not scams as long as enough people have faith in them."
A scam is still a scam regardless of the faith people have in it.
Cryptocurrencies are business startups. They attract investors. Some might be started by people who are interested in a portion of the startup money. It's possible a single person or team could start multiple cryptocurrencies for that reason. That doesn't necessarily make them scams but it's possible the creators know the currencies have no future which is why they keep creating new ones.
The big test for a cryptocurrency is how much it's used. At this writing Ethereum has had $871 million worth of activity in the last 24 hours. The crypto rated 29th in market cap is Etheroll which has had $33,000 in activity over that same period. I'd stay away from cryptos like that.
But if the creators know the currencies have no future it makes them scams and also crimes. But you see the same problem exists you use fiat currencies and what backs them? For example the USD is backed by the government if the government ceases to exist the dollar has no backing and would be valueless so you have to believe the government will always be there backing the dollar, this to me is faith.
Fiat currencies aren't backed by the government. The US dollar is a Federal Reserve Note. It has no value except the willingness of people to accept it. The Fed creates a trillion new dollars every year just to cover the trillion dollar deficit. It's only a matter of time before we have hyperinflation like Germany had in the 1920s.
The US dollar is not backed by gold (or silver) and is therefore a fiat currency, which is inconvertible paper money made legal tender by a government decree.
The government backs it, if you look the bills are signed by the treasurer of the US and the Secretary of the treasury.
As for the hyperinflation theory, the EU was supposed to go bankrupt years ago and it's still there.