a Ponzi scheme is an investment operation where the guys on top get paid from the guys below.
I thought Ponzi scheme was "..a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors."
surely is more complicated than this. All Ponzi schemes do have a viable product. I explain this in the forms of capital. Read the whole thing.