What is an «open Ponzi scheme»?
It's commonplace that when there's an investment or monetary instrument someone doesn't like, they call it a &quot;ponzi scheme&quot;.
For example, gold (ie gold bullion) is indeed often called a &quot;ponzi scheme&quot;. Diamonds and gems certainly are.
Some folks think that conventional stock market shares in the current historical era .. ie &quot;Apple shares&quot; or &quot;Ford shares&quot; are a &quot;ponzi scheme&quot;.
So, people buy APPL at a higher and higher price, there's no intrinsic value at all (they argue), and the one and only way to make money is to sell to the &quot;greater fool.&quot;
Note that I do not know, do not care, and don't have an opinion either way on whether or not these things are indeed ponzi schemes.  The point is, it's completely commonplace to label things like gold, or even shares as &quot;ponzi schemes&quot;.
You can find endless discussions where certian folks think government money (&quot;fiat money!&quot;) is just a ponzi scheme.
(Just the other day someone commented that real estate in a certain city is &quot;just a ponzi scheme&quot;; ie they believe the prices are un-real and the only reason to buy is to sell to a &quot;greater fool&quot; - until someone is left holding the bag.)
So it's completely normal and commonplace to describe something as a &quot;ponzi scheme&quot;
Note that the term is now used very generally (to mean &quot;a scam&quot; or &quot;something with no real value&quot;). It is NOT used CAREFULLY in an exact sense of how &quot;the original ponzi scheme&quot; operated.
(If you object to &quot;the exact meaning of words changing&quot; - whatever, would have to go live on another planet. You can immediately list huge numbers of words in English that have no connection to their &quot;older, precise&quot; meaning.)
Regarding the talking head's appending the trendy word &quot;open&quot;.
It's: an attempt to be clever and attract publicity, more TV appearances, and more book sales.
It would be wildly reading too much in to it, to try to tease out the exact &quot;meaning&quot; of adding &quot;open&quot;.
Here are a few other clever! phrases in the same vein:

&quot;it's a prime based ponzi!&quot;

&quot;ponzi mining!&quot;

&quot;a ponzi scheme that's listed on major indexes!&quot;


and so on.

An influental and intelligent person like Nassim N. Taleb

Football players make money via: creating television programming which generates tv ad income.
Bakers make money via selling buns.
&quot;Talking heads&quot; like Taleb make money via: catchy soundbites which generate more interviews and book sales.
It's exactly like being a tiktok'er or youtuber and generating views with shlock.