Steve Chiang has rebooted his Global Sponsorship Network (GSN) Ponzi scheme for a third time within a year. The latest iteration, dubbed GSN 3.0, follows the collapse of its two predecessors in rapid succession, continuing a pattern of failed cryptocurrency investment platforms associated with Chiang.
GSN first launched and collapsed in April 2021. Chiang quickly attempted a revival with "GSN 2.0" the following month, but that version also failed within weeks. In a video announcing GSN 3.0 in late May, Chiang attributed the earlier collapse to "rumors of people... not moving forward with GSN from different groups," explaining a "temporary halt" before the new rollout.
The original GSN model, reviewed in October of the previous year, involved affiliates investing in GST and GDP Ponzi points. This structure promised returns of up to 30%, paid in GDP. A multi-level marketing (MLM) compensation plan accompanied the scheme, offering payouts for recruiting new affiliate investors.
GSN 3.0 discards the prior business model entirely. It now operates as a simpler smart-contract Ponzi scheme. Participants sign up, invest in GST, and then direct that GST into GSN's Ethereum-based smart contract. The system promises a 5% return, after which participants can cash out. Continued earnings require reinvestment. GDP, a central component of earlier versions, is absent from GSN 3.0 marketing materials and appears abandoned.
This new design mirrors the "give help, get help" model, a tactic pioneered by Sergey Mavrodi's MMM Global Ponzi scheme. GSN uses the abbreviations "PS" (Provide Support) and "GS" (Get Support) instead of the more common "GH/PH." The underlying function remains the same: investors provide money into the scheme, then earn by attracting new participants whose funds are used to pay earlier investors. GSN's smart contract runs on the Ethereum blockchain, indicating GST is an ERC-20 token. Such tokens can be created with minimal effort and cost.
To incentivize recruitment, GSN 3.0 offers a weekly bonus pool. Affiliates must accumulate 60 "PS points" each week to qualify. These points accrue every time an affiliate or their downline invests in the smart contract. The bonus pool itself equals 50% of the total GST invested that week. This amount is then divided among qualifying affiliates, pro-rata, based on their individual PS point production for the week. PS points reset weekly for each qualifying period.
Steve Chiang has a history with collapsed cryptocurrency schemes. He was previously an owner of the ShareNode/Nasgo Ponzi scheme, which also failed. Through ShareNode and Nasgo, Chiang is believed to have defrauded victims of millions of dollars. He is currently thought to be residing in Southeast Asia.
As of September 18, 2021, Chiang removed the GSN 3.0 announcement video from YouTube. The third GSN reboot has not generated significant public interest; traffic to the GSN website remains too low for Alexa to register a ranking.