Bitcoin wasn't as acknowledged in 2016 as it is now. Let me also point out that there are still people claiming that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are a huge Ponzi scheme. With that being said, I don't blame OP for going for not getting involved earlier, but pyramid schemes aren't new by any means. Although the OP might feel stupid or taken advantage of, he's not the first and certainly not the last victim of such schemes. The point from such stories is to learn from your past mistakes in order to avoid repeating them in the future.

I also spent some time in a Ponzi so-called cloud mining scam back in 2014, I earned a few bucks and was lucky enough not to deposit any money there. It didn't even last two months.

It can be said that what OP went through is also what investors from 2013 and 2014 went through because, at that time, Ponzi projects were trendy and it was not unusual for us to invest in them. But in my opinion, there is no regret because no one knows the future, if everyone knows bitcoin is as successful as it is today, we are all dollar millionaires.

You're right, rather than regret, why don't we invest now when everything is still very cheap if we look 10 years into the future? The opportunity is still there and whether we continue to miss it or take it is for us to decide.

Ponzi schemes for greedy people get unreasonable profits, they deposit assets without considering the losses and fraud from ponzi schemes, but unfortunately profit is a choice to blind the mind to think. I have a different analysis from the OP case above that he has trusted a friends suggestion to invest ponzi based using Bitcoin and but he doesn't really have any bitcoins in his wallet other than just to use the deposit to the ponzi platform address, he doesn't even have any remaining balance from his wallet until now, so Op still lost $20 at the bitcoin price at the time and didn't have to remember losing $566 due to overestimation was painful.

Well first of all sorry for your losses but this experience is kinda normal with many folks here in the forum during their early years of knowing bitcoin. A mistake is unavoidable in the life of a human and its also part of the learning cycle because the best lessons is always learnt when we make mistakes but all together i just hope you have learnt from your mistakes.

But you can still atleast try to gather enough btc again seeing that market now is low, you can buy at a low price now and hodl it till btc goes up again. Like you said no one knows when the price is going to pump up again so stop regretting and just keep hoarding enough  btc you can get your hands on to because the time is coming when people that Missed this golden opportunity will also lament and say this word of regret "how wish i knew it will rise again ". So buckle up and start buying bro the future is bright.

Yes, im also into that path on which i have really waste up lots or tons of coins back in the past due to those hyips and ponzi that we do have specially on 2016-2017 years where the market is been
flooded out by lots of these schemes and since im just a noob back then and im that greedy when it comes to making money or minding on making myself rich then im really that pouring all
of my money out of those investments and ended up on being scam, until i do make myself that knowledgeable out of those experience.Yes, it is really that regretful that
you are really that losing tons of potentially make huge money due to market increase but its never too late to go back to square one.

It is a big lesson, you finally know that investing in Bitcoin is more trusted than others.
If you missed the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin at that time, you have another chance to invest in Bitcoin this time. We are in the bearish season, it is the best time to fill our bags. However, choose the right wallet to hold the Bitcoin until the bullrun season. Don't trust CEX wallets, it is better to keep the Bitcoin in hardware wallets or private wallets.

Yep, OP just too trusted his friend, so he wants to invest in the pyramid scheme. He was probably a beginner and didn't know much about crypto investment at that time. So, we can understand that OP can be trapped in a scam project.

Basically, he lost $20 but it is valued at about $566 now.
He regrets not saving his BTC, instead invested the BTC in a pyramid scheme.

I assume everyone in Crypto have their own story with the different types of scams that were widespreaded in a certain period of Crypto history, so I won't talk about it, but I want to draw attentions to the developed awarness among Crypto community regarding these types of scam, it was easy for them to scam people, especially newcomers like your case in that period as there weren't many resources to check the credibility of a project. Now, as many cases have happened and a lot of people have their own story, it's harder for any scam project to collect the amount of Bitcoin the old scams were collecting, most newcomers now may come across stories that prevent them from following scams as they learn from other's mistakes, as well as the scarcity of Bitcoin is increasing with the same level that people look at it as precious holding.

These are the numerous mistakes we make at the initial start. At first it is a scam then fud, panic sell upon any slight down market trend. I have learnt a whole lot from these experience. I believe this type of most needs the new bie to see and read so they could learn from it. It happened really. Most of us here had such experience which we are likely regretting today if we had the knowledge then we would not have sold but hold the digital gold but we got scammed by those that knows more than we do as new bie. That I believe is amongst the Crypto experience many if us onboard this platform had before our eyes opened to know the real worth of what we are holding.

Open your eyes do not trade for peanuts!

we all started as a newbie in this market, so one way or another we all had that kind of experience. from such experience, we learned new things, tips, or tricks to survive and gain profit from this market. it is how we move on from past mistakes. no one is immune to losses or mistakes. even the so-called experts today have had their fair share of failures. so don't be too hard on yourself, we all have gone thru such phase of losing.