Believe it or not, that's what a lot of Bitcointalk scoffers called it when it burst out of the gates. I saw several scoffs of that sort in the Altcoin Discussion board before I decided to sign up.
If you're worried, take this to heart: once Ponzi schemes hit rough spots, they implode and stay imploded. They die and stay dead.
On the other hand, legit platforms go through the valley of collapse and emerge toughened. If a crypto has endured a plummet, gotten through it and climbs back, that's a good sign that it's not a Ponzi-type crypto.
Look at this all-time chart of STEEM,
and you'll see it's already gone through its pummeling. It's climbing back, in satoshi terms, with a user base that's much larger than its base in the heady days of Spring '16.
A lot of the anger from people is that money gets locked up when powered up, which honestly is probably a decent point, but at the same time crazy volatility with the underlying token might not be the greatest.
I for one, enjoy the volatility - mainly because it's been on the uptrend ever since I got here, investing $100, my account is now worth $200 (once I get all my payouts). Locking up steem power is quite important in reducing volatility and maintaining price. Plus, it's an investment and does encourage people to participate rather than just cash out all the time.
Not only that, the rise of the steem dollar now means posts are worth x4 more than displayed on steemit.
Alright, I understand the point with the volatility.
That's precisely the feature that Bitcointalk scoffers zeroed in on when calling it a 'Ponzi scheme'.
But given how Steem's turned around, the lock-in has been a net benefit. It makes you think hard before selling. Moreover - this was the design feature - it means that using your STEEM to influence the rewards stream (by upvoting) requires you to make a commitment to the platform by locking-in.
Wow! Thanks for this comparison! That's really a point. In fact, Steem is climbing back with such a strength. I hope, we will not see the deep valley again and just stay between $ 2 - 10. That would already be ok.