@interfect I guess it's always to be seen as a pyramid if it's not built by the right people, using a centralized technology, with the permission of Wall Street, and authorization from power brokers in Silicon Valley, etc. But the truth is that Steemit is something different from that and while it is different it doesn't mean it's inherently any more of a pyramid scheme than the US dollar itself, or any other massive company which has a top down pyramid style hierarchical structure, where very few people can invest in it at IPO, and few people can work for it.
Take Facebook for example which we it can't even find women and minorities to hire because of "lack of talent". Why wouldn't these minorities and women see Facebook as an even bigger pyramid scheme than Steemit? It doesn't let them invest in it, or work for it, or interact with it in any way except the most exploitative way unless they can afford to buy shares.
As far as Steem Dollars, the technology is based on Bitshares which I'm very familiar with. It can hold a peg if it can attract enough speculators. This isn't guaranteed of course because it's still very early but the exchange has no fees and has liquidity rewards so as long as there is demand for Steem and Steem are worth money it is in my opinion very likely the peg if not perfect will still be near the price of $1.