That is not the case .. Blake's 'evidence' against this being a ponzi was anecdotal. Sure some are making a shit tonne of money and cashing it out .. ok, so it's all good right? WRONG!
Tone is obviously not an experienced user, but he did very well pointing out what is obvious to all ...that it is very easy to get money in, but not to get it out .. and those who are getting it out, seem to be the one's who benefited the most. For some reason we are supposed to believe this is a good thing? Perhaps it is not a class ponzi, perhaps the developers hope it will all work out, according to the sales pitch, but the result is the same .. people are to invest in hopes of the same high returns as the lucky few are receiving .. and as soon as you realize that is not happening, it is too late.
I think the issue is Tone doesn't think people's time/effort has value. Then the system appears to be only money goes out but no value added into the system.
Money goes in easily and goes out easily as well with liquid steem token. Powering up is a choice for investors not a requirement to use the system. "Trick" or give user incentive to power up is not equal to force them to be vested. I think this is very different from ponzi.
In the second half of the hangout, Tone started to imply Steem is not even a true blockchain based, only a small group of smart people has the right to determine. That looks pretty desperate to me.
Anyway, it's good to hear different voice.
PS, you might want to an article wrote by @dan in response of an CoinDesk article https://steemit.com/steem/@dan/response-to-coindesk-article-steem-provokes-doubt-of-market-observers
Ding Ding Ding! Winner!
I didnt invest and i cashed out enough fo pay my debts and buy a car cash. So how does that work out? All I invested was time and skills
It's easy to put money into an annuity, and hard to get it out. Are all annuities Ponzi schemes? Are all term deposits Ponzi schemes?
It depends where the money to make the payouts comes from.