Ponzi or pyramid scheme?

Like some of you, i was trying to eliminate that it's a Ponzi or pyramid scheme. That turns out to be not hard at all to determine, because:

1. A financial investment isn't required
2. The invested money goes directly into the network (and you always keep control over it), not to 1 person or group

Bubble?

Is it a bubble? Yes, there will be a point where this bubble pops. It could be tomorrow, in a week, in a month or in 30 years, but it will pop. After it popped there will be a time where there finally will be a "return to the mean", which means we finally know the "real" value of STEEM.

Sustainability?

So the value of STEEM is going to crash somewhere in the future, does this mean it's a scam? No, far from it in fact! When the "real" value of STEEM has been determined and there will be little to no new investors, people will still be trading STEEM (just like the Forex or stocks), because it's the underlying currency of the platform that has true value.

Investing in STEEM/SteemIt

There are in my opinion 3 ways to invest:

1. Investing in STEEM before the public does (high risk-reward, which could be extremely lucrative).
2. Trading STEEM (risk depends on volatility, which is determined by platform adoption).
3. Investing time in SteemIt by creating and curating content (the time investment is your only risk).

Conclusion

I think #SteemIt is pure genius and will always have great (if not greater) value compared to similar platforms (Facebook, Reddit, Youtube). If it can survive all attacks (market manipulation, hacks, etc,) it is going to revolutionize social media, value transfer, marketplaces, governance and more!
 

P.S.: I suggest to read the whitepaper and Dan's post about the 3 phases of the platform if you want extremely detailed explanation of all underlying technology and economics.