Good explanation, and yet I wonder how so many posts essentially stating the same things over and over get upvoted so much.
The unaddressed question is what happens if the system stops growing. That is exactly what differentiates a ponzi from a sustainable business model. And your other post does not clearly address this either.
I have found very few posts how steem can sustain its market cap with a constant or shrinking user base.
(For my own take on it: https://steemit.com/steemit/@fminer05/yet-another-look-at-steem-economics-the-easy-way)
@fminer05
IMO it's can't sustain the current price without growth. Constant or falling user base would result in Steem falling in value. Exactly like a startup raising capital. Without growth, it will not be able to raise money to sustain it's operations. The money flowing into the Steemit system would stop. Luckily, Steemit is currently growing nicely.
All this however does not make it a Ponzi, by my definition. It seems like there are a number of different opinions on what a Ponzi is, so I won't argue with you because your not alone. My 2 cents is that, there needs to be Fraud. There is no fraud here.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
@hisnameisolllie True, maybe it's a problem of definition. Also I agree that in this instance there is no fraud, even if steem should collaps.
Agreed. I should have asked more precisely: Will the price/cap go to $0? Assuming that a part of SBD will be cashed out and no new capital flows in, it should eventually reach zero. If a startup has no plans to ever sell goods or services to customers, should it be worth anything?
I would refer you to this, for the latter point (Bitcoin 2.0...);
https://steemit.com/steem/@dan/steemit-s-evil-plan-for-cryptocurrency-world-domination
With regards to the former, there would certainly be issues if market cap went below SBD circulation. It is possible, but unlikely IMO. SBD supply will be 2.5% of the value of New Steem Created moving forward though, and is currently (roughly) 1% of Mcap, so we have quiet a bit of room..