Yes, Steemit can be a huge scam. At some point everyone could be yelling "Steemit is scam" and "Steemit is a fraud". Because everyone does that when they feel cheated.
When I joined few legit websites where I used to get paid for writing articles, which shut down without paying its members. Everyone were complaining on social media and other platforms, it was a scam, etc etc.
There are articles where people showing their concern and skepticism.
All content on Steemit is highly censored and centralized since the few actual users who own majority of the supply get to decide which posts make it to the front page and which posts get higher payouts. Accounts are easy to create and majority of the top accounts are most likely controlled by a small group of people making Steemit highly susceptible to sybil attacks. Simply put, for any content to make it to the front page, it is subject to the approval of the developer and his ‘friends’…
Here are few examples,
Steemit — An Incentivized Social Media Platform or a Scam?
What is Steemit.com? Is Steemit a Scam or a Legit?
The Ugly Truth Behind Steemit
These are just some perspective.
Personally I've been getting paid from Steemit and it's one of the best make money online platform I came across.
I got scammed many times and that's why I am little cautious to join any program. We help someone for their fortune and we get very little. There were few programs which I get paid but they end up into a big scam, there are various reasons behind.
Some programs were created for scamming and other were manipulated or scammed by users because of poor rules and regulations.
I am going to mention few programs which turned into a big scam.
Bitplastic
It was a first Bitcoin debit card platform. They promised to make bitcoin payment easier with Debit cards but they vanished.
I didn't earned/lose/invested money but I invested my time.
Coince
It was an investment firm which promised daily 3% return on your invested amount. I invested $10 at (at $800 Bitcoin price).
I saw my money growing daily but when I tried to redeem it was showing some errors. Later on it turned into a scam.
I lost my $10 and faith in so called investment firms. I think buying any cryptocurrency is an investment itself and we don't need to invest it anywhere.
TSU
It was social media where we used to get paid for uploading pictures. I earned decent money but never bother to redeemed because of minimum withdrawal limit ($100) which was quite impossible without working for 24/7.
I never got paid or seen any discussion about its legitimacy.
Bubblews
I am sure there would be many Bubblews members here because it was very popular.
I got paid many times, it was best site to write and get paid for views, likes, shares, and comments.
I believe it was not a scam because it shut down because there were many scammers who were misusing it. They were not able to manage the cash flow, they were not earning enough to pay everyone.
They were making frequent changes to make the business sustainable but they failed.
Why I think Steemit can be a scam?
I compare Steemit with Bubblews both are similar platform but I think just because of poor system Bubblews was able to make their business sustainable. There were few people who misused platform to get most out and new comers were not earning enough.
There were like farms and exchanges where everyone used follow, like and comment each other to earn money.
Why Facebook and other platforms are successful because they have stringent quality control policies.
I think Steemit can be used by few people to drain most of money which can make this business unsustainable. I think there are few changes which need to be implemented asap which you can see on my article Steemit Going to Shut Down If They Don't BanThese 4 Things
If you think Steemit is going to sustain/scam, tell me why by commenting. Let's see what Steemit community has to say about it.
I knew I shouldn't have bought steem, it's all over now
Hey @kirkins
Steemit is not a scam but it could turned into if we don't take necessary precautions.
Whole cryptocurrency market is down, if you trust cryptocurrencies then you should hold and be patience.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
While I do have to agree with your thesis that Steemit could fail because it's simply "too much based on 'the big players'", I have to ask you to not call it a "scam" as long as there is no intent to drain everyone's time and money for Steemit's employees own financial gain.
Calling it a scam would, by definition of this word, insinuate that the team of Steemit to "just do it for their own good and drop it when they can come out rich" or even blow it after they "feel like they made enough profit".
However, I do also see the problem behind people spamming under every profile
"Follow for Follow, I liked you, so you like me!". I can just agree.
Preferrably we could just ignore these people and try to go on with our daily lives without doing that stupid "Sub4Sub" stuff.
Thanks for letting us know ..very informative post for all steemians..Great job !