I wanted to share something with you I had come across from another user that I thinks would be helpful to put these issues into a larger context.
I will include a section but encourage you take the time to read the post in it's entirety.
What makes Steem special is that it operates as a stakeholder owned cooperative. The stakeholders are also the workers. This makes it difficult for many people to tell whether it looks more like a productive joint stock company or a Ponzi scheme, because the rewards given to the workers/stakeholders could either be the pay for their work, or the dividends giving the false appearance of profitability. It all depends on how the stakeholders vote. If they vote to reward those who build the community and create value, then Steem will become profitable, but if they vote simply to pay themselves and other stakeholders without any connection to productivity it will fall apart as certainly as any other Ponzi scheme.
At present, the stakeholders are split between these two sides. The community is growing rapidly and there's a great deal of productivity, but there's also a growing part of the community that seeks only to vote themselves dividends while they can. Steem isn't a Ponzi scheme, but if the stakeholders it attracts can't tell the difference it will soon become one.
https://steemit.com/steem/@troglodactyl/is-steem-a-ponzi-scheme
Together @money-dreamer, we can build this platform but it is, indeed, the manner of which we build that will determine whether the structure stands or falls.