"Yes it is..", eh ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_schemeCharacteristics :
The promoter sells shares to investors by taking advantage of a lack of investor knowledge or competence.
- the spent premine remains unaccounted for
- the celebs are, once again, exploiting those who believe everything they see on television eg. monkey see.. monkey do..
Initially the promoter will pay out high returns to attract more investors, and to lure current investors into putting in additional money.
Often the high returns encourage investors to leave their money in the scheme..
Promoters also try to minimize withdrawals by offering new plans to investors..
- the Startjoin scheme/ online wallet/bank
- interest payments/ rewards are based on your balance's daily average and spending /participation level
The promoter in this case does not sell shares,
he gives them away - the premine - for free, which is totally opposite of what a ponzi scheme would do. Giving away shares does not reward the share owners, it actually dilute their share value,
except for the possible network effect.
DEFINITION of 'Network Effect' A phenomenon whereby a good or service becomes more valuable when more people use it. The internet is a good example. Initially, there were few users of the internet, and it was of relatively little value to anyone outside of the military and a few research scientists.
There is nothing wrong with trying to increase the value of "something" by network effect since it makes the "something" more valuable for all, also those who adopt it late. The network effect was what made Bitcoin valuable, and it was what made the telephone indispensable.
Edit: and you don't get a network effect without somebody starting it, and taking all the risk until some critical mass is reached. Buying startcoin now carries a lot of risk because the critical mass may newer be reached. But it also carries some possible future reward that makes the risk acceptable to some people. Having famous people helping to kick-start this network effect is of course a large advantage for startcoin compared to many other crypto currencies who depend mostly on some technological advantage over other coins. But there will always be a better, more advanced coin just around the corner, so this alone is not enough.