Most people who started early, already ROI 'ed and are showing profits. I have no doubt some of them run their operation like ponzi's but GAW can give physical proof of mining being done.
So there are a difference between a legitimate operation and a ponzi scheme. By my definition, if no proof of acctual mining can be given, I would worry.
I am probably biased, being in the GAW signature campaign, but they have no problem, with going public with information to show that it's a legitimate operation.
I think the small people, like me, are the ones who will ultimately pay. I was a founder, but my overall investment with GAW was negative. One of the first things, and the most expensive, that I bought from them was a gridseed blade which will never, ever pay for itself. The scrypt coin market relative to bitcoin continues to fall. GAW can only do so much until they have to expose the users to this fact. They had to get out of the business of converting scrypt coin to BTC because that was only hurting themselves and driving the price down. Enter HashCoin and the current situation.
If it isn't profitable for me to jump back in then I won't, and neither will most other people and hashcoin will go nowhere. In order for HashCoin to be successful someone needs to want to buy it at $20, not just sell it at $20, and there are plenty of people who want to sell it at that price point.