I read an interesting article about a user that criticized the system of people trying to make quick money with steem. The users that come quickly and leave quickly again. That nothing's for free and anybody to believe something's for free should basically grow a brain. After reading it, I fully agreed that the behavior of short term users doesn't contribute much, but later I thought of good reasons why people shouldn't think that all is fake. I wanted to make 3 comments, but I can't find the article anymore, so here it is.
Actually airdrops are real free money and it's a sensible concept. The coin publisher reaches a few goals by free distribution of coins. First, they instantly create a user base and they can basically choose their user base (BTC users, the quickest to sign up, or players of a certain game etc.). At second, by distributing small amounts per user, they ensure that the coins do not only end up in the hands of a few rich people. Making many small airdrops is the right method for that, and Byteball does that well. The coin publisher creates a community that would like the coin to succeed! Finally, the coin publisher can introduce a minimum holding period to exchange the coins. If you would like to be updated about airdrops, follow me for a monthly AirDrop forecast!
People making an account and making contributions actually don't get anything for free, they pay in "time" to test things and potentially ask others to join as well.
References to Ponzi schemes are not really fair either, because in a Ponzi scheme new contributions are used to pay redemptions. That refers to companies and funds. Cryptocurrencies are not like companies, because they can't go bankrupt. Only their value changes on the basis of offer and demand. So yes, the value can go down rapidly, but that's no secret. As longs as many people agree to use it, so trust it to have value, then it will do well.
Please don't get me wrong, I also think nothing is for free! But in cryptocurrencies, we should put things in perspective. There's a lot of venture capital in projects and it makes sense that early adopters are paid for their time testing it!