a ponzi is where you hand funds over. and those funds are just used to pay off the middle mans other debtors. where you are left with nothing.
basically hand over X with promises of X+0.X return. but wher X pays out to others as their 0.X return.
totally different game theory to cryptocurrencies
In my view ETH is still a ponzi because the market participants sell their coins to a greater fool and it is very much comparable to a ponzi scheme when more money comes in by new speculators and this gives the holders a window to sell to them at a higher price.
crap coins are you buying an 'asset' with the knowledge/naivity that the asset may go up or down in value.
if it goes down and becomes worthless. you might aswell have bought a bag of dogs mess..(hence crapcoin)
unless a coin has REAL utility its a crapcoin. and its 'value' is short lived with a pump and dump.
some try to rinse and repeat empty promises of FUTURE POSSIBLE uses.. but unless it has ACTUAL REAL USE NOW. treat it as a pump and dump crap coin.
if a crapcoins 'utility' is just a peg to another coin. but that second coin has no REAL WORLD UTILITY. then defacto the first coin is just as crap.From this definition I can see that ETH is a crapcoin. I see that you will not say it directly because of reasons you do not want to divulge. That is ok and I understand.
But with utility or not, if their developers promise something that they cannot deliver then that should be considered a scam.
EG
bitcoin is great example of how real utility gave real value. it was released in january 2009. but did not actually get any "value" until 2010 when it obtained REAL UTILITY (bitcoin pizza / alpaca socks) and its VALUE increased due to REAL UTILITY (silkroad then more legit merchants).
in short if a coin just mentions future 'possibilities' your playing 100% speculation (pump and dump).
look for where it has REAL AND ACTUAL USE and follow the real and actual utility growth to know of its 'value' and longevity
It is good that it happened or else Bitcoin would ne considered a ponzi crapcoin by many right now.