Bitcoin was designed to make people who got in early incredibly wealthy at the expense of everyone else. So, yeah, it's similar to a pyramid scheme. There's another thread on this forum estimating the guy who can up with bitcoin's wealth. Take a look at that some time.
There's no other way to do it in a natural way. Just look at how Ripple's handling the opposite of how Satoshi did it. Look how well that'll work out.