Well you have 'some' proofs as that is how you think it is however, I will take you on the issue of the Ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme is a triangular or pyramidal flow from the TOP to the BOTTOM (and not the way you pointed it) It must be also understood that the idea of ponzi is to take from one person and pay the peple upward. this is NOT the case with bitcoin as no one has asked me to pay so that they can pay the people before me and also asking those underneath me to pay money before I can be paid. Bitcoin started over 9years ago and I am not aware of a ponzi that has last that long not even the dot.com bubble. so btc is Not a scam!
I agree, its not a typical ponzi, because people are lured in decentralized, rather than by few early members. But there is a very strong bottom-->top flow mechanism, if You look at the whole picture. Satoshi and early members quaranteed himself huge amount of BTC for very little effort. With every halvening FOR THE SAME task reward is halved. Thats well pyramidal.
And BTC maybe have started 9 years ago indeed, I doubt archidects had an idea, how popular it will become. However! When You look at BTC prices in history, the boom started just 2 years ago. Which is average life time of well designed scheme. BTC is a very well designed scheme, thats why I predict it lasts a bit more, but wont see year 2020.