I think you should consider the question, what is its function and how can it be a helpful project towards the community and our environment today. Sorry for asking this, but we must need to be sure that our investment will be on safe hands by a good project.
Sorry, dude. No investment is risk-free, all have zero safe hands. But that's the beauty of it. If a portfolio is minimal in risk, it only means it is already stable, big, or well-known project or company and you can't make a decent profit anymore without doing some leverage trading. Nobody took BTC seriously when it was in pennies - most risky time too to buy them.
Anyway, the Upstake ponzi may blow up one day, unless it dies before the market recovery of crypto.