This might be long....but here goes...
A lot of people reading the HEX related stories being put into CryptoCurrency sites, youtube videos, investment blogs, etc. have very little understanding of what a scam is, what a pyramid scheme is, what a ponzi is, how cryptocurrency investments work, what HEX is and how it's value proposition works. I am not an expert or a financial advisor, but I think I am smart enough to help with some of these things.
A scam is a fraudulent act or business. Usually a scam targets a vulnerable person or group with the sole purpose of taking their money and then disappearing.
A pyramid scheme a form of investment (illegal in the US and elsewhere) in which each paying participant recruits two further participants, with returns being given to early participants using money contributed by later ones. The persons at the top of the pyramid are the biggest beneficiaries of this type of scheme which can often by many many layers deep.
A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a nonexistent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.
HEX does not qualify as any of these things..if it was a scam, it would have folded up when money stopped coming in. It's not a pyramid because the referral program is only one level deep. It also ends on November 19th. It's not a ponzi because it is an actual working product. It exists. And it does what they say it does.
Cryptocurrency is digital money created using cryptography to build security into it. It is usually trackable on a distributed ledger (also called a blockchain). They can be a token which is supported by a blockchain that isn't their own (like Tron or Ethereum), or they can run on their own mainnet.
Hex is a cryptocurrency running as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum platform. It is created (or "Minted") by interacting with a piece of software code. The code is a "smart contract". A smart contract is code that exists and cannot be made to un-exist. If you run the code, it does what it is supposed to do. Every time. Without exception. Software code can be faulty and have bugs or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by bad actors. The code for HEX has undergone 2 separate security audits, and a financial audit as well. Coinfabrik is one of the biggest and best known auditors in the world...their HEX audit blog entry is here: https://blog.coinfabrik.com/hex-smart-contract-audit/#critical-severity
HEX is not a "promise coin". It is a finished product, meaning the code is immutable and cannot be changed by anyone for any reason. The tokens you mint by running the code can be held in an Ethereum wallet. They can be traded for other crypto currencies on exchanges. They can also be staked (or deposited) into a time locked account. In return for staking tokens, you receive additional tokens in the form of interest when your staking period ends. If you end the stake early, you pay a penalty, sometimes severe enough to eat into your principal. There is no mystery or deceptiveness here. By the way, banks charge a penalty for early withdrawal too.
Finally, let's talk about value. Price and value are two completely different things. Price is what something costs. At a dollar store, everything costs $1.
Value is what something is worth to a buyer. Value is derived by scarcity of an asset, and utility of an asset...in other words, how many of the thing there are, and what it does. Gold has high value because it is hard to find and to mine, plus it can be used in many industries like electronics, Jewelry etc.
HEX has value because of it's utility. It mimics a time deposit at a bank and returns HEX tokens in interest based on staking time. The supply of tokens after the launch phase will inflate at a rate of about 3.7% per year as new tokens are minted as interest when stakes end.
The Price of HEX will go up and down for many reasons. Stakers benefit from potentially huge price moves over a long period of time, plus the additional HEX they mint as interest. They can also be negatively affected if the demand for the tokens drops and prices plummet.
Final word...don't be a fool throwing terms around you don't understand. Don't buy anything unless you fully understand what it is and what it does. Be well and prosper.