But just by being adopted and mined it can't go to zero. It's a scam because it was designed to keep all transactions on chain so miners would benefit from high fees(and they would be high if it replaced bitcoin)
It was designed to avoid a fix that would prevent the use of asicboost.
You're goalpost of a zero or near zero value is bad. Even fake art can be sold.
How is it a scam to keep it working like it was intended to work? I did not buy into Bitcoin to hold it forever, I bought it to use it as cash. Therefore I do feel defrauded by the current developers, until just yesterday they advertised one thing on their website but delivered something different.
I have kind of mixed feelings about removing ASIC boost. I do feel it is everyones right to innovate and get an advantage, then patent that advantage. It takes money to do that R&D, so it should be protected. Others can do so as well, or operate from countries where these patents are not respected. On the other hand, others have so far been unable to get their own advantages, so maybe it is time to hardfork (yes, hardfork, SegWit does not fix it, not until > 90% of transactions are using SegWit) to prevent getting this advantage.
The "purpose" of whoever started it is irrelevant, just as it is with Bitcoin core. It can be forked. It is an offering with a different approach to scaling. Nothing you described says "scam" to me. The only reason core promoters fight so hard against it is because it is threatening because it works!
It was designed to avoid a fix that would prevent the use of asicboost.
You're goalpost of a zero or near zero value is bad. Even fake art can be sold.