You, naturally, are entitled to your opinion, just like everyone else. No more, no less. But you seem to contradict yourself frontally. First of all, the ICO money is NOT gone and second if, like you state -which I believe it correct- the purpose of those proceeds "are intended for the development (and promotion) of the coin." then, they indeed belong to the community of stakeholders, de facto.

On another implication, you assume that "This is neither communism not a corporation". By elimination, you state that this is, in fact, the only other alternative: A dictatorship. Well, the vast majority of us here, DRAK now included, believe otherwise. So, sorry, you are wrong. on both terms. This is "sort of" a corporation and this is, indeed, or should be ideally, a community effort.

The good news is that BTCDrak now agrees with this concept... to a certain extent. I don't want to steal any thunder but I hope he makes a new posting here imminently, to that effect. I hape he sees now he is not qualified to continue holding the roles he has been trying -and failing- to hold but, instead, throw his full support at what he does best and leave the rest to more qualified AND DEDICATED -not to mention compensated- individuals. In other words and in my opinion, BTCDrak is now on the right track or about to be. And the full community will benefit from it.

VIA has not only significant funds marked for those development but also a dedicated and capable (technically) dev bent on protecting and furthering the valuable tech assets of the project AND, much more importantly at this point, the disposition to not only put those significant resources to work but rally the community for support and enthusiasm. The task ahead is hard, but if he confirms as I expect him to do, his commitment and disposition, as well as the specific resources, for this full of dispair situation, VIA has only one way to go and that is onwards and upwards. 

Thank you drak for the "memo"

Unfortunately, it is too technical and quite convoluted, but most supporters will appreciate the information contained.

The part and motivations of "masternode" are self evident and you would do well just ignoring further exchanges. He will do what he will do and, at this point, he is "part of the team" by necessity. Otherwise, if he bails, he will get nothing while hanging in could results in quite something, so, regardless how unethical, his support for the benefit of VIA is all by forced/guaranteed, I believe. Likewise, he will indeed be looking for an as quick as possible exit. That is something is already fully aware of... and should not be of any further concern. Will happen when will happen.

I don't think there's a single supporter of VIA that doesn't agree the network is solid and the overall tech aspects of the project are up to date. Those are NOT the problems of VIA. The lack of constant presence by you communication what is going on beyond snippets of tech activity, is one big part of the problems. Lack of incentives to get anything done, is another one. I have told you in many more details what's needed via PM. I see you are not willing to do the efforts, seemingly. So while this is nice and positive, it is so minimal that it won't work. Really. The community already supported you buying your ICO even though you kept 2.5 million coins for yourself creating a distribution problem of enormous proportions. It remains. And your lack of generosity -and, frankly, financial practicality- will both block the progress towards adoption of this project and your ability to, in the end, make any profit whatsoever from it. As I have repeatedly pointed out to you, 2.5 million of ZERO is much less than 1 million of something. Any child understand that. You prefer to ignore it and, instead, try to burden the community with the task of "evangelizing" a task the community is neither capable not willing to take. You really don't want to progress in that are. Because only you can. And you simply wont.
Perhaps you need a visual, because you don't get it: A community member approaching a business to get it to adopt VIA, is perceived as nothing but an attempt by a looser smuck to scam that business. An approach by a professional representative from VIA, especially a principal, with the proper materials and examples of transactions at hand, on a previously scheduled appointment, is quite something else. You choose to blind yourself to that no subtle at all difference. The support of the community is both desirable and needed, but in the areas where it shines: Social media, events, distribution at the consumer levels, bringing up ideas volunteering resources (money). The rest is just a way of your to try to take the burden off your shoulders and  on to those of the community, an exercise in absurdity.

Like I told you privately, a necessary 180 is needed on your part. What you say you pretend to do, represents a positive try, but a 90% degrees at best, probably much less. Once again, it is up to you to lead and change the fate of VIA or let it die slowly while pretending to put up a fight but really not putting up one. To rally the troops, you will need to take the former and, to be quite frank, to put the money where your mouth now is.

So what you are suggesting is liquidating the project and shelve it altogether?

I don't think that is the best alternative in the current situation. I believe Drak should first of all get rid of Peter Todd immediately, since his hiring was simple and exercise in personal vanity... at the expense of VIA stakeholders and serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever in the current state of the project. And I also believe he should also return that money you mention to the community in the form of two funds, one for the purpose of enticing new talent in all areas, and the other one to outright support the coin price at these levels. This would have an immediate positive effect and VIA would rebound much higher almost immediately. I also believe he should be a generous leader and donate a big chunk of his stake AND request that the community do the same to generate even more funds for the enormous promotional deployment that this project requires right now if it is to reach any kind of success level. This will not only result in a much more fair distribution but also in concrete practical results via those direct investments. As I have suggested to Drak, I believe he should not be the leader of this project, at least not the visible leader and should hire, instead, a Project Manager fully dedicated to the constant promotion, at all levels, of the project while doing what apparently he likes and probably does best which is remain in the background and doing and supervising the new tech advancements and features.

If ALL of those measures are adopted, I am convinced there will be some life still in VIA, perhaps quite a bit. It will be hard, it will be difficults but if the ;leader and the community march in sync, anything and everything is possible for VIA still has much more, if all those resources are put to work, than many if not most of it's competitors.

And, sure enough, one of the things Drak has no concept of is time. Time in crypto, that is. Roughly the equivalent of 100 the factor of a single unit in real life time. The waiting is getting quite old Drak, yes even after such a sort period of time. The memo is long overdue now.

The slogan is perfectly fine as it is. Cryptocurrencies' adoption will remain "the future" for many years still. It is, by far, the least of Viacoin's many problems.

There's ONE POSITIVE NOTE: Drak is currently reaching out in what could amount to a real effort to get this project steered out in the right direction. It is, at this point, a gigantic undertaking with the slimmest chance of success but it could mean, finally, the right approach and attitude on his part. And since what Viacoin needs is basically money and he is the only one who can provide it, if that changes means that he will be willing to make a major investment in the project, things could still turn out to end up on the positive.

He is already taking way too long in making the decisions needed to rally the troops, so to speak. No doubt he is taking into consideration others' opinions, which is both needed and quite positive. Since time is of essence, hopefully his "memo to the VIA community" will be coming very, very soon. Let's wait a while and then see and comment, shall we?

Actually, the "help" -much appreciated- was in repeating steps that a lot of people has had to go through to recoup a corrupted blockchain that happens too frequently, in my case when the laptop loses power unexpectedly. It turns out that in my case I needed to actually perform a full system restore for it to actually work and I did it on my own after failed several attempts at the usual path of recovery of the blockchain. Otherwise, I just wanted to check SLACK out to see which new venue some of you had chosen to divert even more the interest in this project that needs to be concentrated here, in BTC Talk. I understand now that new social media outlet which, again, I believe it can be more of a negative than a positive for this project at this point -maybe it would be different if instead of half a dozen regular visitor this thread would have, thousands-. Anyway, that sorted out, since my laptop is not stable -quite old- I decided to stop staking altogether and now the coins are just waiting at the exchange.

As I suggested there, since this is a very, very frequent occurrence, a quick guide posted here could be as useful as the list of nodes on page 179 is and would eliminate the need for the "slack help" completely thus serving a much larger purpose.

I also suggested there and do now here that one or more guides are direly needed for this to even have a very remote chance of adoption. And NOT like the "guide" that was posted here a few days ago with the enormously annoying music background that was the perfect example of how NOT to do a guide in video, but something basic, very clear, with very specific and direct instructions and actually presenting a call made from download and install of the wallet to final completion of the call. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT will be a different guide presenting exactly the same plus the call being made and received from a cell phone. Like if it was being explained to a 4 year old AND, of course, including in the very beginning, along with the download and install of the wallet, how to get Viorcoin for free -I understand there's a giveaway somewhere set for that purpose- in order to make an initial call. I cannot stress enough how important this is if Viorcoin is to have even a remote chance of adoption at any level.

Anyway, I said I would make this suggestion here and made it is. For the project to have any chance at all of any success, much more is needed and, sadly, there's no one with either the capability or the disposition to do it. So attracting those types of supporters is IMPERATIVE -someone with more than lint in their pockets, to make it clear- and that can only be achieved creating interest HERE, not on Slack, not of Viorcoin Forum, not anywhere else (Twitter will help too though, which apparently no one has chosen to take into consideration since activity there is almost non-existent).

Whatever my "strangeness". hardly relevant, don't you think?

Wow, just wow.

It's raining rather hard, but I, on the other hand, am an excellent cook...

You and masternode both then stand to be sorely disappointed pretty soon.  Drak is not returning a single penny. Furthermore,  he feels quite entitled to do as he -and only him- pleases with it. This "was never meant to be a business", or you still think I haven't read it carefully enough?

Well, first of all, it is unclear what your purpose is: On one hand you state "With Drak at the helm, I just can't see how that could move forward enough so to capitalize on the window of opportunity before it shuts, leading me to believe the likelyhood of the success of this coin is extremely small (<1%).  Small enough that it's clearly not worth pursuing." only to, in the next paragraph, state: "I may be at odds with how Drak has handled VIA so far, but I think he has it in him to do the right thing from here.", which mean the exact opposite... which is it?

More importantly, the whole thing is just an exercise in futility for Drak, obviously, has it wrong, as wrong as it can be had, from the get going for this -and every other crypto- is NOTHING BUT and investment. Drank considers it, evidently, as a grant that investors/supporters have extended to him to do as he pleases... and that is exactly what he has been doing and what he pretends to keep on doing until that "grant" is extinguished... and that including he himself selling every single coin he has. That much is clear. As equally clear it now is that this project was doom, from its absurd concept to its ultimate dismissal. There's no chance of success, none, with or without transparency -and you are getting none, by the way, no matter what kool-aid he has kind of given you in the end-. I will repeat one again so the idea sinks perfectly crystal clear: The money collected is considered by Drak as a grant -or a gift- so he can pursue, at his own will and caprice, this exercise in futility under the pretenses of "helping crypto". As clearly visible from any and all angles, this has been a constant trip into disaster until know when it can no longer be ignored that it is going straight into the ground. What to do? Well, I have no answers to that since it is, quite literally,  beyond "doing anything" at this point. And, contrary to what "masternode" tries to convince himself of, Drak lacks every single quality, every single one -not to mention disposition- which would give this project even the slimmest of chances of success.

 We;ll there are not many people that can dump 50k VIA at a time, in several -more than 3- instances, so you tell me. Apparently some quite heavy weights have had enough already of this crap.

Or it is Drak himself...

On the other hand, exactly what kind of information you expect to gather from Drak? Where is the money? He can tell you anything from the truth to the opposite and anything in between and you would not have any way to know what you are being told. But let me venture something: There's no money left. Let's hope I am totally wrong, ok? We'll soon find out that's for sure.

Where is my BTC?

As long as he receives it, if he hasn't received the full agreed upon amount, he will continue doing nothing and pocketing it.

His involvement with VIA is, and always has been, a vanity exercise, you know...

First of all, I understand very well your frustration, it's very understandable.

Second, I imagine it is you who is behind this sudden dumping 50k at a time. I also understand that... although it means the price is goind to sink into oblivion if you and your group are getting out. This is not FUD as the usual suspects will immediately cry, just look at recent sales and the book and you will see there's a significant dumping going on -and reflected in the price- 50k VIA at a time. We are talking some MAJOR dumping.

Third, this is not new. For sure you were fully aware of Drak's "peculiarities" when you were "in the know" or so you were led to believe. I find it very, VERY despicable that situation/attitude. And, at the same time, logical. This has been carried out, since the beginning, in a way that is laughable from any perspective, with drak being allowed to do as he pleased on every single aspect of the project, ZERO transparency, ZERO control on the part of the community and ZERO co-operation (with the community) on the part of the biggest investors. Like you. The community should turn its back on you now. And continue turning its back on Drak and his OUTRAGEOUS ways. Sorry guys but this looks very much like the beginning of the inevitable end that has been anticipated for months now. Who needs this kind of unacceptable BS, really. In case you did not know, you have been taken for a ride. You have been hidden any and all information while "deals" of some kind or another were done while all those "many things were happening in the background". There's no way, none whatsoever, to come out of this in any positive way.

I tried to help. I tried to put some common sense in this project in which I have made the grave mistake to invest a substantial amount. It is obviously very late to salvage even a small part of it, this is going to be quite bloody. Because it is obvious that we are dealing here with just a crypto nerd with a monumental Napoleon complex that has as much chance of being successful in any project as Sarah Palin trying to win the White House.

Transparency, is crying now "masternode" ... Ironic. What exactly do you expect? Laughable, really... welcome to this side of the pathetic charade. In your case, very deservedly after you were an active accomplice on the other side. Too late now for transparency or whatever iteration of it would be sanctioned by Napoleon. Action, not just lame transparency -unreal otherwise- would have been required. On many fronts.

What you'll get is a bad attitude, the usual disdain and more probably than not, censorship galore. Oh, and BIPP66 thingy. Pathetic, really.

That would help. And what help more would be to make a brief guide of how to add a config file to the wallet since every time there's a problem one has to do over the whole thing. In this particular case, the wallet will open fine, without the config file after erasing the viorcoin file from the roaming folder, but, obviously, it doesn't sync. When a config file is created and added to the roaming folder, the wallet won't open and you get the windows splash that closes it. What is the problem?

This by the way happens every single time the laptop power goes off unexpectedly...

Another subjective opinion self-elevated to dogma. Who's "we". The barely half a dozen visitors that, maybe, have read the last couple of pages? It will take weeks, if not months, for a decent amount of visitors to read what has been posted here the last couple of days. 99% of the other times supporters and even current supporters don't visit this forum anymore regularly, because it was dead until the day before yesterday. It's better that they don't read points made? is it better that those points are buried by a few other pages and left to be forgotten? Only for those defending a deplorable status quo, I'd venture. What is wrong with repeating some very valid arguments, especially when NOTHING is being done about them? Why do you feel a military-type of censorship, "benevolently -if arbitrarily- applied", by you, is required? How come you have no interest whatsoever in engaging in any kind of conversation outside of the tech aspects of the project and, yet, you are almost paranoid about keeping "the rules" of a forum that you personally despise? What is it that brings you to the forefront with the (more or less) veiled threats? Shouldn't any moderation, if absolutely inevitable, be in the hands of the Community Manager and not in those of the tech dev?

Truth is that no matter how many times repeated, the itch for control, for silencing critical voices will always be prevalent in you. And that's precisely why it is IMPERATIVE that such potential is taken completely away from you. On to the scissors, I guess...

And how about removing the self-moderated condition, instead? We do not have anything to hide, right? then why self-moderated? why those peculiar and dictatorial rules designed to curtail freedom of speech and leaving the censor scissors in your very subjective hands? what is the damage if someone decides to FUD here? It would be a good opportunity, if anything, to objectively rebut whatever allegations, with facts and figures, right? What is the advantage of censorship? haven't you had enough of it already and its subsequent consequences, decimating the price?

Apparently not...

The thread being "alive" is, obviously, positive. But what I believe it is important is not so much that it is alive, with members of the community coming in and asking for communication , offering ideas, etc, which is all very positive by comparison to the thread, the communication and the price, being dead or dying. I believe the really positive thing is that both the dev (kind of) and the Community Manager have shown up perhaps as a con sequence of the "noise" and have shown that if not exactly ALIVE, the project at least is not totally left to continue drifting into obsolescence. perhaps they both realize now that they need to not just get much more involved in a much more frequent basis, but actually DO SOMETHING or, more importantly, GET A BUNCH OF THINGS, that are imperative, DONE.

And, even more important, the community -or some of its members at least- realize now clearly that if nothing is done, the project will inevitably die, no matter how "advanced" technically it pretends to be. Unless the community demands, and engages in, real action, neither drak nor Eric will do anything. They didn't before, why would they do it now. They both believe that "giving the circumstances" they have done and do more than enough. It is up to the community to let them know where everyone stands. And, needless to say, to force on them to keep this thread REALLY ALIVE.

how do you get in there?

Thank you for your encouragement. Unfortunately there are multiple reasons why I choose to decline your suggestion, among many others, a clash in concept that I would have with you right from the start: I do not believe criticism without "action" is the worst kind of criticism. Not at all. Almost the contrary. So, right there, we would clash. And that's not even counting in the inevitable crashes with someone, who happens to be the ultimate decider, and whose actions (or lack thereof) I find reprobable in 90% or more of the cases. I disagree with you thoroughly when you pretend you don't need an OK here to do anything, when in actuality this is a total dictatorship, no matter how "bening" drak chooses to make it at that at times.

Also, as stated, volunterism should not exist in an obvious "for profit" project like this. NOR, I may add, should all the burden be carried even by the majority stake holders. But yes, leaders should lead. And since they stand to benefit much more than anyone else, they should be leading by example.

Any involvement of mine, of course, would not tolerate the obvious disdain with which drak relates to the supporters and investors in his project, exemplified by the minimal statements like the last one about some BIp66 that no one seems to know what the heck it means, does or how can benefit VIA. He doesn't bother to explain it, much less be enthusiastic or promotional about it. He just dumps it here -which he makes no secret he despises- in the less friendly way possible and goes immediately back to whatever he does in his life with the implication that he will commit some effort maybe twice a year to this thing. And not even a commitment, more like "if I really continue feeling like it" kind of thing.

BHut, being 100% honest as I try to be always, I know my limitations. And to even the thought of entertaining to possibility of working for the benefit of some of the members of the community, would revolt me. As you know, my criticisms are rather start, not precisely sugar coated in many instances. And like some that even concede I may have not just one but several points will volunteer to point out, to some in the community that is too harsh... not to mention the fact that they gladly drink the kool aid that the dev "is not your employee...." etc, etc. I will restrain myself for once, to qualify my feelings towards those people. Lets just nicely put it this way: They are a bit beyond "mutual", ok?

So, once again thanks for the consideration. But no, thanks.

I also believe I can do much more good keeping an eye on developments and actions -or lack there of- from the sidelines. Supporting what I consider positive, criticizing what I consider negative and, like I have just done, offering suggestions. You may keep on considering it "the worst type of criticism" and we will just have to continue to agree to disagree.

Again: NOTHING whatsoever to do with XPY.

But, assuming all of this is "legit" -which seems quite the inappropriate word to use regarding any and all of this crap-, what we have here is a disgruntled co-conspirator in what would seem a conspiracy to commit tax fraud (by way of inflating the actual price of the purchase). All naturally stated with the usual safeguards since everything here could and probably is manipulated and very distant from the real truth. Now, this otherwise enthusiast co-conspirator now feels the hit, after enjoying his millions -less so, he implies, than the figure used for promotion implied, but significant amount I bet. Now, it doesn't mean, by any means, that the 8 million figure was used for tax purposes so that is PURE SPECULATION and therefore I am going to assume that it wasn't until proven otherwise -and since there's an investigation ongoing, it sure will come out in the clear sooner rather than later if, indeed there was tax fraud or was just a PR figure that looked good on paper, which would equal the some sort of false advertising, much more benign than tax fraud.

In any case, once again, NOTHING TO DO WITH XPY.

Just another rat FORCED to jump ship and "feeling very sorry" that he enthusiastically went along when the fat check was changing his life and he blatantly and enthusiastically cooperated in defrauding the people in general and the investors in GAW in particular. Who was the real guilty party here? What would have happened if he would have notified JG that either the figure mentioned in the press release was corrected or the deal was off? He wasn't at all concerned then about setting that particular record straight, was he? again, who was the real bad guy in that story, the one that wanted to look like a big shot or the one that actually knew the lie and not only did nothing but also enthusiastically went along with it? I guess I know your answer to that. There are others, of course. And the heat -and legal punishment- will be on their way... even with whistleblower promises and public apologies.

in case I have not left it clear enough, again, THIS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH XPY in any way, shape or form.

Only "to the rest of us" lynching-KKK-mob-blood-thirsty-hunting-party. Only to those of you.