What is Ethereum???

[bitcoin_bagholder]

Well, I believe he isn't going to just take the money and run without giving his best effort. I don't know him personally but he doesn't seem like the type.

Faith is good.

I'm not saying anyone is going to run off with Ethereum ipo funds. Let's face facts:

They were paid upfront so to speak. No one to answer to and no contracts. Nothing binding, no time frame, nada. The money is theirs, no strings, plain and simple.

I reiterate the OP's question: Innovation.

Bring in 30,000 btc on the power of faith is bloody amazing. That's innovation.

I don't agree with the way they went about raising funds, it was probably Charles Hoskinson's idea. I didn't purchase "ethers",  considered it more a donation than an investment.

[charleshoskinson]

I don't agree with the way they went about raising funds, it was probably Charles Hoskinson's idea. I didn't purchase "ethers",  considered it more a donation than an investment.

Despite spending months of my life trying to figure out the legal and tax implications of it and even moving to Switzerland for three months, I was always against the ether sale and wanted to take VC money. It made a hell of a negotiating point for valuation, but introduced a terrible moral hazard of having no fiduciary responsibility behind the enormous sum raised. Also no formal due diligence process would be applied to the core team.

If there was to be a sale, then I wanted two organizations to form with a VC funded for profit building the initial protocol and then a sale at the time of launch to fund a foundation with a separate board managing it. This would create a clear separation of concerns and avoid conflicts of interest. Second, the risk to ether purchasers would be substantially less and would have eliminated the need and justification for a premine altogether. Obviously that didn't happen and the project decided to use the sale to fund some sort of bizarre swiss NPO funding a pesudo for profit in England two months after I left in early June.

Since then they've apparently spent or lost 14 of the 18 million raised and have missed two launch windows for a command line barebones version of the software. Second, they've experienced terrible mission creep with a mandate to re-invent the internet as opposed to simply giving the space a much better foundation to build cool blockchain centric applications and protocols. I'm honestly not sure what ethereum is anymore? Whisper, Swarm, Golem, Holons, Open Org, 4 new programming languages, DAOs???

In any event, don't blame people you've never met for things you know nothing about. Ethereum would be a very different project if I was still there. I'm not and they don't even have me listed as a founder nor did Mihai even mention me once in his history of the project. Thus I suppose I never played a meaningful role. 

[rokkyroad]

I don't agree with the way they went about raising funds, it was probably Charles Hoskinson's idea. I didn't purchase "ethers",  considered it more a donation than an investment.

Despite spending months of my life trying to figure out the legal and tax implications of it and even moving to Switzerland for three months, I was always against the ether sale and wanted to take VC money. It made a hell of a negotiating point for valuation, but introduced a terrible moral hazard of having no fiduciary responsibility behind the enormous sum raised. Also no formal due diligence process would be applied to the core team.

If there was to be a sale, then I wanted two organizations to form with a VC funded for profit building the initial protocol and then a sale at the time of launch to fund a foundation with a separate board managing it. This would create a clear separation of concerns and avoid conflicts of interest. Second, the risk to ether purchasers would be substantially less and would have eliminated the need and justification for a premine altogether. Obviously that didn't happen and the project decided to use the sale to fund some sort of bizarre swiss NPO funding a pesudo for profit in England two months after I left in early June.

Since then they've apparently spent or lost 14 of the 18 million raised and have missed two launch windows for a command line barebones version of the software. Second, they've experienced terrible mission creep with a mandate to re-invent the internet as opposed to simply giving the space a much better foundation to build cool blockchain centric applications and protocols. I'm honestly not sure what ethereum is anymore? Whisper, Swarm, Golem, Holons, Open Org, 4 new programming languages, DAOs???

In any event, don't blame people you've never met for things you know nothing about. Ethereum would be a very different project if I was still there. I'm not and they don't even have me listed as a founder nor did Mihai even mention me once in his history of the project. Thus I suppose I never played a meaningful role. 

Thankyou for your eye opening post.

[TrangLee]

I heard they dumped out all their BTC and the public wallet is empty!

[Momimaus]

Ethereum will be Internet 3.0
And it is the outcome of years of researchern the cryptoeconomic science.

Ethereum is the last chance for crypto, if it fails the whole idea of using the blockchain for more than just a currency will die.

[charleshoskinson]

Ethereum will be Internet 3.0

What the hell does that term even mean? It's all vacuous and made up bullshit. The single biggest problem we face in the cryptospace is the mobile problem. The vast majority of users are on cell phones and these are curated and controlled platforms. When the majors (Microsoft, Apple and Google) enter the space (and they will). We will see a federated crackdown on apps that don't conform with their business models. No more darkleaks, no more dash, etc. Break the mobile embargo and liberate apps. That should be the focus not jargon that is meaningless and expensive to pursue.

[evi_stale]

I never understood what this coin was bout, including similar coins.

NEM all the way

[Jakesy]

I don't agree with the way they went about raising funds, it was probably Charles Hoskinson's idea. I didn't purchase "ethers",  considered it more a donation than an investment.

Despite spending months of my life trying to figure out the legal and tax implications of it and even moving to Switzerland for three months, I was always against the ether sale and wanted to take VC money. It made a hell of a negotiating point for valuation, but introduced a terrible moral hazard of having no fiduciary responsibility behind the enormous sum raised. Also no formal due diligence process would be applied to the core team.

If there was to be a sale, then I wanted two organizations to form with a VC funded for profit building the initial protocol and then a sale at the time of launch to fund a foundation with a separate board managing it. This would create a clear separation of concerns and avoid conflicts of interest. Second, the risk to ether purchasers would be substantially less and would have eliminated the need and justification for a premine altogether. Obviously that didn't happen and the project decided to use the sale to fund some sort of bizarre swiss NPO funding a pesudo for profit in England two months after I left in early June.

Since then they've apparently spent or lost 14 of the 18 million raised and have missed two launch windows for a command line barebones version of the software. Second, they've experienced terrible mission creep with a mandate to re-invent the internet as opposed to simply giving the space a much better foundation to build cool blockchain centric applications and protocols. I'm honestly not sure what ethereum is anymore? Whisper, Swarm, Golem, Holons, Open Org, 4 new programming languages, DAOs???

In any event, don't blame people you've never met for things you know nothing about. Ethereum would be a very different project if I was still there. I'm not and they don't even have me listed as a founder nor did Mihai even mention me once in his history of the project. Thus I suppose I never played a meaningful role. 

A once insider, now an outsider looking in... what path do you see Ethereum ultimately taking?  They seem to have the attention of big players (IBM, Samsung) - it lends a certain credibility.  But from your response they don't seem to be what they are purporting.

[jerelimZ]

Is it a scam?

[rokkyroad]

Is it a scam?

I don't think its a scam. There is not much to show for millions of dollars. I would be interested to see if there is any accounting for the money at all. It should be public record after all its the public's money.

[jerelimZ]

Is it a scam?

I don't think its a scam. There is not much to show for millions of dollars. I would be interested to see if there is any accounting for the money at all. It should be public record after all its the public's money.

Yeah i don't think it scammy too I think something will come but will it be good and not fail. i do not know

[shogun47]

Ethereum will not be good for BTC If it does become a huge thing.

[jantenner81]

I don't agree with the way they went about raising funds, it was probably Charles Hoskinson's idea. I didn't purchase "ethers",  considered it more a donation than an investment.

Despite spending months of my life trying to figure out the legal and tax implications of it and even moving to Switzerland for three months, I was always against the ether sale and wanted to take VC money. It made a hell of a negotiating point for valuation, but introduced a terrible moral hazard of having no fiduciary responsibility behind the enormous sum raised. Also no formal due diligence process would be applied to the core team.

If there was to be a sale, then I wanted two organizations to form with a VC funded for profit building the initial protocol and then a sale at the time of launch to fund a foundation with a separate board managing it. This would create a clear separation of concerns and avoid conflicts of interest. Second, the risk to ether purchasers would be substantially less and would have eliminated the need and justification for a premine altogether. Obviously that didn't happen and the project decided to use the sale to fund some sort of bizarre swiss NPO funding a pesudo for profit in England two months after I left in early June.

Since then they've apparently spent or lost 14 of the 18 million raised and have missed two launch windows for a command line barebones version of the software. Second, they've experienced terrible mission creep with a mandate to re-invent the internet as opposed to simply giving the space a much better foundation to build cool blockchain centric applications and protocols. I'm honestly not sure what ethereum is anymore? Whisper, Swarm, Golem, Holons, Open Org, 4 new programming languages, DAOs???

In any event, don't blame people you've never met for things you know nothing about. Ethereum would be a very different project if I was still there. I'm not and they don't even have me listed as a founder nor did Mihai even mention me once in his history of the project. Thus I suppose I never played a meaningful role. 

Thank you Charles for your insight thoughts of this situation!

[Pecunia non olet]

What is Ethereum??? and why is very innovative???

In which way this platform can give a confirmation at different documents using the blockchain tecnology?

Thx!!!

Ethereum is non-existant. It exists only as a powerpoint presentation. It is widely regarded as a presale scam. The Terms of Service for the presale were stating they never need to deliver a product.

[jerelimZ]

Ethereum will not be good for BTC If it does become a huge thing.

Hows that? Ok we know its probably not a scam but why would it be bad for btc if it became big?

[KidKrypto]

Ethereum are/is the folks that dumped tons of btc and crashed the price from what is was a year ago. What I'm told anyway.

[wagabee london]

how did they spend all the bitcoins?

[box0214]

having an ehtereum founder come here to bash ethereum is quite shocking i must say for a project that raised so much funding. what stage are they at now anyways?

[charleshoskinson]

I'm not a founder. Apparently I had very little to do with the project.

[wagabee london]

where is the Project going?are they going to reléase something?