I can provide my single data point: I sold all my ZEN in large part because I was disappointed at the decision to embrace Equihash ASICs. Networks are secured based on the total energy cost to a first order and distribution of the hashpower geographically to a second order; ASICs tend to reduce both factors.
Security is the most important and this is explained many times in this thread. This project once faced 51% attack and this had devastating effects on price, duo to various speculation which accrued immediately after this event. We cannot afford this to happen again.
In case of fork we would be very vulnerable without efective protection and in this transition we could be an easy targerg for another attack.
This decision not to fork was the most rational decision in current situation.
What puts ZEN most at risk of a 51% attack (besides a fault in its consensus algorithm) is that it attracts a small minority of the total Equihash hashrate that is available globally. Consequently, as long as you can rent Equihash hashpower on NH, MRR, etc. far in excess of your coin's network hashrate you are vulnerable to attack. Again, with the proviso that your consensus algo is susceptible to this kind of manipulation in the first place.
The real solution to decentralise mining is and almost always has been the blockDAG, that's why it's a fully funded project that's already well underway.
On this I agree with you - DERO is a CryptoNight-based coin that has already implemented a BlockDAG type consensus algo and it has successfully withstood all attempts at 51% attack (so far, anyway).
GPU mining Situation with GPU mining is not good anyway and without this fork.
GPU mining becoming less and less profitable and causes are various not only ASIC.
Horizen cannot be blamed for this situation.
Bearish Trend In this situation with lot of speculation around BTC and volatile market you cannot expect miracles.
Meh. The market is partially to blame, sure, but taking just the last month as an example, BTC is down <4%, ZEC is down <9% while HoriZen is down >14%; ZEN is clearly underperforming the benchmark crypto, BTC, as well as its closest peer, ZEC.
Why rebranding?
Well this extending of brand and changing of logo was strategic move to avoid future potential problems.
That was a good reason to change the logo, yes, but not to change the name. ZenCash had fairly good name recognition which also implied it was a currency. HoriZen, in contrast, is more of a hokey pun of a name which doesn't provide any clue as to what it is. Frankly, when I see "HoriZen" it makes me think of a yoga studio or a landscaping company that specializes in Japanese rock gardens...
Also we are distancing our project form ZCash, we are not only cryptocurrencie, we are platform now
Distancing from ZEC is all well and good, but trying to claim HoriZen is more than just a currency at this point in time is misguided. This is because if you ask anyone who has more than just heard of crypto (ie - has mined or traded it) what crypto is the vast majority will say it is a replacement for fiat currencies. Trying to distance a project from the primary perceived function of crypto only makes sense if there a laser-like focus on solving a specific problem and using crypto to do so is highly advantageous. What, in essence, does HoriZen do - or intend to do - better than anything else? Send private messages? No, Telegram, Signal and even ProtonMail are better at that.
Furthermore, Secure/Super nodes are just another form of masternode PoS scheme and the vast majority of MN coins are shitcoins and/or scams. Why ZEN wanted to associate itself with scammy shitcoins is beyond me, and diverting 20% of mining rewards to pay these Super/Secure nodes only added insult to injury (and made already terrible mining profitability even worse, of course).
I realize this all sounds kind of harsh and I do think you, personally, are a credit to the ZEN team overall, but the coin went in a direction I no longer find compelling so I stopped supporting it. And based on the price action over the last few months - ever since the rebrand took effect, basically - the market seems to agree with me.
