Good observations that I agree with. In our defence we’ve committed to building the OlympusBC blockchain whatever happens with funding since we need it for our main business platform and business plan which is Plutous. Plutous came first and was originally planned to run on Ethereum which would be the easier path for us to follow but because of reasons it became a problem using Ethereum which made OlympusBC necessary for us as a business.
It’s perhaps a bit of an unusual situation where we are developing a blockchain to enable us to do our business of Plutous but we believe others will have similar business requirements that makes OlympusBC a useful blockchain in its own right. OlympusBC was first discussed at the end of 2012 and started to take form more over the following years. If we can raise funding to support the development of OlympusBC then that would be far better than trying to develop the blockchain on a tight budget and extended timeline which is what has driven the ICO.
I think there are many reasons for ICO’s today, sadly most are just get rich quick schemes with no real business case or purpose. Hundreds of millions of dollars for a tweaked Bitcoin branch or a handful of smart contracts for some personal interest. Among them though are some great business plans and innovative smart contract based businesses or blcokchains. As with the .com boom, the challenge is to spot the unicorns because I have no doubt that we’ll have some major successes akin to PayPal, Amazon and Google.
That's the spirit of enterprise! I think in this crowded space with scores of projects launching daily and all of them vying for the attentions of a rather limited number of adopters, you have to remember how the earliest projects started: with a few people working diligently amongst like-minded individuals, all believing in something without any immediate gain. In fact, despite what people may think, a lot of the early developers of Bitcoin (and even ETH let's say) spent years on the ideas and building up the tech, and have little to show for it today except the recognition and experience. If they are to be believed (and I do take some of what they say at face value), not every early developer sat on mountains of crypto in the hopes that they would be fabulously rich.
Some of my largest holdings are coins which had no fundraising origins. Bitcoin is doing well of course, while others not so, but the belief has remained with the developers, and that has bought my belief (I want to say trust almost).
If you look at all the self-acclaimed angel investors and crypto billionaires, you'll find that none of them (my generalisation here) were programmers or developers. Simply people who bought up or mined coins.
Nevertheless, at least your project seems to have started from a desperate need, to enable Plutous as it is. And it may not be necessary to be a unicorn to provide something that is useful and beneficial... in my real life example, I continue to use the same free, open-source tools that may never gain the fame and recognition of bigger enterprises, but I am happy they remain relevant 20 years after I first used them.
