**** Official Ethereum QA thread ****

[charleshoskinson]

Before the Accredited Investor issue comes in to play, there has to be a determination if they are considered securities.  If they aren't securities then it's irrelevant.

Seems like you're on to something 

[nakaone]

I have an ethical question which I do not want to post in public - who do I contact with this issue?

[Alty]

If I invest 100 btc what could I expect?

[Azuos]

So if I invest 1 BTC and get my 2,000 or so Ether, what happens when people start mining?  Is some dude with a jacked up rig going to be able to mine 10,000,000 Ether in the first couple hours?  How is this being handled so that my investment is actually worth something?

[Ursium]

If I invest 100 btc what could I expect?

Well just like any other project, we will be detailing potential ROI models in the document that we will release when announcing the Ether pre-sale event. At the moment I cannot answer this question.

[Ursium]

I have an ethical question which I do not want to post in public - who do I contact with this issue?

PM sent

[Ursium]

@bitcoin_watcher compiled all 357 comments from the AMA and categorized them here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1xb5rj/hi_were_the_ethereum_founding_team_ask_us_anything/cf9zuek

[NWO]

From : http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1xb5rj/hi_were_the_ethereum_founding_team_ask_us_anything/

Question : "What is the most common misconception/myth about the ethereum project that you've seen so far?"

1. Ethereum is not your personal decentralized Amazon EC2 instance. You will not be able to run anything on top of Ethereum that you cannot run on a smartphone from 1999.
2. The inflation rate is 0.4x the amount released in the presale per year, not 40% per year. That is, we'll have 1.5x after 0 years, 1.9x after 1 year, 2.3x after 2 years ... 401.5x after 1000 years, 401.9x after 1001 years, etc.
3. We are not affiliated with Goldman Sachs, or any other particularly nefarious organization. We just have 2 members on our team (not the core team) who used to work for GS. Ethereum is 100% certified NWO-free (although I suppose once the pre-sale starts NWO will be free to buy in just like everyone else).

I thought that was the case. So can you explain basically what is the purpose of Ethereum?

I'm glad I have the same right as others

[majik]

What is your long term vision for Ethereum? What do you want it to accomplish for the future? I hope you express that clearly in a mission statement.  What steps are you taking not to create a new class of super wealthy but rather, to empower everyone? I think ethereum is great and you are doing amazing work.  It helps to articulate your mission and your direction clearly so everything you build is in line with that mission.

[Ursium]

What is your long term vision for Ethereum? What do you want it to accomplish for the future? I hope you express that clearly in a mission statement.  What steps are you taking not to create a new class of super wealthy but rather, to empower everyone? I think ethereum is great and you are doing amazing work.  It helps to articulate your mission and your direction clearly so everything you build is in line with that mission.

I'm working on the website copy to answer just that I'll post a link as soon as it's up.

[freedomfighter]

With ethereum envisioned to become a generic platform with a specific new code to be used for various decentralized applications, DAx's ets., what is really the meaning for it as a currency? will it force all transactions to be in eth? if so than it is not as generic anymore. If it is the "TCPIP" protocol to a currency than I should be able to use BTC based or NXT based currency on it no? please clarify the conceptual vision here. if it is a generic base platform than why is it also a currency? Thanks   

[Ursium]

With ethereum envisioned to become a generic platform with a specific new code to be used for various decentralized applications, DAx's ets., what is really the meaning for it as a currency? will it force all transactions to be in eth? if so than it is not as generic anymore. If it is the "TCPIP" protocol to a currency than I should be able to use BTC based or NXT based currency on it no? please clarify the conceptual vision here. if it is a generic base platform than why is it also a currency? Thanks   

Ether = Oil

Although properties of Ether can enable it as a currency, we see it also as a fuel, powering the contracts which themselves could represent currencies.
This can be done through the implementation of meta-coins on our block chain (a trivial few lines of code), which in turn can be traded and used as currencies.

As for what 'fuels' contracts, yes it would be Ether, although we are considering some very interesting options of 'coloring' Ether, for example for having folded proteins. 'Colored' Ether could therefore be used on special contracts to reward users having completed certain actions.

[JakeThePanda]

Before the Accredited Investor issue comes in to play, there has to be a determination if they are considered securities.  If they aren't securities then it's irrelevant.

Seems like you're on to something 

Well, I never understood why this community continuously refers to these offerings as IPOs and investments.  It's an incorrect term for these purposes and it will only serve to get us in trouble.  I think each individual crypto coin could be considered a commodity if anything, but they don't trade on a centralized commodity exchange and the CFTC hasn't issued a ruling yet.  As long as it's clear that you aren't offering an investment with the possibility income, then I don't think they will be considered securities.  Could the price rise in the open market?  Sure, but so can the price of milk.  It's a product you are offering, not an investment opportunity.

Just my 2 cents.

[Ursium]

Before the Accredited Investor issue comes in to play, there has to be a determination if they are considered securities.  If they aren't securities then it's irrelevant.

Seems like you're on to something 

Well, I never understood why this community continuously refers to these offerings as IPOs and investments.  It's an incorrect term for these purposes and it will only serve to get us in trouble.  I think each individual crypto coin could be considered a commodity if anything, but they don't trade on a centralized commodity exchange and the CFTC hasn't issued a ruling yet.  As long as it's clear that you aren't offering an investment with the possibility income, then I don't think they will be considered securities.  Could the price rise in the open market?  Sure, but so can the price of milk.  It's a product you are offering, not an investment opportunity.

Just my 2 cents.

Exactly.

[Tulpa]

Sorry for my English.

I saw some launches of CPU coins and it seems that after 2-3 hours after launch botnets are starting to mine this coins. No matter of code etc.

It seems that Eth can be target of such networks too.
512 MB per thread is not too much  when I can usually see that my Firefox is eating 2GB easily. So 4core CPU can be used without much trouble to user.

Will be our GPUs usable or not?

[charleshoskinson]

Check out our latest hire: http://www.ethereum.org/#who

[majik]

Check out our latest hire: http://www.ethereum.org/#who

+1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Koblitz

[majik]

Will ethereum accounts be secure from day 1? to reassure early investors.  two-factor authentication?

[Ursium]

Will ethereum accounts be secure from day 1? to reassure early investors.  two-factor authentication?

Can you define what you mean by 'account' Majik? If you mean online wallets, their security implementation (and therefore support for 2fa) will be the responsibility of the people building them.

As for the reference (mobile and desktop) wallets, they will function in a way that's similar to say, BitcoinQT or <insert name of your favorite wallet here>.

[charleshoskinson]

Will ethereum accounts be secure from day 1? to reassure early investors.  two-factor authentication?

The Ethereum reference wallet will be far more secure than QT from day 1 (launch of mining). We will have it pen tested thoroughly and even take it to DEFCON next year with a big treasure pot (you hack it; you own it). On a personal note, Bitcoin theft or loss really makes me sad and also I believe is a significant roadblock for mainstream adoption. Mainstream consumers need better security and more tools to protect themselves from themselves.