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

[bitcool]

Any updates on this? 

[BittBurger]

2 to 6 weeks 

[ciscokid]

Really hoping to get some answers to my above questions before the IPO....

[blueangel01]

Really hoping to get some answers to my above questions before the IPO....

I would like someone to answer those questions too.

[Asian Prepper]

I've seen a lot of videos about Ethereum online but they are too technical for non-technical people like myself.

I just want to know if it's worth my time and money to invest in Ethereum or not.

My friends and I approached Vitalik at the first Texas Bitcoin Conference to ask him some questions to help us determine whether or not we should invest into Ethereum when they launch.

We wanted to ask him more "investing" related questions versus "technical" questions about Ethereum.

Conducting the interview are myself, my buddy Leon Fu, and James D'Angelo from the World Bitcoin Network.

This is video 1 of 6:

http://prisonorfreedom.com/what-is-ethereum-eth/

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

[Asian Prepper]

In video 2 of 6, we ask Vitalik how and why we should in Ethereum and how the ethers (currency used in the Ethereum network) will be distributed:

http://prisonorfreedom.com/how-why-you-should-invest-in-ethereum/

We pretty much ask all the "investing" related questions that you would want to ask before pouring money into Ethereum.

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

[Asian Prepper]

In this 3rd video interview with Vitalik Buterin (one of the co-founders of Ethereum (ETH)) at the first Texas Bitcoin Conference held in south Austin, we ask Vitalik for the truth about Goldman Sachs’ involvement with Ethereum:

http://prisonorfreedom.com/is-goldman-sachs-involved-in-ethereum-eth/

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

[Asian Prepper]

In this 4th video interview with Vitalik Buterin, I will hammer him with some tough questions on why potential investors should trust him and his Ethereum team members to not run off with everyone's money & do they have the talent needed to make Ethereum successful.

http://prisonorfreedom.com/can-you-trust-the-ethereum-team/

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

[eightspaces]

In this 4th video interview with Vitalik Buterin, I will hammer him with some tough questions on why potential investors should trust him and his Ethereum team members to not run off with everyone's money & do they have the talent needed to make Ethereum successful.

http://prisonorfreedom.com/can-you-trust-the-ethereum-team/

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

cool can u make the same video approach with BCNext, cfb and co plz ?

[Asian Prepper]

Mining is a huge draw for any new alt coin, therefore, in this 5th video interview we ask Vitalik Buterin:

--Is there any mining involved in Ethereum?
--Who can participate in the mining process?
--Is Ethereum ASIC resistant?
--What prevents Ethereum mining from becoming centralized like Bitcoin?
--What is unique and different about Ethereum mining?
--Etc.

http://prisonorfreedom.com/what-is-ethereum-eth-mining/

Enjoy!
Tai Zen

[Tay]

For me, new ventures and projects are all about the communications, setting expectations, managing the questions.

Thats something I don't see happening here.  Did I miss the bit where everybody was off on holiday or something?

[Asian Prepper]

The challenge that every new project has in the crypto world is:

1.  A centralized place to get updated info about the project.
2.  Who the key players are?
3.  Project updates announcements?
4.  Most coders do not like to speak in public or be on video.
5.  Most coders are too busy working on the project and don't have time to respond to inquiries.
6.  etc.

These problems plague every new project in the crypto and not just Ethereum so I would not freak out over it.

This is why I posted those video interviews here with Vitalik because i figured others had the same questions as well.

Tai Zen

[Ursium]

For me, new ventures and projects are all about the communications, setting expectations, managing the questions.

Thats something I don't see happening here.  Did I miss the bit where everybody was off on holiday or something?

Hello Tay.

Bitcointalk is not where we push updates. I think from a coms perspective we're not doing a bad job considering we are currently self funded and working around the clock. Here are useful links:

Forums: http://forum.ethereum.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethereumproject
Main site: https://www.ethereum.org
Code: https://code.ethereum.org
Blog: http://blog.ethereum.org
Wiki: http://wiki.ethereum.org
Meetups: http://ethereum.meetup.com
Whitepaper: http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethereumproject
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/ethereumproject
Google+: http://google.com/+EthereumOrgOfficial

Cheers.

[ciscokid]

So is QA officially over now?

I asked some questions almost a month ago but still no reply. Ursium dropped in to post links but still no reply..... Pretty sure I am not the only one with these questions, and without them answered I don't feel comfortable investing.

I would really appreciate a reply so I can make an informed decision on whether or not I should take part in the IPO...

[Come-from-Beyond]

Pretty sure I am not the only one with these questions, and without them answered I don't feel comfortable investing.

I asked one question at least 3 times and got no a reply.

Ursium said:

We'd like to answer all questions from the community and are setting this self-moderated thread to make sure absolutely everything gets answered.

It seems to me that he is very busy. Maybe u'll get the answer one day...

[Ursium]

Pretty sure I am not the only one with these questions, and without them answered I don't feel comfortable investing.

I asked one question at least 3 times and got no a reply.

Ursium said:

We'd like to answer all questions from the community and are setting this self-moderated thread to make sure absolutely everything gets answered.

It seems to me that he is very busy. Maybe u'll get the answer one day...

We're here, we're answering questions, and we've been working 17 hours days for as long as I can remember.

Ask away!

[Come-from-Beyond]

Ask away!

If I recall correctly Vitalik decided to get rid of crypto-opcodes (like SHA256). The point was to make Ethereum language more universal. R u going to do the next step and get rid of 256-bit numbers? Their usage don't make much sense coz 512-bit cryptoalgos will require to use different tricks to work with 512-bit numbers. Could we have only 64-bit numbers, this would help a lot to implement Ethereum interpretator in Java (which doesn't have native support of 256-bit math).

Edit: Maybe 32-bit is the best choice, JavaScript guys would be happy too.

[ciscokid]

Ask away!

Here is a re-post of my questions:

1- Will any of the IPO bitcoin be used to fund personal expenses like food/travel/accommodations?

2- Prior to IPO, are we going to get a breakdown of where exactly the funds go?

3- If underfunded, we will all get full refunds correct?

4- If ethereum "fails" for any reason after launch, and Vitalik decides to scrap the idea and do something else, will the investors get stake in whatever new project Vitalik takes on?

5- There seems to be a fair amount of risk involved here. Why is it that early investors are only getting 2K ether for 1 BTC? How exactly was this number arrived at? It seems very inflated for an IPO considering it is still a brand new tech that needs to be created, could very well fail, be copied, not have enough interest to see a return on the investment etc etc.

5a. Why not reward the early investors more for taking on huge risk? 10,000 ether per 1 BTC seems fair considering the risk involved.

6- Theoretically will the cost of using Ether cause the price to always remain low? Because people would not use it if it's too expensive right?

7a- Added these since last post: Will any of the devs/mods be investing their own money into the project to purchase for Ether, at the set 2k Ether/1BTC ? If so, approx how much will be purchased?
7b- What kind of appreciation are you expecting at one year, two years and 3 years? I know this is really does not matter, nor can it be accurately predicted at all. But I just want to know what is going on in your minds, even if it is not accurate at all. Helps me to better gauge where you guys are coming from. If you guys are indifferent that is useful to know as well. And yes, I understand you guys are primarily about developing tech, not creating another speculative investment. But I still would like to know where exactly you guys stand.


Thank you for your time, I understand that you guys are working hard, which is why I tried to not bug you too much. But I really hope I can get some solid answers so I can gauge where I would be standing as an investor.

[rdnkjdi]

Answers in bold.  I'm not a member of the team - just decided to share some of my common sense.  Not trying to be rude or a shill.

Ask away!

Here is a re-post of my questions:

1- Will any of the IPO bitcoin be used to fund personal expenses like food/travel/accommodations?
If they are working 10, 12 or 17 hour days.  Do you really want them having to scour the countryside for potatoes between debugging?  

2- Prior to IPO, are we going to get a breakdown of where exactly the funds go?
Requires ether people

3- If underfunded, we will all get full refunds correct?
If they decide to call the project off after it has been funded before they officially start - then yea.  If the project fails then no.  You are screwed.

4- If ethereum "fails" for any reason after launch, and Vitalik decides to scrap the idea and do something else, will the investors get stake in whatever new project Vitalik takes on?
Again - if they call the project off because it fails.  Then no.  You are screwed.  This is why people give you more money back than you give them if something succeeds.  Sure bets come in the form of bonds & bank savings accounts

5- There seems to be a fair amount of risk involved here. Why is it that early investors are only getting 2K ether for 1 BTC? How exactly was this number arrived at? It seems very inflated for an IPO considering it is still a brand new tech that needs to be created, could very well fail, be copied, not have enough interest to see a return on the investment etc etc.

5a. Why not reward the early investors more for taking on huge risk? 10,000 ether per 1 BTC seems fair considering the risk involved.
The amount of ether given is irrelevant.  It is a fraction of the pie.  The investors are getting a fraction of the pie.  Making it 10,000 ethers is the same as 1,000 if the pie grows by 10X


6- Theoretically will the cost of using Ether cause the price to always remain low? Because people would not use it if it's too expensive right?
This question has been answered and will continue to be as they discuss the cost of using ether that goes to the miners.  Why not read their blog - blog.ethereum.org?
7a- Added these since last post: Will any of the devs/mods be investing their own money into the project to purchase for Ether, at the set 2k Ether/1BTC ? If so, approx how much will be purchased?
They already are.  They have supported themselves for months while they work on all of the proof of concept stuff.  They ARE funding the project themselves by creating the source code while funding their personal living expenses.

7b- What kind of appreciation are you expecting at one year, two years and 3 years? I know this is really does not matter, nor can it be accurately predicted at all. But I just want to know what is going on in your minds, even if it is not accurate at all. Helps me to better gauge where you guys are coming from. If you guys are indifferent that is useful to know as well. And yes, I understand you guys are primarily about developing tech, not creating another speculative investment. But I still would like to know where exactly you guys stand.
Ask a dozen people - get a dozen different answers.  This is like asking Tim Cook what the price of Apple stock going to be in 12 months

Thank you for your time, I understand that you guys are working hard, which is why I tried to not bug you too much. But I really hope I can get some solid answers so I can gauge where I would be standing as an investor.
No problem

[Ursium]

Ask away!

Here is a re-post of my questions:

1- Will any of the IPO bitcoin be used to fund personal expenses like food/travel/accommodations?
If you mean will staff embezzle funds by purchasing personal items with the investors money, I'm slightly offended by that question. Of course not.
How will you know? Our finances will be transparent.

2- Prior to IPO, are we going to get a breakdown of where exactly the funds go?
There is no IPO, but an Ether sale, akin to a pre-order. There's a 70+ pages business plan in the works. We anticipate it to be an open equity, open software, open salary template for future projects as well as ours. We're currently finalizing it. I think you will like it .

3- If underfunded, we will all get full refunds correct?
This assumes that there is a cap or a min. There is no such thing. We have been developing and distributing the software in a complete open source manner since day one while self-funding so far.

4- If ethereum "fails" for any reason after launch, and Vitalik decides to scrap the idea and do something else, will the investors get stake in whatever new project Vitalik takes on?
The project is completely (and already is) open source wall to wall. Assuming it implodes (tech turns out impossible to implement), we would of course return whatever is left post burn-rate to the Ether buyers.

5- There seems to be a fair amount of risk involved here. Why is it that early investors are only getting 2K ether for 1 BTC? How exactly was this number arrived at? It seems very inflated for an IPO considering it is still a brand new tech that needs to be created, could very well fail, be copied, not have enough interest to see a return on the investment etc etc.
The market will decide the true value of the Ether cryptofuel, not us.

5a. Why not reward the early investors more for taking on huge risk? 10,000 ether per 1 BTC seems fair considering the risk involved.
Why not 1M ether per BTC? Why not 1:1? It's irrelevant, the value of Ether isn't decided by us, but by the markets.

6- Theoretically will the cost of using Ether cause the price to always remain low? Because people would not use it if it's too expensive right?
We're aiming to keep fees low enough to encourage first adopter use, yes.

7a- Added these since last post: Will any of the devs/mods be investing their own money into the project to purchase for Ether, at the set 2k Ether/1BTC ? If so, approx how much will be purchased?
No idea. Doesn't matter as these aren't shares. We all believe in Ethereum as a long term platform for societal change, so personal investments are to be expected. You could say that the last few months working as volunteers is an investment, too.

7b- What kind of appreciation are you expecting at one year, two years and 3 years? I know this is really does not matter, nor can it be accurately predicted at all. But I just want to know what is going on in your minds, even if it is not accurate at all. Helps me to better gauge where you guys are coming from. If you guys are indifferent that is useful to know as well. And yes, I understand you guys are primarily about developing tech, not creating another speculative investment. But I still would like to know where exactly you guys stand.
If we could predict the future, we likely would do better predicting lottery numbers. Not for us to say.