Hi Stealthcoin.
As one of the
Monero Core Team members I feel I'm in a unique position to answer some of these claims.
To preface this: Monero is a cryptocurrency that is slightly inflationary (to ensure there is always a reason to mine instead of relying on a perfect fee market in future) instead of deflationary. In other words, the amount of Monero that will be created is
infinity. Logically, then, Monero's value will NEVER increase based on restricted supply / rarity alone.
Thus, on the face of it, it's a terrible investment. In line with that, I have often told people NOT to buy Monero, the best example of that is this conversation:
http://log.bitcoin-assets.com/?date=11-12-2014#951020. Similarly, David Latapie and myself did a 3 hour, 45 minute, interview with Doged Radio, and even the host noticed that we didn't launch into a recommendation that anyone buy Monero. If you have some time it's worth a listen, even though it takes a little while to get going:
https://www.mixcloud.com/dogedradio/monero-coin-interview/Any significant growth in Monero's price will come demand as a direct result of an increase in usefulness and usability, not from "pump groups" or anything else.
As a core team we have spent way more money than we've received in donations (see our financial report in our
2014 Year in Review for details). We are not particularly wealthy people, and every cost we incur beyond donations is a punch to our gut, but we do it because we are building Monero into something more than just a private cryptocurrency. Our Design and Development Goals is a good indication of that:
https://getmonero.org/design-goals/I appreciate that you're annoyed, and tempers run high in this section of the forum, but I trust you will find it within yourself to step away from your screen, have a beer or a whisky or a glass of wine, and come back refreshed and with a fresh view on the matter.