Quote from: masternode on March 08, 2015, 10:03:14 PM

I won't waste anyone's time. I just got off the phone with Drak. It was not an easy conversation. I mentioned the idea of making an assessment of the situation, letting us know how much money is left and to consider returning remaining BTC to investors. His reponse was basically that was that this was never presented as an investment, which obviously didn't settle well with me (and makes VIA appear more and more like a coin grab). However on his behalf as we discussed it more, and he seemed open to the possibility of this.

My estimation is that the burn rate on this project has been somewhere around $5k per month. I can disclose those numbers later, but I have pretty intimate knowledge about whats going on and the financials. Even before considering something like this, we need to have full transparency.

We really just need to assess the likelyhood of the success of the project. My view is that it's extremely low. Even if there were some interest from Patrick Byrne, it's just that interest. And I don't really see how any large players can be willing to taking any kind of gamble on a coin that is in utter shambles. We have to ask ourselves what real competitive advantage does VIA present over BTC or any other coin that might get the interest of others. It really is just speed, and that is no longer the case in the ALT world (with DRK having 3.5 second trustless confirmations) and soon to be gone with respects to BTC as both CHAIN and Blockstream (sidechains) are massively funded and attempting to solve specifically the speed issue of BTC confirmations.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/chain-2 (Chain has $13.7M in funding)

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blockstream (Blockstream, who is researching sidechains, has $21M in funding)

So we can safely say the speed advantage over BTC will very likely be gone withing 6 to 18 months, which outlines specificall the window VIA has. When BTC becomes faster, so will Counterparty, and that kills XCH's chances of being a success. Now if you look at adoption and community growth over the last 8 months and use it as reference, it's pretty easy to see things have literally moved backwards, not grown. With Drak at the helm, I just can't see how that could move forward enough so to capitalize on the window of opportunity before it shuts, leading me to believe the likelyhood of the success of this coin is extremely small (<1%). Small enough that it's clearly not worth pursuing.

At this point let's get all the info. Look at where money has been spent and what remains. Let's get disclosure on what's really on the horizon, and figure out a reasonable outcome from a fair assessment of where things stand. I may be at odds with how Drak has handled VIA so far, but I think he has it in him to do the right thing from here.

Well, first of all, it is unclear what your purpose is: On one hand you state "With Drak at the helm, I just can't see how that could move forward enough so to capitalize on the window of opportunity before it shuts, leading me to believe the likelyhood of the success of this coin is extremely small (<1%). Small enough that it's clearly not worth pursuing." only to, in the next paragraph, state: "I may be at odds with how Drak has handled VIA so far, but I think he has it in him to do the right thing from here.", which mean the exact opposite... which is it?

More importantly, the whole thing is just an exercise in futility for Drak, obviously, has it wrong, as wrong as it can be had, from the get going for this -and every other crypto- is NOTHING BUT and investment. Drank considers it, evidently, as a grant that investors/supporters have extended to him to do as he pleases... and that is exactly what he has been doing and what he pretends to keep on doing until that "grant" is extinguished... and that including he himself selling every single coin he has. That much is clear. As equally clear it now is that this project was doom, from its absurd concept to its ultimate dismissal. There's no chance of success, none, with or without transparency -and you are getting none, by the way, no matter what kool-aid he has kind of given you in the end-. I will repeat one again so the idea sinks perfectly crystal clear: The money collected is considered by Drak as a grant -or a gift- so he can pursue, at his own will and caprice, this exercise in futility under the pretenses of "helping crypto". As clearly visible from any and all angles, this has been a constant trip into disaster until know when it can no longer be ignored that it is going straight into the ground. What to do? Well, I have no answers to that since it is, quite literally, beyond "doing anything" at this point. And, contrary to what "masternode" tries to convince himself of, Drak lacks every single quality, every single one -not to mention disposition- which would give this project even the slimmest of chances of success.