Here is how Bryce ended up working with us..
This project started in end of April 2014, when I came up with the concept. I approached Rainforest Fdtn (RF) about it on May 2nd. Our first call was over 3 hours long, because they had never even heard of Bitcoin. So for months we discussed and outlined the way this project would work.
I started looking for a dev in June, by attending Bitcoin meetups in NY. That is where I met Coin.co and pitched them on the idea which they loved and wanted to be a part of it also. I also met a dev there that was interested in the project and we started discussing details for about a month. He ended up not being what we were looking for so we parted ways, but around that time (end of July 2014), I met a dev by the name of Joseph who had gotten a job working at Blocktech.
Joseph introduced me to Devon Read the CEO of Blocktech on 8/8/14 through email. We started discussing the project and he seemed very enthusiastic and offered to have Blocktech build the coin for us.
We spoke for about a month on the coin specifics etc. The original coin specifics were VERY different. The premine was only supposed to be 12.5mil (1.25% of total coins), 5% interest PoS. RF was under a sell schedule that looked like.. at $1.50 they could sell 2% of their premine at $3 another 2% etc. If they went through their entire sell schedule they would yield around 1.5bil which was needed for the planting of the 1bil trees.
Devon Read introduced me to Bryce Weiner in the beginning of September 2014 and said that he'd be taking over the project. Bryce really understood the concept and our vision at first, and he was very excited to be a part of this. So it went that contracts were done up and we started to get to work.
From Sept to Dec we focused on logo, motto, colors, site plan, designs etc. Bryce assured me that the coin would not take longer than a few weeks to build and test, so whenever we were ready with everything he could have it done as soon as we needed it.
When we cycled back to Bryce in Dec he had already left Blocktech, but told me that they parted ways but were amicable and that he was still very interested in doing the coin. It wasnt until Jan/Feb that we became aware of Bryce's negative google results. But by this time we were all invested in the project and he assured us that what was written was not true about him. I have to say at this time Bryce was definitely helping in sculpting the idea of the coin and ways to get it out there. He never came off as malicious or evil as some people have pointed him out to be. We just chalked it up to people hating in the forums, because they lost money and Bryce was the only one that was "named" to those specific coins.
Around the same time (February) our front end dev had personal issues and had to leave the project. I searched for a new dev and found one (March) that is a friend of mine and has done front end dev work on some of my past projects. At this time Bryce came up with a new coin structure (the one we went with), and told us that these were much better coin features. He assured us that the 10% interest and the large premine would benefit RF because they would make BitSeeds that they can pass off to donors every year. Oh also the large premine was actually going to be given back to the community in the form of 1mil coins every year.
We came up with the concept of gifting BitSeeds to donors. This way we wouldn't have to sell BitSeeds into the market and lower the price for everyone else. The type of donors RF gets is usually very affluent people who instead of receiving a tote bag for their donation would appreciate getting BitSeeds that they would be able to spend at participating merchants.
We came up with a great idea for merchants. As you all know CC companies take about 3% from every transaction online and if you accept Bitcoin you don't pay those fees. Well what we decided to do with BitSeeds, is take 1.25% from every transaction and put that amount in the merchants charity wallet. That wallet is restricted for 1 year. During this time the wallet is being vested (just like if your compnay pays out bonuses in stock). At the end of the 1 year the merchant can request to sell that amount in that wallet and that amount gets donated to a charity and that charity then writes a tax receipt for write off purposes to the merchant. (For example shoeking.com accepts BitSeeds, someone makes a purchase for $100, the merchant gets $98.75 and the remaining $1.25 stays as BitSeeds and gets transferred to shoeking.com charity wallet. At the end of the 1 year shoeking.com requests to sell the wallet. We sell the wallet and donate the amount, which should now be more then $1.25 because its been a year and we expect the price of the coin to go up with time. We donate the amount to a charity the merchant requests or one from our list of participating charities. The charity that received the amount lets say $2.50 worth (if the coin doubled in the year) would then write a tax receipt so shoeking.com could write off $2.50 for charity. Besides that the merchant would receive backlinks from us and RF and a badge that says they are a participating merchant helping the environment and our plant a billion initiative.
Our site was done in April and so was the new coin Bryce had envisioned. We finished our PR and started sending it out. Coindesk.com did the first writeup and that night (4/17/15) we launched. The next day is when we got the extreme hashrate and the coins difficulty settings didn't adjust the way they should of and so we had the issue that we were dealing with here.
About 2 weeks ago I asked Bryce if he knew anyone for social media. He answered the next day that he knew someone, but that didn't pan out. The following day Bryce was saying things that I won't mention, because it doesn't have to do with BitSeeds, but let's just say that that day is when I started looking for a new dev. My conversations with Bryce over the past 2 weeks were like speaking with a different person. Not the same jovial guy that has worked and helped on this project for the past 9 months. He has been rude and very belittling. I stopped feeling comfortable with him being the main dev and that is when I wrote that post that he is no longer associated with this project.
I have asked him multiple times over the past few weeks to provide me with the private keys needed for this project and he has not obliged. I now feel that he is holding this coin hostage. Whenever we find a new dev our plan is to have him write a new coin for us and reimburse all the wallets with new coins. With this new coin we'd be able to have mining again with difficulty settings that actually adjust when they're supposed to. Many of you have expressed positive posts because we have ended our relationship with Bryce, and we hope you understand why we believe we need a new coin not written by him. This project right now is in its infancy and these types of changes are better suited now then later. I have already spoken to a few devs that are all giving us their ideas on how to rebuild this coin.
If any of you have any ideas or suggestions, like I said before we will reward you with BitSeeds if we implement your ideas. Worth's instructional videos and our giveaways are ready to go and are just waiting on a new codebase to be launched. We appreciate your patience and support in this transition.
Thanks,
Gabe