I think rpietila came along early in the life of Monero but after the core devs already joined the project.
Yeah I jogged my memory and edited my prior post while you were writing.
One if the interesting things I see in Monero is that proportionally more bitcoin early adopters are involved than I see in other alt coins.
Is it because:
1. Bitcoin early adopters see Monero as a viable hedge to side chains and other potential fungibility/privacy fixes for bitcoin?
No I think side chains weren't a reality when Monero was launched. CN is strong on chain anonymity (but again isn't also IP obfuscation, which Tor and I2P are but I personally have doubts on Tor's and probably I2P's efficacy). Strong bet to make. Adds a real feature needed by the crypto market.
or
2. Bitcoin early adopters have been around long enough to recognize obvious pump/dump clone coins lacking much innovation and are far better at avoiding them than cryptocurrency newcomers trying to find the "next bitcoin"
I think we all can agree that 99+% of all altcoins will fail. How do early adopters identify coins that may be among the <1% to succeed as either a bitcoin hedge or a viable option to fill some niche that bitcoin either can/will not?
Yeah I think they are more astute. And I don't think you can protect grandmothers from mass delusions and scams, unless you regulate a market. I suspect most of the money in shitcoins is people who know they are shit and are playing the musical chairs game of the greater fool pyramid, i.e. as long is you aren't last it doesn't matter that you weren't first and that the asset has no underlying value.