Peter and Vitalik aside, the rest of the Ledger team is very qualified.  Professor Shadab (an old friend of mine) is particularly intelligent and well-spoken, but not at all "pompous." 

Not sure WTF your point about "MUUURICAAAAA" is.  Like Vitalik, PR (the object of our mutual well-earned scorn) is Canadian so you're really straining hard to get in that little bitchy dig at a nation of ~350 million individuals dispersed among 50 States.

Finney, Chaum, Szabo, and the Merkles are also Americans, so what?  Just hating because you are jealous?  Or are you a feckless self-loathing undergrad trendoid?



Professor Rizun hasn't published anything for years.  He's a washed-up has-been, so he's retreated back to academia.  Assuming some backwater (spherical) cow college/trade school in the sub-arctic middle of nowhere counts as academia.