It should be said explicitly that Mastercoin's "first-mover advantage" - which JR mentions in his white paper - may disappear. Another project may hire full time developers, copy the Mastercoin code that has already been written, and complete its project before Mastercoin. This is not some highly improbable "worst case scenario", but a distinct possibility that everyone involved in Mastercoin should be concerned about.

This is not meant as a criticism of Mastercoin's current developers who, I know, are devoting what time they have to the project. What I write is directed at the board, which, in my view, is getting caught up in peripheral parts of the project, and is deferring judgment on questions of immediate importance. Rather than debating what currency we are going to pay developers in, we should hire developers!

EDIT: We should hire developers and, at least for now, simply ask them in what currency they would like to be paid.