Quote from: charleshoskinson on February 04, 2014, 08:26:38 PM

Quote

Charles,

Can you confirm the estimate for the main net launch to Q3-Q4, 2014?

Thank you.

I'm pushing us into SCRUM and really hammering down the development process. Once we have those operations where they need to be, we will have significantly better predictivity in our development flow. This said, we have a checklist that needs to be resolved prior to the value chain being launched. That will be the ultimate guide for when things get launched. Q3-Q4 seem reasonable, but cannot be committed to until a later date.

I understand. This means that real ether mining and the ability to trade/sell ether by investors of original IPO will only be available at this time frame or later (depending on the development progress).

I want to say that I'm enthusiastic about ethereum and will surely contribute to the development and success of this great idea and system. But as a potential big investor for ethereum I have the following questions/remarks:

At first I was under the impression that the main net will be launched in a couple of months, I planned to invest 100x. After reading and digging more into the matter now, and this is not due to your fault or any mistake it went down to 1x-10x. I'll explain why. 8-11+ month down the road is a hugely immense amount of time in the crypto world as you know. The price of BTC can probably be x5-10 that it's current price in end of 2014. Taking this reality into consideration and the fact that etherium is in it's infancy and early planning stage right now (which is good and I support your recent move to delay IPO and development refinements and not rushing), many of the risks are unknown. I'm afraid that current/former IPO model unless changed significantly to reflect this reality has the probability to become something similar to the ASIC issues encountered in 2012-13. This in turn can make many investors upset. I'll explain why.

Many ASIC manufacturers took pre-orders in BTC when the price was very low for a promise of delivery of yet in development complex tech. When there were delays because of the complexity of the issues, the investors took a deep hit and many lost the appreciation in price of BTC, making their investment depreciate while the manufacturers of ASICS enjoyed the undue appreciation from investors money.

This practice of taking investors money and holding to it, while not delivering the tech and making further delays is questionable. After the manufacturers took the BTC the time pressure became on investors, because manufacturers already took an upfront payment for the full amount of the work and could afford themselves in expense of investors to simply relax and watch "their" money appreciate while not stressing themselves. In my view this practice is highly unethical.

While I'm not suggesting this will be the case with etherium. I see the idea, your team and the spirit in very positive way. However, if the cap of original IPO will remain the same at 30K BTC, then potentially than will amount if price of btc is x5-10, to a whooping $150M-$300M. Considering the fact that Vitalik said on Reddit that you currently don't have plans beyond 10M USD, the other money will simply be sitting in the wallet and appreciating. Making this a similar case to the above.

I suggest to split the IPO to couple of rounds of fundraising attached to major milestones of the project until the main net goes live. This way I and other investors have the opportunity to invest additional sums as the work progresses, while still enjoying the appreciation in BTC and have access to more mature information about the progress of the project to make more informed decisions while investing.

I believe the project will receive all the funding it needs to succeed and you to do the work and still have the motive to continue. Being payed upfront the whole salary makes it less motivating to do the work in the best way possible and this is not good for anyone.

I apologize for the essay, but this is a make or break issue for me.