I am starting to look at VIA because I hear it will be a treechain testbed, and because it intends to serve as a 2.0 platform with PoW.
Once again looking to Reddit indicates a bit of shitcoin-ness behind the hype. Quotes from Peter Todd, allegedly hired by them as his "Chief Scientist," etc.
Frankly I don't know much about Viacoin, so I can't comment yet. They simply asked me to do research on treechains and were willing to pay for it. My contract with them is such that all work will remain free of patents and be opensourced.
...
Same rate I charge any project for work done for the public good that'll be open-sourced, $50/hr.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2c9700/peter_todd_hired_by_viacoin_to_work_on_tree_chains/cjde4vtComparing the tone and content of that with the press release version and I find the gap a bit scary:
http://blog.viacoin.org/2014/07/31/viacoin-hires-peter-todd.htmlTechnology might be okay, I really have no idea, but trying a bit too hard to sell it for my tastes.