I have to admire his marketing genius. Say what you want, but he has changed the rules on his customers and instead of complaining they (by and large) are thanking him for the opportunity.
You mean on hashtalk? The place you've been banned from?

I don't know if a CEO trolling and moderating his own forum is really such a marketing genius. It just makes for a very stark contrast between what's on hashtalk and what's outside of it.
But overall yes, I have to agree with the general idea that this whole thing hangs on marketing. It's possible I guess to prop it up long enough for something tangible to come out of it, just like hashlets became antminers three months later.