The DAO is written by consultants specializing in Ethereum contracts. They have core developers on their team. They are good, but one mistake is all it takes. (

The DAO is written by consultants specializing in Ethereum contracts. They have core developers on their team. They are good, but one mistake is all it takes. (And their business idea to sell a "DAO framework" is probably going to be hard after this.) The bug that was exploited here has been public for a week before someone decided to try it in practice. There was time to dispense back everyone's ether, had they taken it seriously. But taking security seriously requires an almost superhuman distance to your work. The Ethereum developers is actively debating whether to put in logic to replay the blockchain in order to give back everyone's ether. While that's probably a good idea, it also means the company behind Ethereum can reverse any contract. That puts them in a difficult situation, as any smart contract platform will have dissatisfied parties at all times. (In comparison, none of the Bitcoin thefts have been reversed, and it's not clear they could have been as development is much less tightly knit.) It's the most exciting thing since the fall of MtGox. The money at stake is comparable (the DAO is about a fourth of what MtGox was in perceived value).