6 ms·

Ethereum has the right play here though. They go to where the gold rush is and sell the shovels.

by erikb 9y ago

curiousgal 9y ago
I think the exchanges are the ones selling shovels and am certain that they have a horse in that race; e.g. Kraken added support for trading EOS yesterday, started at $1 now it's at $4.16. With potential ROIs like that (all across the board) I am certain that Wall Street cowboys are all over this market. But at least we have the SEC to protec..oh we don't.
- npongratz 9y ago
  I find EOS especially hilarious. Per their own FAQ[0]: "The EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform." And: "We believe that EOS means different things to different people. We have received numerous amazing interpretations of what EOS stands for or what it should stand for so we have decided not to formally define it ourselves." [0] https://eos.io/faq.html https://eos.io/faq.html, last week's mirror: https://archive.fo/m3D1T https://archive.fo/m3D1T At least they're honest about it.
  - oelmekki 9y ago
    > At least they're honest about it. Or, they expect legal action and they see it as a possible disclaimer.
- erikb 9y ago
  The thing about proverbs is that you shouldn't apply them literally. "selling shovels" here means: Instead of taking part in the hype something that is used by hype-seekers to fascilitate their yearning is sold. It's often very likely that there are a lot of different kinds of businesses who profit this way. Sure the exchanges are profiting, the hash-box-producers profit, the VCs profit. In the original sense there were also different businesses profiting from the gold rush. Besides shovels you also had to buy food, other tools, shelter, a claim to a piece of land, etc. The special thing about Ethereum here is that they act like a participant in the gold rush to some degree. I actually thought they produce coins and try to find a meaningful use for them, just like bitcoin. But in fact they provide an infrastructure for coin producers. That's really interesting, imo. Since no matter how it goes, they will profit from it, and can easily exit any time when they feel the profits are diminishing too much.
heliumcraft 9y ago
Ethereum has no "play" here, it isn't a platform made for token sales (aka "icos"), it's a generalistic platform that happens to have projects that do this sort of token sales.
- fny 9y ago
  The Ethereum founders do: they've managed to turn themselves into a certification/approval stamp of sorts. I've seen them slapped on as advisors for umpteen of these ICOs. If I were them, I'd create a regulatory company and take a cut for "Ethereum-approved ICOs."
  - heliumcraft 9y ago
    And a lot of those were actually fake / without any sort of authorization. Some projects also just put ppl as a "advisors" because they answered a question that one time. Btw, Given is the number of Ethereum founders is small, you're probably referring to some of many devs working for the foundation as contractors.
  - drcode 9y ago
    Vitalik has conceded this was a mistake and has stated he will no longer have any formal role in outside ethereum businesses. He also stated that he was not paid for any of these advisory positions he held.
    - almostApatriot1 9y ago
      He is 'invested' in a lot of these coins though. Seems to be able to own them before they ico. HMMM
    - petertodd 9y ago
      I've personally seen the price sheets for what he's billed out per hour, and sat through advisory work meetings with him. While it's possibly he wasn't officially paid for those specific ICO advisory positions, he certainly was getting paid for advisory work.

Ethereum has the right play here though. They go to where the gold rush is and sell the shovels.

by erikb 9y ago

Ethereum has the right play here though. They go to where the gold rush is and sell the shovels.

I think the exchanges are the ones selling shovels and am certain that they have a horse in that race; e.g. Kraken added support for trading EOS yesterday, started at $1 now it's at $4.16. With potential ROIs like that (all across the board) I am certain that Wall Street cowboys are all over this market. But at least we have the SEC to protec..oh we don't.

npongratz 9y ago
I find EOS especially hilarious. Per their own FAQ[0]: "The EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform." And: "We believe that EOS means different things to different people. We have received numerous amazing interpretations of what EOS stands for or what it should stand for so we have decided not to formally define it ourselves." [0] https://eos.io/faq.html https://eos.io/faq.html, last week's mirror: https://archive.fo/m3D1T https://archive.fo/m3D1T At least they're honest about it.
- oelmekki 9y ago
  > At least they're honest about it. Or, they expect legal action and they see it as a possible disclaimer.
erikb 9y ago
The thing about proverbs is that you shouldn't apply them literally. "selling shovels" here means: Instead of taking part in the hype something that is used by hype-seekers to fascilitate their yearning is sold. It's often very likely that there are a lot of different kinds of businesses who profit this way. Sure the exchanges are profiting, the hash-box-producers profit, the VCs profit. In the original sense there were also different businesses profiting from the gold rush. Besides shovels you also had to buy food, other tools, shelter, a claim to a piece of land, etc. The special thing about Ethereum here is that they act like a participant in the gold rush to some degree. I actually thought they produce coins and try to find a meaningful use for them, just like bitcoin. But in fact they provide an infrastructure for coin producers. That's really interesting, imo. Since no matter how it goes, they will profit from it, and can easily exit any time when they feel the profits are diminishing too much.

heliumcraft 9y ago

Ethereum has no "play" here, it isn't a platform made for token sales (aka "icos"), it's a generalistic platform that happens to have projects that do this sort of token sales.

fny 9y ago
The Ethereum founders do: they've managed to turn themselves into a certification/approval stamp of sorts. I've seen them slapped on as advisors for umpteen of these ICOs. If I were them, I'd create a regulatory company and take a cut for "Ethereum-approved ICOs."
- heliumcraft 9y ago
  And a lot of those were actually fake / without any sort of authorization. Some projects also just put ppl as a "advisors" because they answered a question that one time. Btw, Given is the number of Ethereum founders is small, you're probably referring to some of many devs working for the foundation as contractors.
- drcode 9y ago
  Vitalik has conceded this was a mistake and has stated he will no longer have any formal role in outside ethereum businesses. He also stated that he was not paid for any of these advisory positions he held.
  - almostApatriot1 9y ago
    He is 'invested' in a lot of these coins though. Seems to be able to own them before they ico. HMMM
  - petertodd 9y ago
    I've personally seen the price sheets for what he's billed out per hour, and sat through advisory work meetings with him. While it's possibly he wasn't officially paid for those specific ICO advisory positions, he certainly was getting paid for advisory work.