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These ICO-funded research projects are turning into the next Xerox Parc, IBM Research etc. I doubt they will ever ship something practical directly, or that the

by zapita 8y ago

These ICO-funded research projects are turning into the next Xerox Parc, IBM Research etc. I doubt they will ever ship something practical directly, or that the investing public will ever get their money back, but they are spending the money by hiring great engineers and researchers and giving them free rein to have fun with no budget restrictions. I suspect that will result in fundamental advances that will benefit us in the long term, like Darpanet eventually gave us the Internet. I want to believe that something good will come of this, beyond incinerating cash building products nobody actually wants to use. (Yes, I’m saying that Golem as described is impractical and naive, and giving it so much funding so early makes it even harder for them to learn hard lessons and succeed as a product). In a way, they found a way to trick us into paying more taxes to subsidize public research and development! You’ve got to respect that.

jacoblambda 8y ago
The difference is that unlike taxes, these research projects are 100% opt in and you get to pick which project to support.
- zapita 8y ago
  I think most ICO participants expect something in return other than “lots of cool research that won’t be immediately practical, but might indirectly advance society in 20 years”. They expect either financial gain through speculation, or a successful launch of the product specified by the ICO whitepaper. They will most likely not get either of those things.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    I wonder if this is really true. My understanding is that the majority of ICO funding actually comes from Bitcoin & Ethereum "whales" who got in early, own thousands of coins worth tens of millions of dollars, `and are looking for something cool to do with it that won't trigger a huge tax bill. (Well, technically investing in an ICO is a taxable event, but when you can just use your private key to send Ethereum from your pseudonymous address to a smart contract that exists everywhere and nowhere at once, enforcement is difficult.) Most of the newbie Bitcoin investors I've met at meetups have been very wary of ICOs. Too risky; they won't go near them. Occasionally they'll be someone who spreads maybe 5% of their crypto portfolio across a dozen ICOs, but they're the die-hard exceptions. If this is the case, the analogy really is more like Google X or YCombinator: an already-wealthy firm who spends money on passion projects because they can, with the potential added benefit of a small chance of an even bigger payoff down the road, and a nice PR boost in the meantime that increases the value of their primary holdings.
dboreham 8y ago
Generally probably true, but Graphene-ng looks pretty interesting and seems close to something that can be shipped.

by zapita 8y ago

jacoblambda 8y ago

The difference is that unlike taxes, these research projects are 100% opt in and you get to pick which project to support.

zapita 8y ago
I think most ICO participants expect something in return other than “lots of cool research that won’t be immediately practical, but might indirectly advance society in 20 years”. They expect either financial gain through speculation, or a successful launch of the product specified by the ICO whitepaper. They will most likely not get either of those things.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  I wonder if this is really true. My understanding is that the majority of ICO funding actually comes from Bitcoin & Ethereum "whales" who got in early, own thousands of coins worth tens of millions of dollars, `and are looking for something cool to do with it that won't trigger a huge tax bill. (Well, technically investing in an ICO is a taxable event, but when you can just use your private key to send Ethereum from your pseudonymous address to a smart contract that exists everywhere and nowhere at once, enforcement is difficult.) Most of the newbie Bitcoin investors I've met at meetups have been very wary of ICOs. Too risky; they won't go near them. Occasionally they'll be someone who spreads maybe 5% of their crypto portfolio across a dozen ICOs, but they're the die-hard exceptions. If this is the case, the analogy really is more like Google X or YCombinator: an already-wealthy firm who spends money on passion projects because they can, with the potential added benefit of a small chance of an even bigger payoff down the road, and a nice PR boost in the meantime that increases the value of their primary holdings.

dboreham 8y ago

Generally probably true, but Graphene-ng looks pretty interesting and seems close to something that can be shipped.