The issue isn't just that cheaters are going to cheat. It's that the project will provide a positive and mostly trustworthy provenance exactly during the period

The issue isn't just that cheaters are going to cheat. It's that the project will provide a positive and mostly trustworthy provenance exactly during the period of time when no one cares about or trusts it. However, as knowledge of it diffuses and people care about and trust it more, it will attract more and more cheaters. This negative feedback loop puts an effective cap on how much value people can get out of it.