My concern is that for only $100 someone can reserve all those names then go AWOL, thus losing those names from bitshares forever. As long as narwal actually creates a market for them and works to develop the infrastructure that can support it, good for him/her
Raise the price. Drop a hard fork tomorrow. This is still a centrally controlled coin.
Problem solved........
What if you go AWOL? We all die. Let's shut down the whole project because death is inevitable?
So what. Nobody will ever get to use the name molecatcher. I say, let him keep going. When he moves on to the Spanish dictionary, he will have to buy more BitShares on the open market. Isn't that the point? He hasn't even begun forming complete sentences yet.
Oh wait...sorry, I forgot...We hate making profits around here...
BitShares T - "oh shit! we're making profits! SHUT HER DOWN!"
What is this, Bizarro Business 666?
I think we must have skipped Business 101 the day they taught:
"accepting profits"
Here's the Cliff's Notes: (you're supposed to choose to keep them)
If I go AWOL, I do understand the grief and pain it will undoubtedly inflict on the psyche of all internet users, but that is besides the point and a burden I live with every day.
I think you're playing with strawmen a bit much. The question isn't just business, but technical - both must be balanced. It may be possible that the better business decision is to protect the technology while it is in specification discussions even if it means a single user loses money on a bad bet (the bet was that the specification wouldn't change before implementation, which is counting your chickens before they are hatched)
I'm not saying shut anything down, just an honest academic question. Which blockchain/business is better:
one where you can register any name at market value, but that "screwed" one person while the protocol was still in discussion and not implemented yet
OR
one where it is forever impossible to register ~40-80k names because they are lost forever, but kept it's principles and let someone lose those names. And this includes
molecatcher, which would be a catchy name for an exterminator service.
At the same time, and I repeat:
As long as narwal actually creates a market for them and works to develop the infrastructure that can support it, good for him/her.EDIT: speaking of business 101... It's not uncommon for performance metrics when granted a license. Narwal has purchased a license to all those names; I wouldn't be opposed to a performance clause on the usage of those names. Imagine if someone registered citibank for 0.10BTS and then never logs in again. That would significantly hurt the blockchain and bitshares. About "accepting profits," if I was to go to citibank and give them $100, do you think they will give me their building in Manhattan? I guess they skipped business 101 as well.