Thank you Luckybit.
A couple of questions:
1) Why would someone buy Ethers if they don't expect to make money? Presumably because most people want to use it so more valuable and therefore essentially it is a "profitable business end"
2) Is Ethereum competitor to Bitshares ME or irrelevant?
Thanks again for the clarifications.
1. The last I remember they were making Ethereum hyper inflationary and concerned about centralization of power. For this reason I would say as an investor to stay away from the crowd funding aspect as it might not be as cost efficient for you as mining it. It all depends on how they roll out. If they intend to treat Ethers more like a credit currency where you are buying some token to act as a credit for using the services on the network then it will have value but because it's inflationary the value it has will decrease over time giving you no advantage to buying it and saving it. If they treat it as a stock then you would want to buy and save it. I wouldn't have launched the token the way I hear them talking about doing it, I would just forget mining altogether and release the tokens as tokens of credit which expire after a certain date and let the expiration date prevent hoarding while promoting spending.
2. Ethereum is not a competitor to Bitshares Me. While I'm not entirely sure what Bitshares Me is going to be yet, I don't think there is a lot of benefit to Proof of Work mining anymore because it is proven to be centralizing. I think if Proof of Work remains it has to be some beneficial form which provides a social incentive for something rather than what we have now. Ethereum in my opinion is best designed for decentralized autonomous organizations and if I wanted to write my charter, my principles, my constitution into sourcecode, I would definitely choose Ethereum as their niche is digital law and smart contracts.
But if I want a profitable business which isn't requiring complex contracts, conditional rules, and other mechanisms, I would go with Bitshares as it's a lot easier to roll out a blockchain like Bitshares than to have to deal with the risks and challenges of doing it over Ethereum.
For example if I'm trying to set up a social corporation (or a for profit charity) I would choose Bitshares. If I'm trying to set up a decentralized bank and exchange I would choose Bitshares. If I'm trying to do anything which is designed to bring profit to shareholders and be run as a profitable business I would use Bitshares.
One thing I respect about Dan(Bytemaster) is he has an understanding of the present and has the right attitude to survive in the present. Ethereum's technology is great but they are talking as if we already live in a post-capitalist/post-scarcity world where people don't have to work anymore, don't need jobs, and so on. So I see Dan's thinking as more practical while I see Ethereum as the idealists of the decentralization community.
The problem with idealism is it ignores the current conditions society is in while focusing on building utopia. In the current society we live in, to live costs money, which means profit has to be generated not just for our automated businesses but so we the human beings can live, pay our rent, eat and sleep well.
I often see a strange criticism which says if you're trying to do something good for the world that you shouldn't care about making money. Then how exactly are you supposed to spend much time doing something good for the world? How is your charity organization supposed to last if everyone is a volunteer and no one can pay their rent? If everyone has to work a day job and volunteer on the side then you don't get nearly as much done compared to if everyone worked for a social corporation as the day job.
So I agree with Bytemaster that "social entrepreneurship" should be as profitable as "selfish entrepreneurship" and it makes no sense to me why it should be a requirement to hate making money (and capitalism) to use capitalism to better the world. Maybe if people could make money doing it more people would want to do it.
So I think Ethereum is betting on post scarcity, I don't see how a social entrepreneur could make a profit under their scheme. I don't see how investors could make a profit under their scheme. I do see how miners could make a profit, but when you bring in the miners you bring in politics.
I view Ethereum currently as a sort of Not for Profit, and the technology is awesome. For certain situations I will use it and recommend it. But I don't see us quitting our jobs and supporting our living expenses by owning DACs running on Ethereum.
I do see that possibility with Bitshares.