I agree with toast on this matter. What is the value of giving promises that no single party is able to keep? Every future shareholder is involved in the decision process. This is the way it should be.
I think the fear that some have is round 2 of the big bulk inflation.
If there's a Round 2 of that, then BitShares is dead. Period. Every ounce of promotion we are doing, and much more, would be lost.
I think the whole point of those changes was to position BitShares well so that it will be strong for many years to come.
Agreed .
Dilution is only mean to fund the operation and grow the eco-system , if there comes to a point that the current rate of dilution can't sustain the operation , then we're not actually growing , are we ?
If our business grows 10 times , then yes , more dilution maybe acceptable in the future . You can add 10X dilution and people might gladly accept it .
But if the business stays the same or even shrinking , then additional dilution won't do much good either . Everybody's pay will be diluted as well to the point that no dilution amount can revive the business .
I remembered at the old days , the poor people can't afford to eat regular meal , they make rice porridge for the
whole family , and as the rice became rare , they added more water to make the porridge to a point that it's not even a porridge but water with rice .
Unless those additional dilution is paid in a postpone period , just like the stock options in real companies .
If we're gonna argue that our system is "self-funding" , then we have to increase the value , so the dilution can have meaning . Otherwise , it's just like putting more water in a rice porridge . If there comes to a point that we need additional dilution to maintain a shrinking business , then just like what people in the regular company would do : Cut costs , reform business model , make extra income , lobby for outside funding .
Dilution is not the final answer for everything .
I agree that dilution isn't a universal solution, yet I don't agree with the rest you said.
Growing an ecosystem isn't a linear process. You can't say that for every $1 worth of work put into the system it has to grow more than $1. The point is this has just to be true on average. There will be days where you spend more than you make, but that is okay as long as it doesn't happen too often.
Just look at BitShares' history. We already had a cap of $80 mil. Since then we lost value. Was it wrong to dilute in this time to get to the point where we currently are? Was it wrong to pay bytemaster, toast, vikram and all the others for their development efforts, even though they didn't bring a huge value improvement yet? No. The time where this efforts pay out will come, but probably not today or tomorrow. It is simple. You have to invest first, before you can make money.
Notice that "additional dilution" was what I mentioned .
If we only have one solution to get through a crisis , then when the next crisis comes , the answer will be :
another additional .
And the next time will be , another another another anther additional dilution .
I once invested in a small business when I was young , and when the business couldn't generate income , I use my own money just to keep it going , it finally comes to a point that I don't have any extra money to save it anymore .
It's a simple issue , if there comes to a time that more debts are the solution to cover the last debt , then we are looking at the US government . The US government thought they can pay off their debts too by using the debts to grow the economy and thus increase the tax income to pay off the debt , but obviously it failed .
I liked how BM said "delegates should have a business plan" . That's what we need here .