Real question is: how many years do we estimate it will take for us to become profitable and earn more income than what is being spent on payed delegates?
Well, in 4 years delegate pay will be half what it is today when measured in BTS.
Every BitUSD sold is also a "product sale" provided it is not "returned". After a certain period of time we can count the "minimum BitUSD supply over the past X period of time" as a sale. If it is returned after that we can book it as a "loss".
I suppose that every bitUSD sold into existence represents BTS being taken out of supply temporarily. ("Frozen," if we're to stay with the chemistry metaphors.) I think what trips people up, including myself, is that the profits are indirect. We're not getting profits in USD and distributing it amongst ourselves. We're reducing the supply of the shares to pay shareholders. The share buyback analogy is complicated and sort of skirts around what's actually happening. This is the business plan as I understand it:
1) Bitshares pays shareholders by increasing shareholder equity.
2) Bitshares increases shareholder equity by increasing the price of BTS.
3) Bitshares increases the price of BTS by enticing people to remove BTS from supply (either burning or freezing it) in exchange for leverage, stability, betting, etc.
4) The more participation there is in these activities, the more BTS that will be removed from supply.
5) Given the same demand for participation in these activities measured in USD/EUR/etc., BTS should rise in value measured in USD/EUR/etc.
It's basically doing what Goldfinger was trying to do with gold. Goldfinger broke into Fort Knox to irradiate America's gold, thereby reducing the supply, making his gold worth more. With BTS, we're trying to reduce the supply by offering services that result in the incineration of BTS.
But in order for this to work, we have to assume that
1) The amount of USD/EUR/etc. flowing into BTS tomorrow will be the same or greater than the amount of USD/EUR/etc. flowing into BTS today.
2) The amount flowing out is not increasing relative to what's flowing in.
Burning and freezing BTS is not strictly income. I don't think any accountant could possibly record the burning of BTS as income. At the same time, that burning is extremely likely to result in income through capital gains.