As I have argued elsewhere, I think it's time to let go of the bitcoin era mentality of trustlessness. Bitshares is trust-abundant. I3 are publicly known humans with deep personal relationships to many stakeholders, and to each of their employees and coworkers, and especially to the community who has supported them through good and bad. Arguing that I3's large control over bitshares is a risk to the company, is like saying mark zuckerburgs control over Facebook is a risk to Facebook. Be honest, do you think there is ANY chance mark zuckerburg would short Facebook stock and then wipe their servers, even if he could profit from it?
Unless you think it is a realistic possibility that zuckerburg would do that with his 30% stake and centralized managerial control over Facebook, then it makes no sense to think that Dan would or even could do that with his 5-10% stake in BTS and no effective control beyond his stake. I don't even think I3's combined stake is that high.
It's time to realize that everyone involved in this project are just human beings. We're so used to the old mentality of bitcoin where anonymous competitors are locked in a constant battle for artificial scarcity to keep them honest, but it's over. Bitshares' organizational structure is public, it is transparent, and it is ultimately very personal.
Of all the people I've interacted with in this community, I have amazingly enough not met a single person so far, who has given me the vibe that they're in this for the money. Every single person I have spoken with has, through their actions and opinions, convinced me that they're doing this primarily because they believe that we, and the blockchain, have a purpose beyond making money - that we're in this to do good.
When the forums cry out in rage at, say, bad allocations of DNS sharedrop it's not even out of greed, it is simply human beings reacting in anger to what they perceived as a huge injustice and insult to them and their contributions. At the time I derided them for being greedy and devolving this thing into a fight for the pie, but in hindsight I realize that they acted also because they simply abhor the idea of injustice, whether it is done against themselves or others. Also, as the whole debacle proved, justice and generosity came out on top, as I3 simply chose to donate money to the unfortunate to make up for their losses. I think this proves the inherent trust-abundance of the system.
That being said, I think it would be a great gesture of goodwill and faith for every member of I3 to come forward and announce the amount of their personal stake in BTS,and I think it would significantly increase community trust and the confidence of future investors.