You've said that I rejected Beyond Bitcoin, but Beyond Bitcoin is in fact on Let's Talk Bitcoin! and the Bitshares hangouts have never approached me about being on the network.
And yet you're giving me shit, and created a whole thread about it.
See my confusion? What the hell are you talking about?
oh dear...
Time for
Full Disclosure for the sake of all reading this who are completely unaware what is going on.
I am going to state this as I know it and we can go from there. Who knows...perhaps we can even lick some wounds and patch stuff up. Regarless this post is not directed at Adam so much as at the broader community, though if Adam would have unblocked me a long time ago, perhaps he would have known a little bit about the details on my perspective before now.
Adam approached me in the very beginning when I was setting up hangouts with Dan and wanted me to join LTB Network. I did not want to. Sorry to everyone if this upsets you, but I do not personally like the LTB centralized model...so I respectfully declined. This was not anything against Adam or any attempt to hurt or hinder him in any way. I simply wanted to help foster a model that I thought was better for crypto in the long run and that kind of acted as bitshares' internal media network to counterbalance bitcoin's internal media network.
Then Arthur came along and joined up with us over at bitshares under the umbrella of "Beyond Bitcoin". Arthur and I worked together for about a month or so and Adam liked what Arthur was doing with the raw content we were creating and then asked Arthur to come to the LTB network. Adam did not inform me of this, but Arthur did (kind of). I received a kind of shorthand message stating in no uncertain terms that Beyond Bitcoin was now going to be a show on LTB Network. I have the message logs to prove it,
in case they require posting here I will do so for clarity and proof.
When Arthur left, I was a bit frothy with Adam because there are far more appropriate ways of going about things and I was concerned that "Beyond Bitcoin" as a model was now at risk early in the game. I felt (due to the lead up to this) that Beyond Bitcoin as a brand was in danger of becoming centralized around LTB's agenda (
agenda is not used here as a derogatory term), but that is neither here nor there so let us continue. After awhile of being frustrated with this change in events I started thinking about the model I had constructed for a completely open media outlet to serve the BitShares Shareholders (and beyond) and realized Arthur's moving could be a good thing. The model was not necessarily hurt or hindered...Arthur was simply a Correspondent for LTBNetwork. Great. Sounds fine!
At least he would cover our content created here frequently as well, and it would give more access to a broader crypto demographic. In essence, I believed it could be a very positive thing moving forward. Of course, it should be noted that Dan (aka Bytemaster) was required to help me see this.
However, as time went by, Beyond Bitcoin(LTB) seemed to become less and less interested in that model and Arthur and I only had very infrequent, though cordial communication via email. I do not say this to demean people...only to say what is quite literally 100% truth. I do not hold a grudge against Arthur or Adam for this, however. Arthur wanted to make something of himself in the realm of crypto and become a personality...but he also wanted to make extra money. This is something we could not offer him here at bitshares (at the time). I did, however, tip Arthur (I believe) 15 PTS for his work here out of my own pocket... which other volunteers can vouch that I frequently do. It isnt much, but until bitshares ME comes out (who knows when), we cannot have our own coin to use for tipping, hiring and such.
As far as the difficult issues with Adam and the Bitshares "defense force", Adam for some reason unbeknownst to me started getting on the forums and really getting upset about bitshares not being launched yet, seemingly frustrated with invictus "reinventing the wheel" instead of just coming out with a product and patching on the fly. Really came down to different development styles...for which noone can really fault either side. He was also upset (please tell me if these are the wrong words to use) about AGS not being liquid (he was not alone, but he was in the minority).
Some of his concerns were valid...but to be honest many were truly based in a fundamental misunderstanding on a technological level (for instance, comparing bitsharesx to Ripple in terms of centralization of power, not only in the forums, but also on LTB's show(s)). This single example largely describes the types of the arguments that went on in these forums. Unfortunately (on both sides) the discussion got extremely heated because Adam seemed in the minority on most of the issues and some of the most technically skilled members of the forum tried to explain to Adam how true innovation in technology takes time. Building a solid foundation means that development takes longer. Then it became them asking him questions to which he either had no answer...or refused to answer. Adam can tell everyone which of those it was...because I cannot tell you from my vantage point.
In retrospect, I wonder if Adam was partially upset because he wanted to issue LTBCoin using Bitshares ME...but was not willing to wait. So he ended up choosing counterparty. At that point in time...it seems things were amplified even more.
Now with that said. Noone on these forums who was involved in this stuff is without blame and I get heated easily when I perceive attacks on Dan and the
entire bitshares crew because quite frankly they have only given me reason to trust them.
In fact all the money I lost (nearly 90%) on investing in altcoins early on have largely been redeemed by bitsharesx alone. So it is good for newbies to know that if they see anger from the old timers here on the forums directed at Adam's critiques it is often because they never received answers they found valuable to their questions, or feel they were outright ignored by Adam.
Long story...but it is here for everyone.
I would like to make one final comment so all newbies understand, however. I have never "made money" off of bitshares except, I think, approximately 3000 Cinni from CinniCoin's Dev (he gave me 25,000, which I distributed via mumble session and to Beyond Bitcoin
x volunteers) and approximately 6 PTS I cashed in to give my wife to keep her off my butt for spending too much time "playing with bitcoin". I am not paid by invictus and do what I do as a volunteer service. I never wanted to "have my own show" so to speak...but only wished to breathe life into an ecosystem that would enable anyone to have the power that Adam has gained through the creation of his media empire. I only wanted to help Invictus with a
marketing issue it seemed they were having and give voice to Dan, the rest of the team and 3rd Party Devs in
some form to help fill a void that caused a great deal of angst between and among community members.
I hope this is not taken as an angry post...I am lucid and in no way angry at this point. Just tired of always seeing this happen on the forums...and knowing that it only starts when a couple people come on here speaking to issues of concern.
If you read the forums, you will see that many MANY critiques brought up by newbies and veteran shareholders alike do not bring such levels of controversy, and to be honest...many of those who are called the "defenders" actually have had plenty of their own concerns in the past. The only difference is that they are not figureheads in the crypto-media sector of crypto.