Fantastic, couldn't agree more.....voted Aye! 

Bravo BM, well broken down with clearly explained concepts and analogies.  I hope the power of your words and innovative tech resonates with everyone the way they have with us.   

BitShares is the most sophisticated and resilient tool for securing freedom that has ever existed.  Just imagine the implications for the future were humanity to adopt this amazing technology en mass?  Mind-boggling!

I love onions BM, but how about a Gobstopper!

....Hard to get your head around it all at first and impossible to swallow whole....
At the beginning, let's face it, it's messy....
But then you start to uncover all the interesting layers of different hue and flavor....
You can't help but stop every now and then to take a good look and admire some new discovery or check on progress.....
Sometimes you can have too much and need to take stock, have a breather....
If attacked, you'll simply break your teeth....
Once swallowed, it becomes a part of you....
And there's a Gobstopper out there for everyone.....

 

Wow this really does come as a surprise. First thank you global for taking the time to draft this thread. It does mean a lot that someone in the bitshares community thinks so highly of me. I didn't really think that was the case.

Succinctly, I don't have any intentions to run a delegate for three reasons. First, the board of Invictus made a decision without debate or my input back in October of last year that my services were no longer required. I really don't think I can have an effective working relationship with the people who made that decision moving forward. I'd be happy to collaborate where it makes sense and I always promote good technology if it's open source, high quality and solves real problems. Thus I'd be happy to pitch Bitshares as it evolves just like I do Eris, Counterparty and other platforms.

Second, I'm currently involved in several ventures as an adviser and I'm also starting an education venture in 2015 that requires some degree of objectivity. To avoid conflicts of interest, I can't really take a paid advocacy role.

Third, after spending roughly $250,000 on US legal research via Pryor Cashman while at Ethereum, I've come to the opinion that ICOs like angelshares pass the Howey test and thus agents of the company are exposed to unnecessary legal liability. Delegates as fiduciaries are not immune to this liability and it isn't just a fine from the SEC. Furthermore, even if AGS is considered a donation, it seems to me to be a donation solicited with an implicit expectation of return, yet without any accountability from the solicitor (as evidenced by numerous examples, the most recent being the Brian Page audit thread). As I've written in my recent whitepaper, I feel these events are predatory and result in bad outcomes.     

As bitshares the technology gets further disintermediated from I3 the company, then I'd be happy to become more involved. This will no doubt happen over the coming months and years and I believe everyone is in this for the long haul anyway. Anyway, thanks again for the consideration.

Don't be surprised Charles, the forum is the tip of the iceberg.  What binds us all together is far deeper and more complicated than the forum allows our network to articulate effectively at times.

With regards to your legal research (i have zero expertise,) do you not think the point here is that laws can and will be changed or ignored or enforced depending on the interest of those with the power?  Decentralization of influence is the only reasonable protection as compliance seems to be an exercise in futility or tacit support of tyranny.

If you wanted to, you could choose to let go of the past and work with BM and all the others surely    You can see what they are trying to achieve.  Is there any other project so close to delivering the freedom that Satoshi's invention seems to have intended?  In campaigning to become a delegate, you will be actively helping to shape the character of the network.....after all the 101 delegates are the expression of the network's values.  It is the perfect way to test and refine your ideas within the community.

The interest in Ripple at this stage is either speculative or laced with monopolistic ambition. 

The last thing we should do is associate BitShares with this system.  BitShares will stand or fall on it's own merit.  No other system is analogous with DPOS.

BitShares is profitable freedom.

This blog is going to be bl00dy awesome.  Nice one BM! 

"He who controls the Spice, controls the Universe"

Ripple may be an interesting and innovative project, however, the nodes that process the transactions have zero democratic oversight as I understand it.  Ripple is surely central banking 2.0.  Which is why it has garnered support from certain financial institutions.  Ripple seems to me to be our ancient adversary in a new guise, not simply our competition.

Step 1 is developing a photo for the campaign with built in potential virality (i.e. a catchy #hashtag)  Cass and I have been working together to develop this image and are looking for feedback.

Feast your eyes on this and let me know what you think.

This is really very good, hard to improve upon