The result of the merger based dilution (not the delegate pay) combined with the total lack of progress on BTS as a result of the merger (or at all) for the last 6 mo. is the sole reason for the price decline from about 4500 satoshi to what we see now. In other words Bitshares of April 2015 is the same buggy client of October 2014 plus two months of market engine bugs...[end to the blind fan boys, spare me the list of all great things that are coming...almost here...almost...]
Agreed, in the list of causes of the price decline (in satoshi terms), it goes:
1) Promises have not been delivered on, everything has been constant delays. Lack of stable client release with features that were promised months ago.
2) The market/order matching bug.
3) Merger dilution.
(And maybe some from chinese whales being mad at Follow my Vote getting 30M BTS).
Oh yeah, also:
4) Stan bullshitting with pump posts primising that secret and amazing things are coming but giving no details. Notice that this week Stan came out with one of these pump posts for the first time in a while, and BTS dropped over 10% in satoshi terms as a result?
And let me be the only one in the last several months that have admitted being for the merger at the time. But I was expecting results and accelerated development and got what - Nothing, the development was/is about frozen, Adam is as involved in BTS as much as he was before getting millions of bitshares to buy him...
Several of us admitted to being pro-merger at the time who now regret it. Like you, I thought we were going to get more devs working on BTS, and things would go faster than they have.
100% Delegates need changes as in being separately paid actors (not block producers) and not removal. Running to change something fundamentally anytime the sailing is not as smooth as BM likes is a big mistake. And I personally think it is about time he learns that this brings the big trouble not the fact the current state is not perfect.
I dont know about this. I think we should avoid changing things unless absolutely necessary. Because: 1) Change requires development effort and thus delays everything, which is our main problem, everything is constantly taking way longer than expected, and 2) It leads to the perception that Bitshares just keeps changing. People want stability.
There are no major problems at all stemming from paid delegates being block producers. This just is not a big deal. It is NOT worth prioritizing with developer time above the critical issues that need work.