Stellar seems like a great idea.
Monero---I thought from my (less than complete) research on it that Monero was actually a pretty solid little coin--from a tech perspective at least.
Here are my thoughts though:
We have been focusing on our own little Island now for a long time. It has been beneficial for us to do so for the initial stages in some respects, but as BitShares becomes truly decentralized and Cryptonomex begins doing work in other areas that may (or may not) end up gaining community consensus, it will be valuable to start forming alliances with other projects that have innovators and passionate communities with similar goals to our own.
The number 1 thing we need is resilience---not just of the network infrastructure but also of the developer pool who can and will work for the BitShares holders. In fact, this is the reason why Beyond Bitcoin is intentionally a "movement" not owned by Fuzzy. God forbid something ever happen to me in the "land of the free", but if it does--I want our community to gain strength and resolve from my indefinite deten---I mean leave of absence.
BM once said at that investors need to look to projects with teams who are innovating in the space...so I am reaching out to all the community here to help us establish which projects these might be. Because BM was right...and as always I think he is trying to teach us what he knows on how to do what we need to do moving forward.
Thank you everyone for continuing to do what you can to help. This stuff is important (though at times a little daunting and uncomfortable--being that most of us are Fanboys of the CNX team).
*P.S.* To the CNX team, please look at this as an opportunity for us to bring you highly innovative devs and communities who are very similar to you. Please also consider this as potential grounds for RECRUITING TALENT to help work with you on various projects. Alliances formed will give you more manpower to accomplish what needs accomplished for BitShares to become what it needs to become.