Thanks for the detailed response, Dana. How do you know Ohad? Has he done other things worthy of this level of trust? If you buy directly from him, does he use the market price? With so many scams in the crypto world, what gives you confidence this is different?
Protoshares is a great example. I remember friends saying I should get involved in that, but I held out. Based on what the price did, maybe I made the right decision. I bought STEEM at $0.25 and at $1 as it went up to $4. Maybe I should have held off then too.
Thanks again for replying.
I do not know Ohad very well on a personal level but I know him on a professional level. I know a bit about how his mind works, how he does research, how he arrives at his decisions, and the reason I trust his judgment is because his process is very similar to my process. So I can say I'm sure about these things:
Of course no one is perfect and most people as productive as him also have some traits which you might view as negative or difficult for other areas. But the traits necessary to be highly competent as a mathematician and programmer are not the same traits required to be competent at marketing for instance.
Take a look at Dan Larimer and you'll find another person who also is a diligent researcher, who is not afraid to change his mind when necessary, who is a naturally gifted learner and programmer. At the same time marketing is not his strong suit but he knows that. When Dan Larimer is surrounded by the right people then his projects become a tremendous success but from a technical perspective he is always ahead of the industry.
I'm confident that Ohad has the skills and motivation to complete the task he is given. I'm very confident in the design for Tauchain he has come up with as I've watched his process first hand. I've exchanged ideas with him as well and he's an ethical person. He's not irresponsible about what he is trying to do.
I used Protoshares as an example because Dan Larimer and Ohad Asor are similar. If you've worked with them both or interact with them both then you'll see they are both very smart, they both do a lot of research, they both take a rational approach to design, and they are both two of the best programmers you can find in this space. Dan Larimer put his good name on the line when he developed Protoshares. Ohad Asor is putting his good name on the line with Agoras. These are people who care about their reputations as much as I care about mine and I trust that aspect.
On the topic of Dan Larimer, when Dan Larimer first announced Protoshares I believe critical to his success was Charles Hoshkinson The same Charles Hoshkinson who I think was critical to the success of Ethereum. If we look at Dash we might say Amanda Johnson is critical to the success of Dash. Some people are natural introverts and when paired with a person who can handle the marketing, the Meetups, the background organizing, as Charles Hoshkinson is an expert at, then you have a recipe for success.
Charles Hoshkinson is one of the best in the industry at what he does. Amanda B Johnson is one of the best in the industry at what she does. I think Tauchain is missing something, missing someone, but I don't think Tauchain is missing researchers or the kind of stuff Ohad is doing. I think Tauchain is missing the sort of stuff Charles Hoshkinson and Amanda B Johnson can do, which is explain it to the masses, get people organized, attract developers, bring in or bridge between different projects where there is shared interests.
It's possible to build the most technically beautiful software, with the most utility, but then not be able to explain it outside academia, or not be able to explain it even to academia. I think Bitshares had the exact same complaints of people not being able to understand how it works and Dan Larimer not being able to make them understand. Steemit has been successful because it's so familiar and because everything is under the hood so people don't have to care how it works as long as they get rewards.
I would think Tauchain can go the stealth route as well. Early on it might be important to explain how it works but in general the majority of users don't need to care how it works. If something is very useful, has good marketing, good people associated with it, then generally few people care about what is under the hood, as is the case with Dash, Steemit, Ethereum, where most of the users don't know what a Patricia Tree is, or a Masternode, or Graphene.