The value of an idea like this is a direct reflection of the talent that is getting involved with it.
Yes, it was
'dead' (
hurting) for a many months. It's conceivable someone was mining it with a plan to eventually resurrect it, but that could be said of any of the thousand blockchains lying idle. The simple fact is that without technology, talent, ongoing development, and a community, no currency has any chance to ever reach escape velocity and establish an economy (Tier 2 of a money). Technology was always here, but interest and talent seem to have returned to this blockchain lately. It's my belief that this isn't anything shady - it's a genuine attempt to resurrect what once was a promising Cryptonote (before it was abandoned).
Smooth getting involved (who has been public about how much he owns) meant that suddenly 'talent' had returned to this dead blockchain. I saw the potential to help build (not just speculate on) the next big 'litecoin' of the Cryptonote world and I wanted to get involved too. As I just told someone over PM: the way I see it, every Coca-Cola will eventually have its Pepsi. It's been a year and a half and only Boolberry has attempted to create some kind of other viable Cryptonote coin (but I have serious concerns about their perpetual 1% dev-mine of Boolberry, leaving Monero as the only solid Cryptonote). Since the existence of a viable alternative Cryptonote is inevitable, far better to be involved in creating it vs. waiting for some unknown force to create it with unknown intentions. This way Aeon can at least complement Monero, even if it eventually jousts with it too.
So considering all these factors, plus considering that for some reason the illustrious TPTB himself took time out of his busy day to come take a look at our homely little coin, I'm making a speculative allocation of both my time and money - into Aeon.
As I've said, it's my intention to acquire a long-term 1% to hold, and a little more on top of that to use as "angel investing" material (think of it as a separate dev fund, but a social one). If the coin gets too cheap, I can see possibly acquiring some more to play with. No one has gifted me any Aeon, and I've received no incentives to be part of it; I've had to use half of my yearly bonus (a significant amount of money for me) to establish my position. Why would I do this, despite not knowing any more than you do? Because over the years I've slowly (I think) developed the ability to sniff out a good thing. And in this case (and in Monero's), I see a chance to help build it instead of just speculate on the sidelines.
I like that we are 'practicing as we preach'. Instead of just going and inventing
yet another blockchain we are looking into revitalizing an existing one. There's no need for 1,000 Cryptonote blockchains - just a few good ones. Hey, maybe a miner is sitting on a Satoshi sized chunk of Aeon they mined for free during the months when few cared about this blockchain. But if they are, they are certainly not profiting off it at the moment. Aeon is stupid cheap, you can buy 1/1,000 for like $200 right now. And look around this entire altcoin world - do you see any other project with the potential of Aeon (and Monero) right now?
Fuck no. So if someone wants to cash out their Aeon to people who actually believe in building it (for a paltry few thousand dollars), I welcome them to do it.
In the end we all have to make up our own mind. I think that Cryptonote is the next big thing, and unless a new technology is fundamentally incompatible with those blockchains (as privacy was with the Bitcoin blockchain) we should focus on building and adding technology to these two vs. starting new currencies. Come on in and get involved with us TPTB - I'll give you 5,000 AEON of what I've acquired to bring your talent and passion into the fold.