Lets put the fundraiser in simple terms that everyone can understand. Everyone should agree that all investments should have a proper risk/reward ratio. This project itself has a lot of risk and potentially a lot of reward, so neither can outweigh the other. Now lets look at this objectively from that perspective.
Ethereum project;
Risk = Very High
Reward = Very High
Founders;
Risk = 0%
Reward=100%
Early adopters;
Risk = 100%
Reward = ?
Put that on a graph. Does that seem like a fair transaction to you?
Just look at the risk/reward ratio and it is way out of line, bordering on insanity. Hubris and Greed comes to mind. If you were the world's greatest cook and asked a venture capitalist or businessman to fund your new restaurant, Guess who makes the most money? Whoever takes the most risk. That's the guy who is paying for the risk out of his own pocket. It's been that way since the beginning of time. Granted, if you have risked a lot of your time and mental energy, you deserve payment for assuming that risk of your time and potential energy as sweat equity.
This is the only project that I have ever heard of that the founders have no sweat equity, no equity in capital and want all the rewards before the business even opens and then will ask the investment community to fund the entire project before it even starts and assume all of the risk.
The current investment model is appalling and downright thievery of the bitcoin community. Vitalik, please quit trying to instill a sense of fear and demand by constantly bringing up "whales" as an excuse for this model. That's just lame and I can't believe people will fall for that (edit...yes I can believe some people will). We can all guess whose idea and where those tactics were borne from.
They need to offer more ETH per bitcoin, lower the MAX to an acceptable level and therefore the pre-mine. And lower their shares of the coin to a level that doesn't reflect a persona of greed. If they are right and follow through, they can still be multi-millionaires by changing the structure in a way that it is not overly diluted and fair and equitable to early investors. The way it is structured now, they are punishing you for being an early adopter and instantly becoming wealthy without any risk at all.
I feel that if you are going to ask the investment community to fund the entire project sight unseen, then there must be checks and balances of risk/reward for founders and early adopters. This project is NOT a slam dunk, there is immense risk to go along with the rewards they are alluding to. Therefore the founders must take some risk themselves and give opportunity for early adopters to gain reward. ETH is not structured as a positive investment vehicle in its current form
Can you please explain to me why
http://fund.ethereum.org/ is not working please? I dont mean to sound condescending but i dont understand why that part of the websight is down?