On DAO and the crypto-idealism that the LEOcoin Foundation shares …The attack on DAO was an attack on online democracy and a test. It shows, that a**holes are a part of democracy and that a mere logical way of making decisions does propose that logic is sufficient to run a democratic society. It is my feeling that it is not.
Thus, democracy, whether in DAO or elsewhere, is a concept that is not perfect. But as Taleb says: “the anti-fragile gets better”. Which means, that logic is still a good mechanism to improve on life - and democracy; perhaps the best we have. But still …
Meanwhile, the DAO attacker remains unknown. We can only speculate about the motives, but anyone as good, to understand how to do the hack, would also know that the adventure would most certainly end with not getting the stolen-money, because of the possibility of forking within the 27-day escrow period. And, because some zealous blockchain-fundamentalist will sue any attacker, trying to get this person or group convicted and thrown in jail, the question remains: shall we ever find out who did this? If not, we shall also not know if the attacker is a thief, or just a provoker, wishing to make a point.
It still could be greed, of course. Or a truly powerful entity that hates the blockchain concepts and/or democracy. But it could as easily be a game, playing with holes in the 'laws' of DAO contract democracy. Or a game on the exchanges, as the real money was to be earned with insider knowledge. Imagine to sell all your ETH - like I wanted to do on Thursday - while knowing you could buy them back with a 50%-or-so discount two days later ... (This is why the clairvoyant are so rich
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The cyber-terror of the DAO-attack shows that the anarchism of the crypto-world and their idealism in making virtual democracies both deliver a message: a) that we have sufficient genius to change the world – if we want. And, b) that, whatever new world order we create, we still are sluicing 'virtues' during the transition from old to new: both virtues of hope and deceit. We can rewrite the blockchain and fork in an alternative DAO universe, but we cannot rewrite human nature (yet).
So what do I think? Initially I was inclined to say: either a young punk, showing a smart-ass side, or an incumbent from the financial world, destroying what they fear and parasitizing on the world of digital currencies by applying one of their notorious ‘exchange-robberies-by-insider-information’. But, now re-reading this, it is probably too idealistic and too black-and-white. It would not be a petty thief, wouldn't it? Not caring about Proof-of-Work invested, not caring about hopes and savings invested or the thrilling possibilities of the DAO and Ethereum, but caring only about cashing in?
That would be sorry indeed, but seen the speculative motivations of many in the world of digital cash, this would still be the most likely candidate. And in that universe, they can have my vote; it is a 'nay'.
(This is my private opinion and written in a personal capacity)