The design principles must be fully validated to a high degree of confidence in the near-term. People won't wait years for a clear validation of the design. The pump & dump, ponzi issues are irrelevant and should be of far lower priority.
I suggest that you radically modify the rules, aiming to achieve energy efficient operation within a few months of launch. Even if this fails due to lack of interest, it will be quite valuable to know whether the underlying protocol works as advertised.
If you learn enough details from the paper I believe you should be able to understand that the proof-of-work mint rate curve is pretty irrelevant in evaluating whether the design solves energy efficiency. Proof-of-work is not used in any meaningful manner in the protection of the network, it mainly provides minting.
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