A few pages back someone provided a link to a graph posted by majamina on the "troll thread." I went there to see it in context, and ended up making the following post. It occurs to me that some of you might enjoy hearing how I found my way here, so I am cross posting for posterity. In addition, I am posting it as
a reminder to not feed the trolls!------------------------
Our jugdement is always clouded by our emotional investments
Satoshi made us think in a different way, to not to trust, to question. Satoshi gave us Blockchain, the trustless authority.
When we have blockchain based solutions, why should we place our trust on nodes? Isnt it what we all are here for? to build trustless systems?
There are two types of people here, those who want to gain more fiat and those who want to help humanity. Choose your side
This is a noble sentiment, but not entirely true. There are certainly any number of gradations on the scale running from St. Francis of Assisi, to Bill Gates. Now while I consider BG to be little more than a criminal, on any number of measures he could be considered of more help to humanity than S.t Francis. The fact is that the desire for fiat and to help humanity are not mutually exclusive. More to the point of this discussion is the fact that even a "pure" desire to help humanity will not settle this debate.
I suspect (in a completely unfounded way
) that I have more in common with the first person sited above, than most folks on this forum; my pursuit of fiat has been, for the most part, to be able to help others who are not in a position to do so. 10 months ago, on a mountain in the middle of a jungle, connected by a feeble long-distance wi-fi link, I wasted some time browsing, and found an ongoing debate between advocates of something called Shadow coin, Monero, and Darkcoin. As a technophile, and someone who witnessed first-hand the devestation wrought by banksters, I was intrigued.
The vulgarity, and crudeness were hard to stomach, (not to mention the name "Darkcoin") but for the sake of those I wanted to help, I continued investigating. In the end, having only limited resources of time and even less of money, I had to decide to follow only one. In spite of its name I chose Darkcoin. I chose it not based on superior technology, (which I suspected it had) but on the basis of superior people. They had their share of trolls and FUDers, but they also had a reasoned core of supporters (such as majamina here :-) who reasonably and politely stood up to the FUDers and trolls, or simply ignored them. Even more importantly, Darkcoin's developer, did not live in shadows or participate in the trollfest, but continued, day-in, and day-out, to improve the coin. I saw no ongoing development in the other coins, and their developers did not even deserve the term, from what I could see; they certainly weren't willing to show their faces in the light of day.
I returned to the U.S. to teach last September, and began participating in the DRK community, lobbying along with some others for a name change, and slowly trying to acquire a masternode of my own. I now own 908 DASH and hope to buy another $80.00 worth tomorrow. (That is after sending $280 (which is half my pay) to help those I left.") In retrospect seems clear I have made the right decision. Shadow coin is no longer worth discussing, and the general tenor of Monero backers supports the market's judgment of them. In large part it was the incessant screams of "instamine," which I was perfectly capable of investigating on my own, which drove me from them. Maybe they are right, and their tech is better, to me it makes no difference, the caliber of their people out-weights any consideration of the tech.
It grieves me to think that most of you probably have no idea what I am talking about, and will never know the joy of being invited to share a meager meal with those who would not be alive but for your small involvement with them. Should you want to experience this, pm me, and I will be happy for you to accompany me on my next trip. It is my hope that it will not be too long before a masternode will relieve me of the need to return to the States to refill my coffers.
If I am wrong, and DASH becomes worth nothing, and Monero takes over the world, I will sleep easy, knowing that Evil men often rule the day while goodness lurks in the dark; that money is but a means to an end, and that character determines the nature of that end.
I pray that you all end well...
I agree whole heartedly with your assessment. Sounds like you live a very interesting life, and I hope that your masternode will indeed relieve you of the need to come back! How great that would be?! You are blessed to be such a positive force in the world
) 
