I just started paying attention to mastercoin because Peter Todd, someone who seems to have some serious skills, got involved. I don't know a lot about J.R. or David Johnston, but it looks like they both try really hard to look important in ways that make me question their judgment and would make me worry about being involved in any project where they have leadership roles.
Example #1: J.R. titled his whitepaper "The Second Bitcoin Whitepaper", as if trying to put himself on a similar level to Satoshi.
Example #2: David's github account is "DavidJohnstonCEO", which is kind of like the people who put "PhD" in their email signatures, but about 5x worse (especially on a site like github).
Have J.R. or David ever explained these actions publicly?
Example 1: There was a time when Satoshi was not yet revered as a god. Back in the day he was just another programmer talking some cool ideas. Although Bitcoin was his idea, the current implementation is not just his work. A bit like the bible, Jesus too was once a regular guy the disciples hung out with. But other guys, like peter, did a great deal of work before the religion would be able to take off.
So, it's not unreasonable for him to have put himself 'on the same level of Satoshi', he's just talking in the same way the developers and Satoshi used to talk.
Example 2: I know very few PhD's that DONT put "PhD" in their title every time they use it. Sorry, but if you put that much money and that much of your life into something so ridiculously hard and exhausting, you've earned the right to put "PhD" in your text messages for all I care. I'm still impressed.
