Chromapolis FUD: Stop the nonsense.
There has been massive amounts of FUD going around the ICO community–some accusations are well-founded, and I understand the confusion and anger. I’m not here to defend the actions of the team, and I’m not here to say that they have reacted in the best way possible. Nor am I here to defend the actions of Ian Balina. I am, however, here to defend the characters of the ChromaWay team and the accomplishments and contributions they have made to the blockchain industry.
First of all, Alex Mizrahi has contributed more to the development of this fascinating industry than 99.99% of ICO participants. The ChromaWay team, led by Alex, were the first to create a protocol capable of issuing tokens, called “colored coins” at the time (circa 2011~2012). The concept was so new at the time that he even had to quote Meni Rosenfield on what “colored coins” were:
By the original design bitcoins are fungible, acting as a neutral medium of exchange. However, by carefully tracking the origin of a given bitcoin, it is possible to “color” a set of coins to distinguish it from the rest. These coins can then have special properties supported by either an issuing agent or a Schelling point, and have value independent of the face value of the underlying bitcoins. Such colored bitcoins can be used for alternative currencies, commodity certificates, smart property, and other financial instruments such as stocks and bonds.
His role in the propagation of the idea of what we now call “tokens” played a huge role in expanding the blockchain industry into what it is today.
In fact, when Vitalik introduced the concept of Ethereum to the world onstage at Bitcoin Miami 2014, he praised colored coins and its potential to radically change the scope of blockchain applications.
We’ve come a long way from the small grassroots and enthusiast developer communities in 2011, to now multimillion dollar companies appearing out of thin air during 2017-18. If the ChromaWay team were only in it for the money, wouldn’t they have thrown together a whitepaper and raised $30 million when ICOs were all the rage last year? No, they waited for a breakthrough in lowering the barrier of entry for developers that want to create dapps: Postchain.
The implications of their breakthrough in Postchain is huge. The internet as we know it today, “internet 2.0” was created on the backbones of relational databases and improved protocols. Postchain, very simply put, allows relational blockchains. This means that any developer, blockchain experienced or not, will be able to create dapps using SQL queries that they are already familiar with. If more people cared about the core technology and its potential to truly make dapps mainstream and less about getting “hyped up” coins at a higher price, these recent waves of FUD would not have been given much attention--what Ian decides to do with his allocation is his decision. Again, I am not defending his actions nor the team’s response to the FUD. Quite frankly, they’ve never had to deal with situations like these, and I’m sure stress played a huge part.
So what else has the team been doing since 2011? Short answer: a lot of research, ideas, and development, that we take for granted today.
- 2011: Alex pretty much conceptualizes the idea of sidechains
- 2011: Or Perelman announces new website for the Safebit wallet on Reddit
- 2013: Discussing multisig wallets and how to build better interfaces for them
- 2013: Warned everyone the dangers of leaving bitcoin on exchanges (right before the Mt. Gox crash)
- 2014: Co-authored a research paper on how to secure cryptocurrency networks without Proof of Work, conceptualizing what we know today as Proof of Stake
- Implemented blockchain technologies for numerous projects that are not profit-oriented
- Working with and helping emerging countries to utilize blockchain to fight fraud
What were you doing to help this revolution? They may have made mistakes--after all it is their first ICO. But it’s not fair to attack their character based on miscommunications and mistakes, that ultimately have no long-term effects on the project.
If you have a problem with the way they have communicated with the community and investors that is completely reasonable. But do not start acting out character assassinations on people that have been building infrastructure in the space for years simply because you are unhappy with their inexperience in PR relations and communications. Come at them with your concerns not your vitriol. Creating anonymous posts where all you do is bash on them without providing constructive criticism will only create more problems.
To add onto this, this article has been making the rounds and makes a lot of assumptions and straight out unfounded accusations. To be more specific near the end they call out an influencer known as “TheGobOne” as having been fined $400,000 by the SEC because of pooling. First of all TheGobOne is a Canadian citizen and is not governed by the SEC. And by his own word has not been in contact or been contacted by them in regards to pooling funds. To create entirely false talking points to support your narrative is as disingenuous as possible. Why the author felt the need to spread lies to try and support his point shows a clear alterior motive in trying to character assassinate influencers and team members associated with the project, rather than coming at them with purely fact based concerns.
Everyone in the blockchain space has been a bit on edge lately because of the serious market downturn. If you’re an investor you’ve been feeling the heat of the giant -70%+ losses on altcoins. Feeling frustrated at that is completely natural but in the end we have to make sure we don’t explode at projects and people that have little to do with our own down investments. There are teams and projects that are simply trying to build something they believe the space needs. Let’s try to make the crypto community stronger and come together to help these developers make the best projects they can. Without bombarding them with negativity for every mistake they make on the way there.
Ending on a lighter note, you can see Alex’s true character in a funnily relevant thread from 2012 titled “fuck this shit, I want my own blockchain!” where he says:
I understand that many community members won't like some of these features, but the goal here is to try new things, not to get some people rich. If you don't like it, then forget about it. If nobody likes it, I have other things to do.