> I generally think that pre-mined cryptocurrencies are bad, just a lottery for a small group of insiders.

It's less a lottery for the early adopters and more a money funnel for the creators -- and a cash toilet for everyone else.

The technology here is interesting but not new, and the problems that will make this fail are found in the social fabric, not code.

Realistically, though, I think there is a scalable new business model emerging: make up something of no tangible value (bonus points for instead selling a promise of providing something of intangible value), slap on a price tag, add pretty design and some concept videos. Rinse and repeat until the pop.

> Realistically, though, I think there is a scalable new business model emerging: make up something of no tangible value (bonus points for instead selling a promise of providing something of intangible value), slap on a price tag, add pretty design and some concept videos. Rinse and repeat until the pop.

But they already have proof of concept clients and scripting languages set up. It's not as if they're doing a crowdfunding campaign with just an idea. Would I be wary of the project if it had no code? Sure, anyone would be. But am I wary of a project that's being actively developed? Certainly not as much. The code can speak for itself.

New business model? Hyping and selling worthless junk to suckers is probably the oldest scheme. From magic trinkets and panaceas to 100500% guaranteed profit investments

Fresh tulips on deck.

It is probably a mistake to summarise the ethereum project as a cryptocurrency, it aims to be a lot more than that. That said, the problem with this kind of fundraising is that an important part of the "investors" are not apt to judge the technical merits of the project as a distributed app plateform. I cannot either so I wont be investing, but I would enjoy some technical input on the matter. Autonomous corporations could be a world-changing innovation, possibly as important as the cryptocurrency concept itself.

As for the non-technical aspects of the project it seems to me that the ethereum team has tried to make the fundraising fair and non-speculative. There is a great amount of fear from people who have vested interest in some alternative cryptocurrencies in this thread. It is a shame that we cannot have rational discussions as it usually the case on HN. Greed is not always good.

Look at the "Intended use of renevue" page - it's basically crowdfunding. Time will show if they'll deliver on the goals (probably not? Those are some pretty big numbers.), but it seems like a useful way to address the "lottery for a small group of insiders" concern.