I just sold all my 2600 AMPS right now. I'll explain why I did this.
A few months ago I bought around 2600 Amps in the hopes I would be using these sometime in 2017 within the Synereo decentralized social network. I thought it had some really interesting components, especially the technology called RChain. Additionally, after learning that Synereo held a successful crowdfund where they raised 4.7 million dollars for the building of their technology, I was even more impressed. The CEO, Dor, also had the backing of a Silicon Valley incubator.
What could go wrong?
As anyone in business knows, it's usually not the technology that ends up being the problem. It's the people. Namely, it's usually either egos or an incompatible philosophical underpinning that drives a wedge between two people's ability to get along. Or it's a power struggle.
I came across two different Medium articles last night that really concerned me. One was from CoinFund, and in it, I learned that a schism had formed between the two founders of Synereo, Dor and Greg:
At odds are the Synereo and RChain development teams, and in the spotlight is a public and unfortunate falling out between their two founders —CEO Dor Konforty and CTO Greg Meredith—with the two sides pointing fingers at alleged shortcomings in promised budget allocations, dragging technical delivery schedules, and accusations of attempts to oust each other from the alliance. -CoinFund Medium article
CoinFund was also asking for investor's money to be refunded.
Holy shit.
I read on. It appears that there is power struggle between Dor and Greg. Dor is the business side of Synereo, and Greg is the programmer. From the article, it appeared that Dor doesn't want the funds allocated to Greg to create the RChain technology. Some of the investors, however, are really upset because RChain the was the specific technology that they agreed to help fund creating.
The other Medium article titled, BrokeChain was written by a Product Designer who worked closely with the Synereo team. He explained why he has decided to leave the Synereo project. The schism between Dor and Greg sounds really gnarly, as now it appears the Synereo community is being halved, half on Dor's side, half on Greg's. What I found really disturbing though, is the knowledge that on Monday morning, Dor is planning to have a meeting. In this meeting, it sounds like Dor will try to oust Greg from the Synereo project. I got on the Synereo slack to ascertain if this was indeed going to happen on Monday morning. No one knows what the outcome of the meeting will be.
In Slack, we learn of the gravity of this situation. I'm leaving names out, but here's the general drift of what's happening:
Who gets to choose? In times of heavy disagreement, as we can see happening in this slack, most people side up and run with biases rather than clear thought.....even choosing someone becomes a stalemate.
The clash is between autonomy and interdependence. The clash between dictatorial rule and self governance can be contained and tolerated within Synereo but cannot control the network nobody owns or controls.
Perhaps the best quote to sum up what's going on is this:
American libertarian cowboys clashing with Israeli personalities over what Synereo promised to be and whether what was promised matters.
There is talk about some "Letter of Intent" as well. I'm not sure about what exactly that is, but it sounds as if Greg is threatening some sort of legal action. That is not confirmed though. It looks like on Monday another board member could possibly be added to the Synereo team. The talk in the Slack is brutal. Investors are foaming at the mouth, and right now it doesn't look good moving forward. There's always a chance that the Synereo team could be restructured moving forward, but a break up of the founders is a toxic situation, especially since people invested their money in both of them. Splitting up the founding team after the crowdfund is a terrible move and one that people will not forget easily.
Again we learn the vital importance of working with a team whose members agree on the same philosophical foundation. When you partner up with people who do not share your worldview or main philosophy, the results can be devastating. Choosing a founder partner is actually more serious than choosing a marital partner. But in a business relationship, when you get divorced, you end up splitting up an entire community.
I live by this quote:
"If you don't want to do business with someone for the rest of your life, don't do business with them for one day."
If you're on Twitter, you can follow me there as well: @stellabelle
I also have a YouTube channel, so if you're into watching somewhat odd videos, have a look. If you're on Linkedin, guess what, I'm there too, maybe you have a good idea we could implement?
My book, Un-Crap Your Life: Navigating Life's Crappiest Situations is available in ebook or paperback on Amazon.
I also co-authored the official Steemit 101 ebook that is available on Amazon for 99 cents.
I've been in a business partnership for over 9 years now, and I completely agree with the quote you ended with.
Steemit leadership doesn't seem all that dysfunctional now, does it? I wonder if you'll apologize to the community for your previous rants...? Probably not. No matter. :)
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I'm actively testing out Yours as well. As i mentioned earlier, I am not loyal to any specific technology.
I will try out anything that comes along. I'm in search of a platform that is the best as I'm collecting, actively researching this next gen social media space. I have plans to write a book. Now, whether I do follow through on this book idea, remains to be seen. I will test out Yours when it launches and after it's been up and running for many months, I'll probably have enough information at that point.....
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I know many who are very excited about Yours, and I plan to test it out as well. Being a creator of technology, I'm a little more tied to it than most, but I agree in the end, technology is supposed to serve human needs. If it doesn't or some other technology does it better, we should be willing to move on.
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I appreciate you testing out the other platforms and reporting back. You are an explorer of the social media platforms, for sure.
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They were not rants, they were opinions.
And the sexist harassment was the main reason I had to write that post.
I'd like to see how you would react if you were publicly doxxed and harassed every day.
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Sorry, I think we're referring to different things. I'm not sure what you mean by "that post" but was referring to many posts and a general attitude you've displayed over time towards this platform and the leadership.
From the very beginning I've worked to help people who are being abused, and you should know this. "I'd like to see how you'd react" implies you don't recognize my sincere empathy and efforts to protect others. It's kind of insulting, actually. Have a nice day.
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I was responding to your attack on me about the "rants". I have no idea which post you were referring to, but I assumed it to be the one about Synereo that I wrote a while back, which received heavy flagging. You're entitled to your opinion of me but I am free to write about any topic I want.
I got a lot of shit for trying to help victims in the beginning. I suppose I am quite sore about that. Women are severely outnumbered here, and this causes a lot of issues. The numbers that used to be large, have shriveled up. I checked the analytics recently. It's back to like 80% men 20% women.
Sorry about offending you. That wasn't my intention. You're a good steemit community member. Everyone knows that.
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Thank you for the apology. It's kind of surprising and refreshing, actually. :) Assumptions seem to often cause relational problems, and we unfortunately all do it. I wasn't referring to any specific post of yours but more of a "screw this place, let's go over here" grass is greener kind of thing. The grass isn't really greener anywhere. We have to do the best we can to improve what we see in front of us.
That's truly sad to see the numbers have changed so much. And I know you and others took the brunt of the early abuse here before mute was implemented. That's still discouraging to dwell on.
Apology accept, offense averted. I still think you're kind of crazy, but it's the kind of crazy I enjoy. :)
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Very good decision! Did the same some time ago .. now I am just waiting for the opportunity to get rid of my DECENT tokens. lol .. I had forgotten about them until I read your post. :)
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how much did you invest in DECENT? I had totally forgotton about that one...
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You see! After all steemit is not so bad at all.
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steemit is functioning. It's not perfect but it's functioning. Many people are emotional when they work with a certain technology and get really worked up when competition comes near. Operating from an emotional perspective is not a good business move. I don't really care who solves my problems, I will go wherever the best technology is built and provides the best user experience.
Teams are very important. Synereo's team looks fractured and to be honest, it was Greg's vision that I was interested in mostly. Dor comes off as a business type person, which I'm not really interested in. I think part of the allure of Synereo for me was it's other-worldly feel. The decentralization was the most appealing aspect, but most likely, the most difficult thing to pull off in reality. I think Greg is an idealist, and perhaps not based in reality......a characteristic that comes from people who are visionaries but who lack the ability to deal with real humans.
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The only problem that the Steem ecosystem has is the power distribution. A lot of people don't like them but initiatives such as Steemsports help with this issue. It's probably not the best solution long term.
We also have to consider that Steemit is just the first front-end to the blockchain. Busy.org, Ladder.net & the Reprint project that @Jesta is working on (to name a few) will enrich the potential of the whole environment.
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I hadn't heard of Ladder and Reprint project. What are those? who is working on Ladder?
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Ladder.net is owned and operated by @regeddes & @contentjunkie. You can find more information here
Reprint is an open source framework for creating blockchain-based websites and blogs. Here is the link
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ok thanks.
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I've been bitching about the voting algorithm power distribution problem for months now.
I dislike how the entire power system is set up, as it feels more like an oligarchy. I guess I don't see why they have not addressed this problem. Perhaps a new system would need to be built, as it's a fundamental design structure...?
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Perhaps 12/13 and the weeks after will create new dolphins/whales, much the same way 7/4 did. We shall see.
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on a side note, what happened to the red notifications? are they working for anyone?
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A lot of people have been asking the same question. It would be nice if the developers showed some signs of life on this issue.
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Looks like notifications are back.
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Sometimes yes..more often there's none.
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The problem with Steemit is still UX related. It needs to provide a better user experience. Power is distributed just fine but without UX you won't retain users.
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Don't get me wrong. You're really good, just that you have the same bad habit like me. You like to judge people and most of time you are right. But not always. Eventually we'll correct ourselves. Cheers. This reply is for stella, but did't jump on right spot. Sorry I don't know how to do it. (p.s. see my name)
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everyone judges. I'm a critic. I'm not a cheerleader. I'm collecting information to write a book! People expect me to be some kind of cheerleader. I'm not.
To think is to have an opinion. So what. To think is to be human. Humans have opinions.
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Critics are necessary to improve systems. Without critics, we have shitty systems.
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I agree 100% with this statement. I may not agree with everything you say or the way that you present your ideas but I will defend your right to express yourself.
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The same sort of thing happened to Tauchain where there was a split between developers. When you work on a truly innovative technology, a lot of pressure and stress can build, and developers could be easily provoked into conflict.
We should think of developers like being rock stars. What do we see in rock bands when they reach a certain point in their careers? Many get addicted to drugs, or find themselves fighting over who should be the lead singer or over money. It always happens because a lot of people lose their minds because of ego, or because of ideology.
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Great points.
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It's sad what's happening to Synereo - the drama is a lot like the fight that afflicted Reddcoin back in 2014, when it was on track to become the new Dogecoin. When they introduced "Proof-ofStake Velocity", which shot RDD up to 40 satoshis: that was the time to sell. But who would have? Its reddit had a solid five digits' worth of subscribers and it had the same excitement that Dogecoin had, only somewhat smaller.
Then the fight started, and development ground to a halt: Reddcoin became a zombie coin. As I write, it's trading at three satoshis on Poloniex. It's one of those low-volume legacy coins now, only kept on Polo because it's a low-maintenance coin.
I sold my AMPs, except for a few, when each was above 30,000, solely because I wanted to move my Bitcoin somewhere else. (I think I put most of the proceeds into STEEM, but I could be wrong). The thing is, I sold while expecting Synereo to keep forging ahead - while hoping I could get back in at a lower price (!)
It just goes to show you: a well-timed sell often has reasons behind it that are very different from "it's going down." Once upon a time, as Andrew Tobias recounted in one of his early books, MGM (if I recall correctly) released a huge bomb and its stock tanked. Mr. Tobias knew a guy who had dumped his MGM stock before it tanked. Wanting to know how he had spotted it, Tobias buttonholed his friend and got this response:
"No; I just needed the cash to repaint my apartment."
Just goes to show you: particularly in the liquidating side, a lot of "smarts" is either luck or coincidence.
To get back to the subject: selling was a good idea. GIven the Reddcoin precedent, a feud between the principals is a sign that Synereo is going to be stalled for a long time. It's prolly going much lower, albeit slowly.
The funny thing is: there's no real need to anticipate a patch-up of the quarrel and resumption of development. AMPs have been hit so hard, an explicit "peace treaty" plus "where we're going now" would only kick it up a fractions of where it would eventually go. Any Synereo optimist in the house might as well wait for explicit signs that the feud is over and the derailment is done. There'll still be a lot of profit left, and the red flag will be gone.
But sadly, if Reddcoin is any precedent, that won't happen. A damn shame, but tragedies happen.
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There is no way I am selling now at a 75% loss. I'll hold and either take a 100% loss or pray they sort out their mess. With the amount of money behind it I remain hopeful for the latter.
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I'm more in the camp of panic selling. I'd rather have 50% of what I once had than nothing.
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Summer is usually a good time to dump the shitcoins.
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Thank you for this write up. I was not aware and this is very useful info, as I am also an amp holder.
Too bad, but hey it will be good for steem.
This does not mean the project will fail, however, though like you I am very pessimistic so far, as everything I have seen about this project seems a bit chaotic.
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Yes, this is good news for Steem for sure. I hadn't been following the news on Synereo for a few weeks either. I was really shocked to find out what's going on.
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I am glad you reached this conclusion @stellabelle I have warned many people about this project. I like to think I saved some from falling into the web of lies. You can go back to the comment I made on your first post about Synereo . There was never any tech or development behind this, it all started after the coin made it to poloniex, then they rushed a failed attempt at showing something. They started with a bunch of websites belonging to the same scam artist who worked on ethereum and a claim that these websites used his tech stack. The original dev had no clue why the coin made it to poloniex and he started dumping his new found wealth from that day onward. The first ico and creation of double coins to cover a simple mistake was a clear sign of incompetence.
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If they do end up releasing a product, I'll still try it out. But a divorce of the founders is enough to make me not want to invest anything except a little time.
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There is no founders, dory is a restaurant worker in Tel Aviv who fell on fortune and he will not let go of it for such a thing called development. The next day when AMP was listed on poloniex he said something to the effect of " Wow I never in my life left Tel Aviv or had enough money to do travel. "
That Greg guy is not so innocent neither, there is a saying that goes like this, "Do not watch them when they steal, watch them when they try to split the loot." that's when all the dirty laundry comes out to the open.
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This was great Stella. I've been thinking about buying a bit of Amp and checking out that site. I have FOMO about it because I'm a bit late to the steemit party. I'm curious but at the same time more interested in just focusing on what I've been doing here. Do you still have the same feelings about Synereo? I honestly haven't put the time aside to do more research on it because I got bit on my bum by a steemit bug. Do you think Dor and Greg are still separating?
Great interview with Terry by the way. I watched it like 3 times. I like how you said you target people that need help. I also liked how you said knowing your authentic self is the key. I thought I was gonna come here and just show everyone how cool I was with my fancy pics and vids of materialistic stuff I shoot but I found myself enjoying helping more than posting about what I thought I would. I'll still share my collar challenges, motorcycles stuff and traveling content but being a helping person is super fun :)
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Kik's kin and reddcoin is also out there. A lot of similar products...
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I hope these guys behind Synereo can get their shit together because the project still looks very promising. But you're right, this kind of discrepancy is lethal for any business and just brings distrust among investors. I think you did well. I thought about buying some AMPs, but after this I better wait.
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Thanks for this information on Synergy. I haven't heard much about it lately and I assumed they were running behind schedule. Now I wonder if they will launch anything at all.
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It's looks pretty dire actually. If they hadn't successfully raised so much freaking money, I'd be more optimistic. But when you screw around with other people's money, people get SO BITTER.
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Yeah, I heard Synereo is having a meeting now about wether or not they should fire the CTO. Like you are saying it is because the CEO hates the CTO.
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This post has been ranked within the top 10 most undervalued posts in the second half of Dec 11. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $35.71 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Dec 11 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
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The price for AMP went up. I am long on Synero.
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well, your braver than me. I was very long on Synereo until I learned about the breakup of the founders! For me that's a non-negotiable.
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Without Rchain Synereo has no tech stack, it will be worthless without it. Okay maybe not completely worthless but definitely not competitive. Rchain is the only competitive advantage it had.
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Cause they suck... and you bought into a pipe dream?
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Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is very disappointing but I have gotten used to problem after problem with Synereo since I fist heard about it in early 2014.
My ICO tokens are worth a tiny fraction of what they were - there is still nothing in terms of actual product to show and now we have this. If you have been around in crypto for while this kind of thing is typical.
It is not enough to have the "smartest guys in the room" (little Enron joke) they need to be able to work together and also actually get a product out of the door.
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I appreciate the heads up about this. I've been mostly ignoring Synereo lately and had no idea this was going on; simply too many other things to focus on right now. I also have a small amount of AMP and will now be looking to dump some / most of it at the next decent opportunity. Glad I didn't invest a whole lot in it, but it is sad to see such infighting tearing apart the project before it even got off the ground. I had high hopes it would be a decent competitor to Steemit, and thus motivate the Steemit team to be even more committed going forward.
Who knows, maybe Synereo will survive this test and go on to produce something decent. But this is definitely not a good sign.
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Rchain is something to look into.
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wish I had gotten out nearly as fast as I'd gotten in. price has taken quite the dive since the ICO.
and reflecting back over the last few months, analyzing the different projects I've put bits of Steem profits into, I've discovered a consistent pattern: nearly ALL ICOs really aren't great investments. some might have a quick spike, but the majority end up at a far lower price than the initial sales price. sure, there are a few that defy odds - like Ethereum might have. but ICOs have become trendy, people want to ride the wave, start projects... but how many actually fly...?
I suppose Synereo may have had some red flags from the start - i.e. how professional did the venture appear, if reviewing its year+ history? seemed like a lot of philosophical debate and slow technical discussions, but not too much evidence of strong entrepreneurial drive, focus, and structure that a large amount of funding would accelerate.
time will tell. though my investment becoming less than a 1/3 of where it started is not exactly confidence-inspiring - nor is news like this.
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With everything, it's a gamble, a risk. Steem gave me a way to explore these worlds that I previously knew nothing about.
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On reading this makes me realize again why Steemit is the best out of all the platforms. Whatever the problems that arise, it's actually a tightly run ship.
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