Had a read through guys and will be as candid as always in my thoughts/responses - I respect that this community is very close to the team and has been integral to much of the development over the years, I’m not sure why some feel it a lost cause to walkaway from, it would be more than a shame, especially given all the guys (and you) have put in so far. Especially when we’re in a moment in time where it is brutally clear, even in the best of scenarios, that the internet is a tool for the masses … what kind of tool, imo is somewhat critical to our legacy as well as our lives/livelihoods.
In response to the thread, there’s likely three main threads/themes I would flag -
Please note: this is a reactionary message, being sent ahead of the full update I mentioned on the last stages I was on - and so I would ask/request that you perhaps reserve some of your judgements and concerns until you read all the materials associated with that, as we can then deal with everything more openly and effectively.
- Yes, communication is poor. Especially by comparison to what you would have experienced previously. I cannot fill David’s shoes, I was never intended to fill David’s shoes and I sadly cannot do the job of talking at a technical level to you guys about the network. As a result of this, you may look back on me as a mis-hire but in the interim please know that I’ve not detracted from the team, the team has grown, there are 3 (4 in a week) new engineers, a product manager and a data and tokenomics expert, as well as a few other non technical folk, who like me are here to add value, problem solve and support the release of the network, so it’s a success, not just live and out there in some form but gaining credibility and momentum. Ultimately we need to have something demonstrable from the years of R&D, a public release, is not the end - it’s the start. Putting the network in the hands of you and others, so it’s accessible, so that you can build with, interact with and experience/use it as intended - even if at the very beginning, that is in a most simple form, will be this network’s life-force. Communication should also start to feel more like it did, of course we know and we need your help and input, you need the team to interact to do that - we just need to have done all we can to make that available and scalable for you - and the engineers, otherwise we will always be limited by ‘bandwidth’ of people and hours.
- To be transparent, I’ve had some big issues around timeline that the guys were aiming for back in January (when I met them), due in part to some of the gaps that formed during beta (performance, payments etc) as well as some of the clear chasms that existed outside of it (UX/UI and interface layers/tools) - the idea that we could do all we were still talking about seemed lofty and at odds to me with the reality of experience that the majority of people (long time supporters as well as brand new participants alike) were having to weather. Yes, I absolutely could have said, when I made the call in early August as to what we need to commit to (and communicate to everyone in Sept once details were hammered out) “guys it’s not ready, maybe you keep going with R&D as a squad, work with community and see how the native token, bridges, integrations, recovery procedures, payment packets, the equivalent of smart contracts for royalties, which still feel conceptual, develop - with these features, and the APIs for RUST and JavaScript inc SDKs, maybe next year is more appropriate - assuming the network differential of home nodes/true distribution, is great enough, and that the incentive to move to network and build on it is large enough” but didn’t. I did however understand that the native token was a way out and that while there is some great foundational work done, there are so many moving and unproven/unresolved parts to it. And, that even with that solved and the community able to commence building xx number applications using the API (the API work is nearing completion), that we still likely need people with an audience to at least use us for storage from initial deployment (TGE), in order for us to have real data to host and people already working at scale to ‘sandbox’ with. And, hey even if those projects are exciting and those looking at the network feel bullish as a result of that - we’d then, still need something simple and obvious for non builders (users) to do, something with a little instant gratification that they’re not already getting elsewhere - after all most ‘non tech’ folk aren’t going to run nodes for a few years yet… The idea that we would have disregarded any or all of these things and that we would ploughed ahead, based on an internal deadline or some sort of partner pressure in order to do something that would be to the detriment of you or the network would be irresponsible and is a complete mischaracterisation.
- October is not a product release and it is not being treated like one - products will of course exist (and hopefully thrive) on the network, but the network is exactly that, it will take years to grow, mature and scale. October is the start of a process with builders (with hopefully some of you guys among them). While the beta has been utterly frustrating and on one too many occasions, embarrassing - it has been useful in its own way. Yes it is far from what it could have/should have been, but there will be rewards for all who tried to help, and even aspects such as ‘the bot’ have helped to highlight issues from uploaders and the auditor, to data and spend issues - the bot has also had a few of it’s own bugs as well. For the beta node program, we will be closing out over the next few weeks with who we have, and we will begin with two new test programs (this community will of course get details and optionally for both). One of these will be for network token/payments. Please note: you will get visibility on all of this as soon as we’ve everything written up fully/properly - we will of course then listen and react to your feedback. As some of the messages here highlight, there is nothing worse than half baked comms - followed by the feeling that you’re screaming into the wind when you react and seek clarity around them …