Why dont you guys become an expanse asset?
im not even sure HOW to answer that question.
first off, something like expanse might serve single-purpose organizations and the like, but that doesnt serve the vision we have for SOIL in the least.
SOILcoin is built as a smart contract delivery platform with a specifically targeted set of under-served industries that are on the breakout point of future technological usage, integrating the Internet of Things into common practice, expanding automation of systems.... IF SOILcoin was merely a representative sort of currency, existence as a token would be ok, but our sole purpose is to build and deliver a full suite of dApps targeted towards renewable energy and environmentalism, towards automated agriculture and farm management, towards distributed scientific computational needs, towards open and accessible expert knowledge databases for agricultural practices.... we are building a
brand, where SOIL may become synonymous with environmental responsibility, with climate prediction, with modern precision agricultural methods.
we NEED a specific and autonomous programmatic blockchain to build this, and this is also why we didnt simply build SOILcoin as a decentralized organization on Ethereum, as well. we are building a framework of applications towards the goal of providing targeted services. we view SOIL as the fuel behind these projects (much as ether is the gas running the applications on ETH) and as the framework upon which to build a special-purpose network. SOILcoin is the base layer upon which everything else will reside.
having some control over how the underlying framework is built is very important when building out a project like this, and we have so many directions that we are working on presently, confining ourselves as a DAO on another blockchain makes zero sense. SOILcoin will be built to serve many aspects of industry, and will do so in an interoperable way. to provide this, we have to be able to ensure that the platforms we offer have a soid base that they built out from, with control over the distribution curve to prevent absolute deflation in valuation, and to ensure that the guiding principles of the SOILcoin team are kept at the forefront of every project.
things such as SOIL-ex, our asset exchange, while not a fully operational altcoin market, have no equivalent service on EXP, nor is it in their roadmap. SOIL-ex already provides dApp developers who will use an appCoin to fuel their platform a
currently available service upon which to list their asset in a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange process.
this is a major first step. the large-scale projects im presently working on - a decentralized marketplace ... distributed scientific computing on climateprediction.net ... a precious metals backed commodity ... a pedigree registration dApp ... an agricultural provenance application ... a carbon-offset program - these are the foundations that further dApps will leverage. each project that we choose to port towards SOILnet residency and functionality takes into consideration the possible needs of the industries that we have chosen to serve.
i have nothing against Expanse, per se, although im still very unclear about their plans, nor am i convinced of their transparency. i dont agree, for example,
whatsoever with how they marketed their use of the azure and bizspark platforms as being a "partnership" between expanse and microsoft, which it clearly isnt, in the strictest sense of the word. but, the word "partnership" DOES sound great to investors.
the DAO that was supposed to be in practice from their genesis, i still cant find the source to this contract on their github repo. in fact, it seems as though, from examining the github repositories of the developers (rather than the project) and press releases, that the Expanse DAO has YET to be implented. there is no clear accessibility to the "software enforced bylaws" or what those bylaws actually ARE. nor have i seen how the "community-run" system has come into play in decision making. the contracts for their governing DAO arent easily found, or promoted, which i feel is a cornerstone to organizational transparency.
i cannot say with surety that these issues have not been addressed in their forum, i havent read every page, but from what i see with EXP, while their intentions seem good, theres little substance beyond talking up what they plan on doing, with very little practical application or user accessibility offered yet. they are measuring their success (and even brag up that they are the only successful parallel currency to ETH) by volume traded and the number of exchanges theyre traded upon, whereas i measure the success of SOIL by the quality, innovation and PRACTICALITY of the dApps we release, how much closer we get to providing the full-functionality towards the SOILnet we have envisioned from the get go.
ive looked at their roadmap, and while their borderless.tech plans sound great, i dislike the centralized user databases on mongoose that they will be using, which reduces pseudo-anonymity by employing registered user reputation accounts. it appears, through their sparse documentation, that verified reputation accounts will be necessary for users in order to access much of the "borderless" functionality. although i think that reputation systems will be important, in those instances where "Know Your Customer" is necessary, part of the raison d'etre of cryptocurrency is maintaining that chosen level of anonymity as the user wants.
much of the further forecasted functionality for 2016 are built from currently available open source single smart contracts. much of what they are working on presently, such a ported Mist wallet, we have ALREADY done with SOILcoin, months ago. they do a great job with blogging and updates, they are wonderful marketers, but in truth, they promise to offer nothing more than SOILcoin can already deliver.
i dont like comparing apples to oranges, and while EXP and SOIL are vigorously different platforms, albeit operating with the exact same underlying protocols, our roads forward are very divergent; in the end i think that SOILcoin, operating as an sovereign blockchain offers greater advantages than ever becoming a simple asset on an incompatible blockchain that doesnt possess the strong philanthropic and responsible vision of SOIL. i wont measure our success against EXP, or any other currency. i think the merits of what we HAVE produced so far should stand on their own, as should the applications we release as part of the SOILcoin network.
i dont think that "creative truth-telling" when it comes to community-targeted press releases is a good practice. yes, it may have a positive (and temporary) affect on overall valuation, but in the end, i truly believe that
honesty regarding what we have built, what it can and CANNOT do, and where we are moving forwards toward will gather more positive investment than doing things such as claiming to have a "partnership" with microsoft (name-dropping) and not truthfully explaining what that means will do with future trust from shareholders.
publicity and marketing will only go so far, real results must be delivered. the only way to ensure a clear message going forward is by being able to control the platform the message is broadcast on/about, and should SOIL be an EXP-based asset, we would be hamstrung by a lack of functionality and beholden to the public perception of their development team by proxy. i believe the bloom on the EXP rose will fade. i believe that focused application delivery and comprehensive, easy-to-understand end-user documentation for each contract will bring more usability (and more users) to SOIL. their future directions will serve other industries than we will, but in the end, it would make more sense to have EXP as a SOIL-resident asset than the other way around.
i dont worry about our valuation as it sits right now. nor do i worry about how our valuation matches up with those of other ETH-parallel currencies. MANY cryptocurrency investors dont practice due-diligence regarding the altcoins they speculate in, and will simply follow the volume being traded rather than the developments being done. SOILcoin will always remain autonomous, and our very very small development core will consistently work towards bringing forward dApps that will have practical use for the future of SOILcoin. SOIL's value will increase, of that i have no worry. but id rather it be on the back of what we have already built and the competency of our development team to produce further practical applications built towards our end-user industries than having it increase thanks to flashy graphics and vaguely worded promises.
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