Initiative Q - Money from nowhere?
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
@hardwaregeek said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
After you get to critical mass, get the world's top talent to design the ideal payment network
Visa, MasterCard, et al. already have the critical mass and the talent. What makes you think you can do better?
They have critical mass for their current network. If they want to build a new one, no one will come.
Why not? They have the backing, the brand recognition, the infrastructure, the marketing, the clout, the track record...I could go on and on. Stop the hand waving, give me a reason they couldn't. What would stop them, if you start to show momentum, from just doing what you are doing with their trillions of dollars in transactions and squashing you like a bug?
Nothing.
Already answered above: Everyone will wait for everyone else to join first. Having the word "VISA" on it doesn't solve a game theoretic deadlock.
How does that not make it worse for you? Stop the handwaving and answer some questions.
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@masonwheeler said in Money from nowhere?:
@benjamin-hall He and everyone has a history. It's not just me he does this to. (As evidenced by him doing this to @initiativeq here in this very thread!) I'm just trying to give the "third party" fair warning so he doesn't waste time and mental effort on a fruitless pursuit of trying to engage with
a trollsomeone I disagree with.We're on to you!
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@boomzilla In interests of fairness, can you keep your running feud to the garage? Please? Otherwise I'll have to rethink my perception of community norms.
Let's stick to mocking the eminently mockable Q proposal.
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@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
Honestly, it's a form of tolling that actually makes a lot of sense in that it gives people real incentives to not all drive at the same time in the same place.
But it is stupid in the sense that it assumes everyone is driving at the same time in the same place just to be really annoying.
Seems like a cash grab to me.
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@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla In interests of fairness, can you keep your running feud to the garage? Please? Otherwise I'll have to rethink my perception of community norms.
I'll try. But those claims of "bad faith" etc have not been limited to the garage and deserve push back wherever they occur, which is what I was doing.
Let's stick to mocking the eminently mockable Q proposal.
Sounds good.
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@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla In interests of fairness, can you keep your running feud to the garage? Please? Otherwise I'll have to rethink my perception of community norms.
I'll try. But those claims of "bad faith" etc have not been limited to the garage and deserve push back wherever they occur, which is what I was doing.
Let's stick to mocking the eminently mockable Q proposal.
Sounds good.
That's why I down voted and explained it. That kind of disapproval/push-back is more likely to produce results than replying in kind, IMO.
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@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
@dcon said in Money from nowhere?:
so they know you're in the US
You shut your goddamn filthy mother-shitting mouth and take that back.
:maple-leaf:
I didn't look at who posted!!! I swear!!! Please don't mistake me for a hooker!
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@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
@pie_flavor said in Money from nowhere?:
@lorne-kates I think I figured out who's downvoting you, and it isn't @initiativeq. Paging @Polygeekery, you have experience in dealing with this
Caught between a "I'll down vote you mom" comment, and not wanting another down vote myself
Too late... Might as well comment...
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@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
Honestly, it's a form of tolling that actually makes a lot of sense in that it gives people real incentives to not all drive at the same time in the same place.
But it is stupid in the sense that it assumes everyone is driving at the same time in the same place just to be really annoying.
Seems like a cash grab to me.
There are multiple things going on. The local governments have been saving money by allowing private companies to build "HOT" lanes where they keep the tolls in exchange for also paying for (at least some of) other improvements to the highway.
But they want to keep the lanes moving. If the lanes don't move then there's little incentive to carpool.
I think this is another one of those times where the "cash grab" is really a good incentive on multiple levels.
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@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
This too will require investments, which should be possible if millions of users join.
Oh hey! It's a Silicon Valley Sociopath Special, where you swindle money off the work and effort of others. Yay!
Sadly, this is probably true. VCs seem to just start drooling if millions of users are involved. Involved in what? Doesn't matter.
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
- It's a superior payment technology.
It's a hypothetical superior payment technology. Don't start clipping out the most important word there.
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
Already answered above: Everyone will wait for everyone else to join first. Having the word "VISA" on it doesn't solve a game theoretic deadlock.
The point people are trying to make is while the word "VISA" is not magical, VISA has a breadth and depth of company relationships you'll never hope to have no matter how many people sign up to get free Q's. And their relationships are with things like "large corporations" and "banks", not "random idiots found on Twitter" like we all are.
@twelvebaud said in Money from nowhere?:
How will you close the arbitrage hole? If the real market value of one Q ever goes below one USD, then speculators can buy up Qs from people and cash them in with the Q board, using the proceeds to buy up more Q, depleting the funds backing the Q currency for their own enrichment.
That's a good point! Also who are these speculators, maybe they'll give me some goddamned money.
@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
But personal attacks to third parties are outside the forum norms, outside the garage.
Since fucking when! Or is this a magical rule that doesn't apply to Blakeyrat.
@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
It doesn't exist yet.
It can't exist until it is popular.
It won't be popular until it exists.
Great business model.No, but see, they're fixing that problem by making a completely unrelated thing popular, their pyramid scheme.
The only rain on this particular parade is that they apparently have no clue how many people who sign up for the pyramid scheme are going to actually want a Q card in their wallet or a Q app on their phone.
If they went to get money from non-Silicon Valley VCs, this'd be the first question they'd be asked. But since they'll probably go to the douchebag kind, I'm sure it'll never come up.
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@dkf said in Money from nowhere?:
On the other hand, there are also people round here who are downvoting stuff without any sort of good reason at all,
Nobody gives a shit about imaginary internetpointzzz. Talk about something interesting.
Like imaginary Q-pointzzz.
@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
This is why I always explain my (very rare) down votes.
Just don't fucking vote at all. It doesn't do anything. It's a fucking waste of your time. If you have something to say, man-up and fucking say it, don't hide behind some button with a fucking arrow on it. Christ.
And if your "community norm" is a real thing, I hope you have about 60,000 downvotes on people who respond to my threads, because seriously.
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@blakeyrat Personal attacks against people (that is, insulting people in responses) seems, sadly, well within the norms. That's most of what you get. It shouldn't be within the norms, but seems to be accepted.
But telling someone else (especially a new community member) to not listen to X because X never acts in good faith seems to me to cross quite a few lines.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
"random idiots found on Twitter" like we all are.
Hey
I'm not on Twitter.
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@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
Personal attacks against people (that is, insulting people in responses) seems, sadly, well within the norms. That's most of what you get. It shouldn't be within the norms, but seems to be accepted.
Yeah no fucking shit.
@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
But telling someone else (especially a new community member) to not listen to X because X never acts in good faith seems to me to cross quite a few lines.
What are they? And in any case, people have done that to me too a million times, and I've never seen you leap to my rescue like a white knight in shining armor like you just did to World's Biggest Asshole Intercourse in this thread.
For example, when we're talking about internet ads and people say don't listen to me because they (wrongly) think I worked in serving internet ads. Or the people who (also wrongly) think I defend all Microsoft products.
Anyway you're either the world's largest hypocrite, or your "rule" is dogshit.
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@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
But they want to keep the lanes moving. If the lanes don't move then there's little incentive to carpool.
I believe that to qualify for federal funds, carpool lanes have to average some speed (like 45mph). I seem to remember hearing that on some radio talk show. (But
to actually find a reference)
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@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
@benjamin-hall said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla In interests of fairness, can you keep your running feud to the garage? Please? Otherwise I'll have to rethink my perception of community norms.
I'll try. But those claims of "bad faith" etc have not been limited to the garage and deserve push back wherever they occur, which is what I was doing.
Let's stick to mocking the eminently mockable Q proposal.
Sounds good.
That's why I down voted and explained it. That kind of disapproval/push-back is more likely to produce results than replying in kind, IMO.
I like your cautious optimism but I seriously doubt it is going to work. You try gentle prodding and I will try agrivated mischief. We will cover all our bases.
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@dkf said in Money from nowhere?:
which makes me suspect that they're using autovoting scripts
Nonsense. I think there are like two people who use autovoting scripts and I don't think either of them target @masonwheeler. He's just getting downvotes for being gullible and cunty at the same time (neither of which alone is usually worthy of a downvotes around here).
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@heterodox He's just being contrarian. I don't believe he's actually optimistic about this shit.
The only reason Mr. Q is in here talking it up is because he literally gets paid to, and even his enthusiasm has gotten weaker with each post.
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@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
World's Biggest Asshole Intercourse
You make me blush.
How big is your asshole?
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
He's just being contrarian. I don't believe he's actually optimistic about this shit.
I don't know about that. You have not engaged with him in the garage.
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@jaloopa said in Money from nowhere?:
@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
World's Biggest Asshole Intercourse
You make me blush.
How big is your asshole?
I would link goatse, but that seems over a line.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
Just don't fucking vote at all. It doesn't do anything. It's a fucking waste of your time. If you have something to say, man-up and fucking say it, don't hide behind some button with a fucking arrow on it. Christ.
I don't wanna reply to all of your good posts to say I liked them, but I could upvote them to let you know that. The way you want it, all you get is negative feedback from @boomzilla
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@jaloopa said in Money from nowhere?:
@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
I would link goatse
What does @LaoC have to do with it?
Nothing. I am a capitalist asshole, not communist.
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@heterodox said in Money from nowhere?:
I think there are like two people who use autovoting scripts and I don't think either of them target @masonwheeler.
There was a post he made (
on the thread about 3D printing) where he was describing a tool he'd been given (with a picture) and with effectively no other text beyond that purely factual stuff. It had a downvote when I looked. While I can totally understand not voting up such a boring post, voting it down is really strange as it isn't something you can really contend with. That has all the hallmarks of an autovoter.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
@heterodox He's just being contrarian. I don't believe he's actually optimistic about this shit.
The only reason Mr. Q is in here talking it up is because he literally gets paid to, and even his enthusiasm has gotten weaker with each post.
Are you kidding? This is the best part of my day.
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
Are you kidding? This is the best part of my day.
Where do you spend the rest of your day? A North Korean prison camp?
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@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
People are idiots. They know damn well how traffic works around here: It sucks. That section of road never seemed to average 45mph when it was HOV only (and now you only pay the tolls when you're driving alone) so I didn't understand how opening it up to additional traffic was going to improve anything there, except that it would take some traffic off of other routes.
Which section of road are we talking about?
I could see this being applicable to I-66, the 495 Express Lanes, and several other hellholes local commuters must endure.Honestly, it's a form of tolling that actually makes a lot of sense in that it gives people real incentives to not all drive at the same time in the same place.
Provided people have a choice in the matter. I would guess that about 90% of that volume comes from employers who insist that the workday must start between 7 and 9 AM and end between 3 and 5 PM. Since traffic is often much lighter at the ends of the week (e.g. Mondays and Fridays) when more people are likely to telework, it's almost as if there's a smoking gun....
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@groaner said in Money from nowhere?:
@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
People are idiots. They know damn well how traffic works around here: It sucks. That section of road never seemed to average 45mph when it was HOV only (and now you only pay the tolls when you're driving alone) so I didn't understand how opening it up to additional traffic was going to improve anything there, except that it would take some traffic off of other routes.
Which section of road are we talking about?
I could see this being applicable to I-66, the 495 Express Lanes, and several other hellholes local commuters must endure.I was specifically thinking of 66, where the tolls have gotten up to about $40.
Honestly, it's a form of tolling that actually makes a lot of sense in that it gives people real incentives to not all drive at the same time in the same place.
Provided people have a choice in the matter. I would guess that about 90% of that volume comes from employers who insist that the workday must start between 7 and 9 AM and end between 3 and 5 PM. Since traffic is often much lighter at the ends of the week (e.g. Mondays and Fridays) when more people are likely to telework, it's almost as if there's a smoking gun....
Obviously. Which doesn't take away from my statement at all.
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@masonwheeler said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq Fair warning since you're new here: Just ignore Polygeekery. He's essentially the local village idiot, a rabid ideologue who has never in the history of ever approached an argument in good faith. He's just here to troll you and waste your time with a bunch of cynical, intellectually dishonest nonsense. Most of the other people in this thread are worth engaging with, though.
The guy's done pretty well divining our community's norms on his own and is handling himself pretty well for coming in on shaky ground to begin with. I don't think he needs any supplemental warnings.
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@boomzilla said in Money from nowhere?:
I was specifically thinking of 66, where the tolls have gotten up to about $40.
Dear God. I thought $20 on 495 was egregious.
Then again, I-66 is special. My father always liked to give this macho speech about how he commuted to and from Silicon Valley for years, sometimes an hour or two each way, and therefore any complaints I had about traffic were simply whining. Then, he came out to visit last year and took a road trip out to the Appalachians on a route that involved being on I-66 to come back. Lucky for him, his route was going against traffic.
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@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
We've raised tens of millions of VC funding in previous projects.
No, my penis is bigger. Ask my girlfriend in
CanadaSvalbardIt stretches that far?
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@groaner said in Money from nowhere?:
@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
We've raised tens of millions of VC funding in previous projects.
No, my penis is bigger. Ask my girlfriend in
CanadaSvalbardIt stretches that far?
He ran out of "girlfriends" in Canada.
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
There is constant movement of talent between the leading players in the field, so everyone knows what the others are using. Of course, the specific models and code are secret, but the approach and technologies are well known.
Interesting. In the industry I work, if you did that and didn't get your pants sued off for breaking an NDA/non-compete, you might also face criminal charges.
That's not how most industries work. Talent moves and knowledge dissipates. Law suits happen only in extreme cases of explicit trade secrets violations.
My understanding was that finance, health care, and a few other industries are among the few industries where software has to actually comply with serious regulations. You would probably know better than I what your liabilities will amount to, and I'd imagine that if your activity occurs in an unregulated niche space, once large sums of money flow across it, something bad will happen to someone, somewhere, and there will be calls to regulate it.
While I won't talk about what I do here, I am subject to a non-compete which forbids me from jumping to a competitor and implementing "innovations" similar to the ones I have specifically implemented for my present employer. Non-competes can get thrown out in court if they're way too broad, but this one is pretty narrowly focused. Do you think the best minds in the industry would be willing to take those legal risks at worst and reputation risks within the industry at best?
And then there are lines of business which deal in very sensitive data. A couple of my friends used to work for a company that maintained a database for law enforcement. It would be literally illegal for developers to write ad-hoc queries in production without external approval. I was flabbergasted by this, so I asked for clarification:
Wait, so how does anyone do any debugging or optimization?
Production databases are cloned and wiped of PII before being brought back home for diagnosis. Any queries against production itself would require approval from the relevant authorities who actually own the data.
So I couldn't just connect to the database and type select * from criminalsor something?
Anyone who did that would be fired immediately and then be subject to Federal prosecution.
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
It's a complex gradual process of incentivizing trust.
I suspect b >> a.
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@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@masonwheeler said in Money from nowhere?:
So is the way he is behaving in this thread.
Where?
This little scheme of theirs is bugfuck insane and everyone here except you can see that.
Not everyone. @initiativeq is here, and gender_neutral_pronoun can't see it, either.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
not "random idiots found on Twitter" like we all are.
Hey! Some of us are not found on Twitter TYVM.
(oh,
I see.)@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
Are you kidding? This is the best part of my day.
My condolences.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
"random idiots found on Twitter" like we all are.
Hey! I'm not on Twitter.
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@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
Just don't fucking vote at all. It doesn't do anything. It's a fucking waste of your time. If you have something to say, man-up and fucking say it, don't hide behind some button with a fucking arrow on it.
Sometimes the only thing you want to say is, "I agree with what you said," and a simple vote is less of a waste of time for both the person indicating agreement and all the people who would otherwise have to read a bunch of content-free "me too" posts.
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@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@jaloopa said in Money from nowhere?:
@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@blakeyrat said in Money from nowhere?:
World's Biggest Asshole Intercourse
You make me blush.
How big is your asshole?
I would link goatse, but that seems over a line.
That's over all the lines.
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@lorne-kates said in Money from nowhere?:
And look, if I'M stepping into defend Poly, then you know you're sailing the wrong boat off a waterfall of burning bridges there, Mason.
I didn't know we were on quite that bad of footing...
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@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
@polygeekery said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
@hardwaregeek said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
After you get to critical mass, get the world's top talent to design the ideal payment network
Visa, MasterCard, et al. already have the critical mass and the talent. What makes you think you can do better?
They have critical mass for their current network. If they want to build a new one, no one will come.
Why not? They have the backing, the brand recognition, the infrastructure, the marketing, the clout, the track record...I could go on and on. Stop the hand waving, give me a reason they couldn't. What would stop them, if you start to show momentum, from just doing what you are doing with their trillions of dollars in transactions and squashing you like a bug?
Nothing.
Already answered above: Everyone will wait for everyone else to join first. Having the word "VISA" on it doesn't solve a game theoretic deadlock.
How does that not make it worse for you? Stop the handwaving and answer some questions.
Why the shit was this downvoted?? I didn't even fucking curse.
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@groaner said in Money from nowhere?:
@masonwheeler said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq Fair warning since you're new here: Just ignore Polygeekery. He's essentially the local village idiot, a rabid ideologue who has never in the history of ever approached an argument in good faith. He's just here to troll you and waste your time with a bunch of cynical, intellectually dishonest nonsense. Most of the other people in this thread are worth engaging with, though.
The guy's done pretty well divining our community's norms on his own and is handling himself pretty well for coming in on shaky ground to begin with. I don't think he needs any supplemental warnings.
So you're saying he doesn't need a white knight? I didn't think so either. Plus I have to respect @initiativeq for staying in the lion's den and also for giving blakey shit.
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@masonwheeler said in Money from nowhere?:
@initiativeq Fair warning since you're new here: Just ignore Polygeekery. He's essentially the local village idiot, a rabid ideologue who has never in the history of ever approached an argument in good faith. He's just here to troll you and waste your time with a bunch of cynical, intellectually dishonest nonsense. Most of the other people in this thread are worth engaging with, though.
Funny, if you switch 'masonwheeler' and 'Polygeekery' it wouldn't look all that abnormal.
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@polygeekery Mason assumes that every post talking about dishonest discussion tactics such as handwaving is directed at him.
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@pie_flavor That second downvote is mine, for exactly the same reasons I gave mason. Let's not do that outside the garage, please?
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Ok, we're going in circles and the signal to noise ratio is dropping rapidly. So let me answer the questions that keep repeating, and if anyone has valuable feedback and suggestions, I would gladly discuss further.
First to summarize the concept:
- Making progress in payments is hard. For a seller to adopt a new technology, they need to see enough demand from buyers, and vice versa. While everyone would be better off adopting the new technology, the rational decision is to wait until others adopt first - which therefore never happens
- All the payment technologies we have today were designed under this massive limitation. If you could somehow remove it, you could build a far better network.
- This hypothetical better network would eventually overtake the others, simply because it offers faster, safer and cheaper transactions. That translates to trillions of dollars in annual volume.
- According to the "equation of exchange" in economics, if this network used one currency exclusively, that currency would also be worth trillions of dollars.
- The concept is to distribute this future currency today to encourage early adoption of the payment network. Buyers and sellers initially join (and execute required tasks) just for the chance of receiving a significant reward, and by doing so they lay the foundation for the advanced payment network, which will eventually give value to that same reward.
The objections raised so far:
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The big payment players don't have that problem. They already have critical mass.
They have critical mass for their existing network. To make a significant leap forward, they need to move everyone to new network and technologies. In that aspect they suffer the same problem as newcomers: everyone will wait for someone else to move first.
They do have the advantage of brand recognition and incentives they can give to existing members (and sometimes that works, which is why the market leaders are fairly constant in this space), but to truly make progress, it's not enough. -
Current payment technologies are good enough. There is no real need to improve them.
Read here many examples of how payments can improve: https://initiativeq.com/knowledge/payment-network -
You have no payment network. It's all hypothetical.
That's exactly the idea. If you build the payment network AFTER you have critical mass, then you can bring the top talent in the field, and have them focus on functionality and efficiency, rather than being limited by "chicken and egg" concerns. -
This is all some elaborate scam to steal email addresses.
A database of millions of emails is worth maybe $1000. No one here is going to tarnish their reputation for that. -
People will register, but that doesn't mean they will use the payment product.
The idea is to use Q grants to incentivize the whole adoption process, not just the initial sign up. After tens of millions of users register, additional Qs will be granted for buyers installing an app, for sellers integrating it into their PoS or website, for making your first transaction, for making a deposit and so on.
Note that as the project progresses the perceived value of Q increases, and so does its ability to incentivize cooperation. -
Why would anyone trust Qs to have any value? How do you prevent people from dumping it in the market?
In the long-term, Qs have value because they're coupled to a superior payment technology, and you must have Qs to access it. This value is well established by the "equation of exchange".
In the short-term, Qs' value roughly represents the probability that the long-term goal will be achieved.
The tricky part is that the probability of success is correlated with the value of Q. The higher the value of Q, the more resources Initiative Q has to execute its plan, and vice versa.
The challenge is therefore to manage Q so it grows gradually in value as the project progresses, and avoid a short-term drop that could trigger a downward spiral (value drops -> lower probability of success -> value drops further).
This is Q's monetary policy, which is too complex to discuss in detail here, but a general overview is available at https://initiativeq.com/knowledge/economic-model (co-authored with Prof. Lawrence H. White, expert in Monetary Theory).
But in a nutshell, the three main tools the monetary committee uses to maintain stability are:
a) Releasing Qs gradually, so the amount in circulation constantly matches the demand created by the economic activity.
b) Maintaining sufficient reserves in other currencies that provide confidence to Q holders they can convert if they want.
c) Distributing Qs to incentivize activities that maintain trust and stability, such as investments, salary payments, purchase of Q with other currencies etc.
Last, it's important to remember that at this stage you don't need to believe Q is likely to succeed. Even if you think it will fail with 99.9% probability, the 0.1% are still enough to want to sign up.
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@initiativeq said in Money from nowhere?:
- You have no payment network. It's all hypothetical.
That's exactly the idea. If you build the payment network AFTER you have critical mass, then you can bring the top talent in the field, and have them focus on functionality and efficiency, rather than being limited by "chicken and egg" concerns.
This is perhaps the bit that confuses me. Why do you need to wait for a critical mass before hiring the people that will create the system? The engineers designing the system, writing the code, and building the infrastructure, basically everyone doing this very difficult, very critical point 3 in your plan to turn Qs into money, don't care about the "chicken and egg" issue.
Speaking as top talent, even if no one ever uses the system, you keep the investor capital flowing into my bank account at a reasonable rate, and I'll build you what you want. Let the marketing people, economists, C-suits and all those folks worry about getting people to use it and making a profit out of it. I'm with my headphones on doing my thing. If you fail, it won't be because the system I built didn't meet the design goals and I'll just get another job. If you succeed, I'll be well positioned to cash in on the success. So it's a win-win for me.
I can see two reasons you might want to wait until you have critical mass before building anything. One, you want to pay your top talent with Qs and equity and such, and hope that once there's buzz you'll be able to get them to work for free. But top talent's gotta eat and I'm pretty sure anyone that falls for it isn't going to be top talent. Two, you doubt you can get the investor capital until you show a critical mass, and expect to be able to create the system in a hurry once you get that capital. I doubt what you build in a hurry with investors asking where your payment system is will live up to your expectations.
- You have no payment network. It's all hypothetical.
