I read their whitepaper and found it to be a loose collection of buzzwords with no structure. The description of their supposed global computer makes absolutely no sense. They even try to surf the wave of formal verification by claiming they verified the code using pi-calculus (like RChain does) but are so clueless about what pi-calculus actually is that they had to go copy/paste from a book a definition!
The pi-calculus is a minimal language for describing systems of processes that communicate on named
channels, with facilities for dynamic creation of new channels. We use it here without defining it formally
This sentence is literally ripped off from chapter 6.1 of Foundations of Security Analysis and Design: FOSAD 2006/2007 Turtorial Lectures
I haven't searched any further for plagiarism, but the style and content of the whitepaper is so inconsistent that I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was found to be a patchwork of content stolen from multiple difference sources.
This ICO smells very very fishy indeed.
(self upvoted to increase warning visibility)
All my alarms went off the moment i saw the WP. stay away indeed
Thanks for confirming my suspicions mate. To be honest I haven't seen this kind of ineptness on a development team's behalf since 2014.
It gave me an iffy feeling just reading what was on bitcoin talk and watching their promo video - it really did feel like they searched for the most popular "buzz" words and put them all together in a kind of word salad.
My gut was screaming "AVOID" to me!
People like me are not technically knowledgeable enough to always spot these things and I think these kind of things can get us into trouble if we get caught up in the ICO fever.
I didn't even know what Pi calculus is, I would have assumed it was some kind of pure maths thing for finding gradients on spheres!
I suspect they are relying on the fact that most people will see the buzzwords and will be too embarrassed to say they don't get it.
Thankfully the unprofessional behaviour with Sebastian basically underlined my suspicions and ruled me out.
As for the SONM team in general, I just hope it is incompetence and not outright deliberate dishonesty because it would be bad for the whole community if it was.
Not only would it tar ETH and ETH ICOs negatively but would also be bad for LISK due to Max Kordek being an adviser.
Yeah I agree entirely. There might be some nuggets of the idea that will live on but I think this might be money for learning a lesson. Just a bit of the point however - we need to learn the same lessons with these ICOs that the .com bubble learned.
Well I really hope there is not too many projects that tarnish the reputation of Ethereum. There will be some. I am even more worried about projects that make outlandish claims that Ethereum in its current form is unable to keep up with. There is a lot of growing room - this is experimental software at this point.
Some valuable discussion about the price and ICO irresponsibility in my latest post here: Step Back, Elephant in the Room: it's time to talk about the price.
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@kyle.anderson/step-back-elephant-in-the-room-it-s-time-to-talk-about-the-price
Thanks for your wise words mate. I will check the post out shortly.
With all of the hype lately, there were some things that I felt I needed to say and share. With almost everyone in the space so incredibly optimistic, there was some criticism and hard truths that needed to be expressed.
Definitely one of the more important things I have written in a while.
Thank you for this. The white paper was knocking my head but I had no idea that was plagiarism.
Wow. Glad I have been staying away from these ICOs... yuck
They scammed already your intuition is superb