RE: The Fate Of Ethereum: All-Awesome Or Destined To Doom...?
I like Ethereum. I am also invested in it. I can definitely see the potential of the platform they are trying to build. Dapps will be huge someday, whether they will run on the Ethereum platform, nobody knows, its a gamble.
If they succeed it will be huge but as we have seen it's not easy. The DOA hack was a major cluster fuck (although not the fault of the platform). The recent DDoS attacks didn't help with the confidence of the platform either.
But the Ethereum foundation has solved all this in a good way. That gives me confidence as an investor.
The next hard fork is planned in 2 weeks and it should fix the leftover mess of the DDoS attack.
I know more trouble will be ahead but you slowly get immune to it and the price of Ethereum seems to be pretty stable at the moment.
Ethereum doesn't have it's killer Dapp yet. That's a problem because even if you have a potentially amazing platform, if nothing (useful) is build on it, it is worthless.
At the moment there are only two blockchains I actively use. One is Bitcoin, to buy stuff and the other is Steemit to write stuff. I really hope I can put Ethereum in that category as well someday.
I suppose the main point Chris emphasized is that given on some fundamental points that have guided the theoretical philosophy and coding of the project - these types of attacks will inevitably continue... bugs may get fixed as they come up - but there will always be another around the corner, and who knows how grave the consequences could be at some point...
Though on the flipside - perhaps such kinks are a natural part of the development process, and what will determine the long-term outcome is how the approach evolves over time...
Frankly, I don't have the technical expertise to pose any conclusive stance, though I definitely see the potential of Ethereum - IF the security factor is tight...