Where are the funds from the EOS token sale going?
I recently listened to https://epicenter.tv/episode/197, did some follow up research and am trying to understand where proceeds from the EOS token sale are going.
My understanding is that purpose of the crowd sale is simply to distribute the tokens. The tokens give me a right to some % of the computing resources that will one day be available on the EOS blockchain. For example, if I own 1% of all EOS tokens and there are 100 CPUs supporting the EOS blockchain, I essentially have a right to consume 1 CPU at any point in time.
The funding required to build the free EOS software was acquired through some other means. I'm not really sure who paid for this...
block.one is a for profit corporation incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Any funding received via the token sale will show up as revenue on block.one's balance sheet. However, as a buyer of the token, I won't be affiliated with block.one in any way. This essentially means that I made a "donation" to block.one, got tokens that may give me access to some computing power in the future, and no form of investment ever took place.
Is my understand correct? Are there any big points I'm missing?
@dan I'd be curious if you could shed some light on this.
Aren't all ICOs in essence a donation in return for potential profits ?
That is correct, but the use of the funds is a little different.
The Ethereum Foundation is a Swiss nonprofit organization. The purpose of its ICO was token distribution and to collect the funds necessary to promote further development (hiring, bounties, etc...) of its free opensource software.
In the case of EOS, it seems that I am funding a for-profit organization to work on things other things other than the actual platform.
Reading in between the lines, it seems that the funds will go towards building applications on top of EOS. These projects may or may not be for profit.
As an early Bitcoin developer/investor, I feel that @dan is truly motivated more by the work rather than profit. However, I'm still trying to understand block.one's plans for the funds.
Maybe investing in applications on top of the blockchain will turn out a booster for EOS. Anyway he can also invest my money in Steemit :)