Again, you are speaking from a very anecdotal point of view, and it is that of an ideologue even if you believe you are being objective.

My sources are cited. My sources cited are not ideological but are legal experts. My examples (Steemit, Swarm) could be used in an academic paper as case studies. Steemit seems to in my opinion meet the criteria to be considered a DCO. Steemit did not have an ICO, it did not launch like most other projects. Membership in Steemit is represented by the amount of Steem Power. Steemit can raise funds for projects simply by having members vote up or down (collaborative filtering). This to me is a lot lower risk than any ICO, or crowd funding.

Yes there could be scams on Steemit but when you upvote on Steemit you're not suffering the cognitive risks of having spent your money to give them money. This is a key difference between Steemit and The DAO, and a big difference between Steemit and Swarm, or between Steemit and a Kickstarter style CrowdFunding platform.

If you don't believe I'm being objective then you'd be able to point it out with sources and evidence rather than just to claim it. Show me I'm not being objective by offering superior evidence.

I also have a master's degree in cyber-security for enterprise scale organizations. Risk assessment training is part of that.

I have some of the same training you have and a similar background. That being said, I am not a lawyer. So anything regarding legal I have to say is based on what I see from my sources and I cite them.

I understand your positions, and I think you have conflated a few things, and that is what is leading to your disdain for ICOs. They are not meant to function anything like a DCO, and in fact that is something VERY different altogether.

So the function of the ICO for The DAO was what exactly? And The DAO failed entirely, and nearly got the entire development team for Ethereum caught up in lawsuits. The hard fork was the escape hatch out of the potential SEC interference and lawsuits. My point is that we need to reduce the risks so developers can raise funds without having to fear lawsuits. I use Steemit as an example of a DCO, which can raise funds. My point is the ICO template is not for everyone, it's got unknown risks, and if we don't have to deal with those risks why should we as developers?

My point being that if I can raise the same money from donors as I could from an ICO then why would I bother with an ICO? If I could follow the model used by Dan Larimer and team, why would I bother following the ICO model? I see no additional benefit, but I see unknown risks. So where we differ is you don't believe the risks are unknown, so perhaps you believe the risks are known and low.

Based on your background you know how the risk assessments and risk matrices work. If the level of risk is known you can determine a course of action. I could say the risk is low for setting up an unregulated exchange, because not all unregulated exchanges got shut down, and many operators are getting very rich, but it doesn't change the fact that this might not continue for much longer and it's really leaving it up to the mood of regulators.

Just as we are seeing with unregulated exchanges a slow building crackdown. I would not be surprised if we start seeing a slow yet increasing crackdown on ICOs. Do I know this will happen? No I don't. Do I know this won't happen? No I don't. The fact that I cannot know which way it will go is why I would decide if I can get the same benefits without that uncertainty I would take the benefits from another means.