"As of June 10, 2017 the Hero Foundation has set aside $1M worth of BitShares"
"billion-dollar prize"
I think you should stop referring to this as a billion dollar prize. This is no more a billion dollar prize than creating a 1 BTC prize "to be awarded when BTC are 1 billion each " is.
In fact at today's prices, it's more like a $666,000 prize. By definition.
"Gone are the days of courting coin speculators and narrow vertical markets on specialty forums trolled by geeks and misfits. "
Ah, so that's what we are doing here. Don't think too highly of the crypto community? Don't you think you should convince the skeptics here before you go for mom and pop?
How and why are the masses suddenly going to take up and support this rather complex new instrument? Explain to my mom, concisely, why she would put money in this, and assume if you say things like "guarantee a 5% rate if interest on a freely traded asset" she immediately responds with "How?"
I don't have an axe to grind, I'd like to be convinced. But these kind of claims require strong evidence:
"This will be a 1000x climb to $333/unit. This targeted growth will make BitShares the number one digital currency in the world with a market cap approaching One Trillion Dollars."
EXACTLY WHY I MAKE MY OWN COMMENTS AS I DO
Convince me, without just throwing links at me, and make it 5 minutes, while you are at it.
But you can point me to the 1 hour show, when I'm convinced, so I can show mom...
I have similar feelings. Great as an advertisement, but low on actually explaining how this is supposed to work. Don't take this too harshly but the way the articles on the sovereignhero website are written, would want to make me run away fast. Stick to logic and facts: that hrlps your project much more.
HERO is a market pegged asset created on the Bitshares network, similar to bitUSD/bitCNY/bitEUR. The price feed is increased by 5% each year. That's it, if you want a further understanding of how MPA work: http://docs.bitshares.eu/bitshares/user/mpa.html
I think that it's not that inappropriate - the prize will be released once the value rises to the amount stated, which if/when it occurs the $1m will be worth $1b. They're even being transparent in stating that the current amount was $1m invested, so nobody should be under the false impression that they have $1b at this immediate moment to give away.
RE: 5% rate increase - it's simply the modification of the price feed each year, there is no other external factor required to ensure this 5% rise occurs.
I can only speak for my soon to be 81 year old mom who enthusiastically invested in bitshares yesterday and is also interested in Hero. to quote her, "I'm sick of paying a bank to hold my money at least with this there is a chance for some growth before I die." The general public may be more hungry for this than anyone imagined.
I fear they are a lot more resistant to change than your mom is, however. My mom won't even look at Steemit, because "it's too complicated". No problem with Reddit though, just problems with change.