Taking your money to Æternity

Now that the Æternity “contribution campaign” is in full swing it’s probably the best time to go into niggling details.

TLDR:

• Everything is yet to be implemented
• “Contributors” are completely and thoroughly fornicated legal-wise

Kowalski, status report!

What they say:

I can’t even begin to describe how cool they say they are. It’s the geek version of hip, with the “Godfather of Etherium” at the helm. They even have live coding sessions on Twitch.

According to their sleek web-site, possible practical applications for the Æternity blockchain lie in areas ranging from micropayments, the Intenet of Things and Fintech to first person shooters and lie detectors, “from simple gambling, up to monetized weather predictions and event contracts”. Check out their FAQ and “scientific whitepaper” for further details.

To “foster the growth of the æternity ecosystem” in all its splendour the project would like you to contribute to its development. In his post called “Security, Transparency, Simplicity” Æternity’s founder Mr. Malahov explains how to contribute (subsection “SIMPLICITY IS KEY”):

1. Go to the web-site and press the contribute button (for whatever reason it says “get tokens” now). Make sure you have access to some Ether you want to contribute.

2. Fund the wallet with ETH or choose other options like BTC or fiat currencies.

3. Accept the Terms and Conditions.

4. Contribute!

What their small print says:

Yes. Accept the Terms and Conditions. Reading them is probably uncool. And hurts your eyes, too, because if you try you will have to scroll a legal document of about 6,000 words put together with no paragraph or line spacing and unreadable skinny font through a tiny window. It’s so much better to give up and tick the box “I have read and accept the above Terms and Conditions” right away!

Nice try, Æternity

I decided it probably wasn't worth a visit to an optometrist so I copied the text into a Word document and read it from there to see how “regular contact with regulators” showed in their legal stuff.

I must say one rarely comes across something so excruciatingly secure, transparent and simple. Ladies and gentlemen, some excerpts of what happens when you tick that miraculous check box.

Terms and Conditions

You completely agree to the Terms and Conditions. You are not American.

1. Principles

• “ÆTERNITY cannot guarantee to any party that the initial allocation of Æ would end up as the dominant blockchain when the ÆTERNITY Network is created.”
• You understand that while they will try to launch the network, it is possible that they may fail and the blockchain and the tokens will not be created or become useless or that Æternity, for instance, may “shut down for luck of interest or other reasons”.
• Only Terms and Conditions and Smart Contracts mean something, in case of contradiction the terms of the Smart Contract prevail.

2. Representations and Warranties of User

• You are a crypto nerd. “By contributing to ÆTERNITY, and/or by receiving, using and holding of Æ, the User represents and warrants that: the User has a deep understanding of the functionality, usage, storage, transmission mechanisms and intricacies associated with cryptographic tokens, like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), and blockchain-based software systems and intends to build applications on top of the ÆTERNITY Network, to use Æ to participate in network governance and in mining activities.”
• You are not American.
• You are legal.
• You will contribute the way they tell you to contribute or else.
• You are responsible for any restrictions and risks.
• You are not doing this for speculative investment.
• You are not illegal.
• Æ is mostly harmless. “The User understands and accepts that Æ do not represent or constitute any ownership right or stake, share or security or equivalent right in or relating to ÆTERNITY, The Software, the ÆTERNITY Network and/or any software, any public or private company, corporation, entity or property in any jurisdiction.”
• You understand and accept the whole “no warranty / as is / under development / questionable liquidity / potential depreciation, no value and extreme volatility” situation.

3. ÆTERNITY Contribution Procedure

• No refunds. “Any contribution made to ÆTERNITY during the Contribution Period (as defined in section 3.2) is qualified as a non-refundable Contribution.”
• Contributing over $1,000,000 USD per contributor is prohibited. However, if you really want to contribute you are always welcome to contact Æternity directly.
• Contributions of less than $0.05 USD will be considered as a gift.
• 3.7 Allocation Pools. “Pool C: 8.5% of the Total Æ Amount shall be allocated to the team members and partners…The Æ allocated to core team members of ÆTERNITY will be time locked and will be released over a 2 year time frame in order to incentive their long term involvement in ÆTERNITY.” Ahem. Why would they need their Æ at all? Not for “speculative purpose”, I hope?

5. ÆTERNITY Project Execution

• Æternity will manage the Contributions at it’s own discretion. You don’t get a say.
• Koinify says hello? “The User understands and accepts that the ÆTERNITY Network will need to go through substantial development works as part of which it may become subject of significant conceptual, technical and commercial changes before release.”
• Users can break the Æternity blockchain because they can.

6. Technical Checks of the Smart Contract System

• Technical experts say the system is okay but the software and technology is still in an early development stage and its application “experimental”. No warranties against losing all your ETH, BTC and Æ.

7. Risks

• Early development stage, okay? No warranty. Complete loss of your Æ is possible.
• Regulators gonna regulate. Complete loss of your Æ is possible.
• Allocation of the Æ and the development of the Æternity network may be abandoned. Shit happens.
• Hackers gonna hack. Someone may suddenly steal all the Contributions or Æ.

9. No Liability

That’s it, NO LIABILITY.

10. Miscellaneous

• Should have called that “10. A really trivial addendum”.
• Whatever Æternity might be saying elsewhere is just marketing. Terms and Conditions absolutely rock. “The Terms govern the Contributions to ÆTERNITY, and the allocation, use and holding of Æ and supersede any public statements about the launch of ÆTERNITY Network, the Æ and/or the decentralized cloud system made by anyone in the past, present and future.”
• Any dispute is settled in Liechtenstein, where Æternity is incorporated (this article probably explains why).

What real life says:

It’s definitely the technology of the future. Meaning almost everything they say is yet to be implemented. The launch is a year from now, unconfirmed and unvouched for.

Section 2 of Terms and Conditions says this Æternity contribution thing is for real geeks only and not for the people who just don’t go through legal stuff before they “contribute” their money.

If you are not a geek and therefore cannot contribute with your money you can still help them bring that future a little closer. Their web-site says: “You have some special skills? You want to dive more deep into crypto and blockchain technology? You can code, design, market or connect? Please Join Us!”

If you are a little scared of “diving more deep into crypto” you can always check out the bounty program. Help spread the word and get “a piece of æternity” for your trouble.

Be advised, however, that one of the definitions for eternity is “a period of time that seems very long, especially on account of being tedious or annoying”.

This is all I have time for now. I hope this helps. Make sure you have read and understood the disclaimer at the bottom. If you come across any factual mistakes or faulty grammar you are welcome to point them out in your comments. To get updates or PM me you can always follow me on Twitter.

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My IBO address: 13KoSmPCvKNcWMyXANEShyGW7iUjX7mdRA
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