I just sold all my 2600 AMPS right now. I'll explain why I did this.

A few months ago I bought around 2600 Amps in the hopes I would be using these sometime in 2017 within the Synereo decentralized social network. I thought it had some really interesting components, especially the technology called RChain. Additionally, after learning that Synereo held a successful crowdfund where they raised 4.7 million dollars for the building of their technology, I was even more impressed. The CEO, Dor, also had the backing of a Silicon Valley incubator.

What could go wrong?

As anyone in business knows, it's usually not the technology that ends up being the problem. It's the people. Namely, it's usually either egos or an incompatible philosophical underpinning that drives a wedge between two people's ability to get along. Or it's a power struggle.

I came across two different Medium articles last night that really concerned me. One was from CoinFund, and in it, I learned that a schism had formed between the two founders of Synereo, Dor and Greg:

At odds are the Synereo and RChain development teams, and in the spotlight is a public and unfortunate falling out between their two founders —CEO Dor Konforty and CTO Greg Meredith—with the two sides pointing fingers at alleged shortcomings in promised budget allocations, dragging technical delivery schedules, and accusations of attempts to oust each other from the alliance. -CoinFund Medium article

CoinFund was also asking for investor's money to be refunded.

Holy shit.

I read on. It appears that there is power struggle between Dor and Greg. Dor is the business side of Synereo, and Greg is the programmer. From the article, it appeared that Dor doesn't want the funds allocated to Greg to create the RChain technology. Some of the investors, however, are really upset because RChain the was the specific technology that they agreed to help fund creating.

The other Medium article titled, BrokeChain was written by a Product Designer who worked closely with the Synereo team. He explained why he has decided to leave the Synereo project. The schism between Dor and Greg sounds really gnarly, as now it appears the Synereo community is being halved, half on Dor's side, half on Greg's. What I found really disturbing though, is the knowledge that on Monday morning, Dor is planning to have a meeting. In this meeting, it sounds like Dor will try to oust Greg from the Synereo project. I got on the Synereo slack to ascertain if this was indeed going to happen on Monday morning. No one knows what the outcome of the meeting will be.

In Slack, we learn of the gravity of this situation. I'm leaving names out, but here's the general drift of what's happening:

Who gets to choose? In times of heavy disagreement, as we can see happening in this slack, most people side up and run with biases rather than clear thought.....even choosing someone becomes a stalemate.

The clash is between autonomy and interdependence. The clash between dictatorial rule and self governance can be contained and tolerated within Synereo but cannot control the network nobody owns or controls.

Perhaps the best quote to sum up what's going on is this:

American libertarian cowboys clashing with Israeli personalities over what Synereo promised to be and whether what was promised matters.

There is talk about some "Letter of Intent" as well. I'm not sure about what exactly that is, but it sounds as if Greg is threatening some sort of legal action. That is not confirmed though. It looks like on Monday another board member could possibly be added to the Synereo team. The talk in the Slack is brutal. Investors are foaming at the mouth, and right now it doesn't look good moving forward. There's always a chance that the Synereo team could be restructured moving forward, but a break up of the founders is a toxic situation, especially since people invested their money in both of them. Splitting up the founding team after the crowdfund is a terrible move and one that people will not forget easily.

Again we learn the vital importance of working with a team whose members agree on the same philosophical foundation. When you partner up with people who do not share your worldview or main philosophy, the results can be devastating. Choosing a founder partner is actually more serious than choosing a marital partner. But in a business relationship, when you get divorced, you end up splitting up an entire community.

I live by this quote:

"If you don't want to do business with someone for the rest of your life, don't do business with them for one day."

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