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Synereo ⇔ RChain | FAQ
(Updated Dec 07, 2016)
Dear Synereo Community Member,
The purpose of this document is to help Synereo community members to get a factual picture of the current state of Synereo. We hope this document provides you with the set of tools required for shaping your own opinion on the current situation.
What’s Happening Now?
As you may know, Synereo LTD has two board members - Dor Konforty and Greg Meredith. While we have been able to function smoothly for a very long time, achieving consensus on most things, we are currently in deadlock. In such a situation, the shareholders of the company may take on the responsibility of a 3rd board member, casting a deciding vote.
On December 5th, a notice was sent to all of our shareholders. A meeting will take place next week, on Monday December 12th at 08:00am PST, via teleconference. If the majority of shareholders vote to cancel Greg’s consulting agreement, as well as his removal from the board, the current situation will immediately be resolved, and the Synereo team will be able to continue working on delivering on its vision unhindered.
We fully appreciate the seriousness of this conflict and the level of uncertainty it introduces for our community members and investors, especially given the public nature of the negotiations.
While it is not our intention to be unkind to Greg, we can currently state, with a high level of certainty, that this process, once finalised, will allow Synereo’s team to move forward and deliver on its promise without legacy technological constraints.
FAQ
Q1: Why did Synereo request the involvement of its Shareholders?
The proposal set forward by Synereo’s current CTO, Greg Meredith, requires the allocation of about 70% of Synereo’s resources to an independent entity, leaving Synereo and its team effectively crippled without the necessary means to deliver on its commitments to the community, its investors and stakeholders.
For reasons elaborated below, the Synereo team and the majority of its shareholders do not believe that Meredith’s proposal is in the best interest of the Synereo project and the goals of its community. Attempts to arrive at a consensual compromise over Synereo’s development plan have unfortunately failed, and in order to solve this dispute as quickly as possible, and get back to work, the involvement of Synereo’s shareholders is required.
Q2: Why does Synereo oppose Greg’s proposal?
Synereo is committed to provide a viable development plan, leading to a usable product in a reasonable timeframe. After consulting with our development team, and estimating the involved risk, it seems highly unlikely that the proposed plan would promote this effort.
According to Greg’s estimate, the development of RChain in the fashion proposed, would cost an aggregated amount of $10M, and take years to mature. Currently no commitment exists to provide the additional $8M required to complete the runway toward a market-ready product.
It should be noted that Greg’s current proposal presents a new and radical re-estimation of RChain’s development costs. According to our original dev. plan, assembled according to Greg’s original estimates, the Synereo tech-stack, including RChain, SpecialK, and the social networking product, were priced at about $7M. This is the reason why the benchmark of $8M was set as the upper cap for Synereo’s recent funding campaign.
After reviewing these numbers, and following the best judgment of our development team, investors and stakeholders, we find it in the best interest of the Synereo project to establish an achievable development plan in the framework of the resources and timeframes available to us, and this is exactly what the Synereo team has in mind.
Q3: Should Greg no longer be part of Synereo, would that mean that Synereo will lack technical leadership?
The Synereo team consists of 6.5 more developers. At this point Synereo has no dependency on its current CTO for delivering on its promise and has the ability to attract and retain technological talent capable of leading its development efforts.
Synereo, despite recent turmoil, is in a good place as a company. We have attracted world class talent and have every intention of delivering on our promise. We have 3 full stack developers, 1.5 front-end developers, and additional engineers, with rich backgrounds in math, economics and physics, rejoining the project.
Q4: Synereo claimed to have a decentralized application development stack and has engaged multiple partners and teams based on its existing functionality. What is going to happen to it?
Following the recent dispute and the feedback we have gathered from developers working on the stack, Synereo is likely to cease utilizing Greg Meredith’s proposed tech-stack. The Synereo team is currently reviewing its options from a technological standpoint and intends to deliver on its promise regardless of the delivery of the existing software stack.
Q5: Greg has stated that should Synereo not accept his request for funding, the future RChain Blockchain will not support AMPs. Does that put the value and usability of my AMPs at risk?
The Synereo team has access to sufficient resources, talent and funding to deliver on its core promise and provide AMPs with value regardless of the status of RChain.
RChain is currently in planning stages only. Based on recent estimates provided by Greg Meredith, it would require 10 million USD to make RChain production ready, and require years of development effort to come to fruition. Synereo plans to provide a usable product within a much shorter timeframe, and employ AMPs as the basis of its Attention Economy, without any regard to the development status, existence or non-existence of RChain.