Aeternity has had a great bull run in the last month after hitting an all-time low of $0.156 on 24 October 2017, based largely on anticipation of the upcoming launch of test net on the 15 November 2017. As with all projects, dates are often subject to change, and as a result of aeternity's focus on getting things right rather than rushing a substandard product to market, the test net release was pushed back a few weeks due to further testing, debugging, and the aeternity team meet up in Malta where plans for the main net were developed.
Regardless of the minor setback of the test net release date, the price reached an all-time high of $0.823 on 24 November 2017, and moved aeternity well into the top fifty cryptocurrencies in coinmarketcap.com's ranking.
As an investor it was wonderful to see a project like aeternity finally getting the attention it deserved. But as with all cryptocurrencies, especially those in their early stages, the unexpected often occurs. The loss of the CTO, Joel Reymont, who had been instrumental in the rapid progress made by aeternity over recent months but decided to pursue opportunities outside aeternity, caused the price of AE to plummet more than 30%, hammering investor confidence and causing doubts about the capability of the team and the technology.
The incident happened at the wrong time. Investors were eagerly anticipating the launch of the test net, and getting involved in the aeternity hackathon and enjoying the price rise after many months of being undervalued. The loss of a CTO is a major event, and this has now happened twice in a short period of time at aeternity.
As an investor I would like to see contracts signed by all the aeternity team members to stop this from happening again - surely a simple step to prevent private disagreements turning into public battles. All companies around the world have dissatisfied key workers leaving and new ones being appointed, but the public never hears anything because these human resource matters are dealt with discretely and according to contractual terms of employment designed to make such transitions smooth. When these matters become public, it's the investors who are hurt the most, many of whom now look at aeternity as a bad investment with bad management, which is absolutely not the case. Aeternity has the potential to be a powerful and influential blockchain in the very near future, with a great team behind it working towards a world-class blockchain solution, yet this message gets hidden behind the drama.
Investors in aeternity have nothing to worry about. One key worker leaving does not affect the development of the project. Aeternity is not a one-man band and nobody is irreplaceable. There are eight highly-skilled Erlang developers on the team, and investors should remember the original vision of creating a game-changing blockchain. Remember why they invested in the first place. Those fundamentals haven't changed.
As of now, all we can do is move on with the aeternity project and our lives. Aeternity will survive, and aeternity will thrive. The official releases from the aeternity team are a great place to obtain the most up-to-date information about how the project is progressing, and rumors and gossip should be avoided. Joel Reymont has been replaced with Sascha Hanse, who is taking up the role of aeternity’s new full-time blockchain lead developer. In addition, one of aeternity’s first contractors, Michal Zajda, will step up to lead the core blockchain development. He will be supported by Erik Stenman, former CTO of Klarna. Aeternity has responded rapidly, put into place some top-quality leadership on the technical side to fill the gap left by Joel, and doubtless will push forward with increased intensity and focus to deliver a working product that will become a leading blockchain.
Article writing by aenews & Emma (Community member)
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