Stability in Practice: A Take on AMPL vs. ESD
The following points are an attempt to softly compare the core purpose and reason for existence between Ampleforth and Empty Set Dollar, based on Empty Set Dollar’s own definition of itself. Anything that can be considered subjective is entirely my own independent interpretation and doesn’t necessarily align with the Ampleforth team's views in any way.
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Stability
With a clunky approach utilizing multiple unnecessary functions to attempt to achieve artificial stability, ESD is without eloquence and forcefully designed, seemingly made with the intent to be easily “understood” and attractive to lesser informed investors, rather than exhibiting practicalness, durability, and clear, real-world intendment. Amples are Amples, pure and simple.
ESD aims to be continually pegged to the US Dollar's current valuation, therefore inhibiting itself the security of withstanding Inflation. Amples, on the other hand, will always be pegged to the 2019 US Dollar, avoiding inflation, perpetually growing in value and attractiveness vs. the dollar. This will become clearer as time goes on and the dollar loses its purchasing power, year after year. Amples will eventually be money people are willing to spend, and for some of us, they already are. ESD highlights and attempts to improve on only a fraction of Ampleforth’s capabilities, ignoring the true vision Ampleforth was built for.
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Composability
Not suggesting ethereum will ever fail, but ESD can’t exist without it. ESD is an ERC-20 token, Ampleforth is not. Ampleforth is a stand-alone protocol, and Ethereum was consciously and tactfully chosen to be its first integration. Other integrations are coming soon, eventually establishing unique bridges between different protocols, allowing the free flow of capital in ways never before seen. Perhaps Defi will reach utter critical mass on Ethereum, permanently owning the Decentralized Finance space. But perhaps not. This is not a concern for Ampleforth, but certainly is a problem area for ESD and other rebase/seigniorage tokens.
We can think of Amples as a true cryptocurrency, similar to Bitcoin. ESD is essentially and literally a utility token. If there really is a big discernible difference between what’s classified as “coins” and “tokens” (by that coins exist on standalone chains, and tokens exist only on the chain with which they were created), then Amples can, in a sense, be considered as “coins” that remotely adopt a “token” form to communicate with whichever host chain it needs to operate on.
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Decentralization
Yes, Ampleforth's team members are doxxed(purposefully), and the ESD team is anonymous(purposefully). But, to the institutionally minded or non-typical-crypto investor (you know… those driving the current bull run for BTC), Ampleforth’s team's transparency is widely respected and appreciated, and this goes a long way. All team members are verifiably legitimate academic professionals in their fields and are far from your typical crypto founder, dev, or shiller. If you were an institution or billionaire, or anyone else who needed to move or park a huge basket of assets, would you feel more comfortable trusting a regulatory-compliant project built by a respected cast of characters who can be officially contacted in the real world for inquiries, or anon devs derived from a space over-encumbered by untrustworthy degens, scammers, and unoriginal opportunists?
This paragraph and the one above may be a stretch to swallow for many of you, especially for those easily inundated by rationale, but this doesn’t change the fact that the illuminated presence of Evan and Brandon and the rest of the team offer more reliable, confident and traversable entryways for those individuals who’re immediately able to benefit from Ampleforth’s present phase. Note: AMPL will eventually be fully decentralized. For now, rather than romanticizing for satoshi-like anon devs versus the perceived bane of exposed identity, one must not ignore the possibility of an ESD rug pull that could allow the anon devs to escape unscathed. Ampleforth team? Well, they’d face the wrath of uncle sam. For all of you who loathe anything that’s not supremely anti-government, I suggest you buy Monero or something. Ampleforth will be relevant on a level comparable to nations, so play by their rules they must. Love it or hate it; this is the future. I’m on board.
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Bottom line? Choose the primitive asset, unless you prefer Namecoin over Bitcoin or Komodo over Ethereum, in which case good luck.
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~be professional~
