How A Simple Timeline Of DERO’s Development Reveals Poor Management And Failure To Launch
Technology can only take you so far. Even when overselling the technology.
I have been following DERO for a long time. For a micro-cap cryptocurrency, I find it interesting how much potential a cryptocurrency can have, and yet make counter-intuitive decisions that stifle its own growth. Ultimately, even if the technology is groundbreaking, technologies can fail to become adopted or outmanuvered by compeition. If it cannot exercise proper project management, it may never launch at all, or fail to manage itself at a higher market cap.
Here is a brief look at the timeline of events and decisions they have made.
DERO Developer’s Team
Smart Contracts Platform
June 2019 Monthly Update: Target set for Q4 2019 for mainnet release of cryptonote-based smart contracts platform
August 2019 Monthly Update: Continued to assure that smart contracts will be in mainnet by end Q4 2019
January 2020 Monthly Update: New target set for Q2 2020 for mainnet release replacing cryptonote with new Fully Homomorphic Encryption implementation
June 2020 Monthly Update: Announcement of Fully Homomorphic Encryption implementation, with code to be released soon.
28 June 2020 Tweet: Proof of concept code release with no new timeframe of when testnet of new implmentation will happen or new target for mainnet release
Criticism
It’s clear to see that the DERO Developers do not follow any type of project management discipline or process. Delays are inevitable for any project, but DERO could have had DERO 1.0 with Cryptonote/DAG+ Smart Contracts, and then DERO 2.0 with AstroBWT/DAG/Fully Homomorphic Encryption + Smart Contracts. If Vitalik Buterin waited for ETH 2.0 to release into mainnet, do you think Ethereum would still be the worlds most valuable smart contracts platform?
DERO Foundation Team
It’s not clear what exactly the Foundation team does beside moderate their chat channels and work with Eric Jordan to create a new website and brand image.
Branding Initiative
January 2020 Monthly Update: Targeted “early” deployment in Q1 2020
March 2020 Monthly Update: Pushed to Q2 2020, which has now passed.
Criticism
A lot of the new “Branding Initiative” seems to be Eric Jordan’s responsibility, with the Foundation as project managers overseeing the changes. Why can’t they start marketing and rebranding before the new changes? Any new technology developments can always be integrated into the brand down the line. Are the developers and foundation members incapable of handling concurrent development and production cycles, which are the norm in virtually all projects?
DERO Education
August 2019 Monthly Update: No timeline, no clear indication that if any work has been done to date. Basic information from wikis and whitepapers still reflect outdated material.
Criticism
DERO Education is something that does not need to wait for any technology release. The earlier you start making it easy for people to learn about the technology, the more developers you can onboard before mainnet release. DERO disadvantags itself by using both their github and their private git site and making confusing to find information. Adding to that, their wiki could be much better detailed and their whitepaper is completely outdated at this point. This is also highlighted by a Dero Community Advisory Board (DCAB ) member, however it seems that DCAB is/has been inactive for some time- which is an indication of dwindling/stagnant community activity.
DERO Communication
1st April 2020 to 30th June 2020: No updates
The Foundation Team seems to be convicted in failing in their goal to communicate with the DERO community better in 2020 which they admitted to failing in their Annual Recap for 2019. Regular updates are important to ensure both Development and Foundation teams are working and making progress. Good communication makes people accountable and transparent in their actions, and this is especially important in crypto. DERO’s mantra is “Build it, and they will come”, but no one would dare enter a castle with no lights. And if there are no lights, why would anyone join and be in the company of ghosts?
To make matters worse, they have also pre-announced their intentions to either scale down or reduce usage of their use of Discord, which is their most used platform for releasing information outside of the Monthly Updates. Much of the announcements and “ breaking news” are first published in their Discord, and if not picked up by the Foundation to distribute through twitter and other means, would simply be buried in Discord chat.