An Open Letter to the DAV Team

Dear DAV Team,

Our token sale is upon us. It is a token sale we should all be proud of, as we have conducted it with every concession to transparency and financial responsibility possible. Soon, it will conclude and many of us have worked hard to get to this point. It is important to remember that this token sale isn’t an exit, it’s a milestone — but not one to celebrate. It is a moment where we feel the weight of the obligation we took upon ourselves as a reminder to work harder than ever.

Past experience has taught me that there is a reliably predictable reaction to a successful round of financing, whatever the source. During the dot com era, there was a culture of celebration around financing rounds that treated startup executives like rock stars. Money that was meant for project development and infrastructure was poured into Las Vegas-style festivities where champagne, caviar and less reputable goods flowed as if they came from a cornucopia. Everyone who partook felt rich, even if they weren’t. Expectations of vast wealth coming to everyone were rampant; after all, if you can spend a few million dollars on a corporate party, that has to mean a big win is imminent.

Fast forward a few years, and the dot com space was largely a smoking ruin. Billions of dollars had been frittered away to sustain celebrity lifestyles for startup founders that had no business demanding such, and in fact literally had no business to begin with. Memories are short, though, and the crypto space is not immune to his kind of entitled thinking.

As members of the DAV Team, we have a weighty responsibility to our community, our alliance members and our contributors. The money that we raise represents the trust that DAV’s stakeholders have placed in all of us. We should each feel it to our core that we owe our community our very best efforts in fulfilling the DAV vision with those funds. We have the chance to help prove that the crypto community is right, and has been right all this time, in that blockchain technology is in fact profoundly transformational. We are being watched and cheered on by a deeply supportive and enthusiastic community, which is a peerless reward unto itself. We want to make them proud of us, and proud to say “We believed in DAV from the beginning” while talking to their families and friends. If we remain mindful of that motivation I have no doubt that we will all perform brilliantly.

Noam Copel, Founder

DAV Foundation