

Olympic: Frontier Pre-Release - zmanian
https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/05/09/olympic-frontier-pre-release/

======
Hexayurt
I'm the release coordinator for Ethereum (although I'm best known for open
hardware [http://hexayurt.com](http://hexayurt.com) I do software too from
time to time.)

We're certainly getting close. As you may know, we have a "never set dates"
approach to our release schedule. Pushing for a date threatens a burned out
developer cutting corners which later turn into security issues, and we'd kick
ourselves if we shipped with issues we could have avoided with a realistic
schedule.

I say this because the pressure is always to say "two weeks" and, of course,
the answer has to be _when it is ready._

But, soon.

My own description of ethereum: it's a shared database that is shaped like the
network, and you can store and run code in it, using a standard virtual
machine.

Everybody describes it slightly differently.

~~~
otoburb
Irregardless of what one may think about Ethereum as a platform, I have a lot
of respect for Ethereum's hiring and retention strategy. Ethereum seems to
have a knack attracting, on-boarding and deploying a deep roster of
interesting individuals.

Thanks Vinay for weighing in.

------
rurounijones
Anyone want to give a summary of what Etherium is?

~~~
alvarosm
An overengineered and useless cryptocurrency (Bitcoin-like currency). It was
also pre-sold so they've made quite a bit of money for themselves (out of
nothing) already.

Smart contracts are pointless since you need trust anyway to deal with real-
world assets. Nobody would rather trade in a p2p system instead of a "real"
exchange either.

Overengineering in Ethereum is rampant too, as it's trying -and failing- to
definitively work around Bitcoin shortcomings by significantly increasing
complexity without good reason. They're also reimplementing it on several
programming languages, without code reuse from Bitcoin or any other related
technology either.

~~~
drcode
Though I disagree with you, I upvoted you because your criticism is
substantive and well informed.

~~~
alvarosm
Thanks. If only everyone did that on HN... Someone should teach people they're
supposed to upvote stuff based on how useful it is, not on how much they
personally agree with opinions expressed.

------
drcode
The much bigger news buried in this post is that they're suggesting the
production system will likely launch in about 2 weeks.

~~~
onestone
Not exactly. Frontier will launch 2 weeks after code freeze, which should
happen when the milestone here reaches 100%: [https://github.com/ethereum/go-
ethereum/milestones](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/milestones)

~~~
drcode
AFAIK, ethdev employees have only stated that the milestones need to reach
100% and SEPARATELY that there would be a 2 week announcement when frontier
comes out (today's post, I believe)

The idea that the the milestone triggers the 2 weeks was outside speculation
(though please post a link if there is evidence to the contrary I missed...)

------
Jmiehau
Great news!

