[kelnos]

Unless you personally know him well and have spoken with him at length about this, I don't think that opinion is based on anything substantial. A post on HN looking for a cofounder tells you only what the person wants you to believe they're thinking and feeling about what they're doing.

[solveit]

My opinion is based on it being completely insane to stake multiple years of your life on starting a cryptocurrency exchange in 2012 unless you had a sincere belief in the promise of blockchain technology. Crypto circa 2012 didn't look anything like what it is now.

[kelnos]

Agree with the sibling that people make insane gambles all the time.

But beyond that, I don't think your premise holds true. People do often start companies because they believe in (or even have a passion for) the thing their company will be doing. But people often just start companies because they believe those companies can make them money. That doesn't mean that the thing the company does is going to be good and sustainable over the longer term. Just that there's some money to be made, even if it's on the backs of speculators and gamblers that don't provide much value to the ecosystem.

[cyanydeez]

People make insane gambles all the time? Some of the most neurotic people find success.

Imagine you could peer into all the class A gamblers, there'll always be a subset who get lucky and convince themselves they "worked harder' or whatever.

Point is, without proper interrogation, it looks like a gamble and crypto looks like a scam. There's always tops of pyramid schemes.

[darkteflon]

Guilty until proven innocent.

[kelnos]

Not really. Just you don't know what you don't know. You're not going to get a reliable feel for someone's motivations unless you actually know them and spend a bit of time talking to them about what they're doing. A "cofounder wanted" post on HN doesn't remotely cut it.