This started as a joke that occurred to me last week when I was thinking about the current fad of the Ethereum ICOs that seemed to have little substance or be blatant scams. Well my brain took that to its logical extreme and this is what I arrived at.
I obviously couldn't pass up the excuse to try writing it.
Learning Solidity has been an interesting experience. While it is visually like JavaScript, that is where the similarity ends. It's statically typed for a start, and having to reason about an entirely new form of execution model is quite a challenge. I'd encourage any devs with a passing interest in blockchain tech to give it a try.
I'm not sure it counts as satire when you're openly being the thing you're satirizing, and that's the entirety of the joke.
It normally wouldn't be a question of import, but this is a scam satirizing a scam, and according to the "Stretch Goals" if it raises enough to not be a joke it will stop being a joke.
So this rubs me the wrong way: it feels like just another unnecessary ICO that uses the satire tag as a shield from criticism. I don't think the already cynical ICO scene needs more of that.
It's actually a game or sorts. I think I've misjudged the content of the website.
You kind of have to read the code to understand what is happening, but it's actually the users that can take part in the hack, there are several steps to a back door that will allow players who participate in the ICO to 'hack' it and withdraw the funds.
The first clue to the hack is on the website, the plan was to reveal the rest over time.
In my own head I thought I had put the right level of clues to have people make the jump and see what was happening, without being too obvious on how to do it. I think I've made it too confusing though from the comments I'm getting it, and most people are just taking it at face value and seeing it as a scam. Which I guess is kind of the point. Most participants would lose their contribution, but some could also take out more.
I might rework the website to explain it better and try again.
I don't know I think the original was a valuable mirror for what happens in reality. A thousand followers that don't know whats going on along for the ride and few people who look at the code trying to find an edge.
This started as a joke that occurred to me last week when I was thinking about the current fad of the Ethereum ICOs that seemed to have little substance or be blatant scams. Well my brain took that to its logical extreme and this is what I arrived at.
I obviously couldn't pass up the excuse to try writing it.
You can check out the source code here - https://github.com/hackethereum/hackethereum
Learning Solidity has been an interesting experience. While it is visually like JavaScript, that is where the similarity ends. It's statically typed for a start, and having to reason about an entirely new form of execution model is quite a challenge. I'd encourage any devs with a passing interest in blockchain tech to give it a try.