Message from Andreas Kohl to Luca Viviani

Hey Luca, I have a pretty big request… I’ve decided I’d like to be bought out of Mintlayer.

Thing is, I’ve started to realise how in the big picture it’s really all just a scam like you always joked (I say “scam” not really in the blatant, legally fraudulent way, but really just in the same way as everything else starting from Solana to Stacks and anything in between, are scams… you know what I mean), and also that not only you didn’t ever have any intention of creating something that would leave a truly positive and long-lasting mark on this world (because of course, why would you? Out of anyone I know, you’re the person who sees this world the most clearly for the rotten hell that it really is), but indeed at the end of the day neither did Enrico, and if anything you were always actually the most honest of the two in this sense, because unlike him you never really pretended.

After the Substrate stuff and how long it took to figure out, looking at how little has been accomplished technically in this last year, the pathetic situation around DSA... It's very obvious that what I had envisioned for Mintlayer isn't going to happen.

In fact, that’s not even the reason why I want to leave, but it is related, because I’m starting to enter a state of clinical depression that seriously is an impairment to my productivity, and I’d like to focus on building up a personal life. I already started on a very rapid path to becoming like you several years ago, but then I began to truly believe in Mintlayer, and this finished the job - I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have that kind of faith in anyone or anything again (and that’s a good thing if someone wants to survive in this shithole of a planet, so thank you).

But if I left without a good payout, let’s be honest, I’d never come out of that depression, my personal life would stay empty, and I would end up being a problem for you sooner or later. It’s not even a threat, just logic: I literally own nothing, I have not a single thing to my name, so it’s just obvious that with so little to lose, anyone in my position would just start going down on a path of self-destruction, intoxication, loss of self-control, and ultimately vengeance, all fueled by resentment, which would eventually become a serious liability for you.

So that’s why I’d like to ask you to help me get in a position where I have things to lose; A big house, nice car, pretty girlfriend, maybe a legitimate-looking but low-effort IDO project of my own that I can hire some people to work on, and put through Launchpool saying that I’m building it on Mintlayer, in order to keep a nice story for the public where we’re all friends and I still believe blablabla, and hey maybe I’ll also open a restaurant like you… In summary, things that might make my life feel valuable at least in the material sense, and which you could possibly take away from me if I ever become a problem. Win-win.

If for some reason you really wanted me specifically to stay in the position, that isn’t out of the question for me, but I’d still need at least a break and a couple million dollars to invest in myself.

While you consider my request and think about how you might be able to convince Enrico about it, I’ll continue to do my best for the project. But it really is getting quite hard for me so I hope you don’t take forever with this.