to be fair to fluffybunny and zooko, at the time they seemed like legitimate concerns

but the reality is that UTXOs surf this beautiful medium between public and private in a way that enables full auditability

these other projects also, i see the value of some parts of what they are doing... i remember when i first heard the expression "smart contract" and it sounded magical but again the reality is it's just a database with a property of ownership (cryptographically ensured exclusive control of changing parts of the data)

those smart contract systems have got better and i am even now in the process of learning to work with a rather good one called Move

i think the overall projects using it are losers but the technology will have its value