Author Topic: Basic questions from average guy on street. (Confused by Marketing)  (Read 1370 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline sschechter

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
    • View Profile
Great questions!  Simplifying the message is a very hot topic over here.  Like Bitcoin, BitShares represents a range of concepts, rather than just a flagship currency.  BitShares is a brand, a protocol, a platform AND a 'currency'.  I put currency in quotes because we don't like the currency metaphor around here, we prefer to see BitShares as shares in a decentralized company.  This company has products - market pegged assets (bitUSD, bitGLD, etc.), provides a service (decentralized asset exchange), pays employees - the delegates (which are like miners), has voting shareholders (us BTSX holders), AND customers (speculators and savers).  Its by coincidence (ok, thoughtful design), that shares in BitShares can be exchanged as frictionlessly as any other existing currency, which is why people are tempted to call it a currency.  The real 'currency' aspect of BitShares are its products - market pegged virtual assets.

I'm at work so I can't get into the inner workings of the creation of market pegged assets (or BitShares Music and NOTES), so I'll try to sum it up in the most simple way I can.  BitAssets are shorted into existence when a speculator pledges their own shares to the network as collateral. Behind every bitAsset created exists a speculator willing offer bitAsset stability to a 'saver' in exchange for increased risk/reward in trading the volatility of the BTSX share price.  You would buy your coffee with bitUSD.

BTSX: sschechter
PTS: PvBUyPrDRkJLVXZfvWjdudRtQgv1Fcy5Qe

Offline Frodo

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 351
    • View Profile
  • BitShares: frodo
Once the on- and off-ramps are in place you can use the service provided by the DAC (like buying music) just with USD and bitUSD. From an outside perspective you don't have to know that BTSX (soon BTS) or NOTES even exist.

BTSX and NOTES are just like shares in the company behind a provided service. They pay you profits from the DAC and give you the opportunity to influence the way it is run by voting for delegates.

Concerning the relation of Bitshares and Bitshares Music you can look at it like two independent companies. This might change in the future though.

Offline biophil

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 880
  • Professor of Computer Science
    • View Profile
    • My Academic Website
  • BitShares: biophil
Welcome to the community! I think I can give quick answers to your questions:

1) What is the worldwide currency that people use under the Bitshares model?
   
    Example:
    I go to the coffee shop to buy a coffee.
    What is the currency that I use?
    Do I pay with BitsharesX (BTSX)?
    Do I pay with Bitshares USD (BitUSD)?
    Do I pay with something else?


The short answer is that BTSX is not a currency, and is never intended to be one. If you live in the USA, You'll pay with BitUSD, because its value is stable relative to the currency you're used to buying coffee with. The value of BTSX will go up and down over time, so it's a terrible choice if you want to buy something with it.

Second note here: the "X" in BitSharesX is going away soon, and BitSharesX will become simply BitShares.


Quote
2) I am confused about Bitshares Music using something called the "Note".
 
    Am I to understand that "Note" is another/different currency separate from btsx?

    Does this mean that I have to acquire/buy notes, so that I can buy digital music
    files (mp3s or whatever) of my favourite musical artists?

    If the "note" is different from "btsx" then why is this necessary?

The story is not yet completely written on BitShares Music. Its basic unit of account will be the NOTE, which is analogous to BTS for BitShares. But NOTE is not a currency! It represents ownership in the BitShares Music business. The currency will be something like BitUSD; you'll buy songs with a currency unit that is pegged to the US dollar. However, anything could still happen with BitShares Music. My suspicion is that at some point in the next year, the main BitShares DAC will "buy out" BitShares Music so that both businesses can operate on the same blockchain and use the same BitUSD. But now I'm straying into more technical territory that I wouldn't expect an Average Guy on the Street to understand or be interested in. :)

Suffice it all to say: a major part of the Bitshares story is that for something to be useful as currency, it really needs to have a stable purchasing power.
Support our research efforts to improve BitAsset price-pegging! Vote for worker 1.14.204 "201907-uccs-research-project."

Offline Average Guy on Street

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 47
    • View Profile
I have sensed that Bitshares has some bright solutions to produce a decentralized economic future.

But I have to admit, the all the marketing (videos and print) to date is making it very hard for me to understand the whole concept.

There's simply way too much complex jargon to understand, and as a result I feel skeptical at times.

Effective marketing communicates ideas concretely (see the book "Made To Stick" by Chip Heath), and in my humble opinion, trying to understand bitshares is like swimming in a sea of abstract concepts.

That said, I'm still curious because I still sense there's some smart ideas behind bitshares, that are better than bitcoin.

So here are my questions. Forgive me for how basic they are.



1) What is the worldwide currency that people use under the Bitshares model?
   
    Example:
    I go to the coffee shop to buy a coffee.
    What is the currency that I use?
    Do I pay with BitsharesX (BTSX)?
    Do I pay with Bitshares USD (BitUSD)?
    Do I pay with something else?


    If BTSX is the currency, then the "X" I find confusing, because it doesn't help a
    person immediately understand that it is something used as a currency.
   
    Use of the "X" is something that is abstract.
    Abstract concepts fail to communicate messages concretely.
    See Chip Heath and Dan Heath's book "Made to Stick".

    So if BTSX is supposed to represent a worldwide currency, then why not change
    the title to something more self-explanatory like "BTSD - Bitshares Dollars".
   
    From Bitshares Dollars, then one can make the distinction more easily between it
    and BitsharesUSD.


   
2) I am confused about Bitshares Music using something called the "Note".
 
    Am I to understand that "Note" is another/different currency separate from btsx?

    Does this mean that I have to acquire/buy notes, so that I can buy digital music
    files (mp3s or whatever) of my favourite musical artists?

    If the "note" is different from "btsx" then why is this necessary?


I appreciate the clarification on these questions.
I think they are reflective of some average guy on the street.