About Bitshares and the Network Effect - A call to arms.

[Stan]

In my opinion the big marking push should be held off for a while. The crypto ecosystem is in a recession and people aren't buying altcoins very much. Even Bitcoin is losing market cap despite spending a lot of money on funding with the Bitcoin Bowl.

In my opinion why not save up money for a proper advertisement campaign when the time is right? Why not a period of increased interest or for the next crypto bubble? Why not wait for 1.0 to be released and tested at least?

If anything we wait for 1.0 we need a coordinated campaign and to have the delegates up and running and being generating income before 1.0 comes out so we can do a splash.

The problem is that our "splash" may be coinciding with the Ethereum launch.  We'd be going toe to toe for market attention.  Given how effective their marketing has been, I think we would do well to avoid such unfortunate timing. 

Our main weapon on the marketing front is the "first mover advantage" which we are rapidly loosing.  It is true that our product may be better- who knows, but in the short to medium term, the market may not care.  Given that not many people understand these technologies in the first place, the market will tend to gravitate to where the buzz is, thus the concern.   It is much harder work to play catch up that it is to not get yourself in that position in the first place.

Of course, the combined splash of BitShares and Ethereum is likely to set off a new round of crypto-optimism that will break the current crypto bear market.  A rising tide raises all boats!

Let's embrace the wave ethereum will be making and ride the crest to a 2x gain from that alone.

The pie is about to grow much bigger.  Let's not begrudge all the other pie-bakers getting a nice pig piece too.

[nomoreheroes7]

In my opinion the big marking push should be held off for a while. The crypto ecosystem is in a recession and people aren't buying altcoins very much. Even Bitcoin is losing market cap despite spending a lot of money on funding with the Bitcoin Bowl.

In my opinion why not save up money for a proper advertisement campaign when the time is right? Why not a period of increased interest or for the next crypto bubble? Why not wait for 1.0 to be released and tested at least?

If anything we wait for 1.0 we need a coordinated campaign and to have the delegates up and running and being generating income before 1.0 comes out so we can do a splash.

The problem is that our "splash" may be coinciding with the Ethereum launch.  We'd be going toe to toe for market attention.  Given how effective their marketing has been, I think we would do well to avoid such unfortunate timing. 

Our main weapon on the marketing front is the "first mover advantage" which we are rapidly loosing.  It is true that our product may be better- who knows, but in the short to medium term, the market may not care.  Given that not many people understand these technologies in the first place, the market will tend to gravitate to where the buzz is, thus the concern.   It is much harder work to play catch up that it is to not get yourself in that position in the first place.

 

That first mover advantage is rapidly slipping away, and in the lightning fast world of crypto, it may well already be gone. Action is needed, and quick.

[James212]

In my opinion the big marking push should be held off for a while. The crypto ecosystem is in a recession and people aren't buying altcoins very much. Even Bitcoin is losing market cap despite spending a lot of money on funding with the Bitcoin Bowl.

In my opinion why not save up money for a proper advertisement campaign when the time is right? Why not a period of increased interest or for the next crypto bubble? Why not wait for 1.0 to be released and tested at least?

If anything we wait for 1.0 we need a coordinated campaign and to have the delegates up and running and being generating income before 1.0 comes out so we can do a splash.

The problem is that our "splash" may be coinciding with the Ethereum launch.  We'd be going toe to toe for market attention.  Given how effective their marketing has been, I think we would do well to avoid such unfortunate timing. 

Our main weapon on the marketing front is the "first mover advantage" which we are rapidly loosing.  It is true that our product may be better- who knows, but in the short to medium term, the market may not care.  Given that not many people understand these technologies in the first place, the market will tend to gravitate to where the buzz is, thus the concern.   It is much harder work to play catch up that it is to not get yourself in that position in the first place.   

[James212]

Why are you in a panic over ethereum?

They have a sizable budget, already well established brand recognition, and formidable marketing.  The ability to communicate and market a product is one of the only real defining powers in the open-source business.  I wouldn't under estimate it. 

[eagleeye]

In my opinion the big marking push should be held off for a while. The crypto ecosystem is in a recession and people aren't buying altcoins very much. Even Bitcoin is losing market cap despite spending a lot of money on funding with the Bitcoin Bowl.

In my opinion why not save up money for a proper advertisement campaign when the time is right? Why not a period of increased interest or for the next crypto bubble? Why not wait for 1.0 to be released and tested at least?

If anything we wait for 1.0 we need a coordinated campaign and to have the delegates up and running and being generating income before 1.0 comes out so we can do a splash.

[luckybit]

In my opinion the big marking push should be held off for a while. The crypto ecosystem is in a recession and people aren't buying altcoins very much. Even Bitcoin is losing market cap despite spending a lot of money on funding with the Bitcoin Bowl.

In my opinion why not save up money for a proper advertisement campaign when the time is right? Why not a period of increased interest or for the next crypto bubble? Why not wait for 1.0 to be released and tested at least?

[blahblah7up]

I agree with the opinion expressed in the OP.

I came across this, just to give a general idea of the massive amount of work going on in Ethereum right now.

https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/1634/tutorial-1-your-first-contract

From the comments, it looks like it still might be buggy.  But I think the post show the seriousness of the project development and the potential to attract large numbers of developers into this programming sandbox when it goes live.

Edit: spelling

[eagleeye]

1、Don't mix business with politics . People won't like the idea that this product is somehow go viral inspired by a politician .

2、It's not his original word . The phrase is from ancient China .

Ok will take it out.

[btswildpig]

1、Don't mix business with politics . People won't like the idea that this product is somehow go viral inspired by a politician .

2、It's not his original word . The phrase is from ancient China .

[carpet ride]

How do you come to 30,000 users?  Users tend to have multiple accounts, that combined with an estimation of real users on the forum Id say we have closer to 5000.  Don't get me wrong, Id love to see proof that it's higher


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I should have said accounts I am sorry.  Though this is just a side issue and not the most important aspect of the post.

We need anyone and everyone making a thread on this forum saying "I want a delegate for xx and yy"

All good - it's just kind of a point I've been interested in.

I think your proposal to get more delegates in is right on target.

[eagleeye]

How do you come to 30,000 users?  Users tend to have multiple accounts, that combined with an estimation of real users on the forum Id say we have closer to 5000.  Don't get me wrong, Id love to see proof that it's higher


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I should have said accounts I am sorry.  Though this is just a side issue and not the most important aspect of the post.

We need anyone and everyone making a thread on this forum saying "I want a delegate for xx and yy"

[toast]

How do you come to 30,000 users?  Users tend to have multiple accounts, that combined with an estimation of real users on the forum Id say we have closer to 5000.  Don't get me wrong, Id love to see proof that it's higher


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Read his whole post, he said weekly uniques in the client is on the order of 500.
He should have said "accounts" instead of "users", yes.

[carpet ride]

How do you come to 30,000 users?  Users tend to have multiple accounts, that combined with an estimation of real users on the forum Id say we have closer to 5000.  Don't get me wrong, Id love to see proof that it's higher


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eagleeye]

I dont know if anyone other than the circle of programmers knows what is going to be released on March 20 with Ethereum but if they have a web wallet we are done for.

What exactly does Ethereum bring to the table that Bitshares hasn't already got? Looking as an outside observer, it would seem it's an entirely untested alt-coin that tries to do "everything" with it's introduction of a Turing complete scripting language, but will most likely crash horribly after an initial pump and dump frenzy. This has been the case for *every* alt-coin so far - including Bitshares.

The problem is that even if Ethereum is ground breaking, there is no way it's going to find mass adoption unless it's demonstrably bug free and offers all the ancillary services that have built up around the incumbent Bitcoin, as well as features Bitcoin does not, such as asset stability.

Bitshares has significant advantage over Ethereum, you guys actually have a demonstrable Market Peg for BitUSD that has (so far) held within a narrow tolerance, a reasonably mature API, a better, faster consensus mechanism through DPoS, deterministic fast block times and a mechanism for ensuring network congruence during hard-forks (101 Delegates) - in other words an upgrade mechanism.

Ethereum has nothing but ephemeral promises at this point, so I wouldn't start the wailing and lamentations at the temple just yet.

All you need is some on-ramps/off-ramps (most important) and secondly an idiot proof a web-wallet wouldn't hurt to get the ball rolling.

Ethereum was funded with $18 million where bitshares was funded with $4.8 million.  Ethereum spent a lot of money on advertising and probably has a good amount left.  If what I think correct is about to happen, is Ethereum is about to take bitshares thunder because they just have the might.  This could be a David vs Goliath where Goliath wins.  Remember David just got a lucky shot.

[questionsquestions]

I dont know if anyone other than the circle of programmers knows what is going to be released on March 20 with Ethereum but if they have a web wallet we are done for.

What exactly does Ethereum bring to the table that Bitshares hasn't already got? Looking as an outside observer, it would seem it's an entirely untested alt-coin that tries to do "everything" with it's introduction of a Turing complete scripting language, but will most likely crash horribly after an initial pump and dump frenzy. This has been the case for *every* alt-coin so far - including Bitshares.

The problem is that even if Ethereum is ground breaking, there is no way it's going to find mass adoption unless it's demonstrably bug free and offers all the ancillary services that have built up around the incumbent Bitcoin, as well as features Bitcoin does not, such as asset stability.

Bitshares has significant advantage over Ethereum, you guys actually have a demonstrable Market Peg for BitUSD that has (so far) held within a narrow tolerance, a reasonably mature API, a better, faster consensus mechanism through DPoS, deterministic fast block times and a mechanism for ensuring network congruence during hard-forks (101 Delegates) - in other words an upgrade mechanism.

Ethereum has nothing but ephemeral promises at this point, so I wouldn't start the wailing and lamentations at the temple just yet.

All you need is some on-ramps/off-ramps (most important) and secondly an idiot proof a web-wallet wouldn't hurt to get the ball rolling.

[eagleeye]

Are you familiar with MAO？Chairman Mao is a great man in China!!!

Don't discredit Chairman MAO!!!

I am familiar with Chairman Mao, Deng Xiaoping was a great man.  If Mao could live forever he would be no less than Kim Jung Il. 

Dont look at the small idea look at the big idea here, become a delegate in the chinese community spend $2k a month $600 for food/living/rent/mortgage expense and spend the $1400 shouting at the roof tops about bitshares, advertising, building, creating.

[BTS007]

 Are you familiar with MAO？Chairman Mao is a great man in China!!!

Don't discredit Chairman MAO!!!

[eagleeye]

Why are you in a panic over ethereum? I don't even understand what they will offer on march 20 that should cause people to buy the token.

I dont know if anyone other than their circle of programmers knows what is going to be released on March 20 with Ethereum but if they have a web wallet we are done for.

[ticklebiscuit]

Why are you in a panic over ethereum? I don't even understand what they will offer on march 20 that should cause people to buy the token.

Mist is a good start. A crypto web browser is the ultimate funnel.

[Rune]

Why are you in a panic over ethereum? I don't even understand what they will offer on march 20 that should cause people to buy the token.

[RenaudGagne]

I am down to work on a capture page that capture emails and walk people through the steps to get started. (Working the details right now in the background)

[toast]

Yeah, it needs editing / updating.

Where is the website that had a safe, was a vertically oriented slider? I thought that was pretty nice. Could've sworn that was bitshares.org that cass worked to hard to complete. I go there now and it's all different. Perhaps someone from the nullstreet gang could enlighten us here?

Frankly the bitshares page format / template is OK, just that the info needs to be freshened up. The site I'm thinking of also had the linux client on the download page, and if I'm not mistaken (I probably am) also had the ZeeMaps (location of BitShares forum members).

Not sure what's going on with these info sites, but if I don't know and I'm here all the time how the hell will the outside world know where the best source of info is?

I asked the cass to swap merchant page in to the front page just because it at least says some useful information. In any case it's temporary because cass is making a new version without brian's "help"

[Thom]

Yeah, it needs editing / updating.

Where is the website that had a safe, was a vertically oriented slider? I thought that was pretty nice. Could've sworn that was bitshares.org that cass worked to hard to complete. I go there now and it's all different. Perhaps someone from the nullstreet gang could enlighten us here?

Frankly the bitshares page format / template is OK, just that the info needs to be freshened up. The site I'm thinking of also had the linux client on the download page, and if I'm not mistaken (I probably am) also had the ZeeMaps (location of BitShares forum members).

Not sure what's going on with these info sites, but if I don't know and I'm here all the time how the hell will the outside world know where the best source of info is?

[matador123]

We urgently need to fix bitshares.org to be able to even start this

this needs to be our number one short-term priority. I don't even feel comfortable sending people to the official site..

[toast]

We urgently need to fix bitshares.org to be able to even start this

[eagleeye]

We have a user base (roughly 30,000 to 60,000 users based on bitsharesblocks data, 30k in the qt and 30k on bter/btc38/etc dont quote me on this and dont go to much into detail about this part its the useless part)

The part that matter is this (A call to arms):

Our network effect is not growing rapidly it user accounts are about 300 - 600 a month on the qt.  We need the network effect to expand, we need a general advertising campaign BARING the fact that we do not have a blockchain.info type site.  We need the snowball effect to occur.  Once this happens we will be able to spearhead Ethereum, because frankly, our network effect may be thwarted if we do not act and act quickly.

I understand that 1.0.0 is coming out in Feb 2015 but means only 1 month before Ethereum is planning to come out.  How do we gain traction if we have only 1 month before our biggest and our Goliath competitor comes out.

We need traction now!  As Chairman Mao (a bad person) once said "Let a hundred flowers blossom" we need 100 paid delegates and now.  It doesnt matter if they are not so skilled or so good we have the power to vote them out if they are not good.  But we need 100 paid 100% delegates who are screaming at the roof tops "Hey over there come join the revolution, we are going to have all the money in the world, come over here!"

Somewhat agreed.  We now have plenty of
bitshares.tv episodes
Bytemasters blog posts
bitcoin101 book, and
other items we can direct people too. 

It is time to start spending some dollars on traffic.  True, that without a web wallet or on/off ramp it will not be a great bang for buck, but urgency is a reality.  Of course spending a bunch of bts on clicks means a lot of bts getting liquidated and driving the price down.

Its not the best and to be honest our money is probably not being spent in absolute best ways right now anyways, we have to take that chance because there is truly a sense of urgency.

[bitmarket]

We have a user base (roughly 30,000 to 60,000 users based on bitsharesblocks data, 30k in the qt and 30k on bter/btc38/etc dont quote me on this and dont go to much into detail about this part its the useless part)

The part that matter is this (A call to arms):

Our network effect is not growing rapidly it user accounts are about 300 - 600 a month on the qt.  We need the network effect to expand, we need a general advertising campaign BARING the fact that we do not have a blockchain.info type site.  We need the snowball effect to occur.  Once this happens we will be able to spearhead Ethereum, because frankly, our network effect may be thwarted if we do not act and act quickly.

I understand that 1.0.0 is coming out in Feb 2015 but means only 1 month before Ethereum is planning to come out.  How do we gain traction if we have only 1 month before our biggest and our Goliath competitor comes out.

We need traction now!  As Chairman Mao (a bad person) once said "Let a hundred flowers blossom" we need 100 paid delegates and now.  It doesnt matter if they are not so skilled or so good we have the power to vote them out if they are not good.  But we need 100 paid 100% delegates who are screaming at the roof tops "Hey over there come join the revolution, we are going to have all the money in the world, come over here!"

Somewhat agreed.  We now have plenty of
bitshares.tv episodes
Bytemasters blog posts
bitcoin101 book, and
other items we can direct people too. 

It is time to start spending some dollars on traffic.  True, that without a web wallet or on/off ramp it will not be a great bang for buck, but urgency is a reality.  Of course spending a bunch of bts on clicks means a lot of bts getting liquidated and driving the price down.

[vlight]

Ripple and Ethereum look serious. imo, there needs to be market pegged assets for the direct competition cryptos. bitBTC market cap is still very small though.

[merlin0113]

Weird, I sensed you are a big fan of Mao. LOL.

[eagleeye]

We have a user base (roughly 30,000 to 60,000 accounts based on bitsharesblocks data, 30k in the qt and 30k on bter/btc38/etc dont quote me on this and dont go to much into detail about this part its the useless part)

The part that matter is this (A call to arms):

Our network effect is not growing rapidly it user accounts are about 300 - 600 a month on the qt.  We need the network effect to expand, we need a general advertising campaign BARING the fact that we do not have a blockchain.info type site.  We need the snowball effect to occur.  Once this happens we will be able to spearhead Ethereum, because frankly, our network effect may be thwarted if we do not act and act quickly.

I understand that 1.0.0 is coming out in Feb 2015 but means only 1 month before Ethereum is planning to come out.  How do we gain traction if we have only 1 month before our biggest and our Goliath competitor comes out.

We need traction now!  As a person once said "Let a hundred flowers blossom" we need 100 paid delegates and now.  It doesnt matter if they are not so skilled or so good we have the power to vote them out if they are not good.  But we need 100 paid 100% delegates who are screaming at the roof tops "Hey over there come join the revolution, we are going to have all the money in the world, come over here!"