A marketing idea? Whitepaper? Strategy? request? Either way I think its is gold.

[davidpbrown]

There are some benefits that come with the multi-tiered approach.  When my potential income is augmented by the production of those I introduce, there is a natural incentive for me to then support those that I introduce(that also elect to upgrade).

erm.. I wonder you are missing the obvious.. your potential income is augmented - by the rise in real value of BitShares.

[speedy]

It really is amazing how many cool things you can do with an efficient consensus algorithm like DPOS:

-Paying delegates to develop infrastructure
-Paying yield/interest to BitAsset holders
-Charging transaction fees as an implicit dividend to shareholders (in the future)
-And now we have referral marketing

Contrast this with PoW (Proof of Waste), which allows the blockchain to:
-Create new money to pay for burning electricity

[Shentist]

lol it begins I guess...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1003837.0

who the hell's centralizedeconomics?

Still think it's a good idea though; just needs more fleshing out so everyone can come to a consensus on what would work best.

who cares? I don't follow bitcointalk and someone posting this nonesense it not worth 1 word. Who is so "stupid" to waste his time on our forum and spread this fud? I would have better things to do by flooding into communities i don't believe in their project.

[Xeldal]

But the point is that "all the hard work that is going on" is being done by very few people, and they are not being adequately compensated. Yet those doing nothing, or only trading and trying to profit while others do the work, or even doing nothing but COMPLAINING - they all expect to reap the rewards of those actually working to create and grow the system.

Max's idea, all though it needs careful consideration and refining, will benefit all those who actually do the work of introducing and explaining BitShares to the public. It is not easy money or a rip off. And the expected benefits to those jumping on the opportunity, digging in, and doing the marketing will be like the expected benefits to any early investor in a startup.

A single level referral system would also reward those doing the work, without screaming "scam" to everyone.  Or alienating half of the current Bitshares community.

The implications should certainly be considered.  There are some benefits that come with the multi-tiered approach.  When my potential income is augmented by the production of those I introduce, there is a natural incentive for me to then support those that I introduce(that also elect to upgrade).  I'm motivated to educate them on the system and essentially 'train' them to do what has worked for me to bring in more people.  It engenders more team work and cooperation, bringing more exponential growth rather than linear.  The multi-tier also appeals to people in a different way.  They can imaging a much greater potential when they consider that they will be leveraging others efforts as well as their own.

There are of course down sides to the multi-tier like the dreamy "if i can get this guy, he knows everyone and can sell anything, he can make me rich!"  thats basically where mlm'er's get a bad reputation because their *so ultra motivated to get others involved, they lose their souls, selling out their family and friends in trying to build their and their sponsors downlines. 

[Akado]

They so fearful of BitShares threads about this are already popping up https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1003837.new#new oh i miss the times where you could have a proper discussion on btt

[davidpbrown]

A single level referral system would also reward those doing the work, without screaming "scam" to everyone.  Or alienating half of the current Bitshares community.

 

Just to note, I've seen no arguement about the amount of reward that a referral attracts.. just the natural reaction to MLM. Fair reward for fair work. Rewards for referrals are very attractive.. MLM is not. I get where the OP et al are coming from, forcing change and progress but let's do it right and remember that BitShares is the product to be valued, not the marketing method.

[nomoreheroes7]

lol it begins I guess...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1003837.0

who the hell's centralizedeconomics?

Still think it's a good idea though; just needs more fleshing out so everyone can come to a consensus on what would work best.

[Chronos]

My thought is that anything multi-level would be extremely damaging to the brand.

A single-level "lifetime fee capture" bonus would be more reasonable, but even that would turn away some people, who would want to collect their own referral bonus.

The purpose of BTS is to own a share in something that can become great. This marketing idea feels a bit gimmicky, and it complicates the user experience. In my opinion, if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Focus on the fundamentals.

[Ander]

But the point is that "all the hard work that is going on" is being done by very few people, and they are not being adequately compensated. Yet those doing nothing, or only trading and trying to profit while others do the work, or even doing nothing but COMPLAINING - they all expect to reap the rewards of those actually working to create and grow the system.

Max's idea, all though it needs careful consideration and refining, will benefit all those who actually do the work of introducing and explaining BitShares to the public. It is not easy money or a rip off. And the expected benefits to those jumping on the opportunity, digging in, and doing the marketing will be like the expected benefits to any early investor in a startup.

A single level referral system would also reward those doing the work, without screaming "scam" to everyone.  Or alienating half of the current Bitshares community.

[onceuponatime]

As long as we stay away from MLM "downlines" and just do one-off rewards, ref= links and qr codes, that should be sufficient.

I agree with this.  Referral systems and giving a reward for getting a referral (a percentage of fees of your referee, and maybe a bonus), is great.  We have all read the story of how Paypal went into massive growth with its referral program.

Making it multi-level and rewarding for referrals of your referrals screams 'scam' and 'stay away' to EVERYONE. 

Please do not all hastily rush to turn Bitshares into an MLM scheme, lose the following of most of our remaining die hards, and cause yet another 75% price drop.  Just because some initial posts on the forum go "yay, this is great!   Bitshares will go up and I will make money!".  We made this mistake already in november, and it lost us most of the support of the chinese community.

You really need to realize that if Bitshares goes MLM, there are going to be 1 million people screaming in every thread in bitcointalk that it is a scam, and every single person is going to see the MLM scheme, and pattern match it to other scams, and think "yep, Bitshares is now confirmed to be a scam".

In fact, I am surprised that NewMine and DecentralizedEconomics havent ALREADY made posts saying this, even though it is just people talking about it.


Please consider just doing a referral plan and rewarding people for referring their plans, and not going full pyramid scheme and turning Bitshares from a wonderful idea into the spawn of evil.

this 

Look do we believe in BitShares or not?  Do we have patience or not?  Please can we allow some organic growth to arrive from all the hard work that is going on.......

But the point is that "all the hard work that is going on" is being done by very few people, and they are not being adequately compensated. Yet those doing nothing, or only trading and trying to profit while others do the work, or even doing nothing but COMPLAINING - they all expect to reap the rewards of those actually working to create and grow the system.

Max's idea, all though it needs careful consideration and refining, will benefit all those who actually do the work of introducing and explaining BitShares to the public. It is not easy money or a rip off. And the expected benefits to those jumping on the opportunity, digging in, and doing the marketing will be like the expected benefits to any early investor in a startup.

[Xeldal]

Also, we are having trouble signing up enough new users when it is free and there is a faucet to pay the 0.5 BTS referral fee for you.

And in this thread people want to charge people $20 to sign up. 
I am sure that will be GREAT for the size of our userbase!

No the $20 is only if you want to participate in the affiliate program(as an upgraded account).  Everything else would remain the same.  For a normal user not interested in the affiliate program there would be no difference.  Still free etc..

[Ander]

Also, we are having trouble signing up enough new users when it is free and there is a faucet to pay the 0.5 BTS referral fee for you.

And in this thread people want to charge people $20 to sign up. 
I am sure that will be GREAT for the size of our userbase!

[mdj]

Please please please stay away from MLM it would be incredibly damaging. Enough of this "get rich quick", focus on the product and the customers will come...

But yes I am all for single level referral schemes, that would be great.
We need to grow our user base with people who actually understand the product and want to use it, not with people who have no idea what it is but just want to try and sell it in some MLM.

[fav]

so there are basically 2 proposals:

1. MLM way
2. Simple 1 TIER referral way

Personally, I think MLM would be better. I know B-But Bitcointalk - no one cares. The mission is to get Joe to know bitshares and use it. I hope there will be users coming in from the outside, not even knowing what bitcoin is.

Also, we should definately ask the chinese community for their input on this one.

[mdj]

This referal program would make it so easy to earn money in a way so different from the original idea of BitShares, that its ponziness would defeat BitShares' original purpose. Yes, it would probably bring many new people to the system. But what kind of people? People, who will suddenly realize how good BitShares are, or people who just want to get rich on the referal program?

From wikipedia:

Ponzi schemes occasionally begin as legitimate businesses, until the business fails to achieve the returns expected. The business becomes a Ponzi scheme if it then continues under fraudulent terms. Whatever the initial situation, the perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.

I would prefer to stick to the original values we wanted to promote, not the "get rich fast" values. Once the original ideas get implemented, we will earn profit from the right thing instead of this obscure mechanism.

Ever used Venmo?  When they started if I signed up via my friend's link, then my friend got $5.  Then the app asked me to send a link to all my friends.  Every friend of mine that signed up via my link earned me $5.  The app has so much utility now because all my friends are signed up and we can send each other money instantly. 

An MLM program should work the same way for bitshares except that bitshares will not only grab the global peer to peer payments network effect for bitusd, it will also encourage merchant adoption, and employer to employee payments, which an app like Venmo will never be able to do. 

My point being ... Venmo never seemed like a pyramid scheme because the app is solid gold in terms of utility.  BitUSD will eventually be solid gold in terms of utility, so any users brought in by a referral/rewards/MLM program would likely use the app IMO.

But was that Venmo paying you or did the users signing up have to pay $x too?