Can someone explain why this community would want to voluntarily associate with controlled/illegal substances?
It would be a terrible idea to introduce BitDrugs to Bitshares but I'm discussing this because I think it would be a fascinating experiment on a separate blockchain. Can you imagine a BTSX clone that's basically a forex market for trading BitAsset drugs? BitCannabis, BitCocain, BitLSD. It would be a totally legal prediction market for discovering the true value of a forbidden substance. Just like BitUSD isn't real USD, BitCannabis isn't real cannabis (just a digital token representing it's real world value). I think it's fun to have these discussions, purely out of scientific curiosity.
AMERICA SUPPORTS LEGALIZATION:
The survey, released last week from online polling data company CivicScience, asked more than 450,000 U.S. adults over the last two years this question: "Would you support or oppose a law in your state that would legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana like alcohol?"
Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they support marijuana legalization -- with 39 percent saying they "strongly support" and 19 percent saying they "somewhat support" reformed marijuana laws in their states. Thirty-five percent oppose legalization of marijuana -- with 29 percent "strongly" opposing and 6 percent "somewhat" opposing laws that would regulate marijuana like alcohol. Seven percent of respondents had no opinion on the issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/marijuana-legalization-support_n_5760462.htmlThe key difference is that BitCannabis has political support as shown by polls. "Drugs" in general do not have political support as shown by polls. If you do market research you'll find that millenials (our core demographic) want marijuana legalization which means there is a market for BitCannabis which will passionately defend it in the voting booth. There isn't a market to defend "BitDrugs".
So I'm only saying we should have a BitCannabis and forget about the other drugs until the polls shift and show that millennials support legalization of those drugs. If you're not going to listen to your demographic base by following polls then you're acting irrationally. Even politicians in government make decisions based around polls so even they are more rational about this than some here.
ONLY AMERICANS OVER AGE 65 OPPOSE LEGALIZATION: Men were found to be slightly more in favor of legalization than women were, by 60 to 55 percent, according to CivicScience's survey data. Support for legalization was strongest among people ages 25-34; the only age group in which the majority of people opposed legalization was those over 65.
Ultimately this irrationality of the Bitshares community is going to be punished by the market because the market favors the bold. When over 60% of millennials are in favor of something and they are our core demographic then to disobey them is to go against your core demographic. That makes it irrational from a marketing and strategic development standpoint.
REASONING 101:
All models of our demographics show that most support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies come from the same demographics that supports marijuana legalization. The demographic of people who say they'll never use Bitcoin just happens to be the same demographic that opposes marijuana legalization. So you're telling me it's rational to try to impress our grandparents as a marketing strategy when they'll probably never use these technologies anyway? And even if they do use it they wont be using it in large numbers anytime soon.
THIS ISN'T ABOUT DRUGS, IT IS ABOUT FOLLOWING THE POLL DATA:
I'm not endorsing SilkRoad or BitDrugs. I'm only endorsing BitCannabis because the people who matter the most to the success of all future DACs support legalization. If I don't listen to them then I'm not being a good representative of their interests. I do understand the arguments that maybe it shouldn't be done right before the election and that the timing could be bad but I think a quiet launch of BitCannabis could attract all the right kind of people to Bitshares X because they are the kind of people who will use Bitshares X for the long term.
I only ask that a rational case be presented for why we should ignore the will of our core demographic. The politicians you're afraid of aren't ignoring the will of their core demographic and the fact that marijuana is legal in some places is proof that even their core demographic is changing their opinions.