Why, why, why?
From time to time I find it necessary to reflect on where we have been, what we have accomplished, and where we are going. In the middle of all of the chaos it is easy to lose sight of our purpose. Everything we do we do for a reason, but if we are not careful short term 'reasons' can cause us to take actions that are not in line with our big picture reasons.
Crytpocurrency was originally created out of a desire to break-free from the slavery created by the combination of fiat money and a legal system that outlawed private solutions such as (egold and liberty dollar). This product found a market among a small segment of the population and they have taken the concept of Bitcoin and created a speculative bubble. This speculative bubble in turn has attracted people with *different reasons* for being interested in cryptocurrency, the short term gold rush.
BitShares was originally created out of a desire to solve a problem that Bitcoin faced (exchange with fiat) under the
presumption that the governments would eventually shutdown the exchanges like they did egold and liberty dollar. With each day that passes it seems less and less likely that governments will shut down these exchanges. They are being regulated and given rules to follow that allow them to stay in business.
This means that BitShares original reason for existence (to provide the decentralized exchange) in a world where Bitcoin is being cracked down upon is less and less relevant. Instead we are put in a situation of competing head-to-head with centralized exchanges which are trusted, fast, and legal. In the process of attempting to attract "exchange users" who are ultimately just "speculators" we have lost sight of our original customer: the person who wants freedom from the financial system.
My mission in life has been to find free market solutions to secure life, liberty, and property. Systems that are so powerful and effective that they can render governments irrelevant. This is something that I am very passionate about and the reason why I believe most of your are here and loyal to BitShares. If we lose sight of this particular vision we lose our core belief, our mission, our "why". And without a reason why we are adrift chasing profits and losing hope when they don't come quickly enough.
Clearly a system that aims to secure life, liberty, and property must be profitable and provide incentives to attract normal users who could care less about our philosophy. These profits will come eventually, but in the short term we need to ask ourselves what "features" do our core users actually need to secure their liberty? How are regular users currently vulnerable to government interference? How can we produce tools that empower the average Joe to take a stance and make a difference?
Here is how the average BitShares user is vulnerable and is still being victimized by governments:
1. Their activity is too public, easily tracked, and their profits/losses easily reported to the various taxing agencies. In this sense BitShares is contributing to enslavement.
2. Attempting to do commerce with untrusted parties is still difficult (lack of simple escrow and dispute resolution).
3. Lack of tools for building reputations, bonding users, etc
4. Lack of tools to support and encourage civil disobedience and peaceful tax protests
The people interested in this particular market are few and far between (1% or less of the population), but they are passionate and desperate for tools and willing to try anything. These people are willing to pay significant money to gain their freedom.
Unfortunately, if BitShares starts to go in this particular direction it will scare away those who want "mainstream adoption NOW!". Banks will not touch it. Merchants will think twice. Governments will crack down.
BitShares has solved many problems that put it in a unique position among all other crypto projects. It is fast, efficient, clean, and most importantly has the gift of self-governeance and self-funding. This is a very solid foundation upon which to build a larger movement. A foundation that is more robust than any other platform.
The reason why we want to gain exchange users is to accomplish a higher mission than just profit. If we focus on being a payment / exchange solution then we have 100's of competitors many of which are better suited to meet the needs of the masses. If we focus on being a platform for freedom then we have almost no competitors and can start a larger movement.
We all have needs that must be met (food, shelter, clothing for ourselves and family). These needs demand we provide value to the market each day. It is easy to lose sight of our goal in the middle these daily demands. Our objective gets short-sighted, focused on the next dollar rather than the grand vision.
I am all for helping BitShares earn a living from the exchange business, but the exchange business is just a day-job. The exchange is not our reason, our why.
If we lead with our Why, then people will join our movement and we will grow and never die. If we lead with our How (Blockchain/BitShares) and our What (exchange) then we will forever struggle against competitors because users have no deeper reasons to stay with us.
I have shared this link before, but I will share it again:
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=enSo I ask each of you, Why are you here? Why do you support BitShares? And how does the Fee Debate, Exchange vs Payment Debate, actually support your Reason for being here?