Lots of useful discussion in this thread, thank you David P. and Globally Distributed. Could it be that in order to find the early adopters BitShares needs right now, we need to appeal to the why? I think we need to target early adopters before we target the main stream at this point in time. We want the idealists, the entrepreneurs, promoters, and the makers to join in on the action.
Maybe you are right that most people do not care why, but is that also true of most early adopters?
There is a case to be made that BitShares ambition appears too complex. Making clear the devs focus can help with that. Making it clear what support they are lacking might also help attract the right developers.
As I see it, the benefits of blockchain technology follow from what are five distinct classes of usage:
Class 1: Money
Class 2: Money transport
Class 3: Tokens with value pegged to match other assets
Class 4: Tokens that are explicitly linked to real world assets
Class 5: Zero value applications, such as private key signing
The 'Why' of BitShares should be obvious following from the opportunity that Class 3 offers for markets and financial toolkits. It's the 'how' and 'what' of BitShares that will attract new devs and early adopters. If they do not understand the why that follows from Blockchain technology, then what use will they be?
I wonder you also need to consider who you want to attract.. are you wanting individuals or institutions engaged?.. Financial institutions will be starting to look more seriously at what options are available now that the BoE and UK.gov are getting involved. You will not attract the big fish by underestimating their ability to already see the bleeding obvious.. the why is there for everyone to understand.. it is what makes BitShares unique that needs selling.
Thanks for the breakdown of blockchain value proposition from your perspective. It is useful food for thought. Considering the peer to peer & distributed nature of the BitShares community, I think the "Why" is subjective. We all should ask ourselves why we are here to find the answer.
Me personally? Well first I will mention that coming to this community has taught me a lot of things that I didn't know or were unaware of. I'm thankful for that. I want to support, promote, and learn about peer to peer technologies to devolve corruptive forces of power in traditional societal institutions, promote personal freedoms and promote more liquid democracies. This is why I mentioned earlier that I identify with C the most in the OP's poll. I want to see Wall Street (as Ken mentioned earlier), the Federal Reserve, and the election system fixed, and other gatekeepers pacified. (such as the music industry... Go PeerTracks!) I want to be able to use my money privately without G man snooping on me or tracking my movements... with the assurance someone that doesn't even know me can't take my assets from my accounts. I really like the idea of a non violent & contract free, digital economy. Friends that I have spoken with about these topics also feel frustrated with the state of our country, and many people are disillusioned, embittered, and generally feel that the government doesn't work for them anymore, but instead the money. A lot of people feel like they can't have an effect on social outcomes and that the government will get its way. They think voting doesn't matter because the system is rigged (me too). A lot of smart people and potential early adopters have no idea what the value proposition of a blockchain is, and need to be helped along and brought into the fold! Working towards the reduction of absolute control over money by nation states to a manageable level, while also making it more democratic and transparent are why I am here. Is this a political agenda, or a moral one? Am I wrong in presenting BitShares this way to people? It seems to have resonated with some that are willing to listen to my BitShares inspired madness. Whatever it is... this is a fascinating experiment.
It is important not to conflate our own personal ideas of what BitShares is with the motivations of the community as a whole... like David mentioned earlier.
I like to envision BitShares as a way to "opt-out" of the old system and into a distributed & fairer one which can be independently audited. Of course right now the utility, usability, and protocol stability isn't there yet. And the regulatory aspects are murkier still.
The platforms already building out UIA driven services and other use cases (such as B2B) for the UIA such as gateways are, as @bitsapphire mentioned, probably the first services that will take off using BitShares.
The demographic that haven't been told "why" yet but could be building an innovative business models with UIAs, or even useful tools (technical / educational) are the ones I'm targeting first. I want to present the concepts to local people and businesses and try to spark a micro economy around BitShares. But to do it right, we need the fiat gateways and nice point of sales / mobile apps.
I want to be on the prong that targets people and brings BitShares to people. Any institutions I target would be more likely a startup than a large bank. Maybe eventually a VC firm? But it is very important and possibly more fruitful to have the community members that are courting institutions like the BoE.
If we want to be honest about why bitshares exist I think "Making Money" should be addressed.
My understanding is that Bitshares is a profitable company (or at least that was the idea originally). A company that doesn't need huge buildings to operate, middlemen costs and other costs but can operate automatically in a profitable way! This should be the main pitch of why Bitshares exists!
The nice thing about this profitable company is that you do not need to be wealthy in order to be an early adopter and get shares. Everyone can secure his wealth without the need of a Bank and become his own bank without the need to hide his money under his mattress.
Bitshares of course secures the liberty and strengthens the human independence (since we have bitassets) but if the shareholders of BTS do not make money then it is a dead end.
Agreed... the investment opportunity shouldn't be disregarded. To expand on the lack of needing lots of wealth, one of the first things I like to talk about potentials that could become BitShares early adopters is that they can theoretically lend their skills to the ecosystem and be paid in BTS. If they can create wealth for BitShares with their productivity, they can receive equity from the network in return, either by creating a delegate campaign and being voted in or joining a delegate team. Even if you are cash poor, if you want to join the cause and are motivated you could potentially be paid for those efforts.
Also, I really like the "BitShares is profitable freedom" quote. Not sure who coined it at the moment, but I know it was either on these forums or mumble.