The business model for Hosted Wallet Provider

[roadscape]

1. Regarding transferable account names and subscription fees:
1A. A BitShares account can have multiple account names associated with it and any of these names can be transferred to another BitShares account.
1B. The choice between the pay-as-you go mode and prepaid mode (obtained by paying a subscription fee) refers to a BitShares account, not a particular account name.
1C. A new account is pay-as-you-go by default and if the user wants to upgrade to the prepaid mode s/he needs to acquire some bitUSD and buy the subscription from the BTS blockchain.

I'm not sure 1 account can have "multiple account names". I was under the impression that an "account" and "name" are the same thing. And subscription is tied to only one name. I could be wrong here. Can anyone clarify?

2. Regarding HWP business model:
2A. Main revenue stream for HWP is supposed to come from the referral program for signing up new users for the BitShares ecosystem.
2B. Let's assume a user opens a BitShares account by signing up with my HWP and then decides to switch to another HWP:
- if the user has already paid the subscription fee: my referral income is unaffected
- if the user has not paid the subscription fee: I will most likely lose the referral income from this user as the other HWP will create a new account for her/him and s/he will probably transfer her/his existing account name to this new account. As a result the initial account signed up with my HWP will most probably be abandoned.

BM stated that the referral program is primarily for marketers. Taulant shares a similar view for Moonstone. HWP's will make the majority of their income from value-added features such as 2FA, privatized assets, and KYC functionality, and should not be dependent on referrals.

[merivercap]

It would be good to have some clarification.  I'm curious to know as well.

I think people may just have to decide which HWP to upgrade? 

Also I expect people to open multiple wallets and transfer funds between accounts so I guess referral revenue will be generated where most of the transactions occur?

[jakub]

I've been thinking about starting a Hosted Wallet Provider (HWP) business around BTS 2.0 and I bumped into this topic
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,16747.0.html
where there are several very important questions asked and they never got answered by anyone from CNX.

The main issue is how the referral program is supposed to work in conjunction with transferable account names.

This is my attempt to clearly define the business environment around BitShares 2.0.
Could you let me know if the following assumptions are true:

1. Regarding transferable account names and subscription fees:
1A. A BitShares account can have multiple account names associated with it and any of these names can be transferred to another BitShares account.
1B. The choice between the pay-as-you go mode and prepaid mode (obtained by paying a subscription fee) refers to a BitShares account, not a particular account name.
[EDIT] BM has just clarified in the Mumble session that a BitShares account can have just one account name.
1C. A new account is pay-as-you-go by default and if the user wants to upgrade to the prepaid mode s/he needs to acquire some bitUSD and buy the subscription from the BTS blockchain.

2. Regarding HWP business model:
2A. Main revenue stream for HWP is supposed to come from the referral program for signing up new users for the BitShares ecosystem.
2B. Let's assume a user opens a BitShares account by signing up with my HWP and then decides to switch to another HWP:
- if the user has already paid the subscription fee: my referral income is unaffected
- if the user has not paid the subscription fee: I will most likely lose the referral income from this user as the other HWP will create a new account for her/him and s/he will probably transfer her/his existing account name to this new account. As a result the initial account signed up with my HWP will most probably be abandoned.