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Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: EstefanTT on January 10, 2017, 10:39:45 pm

Title: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 10, 2017, 10:39:45 pm
I've just listened to the BitShares special Hangout.

The fees actual structure have been mentioned but without further thoughts. Someone said something like "didn't we have kind of a solution for that?" and the conversation on the topic died.

Just as a reminder the solution we've encountered a while ago was a very good one !!!

The conclusion was that the best way to handle fee without killing the referral program was to have a hybrid system with rate limited Tx and percentage based fees.

I'll use an example with BTS to explain it :

A transaction from 0.00001 BTS to 200 BTS has not fee at all. (Micropayment possible !)
A transaction bigger than 200 BTS has a 0.1% fee (no one will ever complain to pay 1$ on a 1000$ Tx nor to pay 100$ to move 100,000$)
We could also have a top cap. Tx higher than 100,000$ keep that 100$ fee for example.

To avoid the possible attacks allowed by the Free Tx, we limit the number of transactions someone can do in relation to your funds in BTS (rate limited Tx).
So the more you can abuse the system, the more BTS you need to have in it ... and the less you want to screw it up ;p
It also implies that any company on BTS should have some fund in BTS if they plan on having lots of Tx.
I don't know how they manage that part on the Steem blockchain but their solution may also be interesting.

Having this new system give another chance to the referral program. If you refer a person who will, in a no so distant future, pay its gasoline, cigarettes or groceries with Blockpay, they will produce much more fees that what they would have with the 2015 stable fees structure.
Let's imagine a person who is using crypto for gasoline and from time to time for other stuff in a typical month. Gasoline twice, 10 cigarettes boxes and a couple of groceries at the local small shop accepting crypto. That would be around 250$ paid, so around 0.25$.
60% of that goes to the referrer, so around 1.8$ a year.
I think that it would be enough to motivate people to start again thinking to promote BitShares!

The trading on the platform could also take 0.1% and free order creation and cancellation. Other feature on the platform could integrate this system and produce more and more fees for the referrers.

A Little story to show how reviving the referral program is important. I spent months on building Bitsharesfcx.com website. I started with learning HTML, CSS and some PHP from knowing absolutely nothing .... really nothing, not even what <p> or </br> meant !!! My two friends translated the whole BitShares.org website, the BM blog, flyers, infographics, articles.. we've also translated the book from Max Write.
We have done all of this because we thought BitShares is amazing, we want to help to spread the word and BM just had given to us the perfect tool, the referral program. We made the math and we concluded we could invest a shit load of time in the website. We were going to be the gateway for the millions of people that speak french but not English well enough to learn about BitShares in the next years.
Well, since the referral system has been put in sleep mode, there is a very perceptible lack of motivation in our team and it's very understandable. We are also in sleep mode, nothing has really changed for the last year or so. We may have spent all this time for nothing, that isn't the kind of thought that gives you the motivation to keep working.
If the referral program would be back, providing a way to produce incomes by promoting BitShares, we would probably end up beeing back on the project.
Conclusion, the referral program works, the problem is the current fee structure.

I wanted to share my experience and summarise what I still have in mind about this topic so we can include it in the @Chris4210 BitShares improvement list.

Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: kani on January 10, 2017, 10:54:52 pm
A tricky proposition indeed.

I like the idea for no fees on very small transactions.  But a percentage-based fee on higher value transactions will simply drive users to other blockchains where it is cheaper to conduct business.  I oppose this idea.

Bitshares is special because of its low fees -- you don't see the same bot activity on other platforms due to the relatively high transaction costs on those platforms.  Increased fees just might kill the growing bot ecosystem, which Bitshares gravely needs.

If the referral system can be improved without disrupting the other factors that make Bitshares great, I'm all for it.  But don't kill it with substantially higher fees.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 10, 2017, 11:19:56 pm
A tricky proposition indeed.

I like the idea for no fees on very small transactions.  But a percentage-based fee on higher value transactions will simply drive users to other blockchains where it is cheaper to conduct business.  I oppose this idea.

Bitshares is special because of its low fees -- you don't see the same bot activity on other platforms due to the relatively high transaction costs on those platforms.  Increased fees just might kill the growing bot ecosystem, which Bitshares gravely needs.

If the referral system can be improved without disrupting the other factors that make Bitshares great, I'm all for it.  But don't kill it with substantially higher fees.

It wouldn't disturb bots, they could operate without fee. That would be even better for them !!
With a system like this one, they would only need to pay a fee when they actually fill an operation. With a low 0.1% that should be a problem at all. Poloniex have lots of bots running with a much higher %.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: fractalnode on January 11, 2017, 12:00:38 am
A tricky proposition indeed.

I like the idea for no fees on very small transactions.  But a percentage-based fee on higher value transactions will simply drive users to other blockchains where it is cheaper to conduct business.  I oppose this idea.

Bitshares is special because of its low fees -- you don't see the same bot activity on other platforms due to the relatively high transaction costs on those platforms.  Increased fees just might kill the growing bot ecosystem, which Bitshares gravely needs.

If the referral system can be improved without disrupting the other factors that make Bitshares great, I'm all for it.  But don't kill it with substantially higher fees.

I agree in 100%  !!!
+ "0 fee" for sharedroping.
Maybe this could be some new type of transaction.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: kani on January 11, 2017, 12:18:17 am
I agree in 100%  !!!
+ "0 fee" for sharedroping.
Maybe this could be some new type of transaction.

I think STEEM has a TX-limited allowance for free transactions.  Maybe a peek at what they're doing for guidance.

When I read the original post, I balked at the "upper-limit" suggested.  NOBODY will pay $100 for a blockchain transaction no matter how much the transferred value.  The fee should be commiserate with the strain on blockchain (transaction network and storage cost, etc).  That said, maybe something like $0.10 - $0.20 might work, but I wouldn't push it too far else you drive away users.

It is quite possible I don't understand the suggestion in relation to bots...  Do remember that bots are already paying 0.05% to 2.00% to trade in some UIAs.  Perhaps adding a fee to committee-controlled SmartCoins could be added for some purpose (maybe as mentioned in your other thread?)



Now, to combine referrals with my favorite love: Bitshares bots!   :) :) :)

If *somebody* could make an easy-to-use lightweight cross-platform bot CLIENT, they could integrate themselves as default referrer (or even registrar) for all these new bot accounts!  (Now THERE'S some potential for getting meaningful referral fees!)  Ideally this client would have built in wizard and analysis tools to help determined users find most profitable trading strategies.

Anyway, I do not wish to detract from useful brainstorming.  Thank you for your ideas.  There's some in here worth discussing and hashing out.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: fav on January 11, 2017, 09:19:57 am
ref system as it is now is useless and not profitable to market. Fees were changed by the fist committee in an attempt to boost adoption, which did not work and they killed any marketing attempts on top of it.

I'm kinda sick and tired of reading "bts great tech but bad marketing" etc. it's essentially our fault for not coming up with something productive + a decent committee to follow up on stuff.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 11, 2017, 11:43:10 am
ref system as it is now is useless and not profitable to market. Fees were changed by the fist committee in an attempt to boost adoption, which did not work and they killed any marketing attempts on top of it.

I'm kinda sick and tired of reading "bts great tech but bad marketing" etc. it's essentially our fault for not coming up with something productive + a decent committee to follow up on stuff.
Fav is one of the most productive promoters of BitShares. He has bring 320 users in BitShares.

This is huge coming from as single person.

The referral program with current fee probably had the same effect on him that it had on BitDhsres FCX team.

One of the biggest problem we had with the referral system was that we didn't have use case to show. It was then complicated to "sell" BitShares.
Now we have OpenLedger products and ICOs, Blockpay, stealth soon,  Echo about to be done, we have an crypto index fund ;), ... we don't have excuses anymore.

We need to find a way to tweek the fee structure without damaging the user experience. Having a the referral system back could potentially solve our bad comercialisation problem.

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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: fav on January 11, 2017, 01:45:46 pm
ref system as it is now is useless and not profitable to market. Fees were changed by the fist committee in an attempt to boost adoption, which did not work and they killed any marketing attempts on top of it.

I'm kinda sick and tired of reading "bts great tech but bad marketing" etc. it's essentially our fault for not coming up with something productive + a decent committee to follow up on stuff.
Fav is one of the most productive promoters of BitShares. He has bring 320 users in BitShares.

This is huge coming from as single person.

The referral program with current fee probably had the same effect on him that it had on BitDhsres FCX team.

One of the biggest problem we had with the referral system was that we didn't have use case to show. It was then complicated to "sell" BitShares.
Now we have OpenLedger products and ICOs, Blockpay, stealth soon,  Echo about to be done, we have an crypto index fund ;), ... we don't have excuses anymore.

We need to find a way to tweek the fee structure without damaging the user experience. Having a the referral system back could potentially solve our bad comercialisation problem.

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I feel your pain. I don't particularly care about tx fees to be honest, just give some killer features that make a LTM interesting and we (network + ref + faucet owner) would win.

Showerthought: add an extra dividend pool (allocate 10% network fees) to it, quarterly payouts based on bts holdings and only for LTM members. could be a start
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 11, 2017, 02:34:38 pm
I like the idea, I like it a lot ! It seems easy to set up.

It would also incentive ppl to get the LTM because you would get your money back through time.
Ppl live the win-for-life kind of stuff.

If we make it that you can have your money back in 2 years in current MC and daily Tx rate, we could see a massive wave of speculators coming in BTS only to create a LTM. That would push up the market, increase our reserve pool in BTS and also in $, increase our available money to spend on dev, have lots of ppl playing with the DEX.

The number of new LTM will at some point reach an equilibrium because the more LTM there are, the less you win and the more time you'll have to wait to have your money back and start earning. Also, the first ppl coming to get their LTM will increase the number of Tx in the DEX and may push forward this equilibrium with a never ending reenforcing circle.

The committee could be responsable of setting the % going into the pool for LTMembers. Adjusting this % could increase or decrease the new creation of LTM.

Damn ... I really find this idea excellent !!

Is there any part of this idea that is not doable or may create problems ?

@Chris4210, another thing to add to your list ;)

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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 11, 2017, 04:03:36 pm
I have been thinking about the sharing depending on BTS holding. It's not a bad idea but maybe it shouldn't have a linear relation with the funds.

If you don't consider the BTS holdings, you can potentially bring lots of new users just for the speculative investment into a LTM.
If they need 1M BTS to have a decent share of the fee, the investment changes compleetely.

With that said, there should be some positive aspects of having BTS sleeping. So we should consider an increase of the revenue depending on BTS holdings but no that much that it wouldn't make sense anymore to buy a LTM without huge funds.

Maybe, to qualify you could need  LTM and a minimum of xxx BTS. There would be a higher revenue as your capital in bts increase. Too low and ppl will start creating several LTM (maybe not that bad)
Too high and nobody except the whales will create LTM.



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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: fav on January 11, 2017, 04:08:14 pm
I have been thinking about the sharing depending on BTS holding. It's not a bad idea but maybe it shouldn't have a linear relation with the funds.

If you don't consider the BTS holdings, you can potentially bring lots of new users just for the speculative investment into a LTM.
If they need 1M BTS to have a decent share of the fee, the investment changes compleetely.

With that said, there should be some positive aspects of having BTS sleeping. So we should consider an increase of the revenue depending on BTS holdings but no that much that it wouldn't make sense anymore to buy a LTM without huge funds.

Maybe, to qualify you could need  LTM and a minimum of xxx BTS. There would be a higher revenue as your capital in bts increase. Too low and ppl will start creating several LTM (maybe not that bad)
Too high and nobody except the whales will create LTM.



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I think it should work like real world shares... make bitshares work like shares. and that's stake based, another idea you could bundle this dividend pool was @BunkerChain Labs  - locking bts (for ltm) up to get a bigger voting impact (+enable dividend pool shares by locking up bts for x time)
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: Chronos on January 11, 2017, 05:22:12 pm
ref system as it is now is useless and not profitable to market.
I have to agree with this.  ;)
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: JonnyB on January 12, 2017, 01:00:53 pm
@fav
Why not just make a worker proposal that distributes funds to LTMs as a dividend. 
Maybe in BitUSD instead of BTS.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 12, 2017, 01:08:35 pm
Don't you think that it would be very hard to get it voted ? We would have the anti-dilution crowd against this worker.

On the other hand, doing it as Fav propose, we are not diluting, we are just distributing a part of the collected fee.
I'm well aware that it's the same 100% but the perception is really different. People are emocional and base their decisions on feelings, perception is key !

10% of the fees to reanimate the referral program looks amazing !


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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: JonnyB on January 12, 2017, 01:17:09 pm
yes it would be hard to get a worker voted in but not impossible.

Fes distribution might require a hard fork, worker proposal doesn't

As you say its the same funding source (the reserve pool)
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: fav on January 12, 2017, 02:28:45 pm
@fav
Why not just make a worker proposal that distributes funds to LTMs as a dividend. 
Maybe in BitUSD instead of BTS.

worker can get voted out in a heartbeat. you can't expect marketers to work in this environment, you have to be able to calcuate expenses vs income (ROI).

needs to be something steady in my opinion
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program
Post by: EstefanTT on January 12, 2017, 02:49:40 pm
Yep, I agree !

I also think we shouldn't stop there with 10% of the fees. We should keep braistorming and find other things to add so the referral program become so interresting that it will start attarcting to whole crypto community. We have an amazing tool and we do nothing with it.

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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 13, 2017, 02:44:46 pm
bad idea, most users from China community will complain to pay 100BTS for transferring 100000BTS. forget this please.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 13, 2017, 03:07:54 pm
bad idea, most users from China community will complain to pay 100BTS for transferring 100000BTS. forget this please.

Maybe we can have tranfers free whatever the quantity (Steem like) and have a cut of 0.1% on every trade on the dex. The dex could provide the money needed to get the referral program back on tracks.
Even in China, I guess you can't find exchanges with lower fee that 0.1% on trades.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 13, 2017, 04:06:35 pm
bad idea, most users from China community will complain to pay 100BTS for transferring 100000BTS. forget this please.

Maybe we can have tranfers free whatever the quantity (Steem like) and have a cut of 0.1% on every trade on the dex. The dex could provide the money needed to get the referral program back on tracks.
Even in China, I guess you can't find exchanges with lower fee that 0.1% on trades.

huobi and okcoin charge 0 for trading bitcoin.
in my view the current status of DEX is OK,  BTS and committee issued smartcoins charge zero while the UIA have its own market fee,  in the future if the trading volume grow to much bigger, we can increase the fee for placing/canceling orders.
no need to change now.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 13, 2017, 04:35:53 pm
If you don't change it, there is no incentive to use the referral program, thus no promotion, thus everybody think BitShares is dead, no new users, bad reputation, low MC ad no funds for workers to move forwards.

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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: xeroc on January 13, 2017, 04:52:13 pm
Remind me again .. where do you get the numbers that we don't have new users?
Just because OpenLedger doesn't register new users, doesn't mean someone else isn't ...

this is a weekly chart:
(http://i.imgur.com/XBLaG9r.png)
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 13, 2017, 05:34:39 pm
I'm not saying that without referral program we won't have any new users. Off course, new projects will bring new users  ;)

I just feel sad that we have a tool to create promotion on a decentralsied way (the referral prog) and we don't use it.

This tool works on fee, we have lower it a lot and thus broke it.

We have change it because of the Chinese sentiment about it beeing to high. It was suppose to be only while we were gaining traction or before we had an idea to get the referral program working with something else. Since then we have just sadly accept "the referral is dead".

It's not dead, we just need to figure out how to make it exiting again ! It is an amazing way to have people working on promoting Bitshares without paying them, just on the perpective to win money if BitShares takes off and their referred users start using it.

PS : Congratulation on JianJolly recent developpment with BitKapital !!!
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: lil_jay890 on January 13, 2017, 06:35:37 pm
Lets think about why the referral program is dead... Is it really because the fee's are low?  No, it's because no one can figure out how to build an actual business that utilizes the BTS platform.  All that the BTS platform is good for is to create a UIA that you can easily and anonymously scam investors with.... wow, I cant believe the price of BTS hasn't exploded!

"But wait... we are a decentralized exchange and that is our product and its really cool!"... News flash, when you buy bitUSD or bitGLD or bitBTC you don't own any real dollars, gold or bitcoin.  You own a derivative that is backed by an ultra low cap and low liquidity crypto currency.  A crypto that you have to send to an exchange and pay a bunch of fee's in order to get actual usable currency.  BTS is decentralized on the surface... but to get in and out, most people have to go through some centralized entity.  Plus you can make the claim that proxies have way too much power and thus add additional centralization to the system.  If the exchanges got together, they could easily control all of BTS.  I feel most people here know that, but choose to sweep that massive bts design flaw under the rug.

Basically bts seems cool and useful on the outside but when you look deeper at it, you realize its just a complicated, low liquidity, faux-decentralized, scammers dream platform.  Having a well designed and robust referral system wont garner new users, when bts doesn't excel at filling any niche role.  It does a bunch of things in complicated clunky ways.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: Stan on January 13, 2017, 10:02:56 pm
Lets think about why the referral program is dead... Is it really because the fee's are low?  No, it's because no one can figure out how to build an actual business that utilizes the BTS platform.  All that the BTS platform is good for is to create a UIA that you can easily and anonymously scam investors with.... wow, I cant believe the price of BTS hasn't exploded!

"But wait... we are a decentralized exchange and that is our product and its really cool!"... News flash, when you buy bitUSD or bitGLD or bitBTC you don't own any real dollars, gold or bitcoin.  You own a derivative that is backed by an ultra low cap and low liquidity crypto currency.  A crypto that you have to send to an exchange and pay a bunch of fee's in order to get actual usable currency.  BTS is decentralized on the surface... but to get in and out, most people have to go through some centralized entity.  Plus you can make the claim that proxies have way too much power and thus add additional centralization to the system.  If the exchanges got together, they could easily control all of BTS.  I feel most people here know that, but choose to sweep that massive bts design flaw under the rug.

Basically bts seems cool and useful on the outside but when you look deeper at it, you realize its just a complicated, low liquidity, faux-decentralized, scammers dream platform.  Having a well designed and robust referral system wont garner new users, when bts doesn't excel at filling any niche role.  It does a bunch of things in complicated clunky ways.


Half of these objections amount to saying that Muhammad Ali was a lousy boxer as a baby.

Decentralization is important for long term store of value.
It is far less important during the few seconds you are traversing an on/off ramp.

It's all about the risk integral over time of exposure.  Expose small amounts at a time for small amounts of time.

(https://i.gyazo.com/fa7ca2bdf86bde935bb2f4f82edfe5b6.png)





Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 14, 2017, 02:39:38 am
referral program is not suitable to BTS business scene, and it has done bad to the whole ecosystem, we have paid great effort to minimize the bad effect. please do not go back.
as default, China community will reject all proposals for increasing fees if it is not a must. we need not to waste time on discussing these kind of issues.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 14, 2017, 08:41:43 am
referral program is not suitable to BTS business scene, and it has done bad to the whole ecosystem, we have paid great effort to minimize the bad effect. please do not go back.
as default, China community will reject all proposals for increasing fees if it is not a must. we need not to waste time on discussing these kind of issues.

Well you chose to criple fees to drive adoption (never happened) and killed referral program as a side effect now you come up and say it's not suitable? Oh my God.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 14, 2017, 02:07:38 pm
So, to recap ... the problem is not that we can't find a solution to have the referral problem back, the problem is that part of the community think that the referral was a bad idea.

My perspective is the next one. What would it cost to create a website like this one : www.bitsharesfcx.com and translated everything that it contains ? I can tell you ... a lot !!! I know the time we spent on it

Well, I did it for free because I strongly beleive that the referral program would pay me back some day if I kept my effort going and facilitate the french comlunity it's understanding of BitShares.

How can this kind on amazing motivationnal result can be a bad thing ?

I stopped 90% of my efforts on this dirrection because there is no incentive anymore.

I don't see how paying people with a promess to make money later is bad for BitShares. I think is brilliant and doesn't cost much now and will cost a little more later when BitShares will be able to affort it.

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Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 14, 2017, 02:23:48 pm
So, to recap ... the problem is not that we can't find a solution to have the referral problem back, the problem is that part of the community think that the referral was a bad idea.

My perspective is the next one. What would it cost to create a website like this one : www.bitsharesfcx.com and translated everything that it contains ? I can tell you ... a lot !!! I know the time we spent on it

Well, I did it for free because I strongly beleive that the referral program would pay me back some day if I kept my effort going and facilitate the french comlunity it's understanding of BitShares.

How can this kind on amazing motivationnal result can be a bad thing ?

I stopped 90% of my efforts on this dirrection because there is no incentive anymore.

I don't see how paying people with a promess to make money later is bad for BitShares. I think is brilliant and doesn't cost much now and will cost a little more later when BitShares will be able to affort it.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

i'm at a point where it makes more sense to just wait 1-2 years until bts dropped so much that current whales got out. then we can try to rebuild it, if it's not too late.

the lack of general business sense is just too overwhelming
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: tbone on January 15, 2017, 10:43:16 pm
Reading this thread, it appears there is total disagreement.  But there really isn't.  Everyone knows that referral marketing is one of the most basic and accepted concepts in business.   Not only can referral marketing grow your user base, but referred customers are higher margin and have a higher retention rate than non-referred customers.  This is fact. 

So I don't think what we're seeing here is disagreement.  But there's clearly some misunderstanding.  For example, although it seems @bitcrab argued against the concept of referral programs in general, I'm fairly sure he's really just against raising fees.  In fact, I'm pretty sure he is only against raising fees at this early stage.  And I don't really have a problem with that.  Of the other vocal participants in this thread, I don't think @EstefanTT, for example, has a problem with it either.  In fact, he said this about the referral program:

Quote from: EstefanTT
It is an amazing way to have people working on promoting Bitshares without paying them, just on the perpective to win money if BitShares takes off and their referred users start using it.

My point is, what @EstefanTT said here is NOT inconsistent with @bitcrab's desire to raise rates later.  The bottom line is that anyone currently referring users will initially reap the benefits only to a small extent  a) while they build their referral base, and b) while fees remain low during the time the platform is maturing.  But as their base of referred users grows, and once the platform is in a position where fees can be raised, referrers will reap the benefits to a much larger extent.  Again, where is the disagreement?

Even @fav's and @bitcrab's positions are not really at odds.  It appears to me @fav is NOT suggesting we raise fees as he has in the past.  He is suggesting we create something of value that would entice people to pay a membership fee so that as a referrer, he can have greater incentive with an up-front source of revenue, in addition to the more long-term, residual income stream previously discussed.  There is nothing wrong with this.  In fact, it would be in everyone's interest to see what we can come up with. Let's please have constructive dialog.  And before responding in a knee-jerk way, please remember that many people participating in this conversation are speaking English NOT as a first language.  And that we're all working toward the same goal (i.e. the long-term success of Bitshares).  Aside from our resident idiot troll, of course.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: tbone on January 15, 2017, 11:38:17 pm
@bitcrab, I really hope you'll agree that the referral program is not inconsistent with your desire (and the desire of many others) to keep rates low while the platform gains traction.  And I hope you'll participate in some constructive discussion about what we can offer users that would incentivize them to pay a one-time membership fee, which would benefit everyone by making the referral program more powerful.   
 
To add my 2 cents to the original discussion, I like the idea of offering something like an interest bearing savings account or a CD (certificate of deposit).  We could entice people to lock their funds for periods of time in exchange for a rate of return.  Interest payments could be made in the form of bitUSD, bitCNY, bitEUR (or any BitAsset).  A program like this would have many benefits.  It would encourage people to get their shares off the exchanges.  It would encourage them to hold longer term.  It will help increase the supply of BitAssets.  And we could make LTM a requirement to participate, which would benefit the referral program.

One of the main points of contention with this idea (as it has been in the past with the LTM in general) may be that the LTM fee is too high for some countries.  I think this is a valid concern and we should come up with a solution to this problem in general if we want to use the LTM to help drive the up-front portion of referral rewards.   Thoughts, anyone?
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 16, 2017, 03:23:49 am
if I can, I'll remove the referral program from the platform.

I am not only to push senseful change, but also to reject unnecessary/senseless/reluctant proposals.

in my view, the core point to run Bitshares platform is to attract more people to use the service, attract them to trade in DEX, to pay  with smartcoins or to issue UIAs.

I don't think to attract them by interest or dividends is the right way. however, maybe we can build some kind of service, with which A can borrow assets from B with paying interest(the planned bond market?).

I have some idea to let the non-LTM users enjoy the same transfer/trade fee schedule with LTM, but only LTM are authorized for issuing assets, shorting...etc...but seems referrers do not like this?

up to now this is what I think about this, surely you can continue to explain/persuade, maybe sometime I can change my idea.

 
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: BunkerChainLabs-DataSecurityNode on January 16, 2017, 04:46:14 am
if I can, I'll remove the referral program from the platform.

I am not only to push senseful change, but also to reject unnecessary/senseless/reluctant proposals.

in my view, the core point to run Bitshares platform is to attract more people to use the service, attract them to trade in DEX, to pay  with smartcoins or to issue UIAs.

I don't think to attract them by interest or dividends is the right way. however, maybe we can build some kind of service, with which A can borrow assets from B with paying interest(the planned bond market?).

I have some idea to let the non-LTM users enjoy the same transfer/trade fee schedule with LTM, but only LTM are authorized for issuing assets, shorting...etc...but seems referrers do not like this?

up to now this is what I think about this, surely you can continue to explain/persuade, maybe sometime I can change my idea.

I believe this is part of the cultural difference once again. China and India are similar where it only takes some to move in one direction to have others follow and create a network effect... not so in western markets which is where everyone who has been cheering for the refer program are located. From where @bitcrab is sitting, he really doesn't see any usefulness for it at all because in his market it isn't necessary. Everything he said is right in regards to business as far as China is concerned.

He also made the point about LTM being the only ones being able to create assets etc.. and wonders why this isn't enough to promote LTMs. Offhand I would say because the market of users who are going to do that are very small to something like trading. Being a DEX that is the most obvious value.. being able to create a UIA is only for particular use case I think.

I have already given my thoughts in telegram regarding the LTM. I think by implementing a shareholder balance that is only accessible to LTM which enables balances to partially back bitassets in the system while paying back a dividend/interest would be a much clearer value proposition for the LTM to sell it to a wide audience in crypto/trading. This would be a major fork.. but it would solve the bitassets liquidity issue and give people a new reason to want to buy bitshares... not to mention the refer program having a second life without increasing fees etc to give it value. Oh... not to mention I suggested the shareholder balance be the voting balance... eliminating the exchanges security issue.. and making dedicated holders the voters... but that has nothing to do with the OP topic.

Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 16, 2017, 07:13:09 am

I have already given my thoughts in telegram regarding the LTM. I think by implementing a shareholder balance that is only accessible to LTM which enables balances to partially back bitassets in the system while paying back a dividend/interest would be a much clearer value proposition for the LTM to sell it to a wide audience in crypto/trading. This would be a major fork.. but it would solve the bitassets liquidity issue and give people a new reason to want to buy bitshares... not to mention the refer program having a second life without increasing fees etc to give it value. Oh... not to mention I suggested the shareholder balance be the voting balance... eliminating the exchanges security issue.. and making dedicated holders the voters... but that has nothing to do with the OP topic.

really like this idea.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 16, 2017, 09:53:39 am
if I can, I'll remove the referral program from the platform.

I am not only to push senseful change, but also to reject unnecessary/senseless/reluctant proposals.

in my view, the core point to run Bitshares platform is to attract more people to use the service, attract them to trade in DEX, to pay  with smartcoins or to issue UIAs.

I don't think to attract them by interest or dividends is the right way. however, maybe we can build some kind of service, with which A can borrow assets from B with paying interest(the planned bond market?).

I have some idea to let the non-LTM users enjoy the same transfer/trade fee schedule with LTM, but only LTM are authorized for issuing assets, shorting...etc...but seems referrers do not like this?

up to now this is what I think about this, surely you can continue to explain/persuade, maybe sometime I can change my idea.

I believe this is part of the cultural difference once again. China and India are similar where it only takes some to move in one direction to have others follow and create a network effect... not so in western markets which is where everyone who has been cheering for the refer program are located. From where @bitcrab is sitting, he really doesn't see any usefulness for it at all because in his market it isn't necessary. Everything he said is right in regards to business as far as China is concerned.

He also made the point about LTM being the only ones being able to create assets etc.. and wonders why this isn't enough to promote LTMs. Offhand I would say because the market of users who are going to do that are very small to something like trading. Being a DEX that is the most obvious value.. being able to create a UIA is only for particular use case I think.

I have already given my thoughts in telegram regarding the LTM. I think by implementing a shareholder balance that is only accessible to LTM which enables balances to partially back bitassets in the system while paying back a dividend/interest would be a much clearer value proposition for the LTM to sell it to a wide audience in crypto/trading. This would be a major fork.. but it would solve the bitassets liquidity issue and give people a new reason to want to buy bitshares... not to mention the refer program having a second life without increasing fees etc to give it value. Oh... not to mention I suggested the shareholder balance be the voting balance... eliminating the exchanges security issue.. and making dedicated holders the voters... but that has nothing to do with the OP topic.
You idea should have it's own thread and be discussed.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: yvv on January 16, 2017, 01:17:36 pm
Quote
I believe this is part of the cultural difference once again. China and India are similar where it only takes some to move in one direction to have others follow and create a network effect... not so in western markets which is where everyone who has been cheering for the refer program are located. From where @bitcrab is sitting, he really doesn't see any usefulness for it at all because in his market it isn't necessary. Everything he said is right in regards to business as far as China is concerned.

Thing which are specific to local markets should not be implemented at protocol level. Protocol should allow to create referral programs , pay dividends etc, but let local businesses which are oriented to specific markets to implement such things.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 17, 2017, 02:26:30 am
Quote
I believe this is part of the cultural difference once again. China and India are similar where it only takes some to move in one direction to have others follow and create a network effect... not so in western markets which is where everyone who has been cheering for the refer program are located. From where @bitcrab is sitting, he really doesn't see any usefulness for it at all because in his market it isn't necessary. Everything he said is right in regards to business as far as China is concerned.

Thing which are specific to local markets should not be implemented at protocol level. Protocol should allow to create referral programs , pay dividends etc, but let local businesses which are oriented to specific markets to implement such things.

not totally culture difference.

in China there are also referral programs in App, one example is DiDi, an App similar to Uber and which has purchased Uber China. at the early stage of DiDi. when you finish one order, the App will generate one short message for you to share with your friends in social network, you can get some discount in your next order if you just shared the message. it works well.

we do not like the current BTS referrer program as:
1.the referrer get revenue directly from the fee paid by referee. referee will think "you promote this to me just because you want to make money from my transaction", this in many scene discourage the referee to join.
2.there's no difference for a referee to sign up using or not using referrer.

so if I need to design a referrer program for China commnuity, at least I'll do change like this:
1. when the referee sign up, he will get 20 BTS from referrer automatically as startup fee.

anyway, there's complex factors for implementing referrer programs succesfully, including but not limit to culture difference. I agree not to implement referrer program at protocol level.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: tbone on January 18, 2017, 08:41:43 am
Ok, I think we're making some progress.  @bitcrab has a very valid point here.  The way the referral program is designed, it adds complexity for communities like in China where the $100 fee is way too high.  He can return his 80% share of LTM fee to the user, but that's not an elegant process.   First the user would have to pay from their own wallet, then he would have to reimburse them.  That seems undesirable.  Another problem is that he would have to wait 3 months (I believe) to get that 80% back.  Again, this is too much to expect. 

So what's the answer?  Maybe registrars should have the ability to waive their 80% share so the user never has to pay the full amount to begin with, all they have to pay is the $20 and the registrar would not have to do anything, and would not have to wait 3 months to get any money back.  This would at least address the problem with the $100 price being way too high for non-western communities.  @bitcrab could possibly that work for you?
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 18, 2017, 10:51:47 am

So what's the answer?  Maybe registrars should have the ability to waive their 80% share so the user never has to pay the full amount to begin with, all they have to pay is the $20 and the registrar would not have to do anything, and would not have to wait 3 months to get any money back.  This would at least address the problem with the $100 price being way too high for non-western communities.  @bitcrab could possibly that work for you?

sorry, it's not that easy. you have to ask all other projects for input as well, would this impact openledger?

also, do we want to run a profitable DAC or is this thing meant for 3rd world countries too?
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 18, 2017, 11:24:15 am
Right now the referral program is not a problem at all, even for chinese community because we lowered the fee to nothing.
Having back or not 80% of nothing is not a concern.

100$ for a LTM is not a problem because it is a choice you can make. Nobody have to buy it.
If it makes sense to you to pay 100$ of fee because you expect to pay more over time, it's an investment. The choice remain yours.

I think the good way to go would be to have free transfers like Steem. The Chinese community would be very happy with this change. You would be allow to use the plateform for basic stuff for free.

To add (a lot of) value to the referral program, we would just add 0.1% on the trades in the Dex. That will produce more fee that transfers and won't slow adoption.
Poloniex is centralised, take a 0.2%+ on trades and doesn't experiment any kind of problem with users adoption. I think BTC38 also takes 0.1%, right ?

With this tweek (no fee on transfer / 0.1% in the dex) we would have a good compromise with western and eastern comnunities.

I heard in a thread that there is in China an exchange that operates without fee at all ... unless someone can explain to me their amazing plan to make their exchange a success and economically possible, I won't receive this argument as viable.

I have the feeling reading this thread that the referral program itself is not needed. Referral programs are proven to be effectives and are widely used over the internet by big companies (Amazon, Coinbase, ...)
It's basically giving money to someone who brings you more money. It's perfect for because we lack of money ! Is there someone that disagree with thus statment ?

Finally, I would say, even if we disagree on some aspects of this problem, I'm really glad the conversation is open and we can move toward the resolution of that issue.


Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 18, 2017, 12:29:52 pm
let me repeat 3 times:
no way to add 0.1% trades fee in DEX.
no way to add 0.1% trades fee in DEX.
no way to add 0.1% trades fee in DEX.

Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 18, 2017, 12:36:10 pm
let me repeat 3 times:
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.

I'm trying to be constructive here. Could explain why you think it's a bad idea ? I mean, why is not a good idea to use it to give back valuebto the referral program and what would be your solution otherwise.

We have to find some kind of agreement between eastern and western.

Repeating 3 times what you think doesn't make it a better idea nor contribute effectively to the brainstorm.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: bitcrab on January 18, 2017, 12:46:58 pm
let me repeat 3 times:
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.

I'm trying to be constructive here. Could explain why you think it's a bad idea ? I mean, why is not a good idea to use it to give back valuebto the referral program and what would be your solution otherwise.

We have to find some kind of agreement between eastern and western.

Repeating 3 times what you think doesn't make it a better idea nor contribute effectively to the brainstorm.

you can check this to find some of my ideas. https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,23718.0.html (https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,23718.0.html)

referral program is not a must, I do not think there need any solution for it, if you think necessary and propose any change, you need to avoid bad effect to the ecosystem.

I repeat 3 times to tell you: this is not possible, all the users from China comm are against it.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 18, 2017, 02:11:31 pm
let me repeat 3 times:
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.

I'm trying to be constructive here. Could explain why you think it's a bad idea ? I mean, why is not a good idea to use it to give back valuebto the referral program and what would be your solution otherwise.

We have to find some kind of agreement between eastern and western.

Repeating 3 times what you think doesn't make it a better idea nor contribute effectively to the brainstorm.

the answer is always China.

but so far no one provided some number proving how much impact china has to BitShares in terms of adoption and revenue. Is Asia even relevant to the success of BitShares? Or is this maybe some personal agenda by a committee member to protect their business?
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: EstefanTT on January 18, 2017, 02:30:30 pm
let me repeat 3 times:
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.
forget to add 0.1% on treades in DEX.

I'm trying to be constructive here. Could explain why you think it's a bad idea ? I mean, why is not a good idea to use it to give back valuebto the referral program and what would be your solution otherwise.

We have to find some kind of agreement between eastern and western.

Repeating 3 times what you think doesn't make it a better idea nor contribute effectively to the brainstorm.

the answer is always China.

but so far no one provided some number proving how much impact china has to BitShares in terms of adoption and revenue. Is Asia even relevant to the success of BitShares? Or is this maybe some personal agenda by a committee member to protect their business?
I can see there is some trading on the BitCNY:BTS but I don't feel that the whole chinese crypto commuity is amazingly seduce by the fact the we don't have % fees on the DEX. It's still very very low volume !

Exchanges charge a % fee on trades, it's a fact that even chinese community is used too. I don't see that change implemented in BitShares beeing traumatic to anyone. We are speaking about 0.1%. It's tiny. This % can be lower later on if the DEX grows a lot and we are making "too much" money.

In the other hand, this little change will incentive again lots of people to find cretives way to bring users into BitShares. Which is exactely what we need !! More users, more money in BitShares, more market cap, more money in the reserve pool, more money available for workers and witnesses, more development, more users and so on ...
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: Thom on January 18, 2017, 06:10:03 pm
I am really excited to see the revival of discussions here on the bts.talk forums  :D

I have not gone back to read the OP, so my apologies if I'm off track here. I also think from what I see in this thread the conversation is useful and somewhat productive. I liked what @tbone and @datasecurity node said about savings / dividend to incentivize DEX use and provide users more safety than centralized exchanges, more traffic etc.

I also better understand @bitcrab's perspective. It does seem that @bitcrab and @fav are at opposite ends of the discussion here though.

I disagree with removing anything in the protocol that limits functionality, like removing things that allow referral program to work smoothly. However, @tbone's summary of @bitcrab's objections are valid, and perhaps warrant some changes.

Although any LTM that wants to run a referral program is in full control of how much of their proceeds they return to users, the fact that users must pay up front is indeed prohibitive to many.

For a LTM that wants to minimize impact and encourage adoption, I see them less likely they would refund the majority of the fee to become a LTM because they may see that as funding direct competition. Any such promoter is of course free to do that, and they would bear the burden of making it as easy for new LTMs as they want, by coming up with a way to provide whatever % of the LTM registration fee they want. They could create a multisig account for each prospective LTM, with the LTM referrer and the normally registered user account. The promoter LTM would deposit the % of the LTM registration fee they wish to provide in that account and approve the LTM registration fee for that user.

I haven't thought through that in depth, but feel something like that could be done. Of course that is a fair amount of overhead, but it could be done without the need to change the existing scheme and it would be entirely up to each LTM on whether to do so or to what degree.

I don't see that the referral program hurts those with @bitcrab's perpective. They can choose to reward or refund any fees they collect back to those users they register. If they are up front and honest about doing that for the few LTMs they would sign up, their reputation would be honorable and trustworthy and people that wanted to become a LTM would recognize that so claims "the LTM only wants to take advantage of my transaction fees" would be hollow and baseless.

I think requiring to change the way LTM is currently handled to support the way @bitcrab says the eastern market wants it is unnecessary, considering LTM sign ups would be a small minority of cases as @datasecuritynode described.
Title: Re: [hangout feedback] BitShares fees / Referral program (+ Fav interresting idea )
Post by: fav on January 20, 2017, 08:18:32 am
bad news for zero fees Chinese exchanges I guess

https://twitter.com/BambouClub/status/822054090809208833