Hello :)
I haven't been back long but so far I've gathered that:
- Xeroc and cryptonomex are working on something due to be released "Soon". Stan said something about it.
Rumours Dan is leaving Steem to come back to work on bts - SollarsNSense believe they have the perfect market to get exposure for crypto, Hollywood and streaming. They are about to do another round of ICO, but aiming to get mostly non-bitshares investors. I'm still not sure how bitshares users who bought their UIA will get their profit.
- BlockPay, Bitshares munich and kencode seem to be doing really well. They have an app in all mobile stores that allows brick and mortar merchants to accept any cryptocurrency of their choice. Bitshares munich and CCEDK accept the crypto (?), and then pay fiat to the merchants bank account.
So it costs the shop nothing, and potentially gains them profit. I think it's laying the groundwork for a pro-bitUSD marketing campaign.
Currently it's hard to spend bitUSD anywhere most people would like to shop, we can't really market it as being a fiat-usd replacement yet. The liquidity on the DEX is also lacking - SollarsNSense claim they will become a fiat->Sollars gateway. Sollars can then be traded against other currencies on the DEX.
Perhaps lots of new users will like the UserExperience of Sollars' marketing gateway, easily trade their fiat into crypto, and then find an easy way to convert them to bitUSD to spend in shops using BitShares Munich's app.
Credit cards charge merchants to accept transactions. Merchants may even offer discounts to crypto purchasers if the volume they receive is high enough. - @wuxuqiang has built a bot that tracks the bts top 200 rich list, and notes changes in ownership for shareholders to get a picture of where the shares are moving.
He's campaigning for a witness position
http://richlist.btsabc.org/#/richlist/
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,23875.msg303437.html#msg303437
I think BitShares is coming along to the end of the infrastructure building stage.
Vault 7 and other recent anti-spy agency events has made the public even more aware of the benefits of privacy and security. The market getting closer to being primed for BitShares
Change takes time, the people are slowly becoming accustomed to the idea of crypto, and the infrastructure; mobile apps, fiat gateways, useful UIA's, LIQUIDITY ON THE DEX.
One day the general public will be using crypto every day like it's nothing.
It's inevitable.
When the crypto industry reaches that maturity it will be trivial for users to change between cryptocurrencies.
It will also be trivial for them to use 'comparison websites' to search for which cryptocurrenies are best to use to perform a specific financial task.
The pertinent questions investors need to be asking themselves is this:
Which cryptocurrency can provide these services for the best value?
Which can handle the most transactions?
Which is the most profitable?
Which allows the most entrepreneurs to earn their fortune?
Which has the greatest liquidity?
BitShares, BitShares, BitShares, BitShares. Can BitShares build liquidity?
This is a long game.