BitShares Forum
Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: MktDirector on August 26, 2014, 04:38:00 am
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So, I've been following a lot of great tech companies over the years and reading the stories of how they got to be so dominant in their niches.
One thing I've found in common with a significant number of them is that early on, a lot of the early adopters who drove growth were within the younger demographic (specifically college age people and younger). This age group has immense power to create trends and drive the "cool" into brands. I know a lot of people on this forum are in that age range. (AHEM, I alas, am not).
So my question is, how can BitShares as an idea, as a "brand" be adopted by huge numbers of this age group? How can we become the next big idea to spread through this highly tech literate tribe? I want us to appeal to younger and younger populations, as they'll be the ones who will further innovate and soon become leaders within our own movement.
Please share ideas on how we can focus more of our efforts on attracting the energy and power of the younger people. I believe it's critical to making us the next big success story.
Thoughts?
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I'm another old guy. But what about a phone app? I teach college and my students try to do everything (from research to term papers) on their phones.
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A Snapchat DAC? I have no clue about this just throwing out ideas.
Making BitsharesX 'social'
University specific user generated assets?
getting youtube celebrities to talk about BitsharesX
phillipdefranco might be a good candidate
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Good ideas.
1. Need phone app.
2. 'Social' features. Messaging, Chat, Bitshares can become a huge social network rivaling Facebook.
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So, I've been following a lot of great tech companies over the years and reading the stories of how they got to be so dominant in their niches.
One thing I've found in common with a significant number of them is that early on, a lot of the early adopters who drove growth were within the younger demographic (specifically college age people and younger). This age group has immense power to create trends and drive the "cool" into brands. I know a lot of people on this forum are in that age range. (AHEM, I alas, am not).
So my question is, how can BitShares as an idea, as a "brand" be adopted by huge numbers of this age group? How can we become the next big idea to spread through this highly tech literate tribe? I want us to appeal to younger and younger populations, as they'll be the ones who will further innovate and soon become leaders within our own movement.
Please share ideas on how we can focus more of our efforts on attracting the energy and power of the younger people. I believe it's critical to making us the next big success story.
Thoughts?
College students are typically broke so unless they can mine it how will they get value into Bitshares? This is why Bitshares has to be made mineable.
I think Bitshares should target demographics who have a lot of money to invest, or build on-ramps so people who don't have a lot of money can get Bitshares through mining, watching advertisements, etc.
If you are going to target young people with money then Silicon Valley would make more sense than college.
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Having (celebrity) role models and fancy bloggers talk about Bitshares (X)
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I think **mobile** [wallet] and **gamification** [of the market] will be 2 large sectors to focus on with regards to the younger market. If you can make it fun for them to learn and make money - you're in.
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I think **mobile** [wallet] and **gamification** [of the market] will be 2 large sectors to focus on with regards to the younger market. If you can make it fun for them to learn and make money - you're in.
+5%
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Look up the stats on the investment holdings of Gen X, Millenneals and Generation Z. They are holding cash/debt instruments and are under-exposed to income-generating assets.
The Boomers benefited from the 1960-2000 stock market run and are generally comfortable with investing in the stock markets.
The generations that followed have witnessed one horrible crash after another. The SP500 has not moved much since the 2000s and the volatility has been absurd. Just pull the 50 year SP500 chart.
The younger generations do not trust Wall Street with their money. Popular opinion is that Wall Street, Big Bank and Big Gov are all in bed together and conspire to funnel wealth from the general public.
But the younger generations are also highly educated and understand the need to invest in income producing assets. They just don't support the status quo and have voted with their feet.
You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
The mobile interface is critical, but the message should not be "buy BTSX because we have cool doodads". It should be "BTSX is a profitable way to invest without trusting Wall Street/Big Bank/Big Gov with your money. We understand how you prefer to carry out business, so here are some best-of-class mobile apps to make things quick, convenient and easy."
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Another thought - the younger gens have become accustomed to reading about members of their peer group becoming wealthy through various start ups.
Participation in the wealth created by these start ups has been largely limited to insiders and VC's. I know, from various conversations with GenX/Z/Millennials, that there is a general frustration with wealth creating vehicles of their generations being closed to all except a select few.
May want to look at marketing BTSX as a game-changing start-up that is open to anyone... with enough tech savvy to get in.
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Look up the stats on the investment holdings of Gen X, Millenneals and Generation Z. They are holding cash/debt instruments and are under-exposed to income-generating assets.
The Boomers benefited from the 1960-2000 stock market run and are generally comfortable with investing in the stock markets.
The generations that followed have witnessed one horrible crash after another. The SP500 has not moved much since the 2000s and the volatility has been absurd. Just pull the 50 year SP500 chart.
The younger generations do not trust Wall Street with their money. Popular opinion is that Wall Street, Big Bank and Big Gov are all in bed together and conspire to funnel wealth from the general public.
But the younger generations are also highly educated and understand the need to invest in income producing assets. They just don't support the status quo and have voted with their feet.
You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
The mobile interface is critical, but the message should not be "buy BTSX because we have cool doodads". It should be "BTSX is a profitable way to invest without trusting Wall Street/Big Bank/Big Gov with your money. We understand how you prefer to carry out business, so here are some best-of-class mobile apps to make things quick, convenient and easy."
Right on!
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Wow. Agreed: mobile and gamification. Very important.
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Bts music could really draw in the youth too
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Look up the stats on the investment holdings of Gen X, Millenneals and Generation Z. They are holding cash/debt instruments and are under-exposed to income-generating assets.
The Boomers benefited from the 1960-2000 stock market run and are generally comfortable with investing in the stock markets.
The generations that followed have witnessed one horrible crash after another. The SP500 has not moved much since the 2000s and the volatility has been absurd. Just pull the 50 year SP500 chart.
The younger generations do not trust Wall Street with their money. Popular opinion is that Wall Street, Big Bank and Big Gov are all in bed together and conspire to funnel wealth from the general public.
But the younger generations are also highly educated and understand the need to invest in income producing assets. They just don't support the status quo and have voted with their feet.
You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
The mobile interface is critical, but the message should not be "buy BTSX because we have cool doodads". It should be "BTSX is a profitable way to invest without trusting Wall Street/Big Bank/Big Gov with your money. We understand how you prefer to carry out business, so here are some best-of-class mobile apps to make things quick, convenient and easy."
+5%!
I'm a millennial myself and have NOTHING in the stock market.
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This isn't really on topic but this is something I've been thinking about. One thing to be mindful of is to market without using the word "crypto". The scammy side of crypto looks a lot like unregulated wall street. Scams galore. Just look at the alt-coin announcement page of Bitcointalk to see what I mean. Let's make sure we separate Bitshares from alt-coins as much as possible. The words "crypto" and "alt-coin" are becoming toxic.
Sorry, back on topic.
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I agree and can confirm many/most Boomers I know are associating crypto with scam.
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I'm another old guy. But what about a phone app? I teach college and my students try to do everything (from research to term papers) on their phones.
One of our ideas is a mobile wallet which works like Venmo, meaning it has all potential to become viral and it would solve the identity registration issue as you get funds upfront from a friend.
People would be able to send bitUSD via a mobile app to any phone number. That phone number would receive an SMS with a link telling them that they received X amount of bitUSD from their friend and that they need to download the wallet app to access them. Part of the sent funds would be used to register the user's identity on the blockchain.
This would be just as viral as viber, whatsup, venmo, etc as it uses the same viral vector. Furthermore it could be just as disruptive to global remittance as whatsup and Viber are to the international sms/phonecall business.
Would there be any interest in the community for such an app at this stage?
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I'm another old guy. But what about a phone app? I teach college and my students try to do everything (from research to term papers) on their phones.
One of our ideas is a mobile wallet which works like Venmo, meaning it has all potential to become viral and it would solve the identity registration issue as you get funds upfront from a friend.
People would be able to send bitUSD via a mobile app to any phone number. That phone number would receive an SMS with a link telling them that they received X amount of bitUSD from their friend and that they need to download the wallet app to access them. Part of the sent funds would be used to register the user's identity on the blockchain.
This would be just as viral as viber, whatsup, venmo, etc as it uses the same viral vector. Furthermore it could be just as disruptive to global remittance as whatsup and Viber are to the international sms/phonecall business.
Would there be any interest in the community for such an app at this stage?
Heck yes, please build it!
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I'm another old guy. But what about a phone app? I teach college and my students try to do everything (from research to term papers) on their phones.
One of our ideas is a mobile wallet which works like Venmo, meaning it has all potential to become viral and it would solve the identity registration issue as you get funds upfront from a friend.
People would be able to send bitUSD via a mobile app to any phone number. That phone number would receive an SMS with a link telling them that they received X amount of bitUSD from their friend and that they need to download the wallet app to access them. Part of the sent funds would be used to register the user's identity on the blockchain.
This would be just as viral as viber, whatsup, venmo, etc as it uses the same viral vector. Furthermore it could be just as disruptive to global remittance as whatsup and Viber are to the international sms/phonecall business.
Would there be any interest in the community for such an app at this stage?
Heck yes, please build it!
Yes this sounds very good. If you can send 'X' amount of BTSX to a bunch of friends just by their phone number, this will certainly help the spread of BTSX.
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You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
...
Another thought - the younger gens have become accustomed to reading about members of their peer group becoming wealthy through various start ups.
Participation in the wealth created by these start ups has been largely limited to insiders and VC's. I know, from various conversations with GenX/Z/Millennials, that there is a general frustration with wealth creating vehicles of their generations being closed to all except a select few.
May want to look at marketing BTSX as a game-changing start-up that is open to anyone...
THIS! +5% +5%
We need to shift the perception of highly educated young people,
that they can invest profitably, that it is fair and that they deserve the chance to get a share in next gen technologies like Twitter, Facebook, Oculous Rift etc. that belong to their generation.
I love the example that the people who crowdfunded Oculous Rift would have gotten 150x..
Found an article outlining this argument explicitly! Worth using for sure,
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/28/5557120/what-if-oculus-rift-kickstarter-backers-had-gotten-equity
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This is a good Idea. Also I think we need several more in depth animated educational videos with up to date aesthetics of its own that not just copy the aesthetics of the old Bitcoin video. Im not saying I don like the current Bitshares video but I do believe that it could make more impact if there was an even better production behind it. Also since the concept of Bitshares is even trickier to wrap your head around I think there is a need to make pedagogic simple educational videos that goes more into depth with subsets of how the different shares would actually work in practice. For instance there could be one that solely focus on Bitshares Music. Let me know what you think.
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I think **mobile** [wallet] and **gamification** [of the market] will be 2 large sectors to focus on with regards to the younger market. If you can make it fun for them to learn and make money - you're in.
I agree with this. That is what got people into Bitcoin mining.
But there has to be low barrier to entry like in the early days of Bitcoin mining and we have to avoid Pay to Win. Young gamers despise Pay to Win.
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
The wallet we're developing will have that in V2. We're building it on a tech stack which will work on all platforms, including mobile. We will most likely get an announcement to the community soon. You have the preliminary designs already in your inbox btw.
We've also looked at Venmo's patents. As our current understanding goes their patent (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2011/0137789.html) would not affect such an implementation. We would like to get a second opinion on this from somebody on the forum though.
Dan and the team still need to figure out how to do thin clients with BitSharesX for this to happen though. Smartphones aren't made for storing blockchains.
Let us now what you think :)
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
The wallet we're developing will have that in V2. We're building it on a tech stack which will work on all platforms, including mobile. We will most likely get an announcement to the community soon. You have the preliminary designs already in your inbox btw.
We've also looked at Venmo's patents. As our current understanding goes their patent (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2011/0137789.html) would not affect such an implementation. We would like to get a second opinion on this from somebody on the forum though.
Dan and the team still need to figure out how to do thin clients with BitSharesX for this to happen though. Smartphones aren't made for storing blockchains.
Let us now what you think :)
I am +5% for this idea.
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Dan and the team still need to figure out how to do thin clients with BitSharesX for this to happen though. Smartphones aren't made for storing blockchains.
All you would need, I think, would be an external wallet for BitUSD on a mobile platform. Forget transferring BTSX for now, but just build a BitUSD wallet.
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You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
...
Another thought - the younger gens have become accustomed to reading about members of their peer group becoming wealthy through various start ups.
Participation in the wealth created by these start ups has been largely limited to insiders and VC's. I know, from various conversations with GenX/Z/Millennials, that there is a general frustration with wealth creating vehicles of their generations being closed to all except a select few.
May want to look at marketing BTSX as a game-changing start-up that is open to anyone...
THIS! +5% +5%
We need to shift the perception of highly educated young people,
that they can invest profitably, that it is fair and that they deserve the chance to get a share in next gen technologies like Twitter, Facebook, Oculous Rift etc. that belong to their generation.
I love the example that the people who crowdfunded Oculous Rift would have gotten 150x..
Found an article outlining this argument explicitly! Worth using for sure,
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/28/5557120/what-if-oculus-rift-kickstarter-backers-had-gotten-equity
+5% +5%
We like the idea of having equal opportunity to participate rather than having equity allocation only available to accredited investors or 'elites.'
Using the Oculous Rift might be a great example of the current system versus BitsharesX.
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Look up the stats on the investment holdings of Gen X, Millenneals and Generation Z. They are holding cash/debt instruments and are under-exposed to income-generating assets.
The Boomers benefited from the 1960-2000 stock market run and are generally comfortable with investing in the stock markets.
The generations that followed have witnessed one horrible crash after another. The SP500 has not moved much since the 2000s and the volatility has been absurd. Just pull the 50 year SP500 chart.
The younger generations do not trust Wall Street with their money. Popular opinion is that Wall Street, Big Bank and Big Gov are all in bed together and conspire to funnel wealth from the general public.
But the younger generations are also highly educated and understand the need to invest in income producing assets. They just don't support the status quo and have voted with their feet.
You want a tidal wave of capital? Market bitShares to the GenX/Z/Millennials as the investment for a new generation. A technologically and morally superior alternative to Wall Street.
BTSX is not subject to the corruption of Wall Street, Big Bank, Big Gov.
You could show some slick market cap graphs and use phrases like "It's your turn."
The mobile interface is critical, but the message should not be "buy BTSX because we have cool doodads". It should be "BTSX is a profitable way to invest without trusting Wall Street/Big Bank/Big Gov with your money. We understand how you prefer to carry out business, so here are some best-of-class mobile apps to make things quick, convenient and easy."
I'm a gen Y and you basically described me to a tee. I stumbled on bitshares and instantly saw the potential it has over the BS that is wall street etc.
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I'm another old guy. But what about a phone app? I teach college and my students try to do everything (from research to term papers) on their phones.
One of our ideas is a mobile wallet which works like Venmo, meaning it has all potential to become viral and it would solve the identity registration issue as you get funds upfront from a friend.
People would be able to send bitUSD via a mobile app to any phone number. That phone number would receive an SMS with a link telling them that they received X amount of bitUSD from their friend and that they need to download the wallet app to access them. Part of the sent funds would be used to register the user's identity on the blockchain.
This would be just as viral as viber, whatsup, venmo, etc as it uses the same viral vector. Furthermore it could be just as disruptive to global remittance as whatsup and Viber are to the international sms/phonecall business.
Would there be any interest in the community for such an app at this stage?
Nice one.
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+5%
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"Forty-three percent of those in the 18–24 age bracket stated that they were “likely” or “very likely” to purchase or use digital currency. Only 8% of those over the age of 55 shared that sentiment"
http://www.coindesk.com/banking-survey-65-us-consumers-unlikely-buy-bitcoin/
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The younger age group is a great age group to target as we are generally more open minded than the older generations. The stereotype though is that sometimes we are naive but older people can be cynical.
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
Would you tip BitUSD or BTSX?
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
Would you tip BitUSD or BTSX?
How about we start with BitUSD on Reddit?
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How about we start with BitUSD on Reddit?
Oh yhea ... we need a tipping bot for bitUSD ... or even bitGLD :)
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
Would you tip BitUSD or BTSX?
How about we start with BitUSD on Reddit?
+5%
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How about we start with BitUSD on Reddit?
Oh yhea ... we need a tipping bot for bitUSD ... or even bitGLD :)
bitUSD and bitGLD would catch their attention!!
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
bitUSD tipping on reddit would be awesome! Please look into adapting your tipping solution for bitUSD if possible.
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bitsapphire, I think THAT is the best idea i've heard proposed in months. Has a viral potential built into it. Who has the experience to build such an app? We should green light this kind of project. B
Another idea that has viral potential built into it - application that allows to send some small tips to friends on social networks, something like https://www.changetip.com/ (https://www.changetip.com/), or another good example is dogetipbot on reddit - I think reddit community did very well using tips to recruit a lot of new users, wouldn't be surprised if this played a major role in dogecoin success. Tipbot doesn't require light client, so it would be easier to implement. A year ago I've started working on something similar for Bitcoin (bitmonetizer.com) but abandoned the project, still have some code that probably can be reused.
Yes ! I was not aware what a tipbot was until recently with discussion of changing forum software. It really does not need to be a server or client-side solution. A scraper that could parse the tips could work on a lot of sites without a lot of modification.
Maybe someone could fix dogetipbot to work on /r/bitshares and we could start growing over there ?