Excellent job! Thank you for your efforts!

Not saying I agree with his views on deflationary currency - but - he is the first/only highly visible gov official (that I'm aware of) that has publicly ruminated on the merits of crypto.

He is awesome because he is taking a run at the status quo (though it seems like he just folded rather badly).

The idea is pretty straight forward:

Yanis blogs about Bitshares and finds flaws - win, we get huge exposure and maybe learn a thing or two.

Yanis blogs about Bitshares and likes it - win, we get huge exposure and maybe a new supporter.

Quote from: OldMan on February 19, 2015, 04:16:37 pm

But you sure don't see the core devs or community saying "Let's publicly support illegal commerce!".

I don't want the core devs supporting this. That would be bad for perception. However, I do want to continue getting more open minded community members interested in helping out with educating that particular market. You can't prevent random people on the Internet from talking about a technology they think could be useful (in this case with escrow hedging).

Great to see my message has been received, and thank you for keeping an open mind!

This entire conversation shows the value of a decentralized business model - whole is greater than the parts.

Good hunting...

Quote from: OldMan on February 18, 2015, 04:22:23 am

let's not forget for one moment that darknet commerce includes weapons, prostitution, child porn and basically everything humanity has declared unfit for public consumption)

Do people actually think this!!?? Wow, no wonder there's such a knee jerk reaction to DarkNet adoption. Evolution and Agora are the two largest dark markets and you absolutely can't get child porn or prostitutes on them. If they did, nobody in their right mind would go near them. Dark markets are about open access to drugs.

I highly recommend you download Tor and go here: http://k5zq47j6wd3wdvjq.onion/login - sign up and see for yourself what dark markets are about. I know for a fact you're a big supporter of OpenBazaar. The only difference between OB and Evolution is the former is decentralized while the latter isn't. That's it.

Here's the problem:

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-florida-man-gets-nine-years-prison-in-new-jersey-over-global-poison-plot-2015-2

Quote from: OldMan on February 17, 2015, 04:22:57 pm

Quote from: onceuponatime on February 17, 2015, 05:53:45 am

Quote from: OldMan on February 17, 2015, 05:32:22 am

Careful what you wish for.

I think Nurse Mary J would be good place to start...

Yes, very low hanging, lucrative fruit upon which to feed for the growth we require to become big and strong enough to tackle bigger things.

Seeking to openly support illegal commerce in controlled substances is perhaps not the most well-considered strategy for a fledgling technology.

However, the use case for drugs, porn and gambling is undeniable.

So why not go after the legal drug market in Colorado etc., where they are openly seeking banking solutions, and strike out into porn and gambling?

Seems to be a lot of low fruit before we need to knock boots with the dark side.

I understand what you're saying but what is your practical strategy for achieving this? It's one thing to say "go after marijuana dispensaries" and another thing entirely to lay out a blueprint that will make it happen. There are certain prerequisites needing fulfillment before we can effectively move to larger markets. For example, bitUSD liquidity is a BIG obstacle holding back functionality. We have to be realistic about where our technology is currently useful vs. where it will be useful in the future. Building momentum and network effect means starting small and probably in areas most would consider politically incorrect. Bitcoin would have died in obscurity if it weren't for the original Silk Road; indeed dark markets remain Bitcoins primary use case outside speculative investing.

From darkness cometh light.

I'm not sure the strategy/blueprint for the legitimate controlled substance market is any different than the strategy for the illegitimate controlled substance market; the target demographic is similar but on a smaller scale. The real difference is the risk proposition.

Both the darknets and med pot have a banking problem for which bitUSD is a near-perfect solution. However, aiding, abetting and otherwise enabling darknet commerce (and while I agree 100% on generic medication, let's not forget for one moment that darknet commerce includes weapons, prostitution, child porn and basically everything humanity has declared unfit for public consumption) creates a huge tail risk for the entire Bitshares ecosystem.

The medical pot industry, on the other hand, is quasi-legal and organized to the point of attempting to form a legitimate credit union. Aiding med pot commerce carries far less risk of being associated with dealers, pimps and pedophiles. Additionally, the amount of money floating around med pot, as well as the astronomical growth rate of the industry, makes the risk/reward ratio very attractive.

A similar case could be made for the porn and gambling industries. The low fees and instant confirmation of bitUSD is absolutely perfect for cam girls, custom porn, single serving sales, betting, poker, blackjack, etc. etc.

As to a blue print I would suggest:

- Finding a willing advocate on the ground in Colorado, preferably someone involved in the credit union project or a community/forum leader with good rep, and pay them a stipend from the delegate pool to lobby for bitUSD adoption from within the community.

- Put ads on every medical pot forum - growers, retailers, users.

- Systematically target retailers for bitUSD integration. This is cold call work - literally call them up, ask for the owner and give them an elevator pitch. Email them a starter pack with a few bitUSD and point them to the BTS store to try it out.

- Have the advocate attend industry events, meets, etc. and hand out flyers. Work towards setting up a booth.

- Have the advocate visit retailers and ask to pay with bitUSD.

Etc.

For porn, get a delegate whose only job is to hit up cam girls and porn production companies. Pay cam girls in bitUSD. Order some custom porn. It's a tight industry and word will spread fast. Folks will only need to use bitUSD once to be sold, and they will tell their friends...

If we got med pot and even a small fraction of the porn industry on board Bitshares would have a moon run, at which point delegate pay would be enough to really put some muscle behind the marketing machine.

TL;DR:

1. Med pot

2. Porn

3. Mainstream

Careful what you wish for.

I think Nurse Mary J would be good place to start...

The team as a whole owes $100,000 in taxes and has had to sell 10m bts recently.

A small whale right there.

And there's the sell pressure.

I have spoken with several people in this space, and the issue is real. They have to walk on pins and needles here in Canada too.

Let's get practical though.. how will bitUSD solve this industry issue if they cannot get the bitUSD into a real bank account where they can make payments on bills and pay vendors and take payments from customers etc? What did you have in mind?

Accepting bitUSD for sales; paying employees/suppliers etc. in bitUSD and storing float/profits in bitUSD (imagine them finding out they could be making 1.5% on their $100M float!)

Can also take BTC and convert to bitUSD.

No bank required.

So perfect it hurts.