I love metaphors. They can take one set of facts and completely change which branch of government wants to arrest you. They can change you from a fan to a foe in one flash of insight. Or vice versa. Dr. Charles Evans had a fun time with this in his delightful classic blog post "A bitRose by any Other Name".
http://bitshares.org/a-bitrose-by-any-other-name/Most of us, who are familiar enough with Bitcoin to explain it to others, know that there are no ‘coins’ to be ‘mined’, as if coins were mined in the real world. Ore is mined, and coins are minted, which has nothing to do with how they smell or taste. These are similes and analogies. To fixate on their literal meanings is foolish, if not disingenuous.
So now, here's a switch of metaphors for you.
Does it change how you view things?
BitSharesX (BTSX) is shares in a DAC. BitShares (BTS) is shares in a DAC platform. A DAC operating system.
This DAC-OS provides (or will provide) a whole bunch of common services that are much less effective
if they aren't common services:
- A unified basket of stable, robust global currencies (bitAssets)
- A unified set of well compensated, best-of-breed delegates.
- A unified name system.
- A unified secure messaging system.
- A unified set of on and off ramps - portals to the fiat world.
- A unified marketing message.
- A unified consensus-based governing system.
- A unified family of tools and wallets.
- A unified way for newcomers to make instant friends with everyone already there.
- A built-in venture capital system where you can compete for start-up funds - democratically.
New business developers (DAC engineers) shouldn't want to reinvent these things any more than I would want to reinvent my computer's device drivers and operating system. And what sense would it make to have different competing operating systems, each with a subset of drivers and services?
Gee, I sure wish I could go back in time and invest in MS-DOS.
Rats.
An opportunity like that will never come around again.
BitShares takes the whole ecosystem into one DAC friendly free-trade zone with all the services that benefit from network effect already in place.
Any developer who wants to build a business would be crazy to stay on the outside and try to replicate that. Even if they can pick up the toolkit and get all the functions -
the network effect doesn't come with the toolkit! You get that by joining the club. You still run your own business with its own custom storefront and Internet presence. You just skipped a year or two of trying to get traffic to stop by!
Now do you begin to see why it wasn't hard for the VOTE and DNS developers to Seize the Day?
You may have heard many opinions that DAC Developers would never want to honor the old AGS/PTS value proposition, but there are plenty of examples of those who did. But that value proposition is now unassailable!
We offer instant network effect. Built in.
Come build you business in our free trade zone mall. Join us in free space. We are the mall developers. You can be a mall tenant. We've got lots of real estate for you - all wired up with power, plumbing, internet and customers browsing the halls. Add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own and get issued shares to match the value you have added to our free trade ecosystem. And its growing network effect.
You'd be crazy to locate your business outside the mall. Why start over?
So, the ravenous, irresistible, competition eating monster some have been fearing is now an inviting level business playing field where you can get a huge head start on your business model. We invite you to be a member rather than a competitor. We hold out an open hand of friendship and a value proposition that will get better and better over time.
In Free Space Real Estate, its about Location, Location, Location.
And yes, resistance is futile.