Author Topic: Most compelling strength & biggest misconceptions/obstacles for adoption of BTS?  (Read 5720 times)

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Offline starspirit

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For entrepreneurs, money talks. For users, convenience talks. For investors, returns talk. Everything else is water under the bridge.

Offline merivercap

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One big hurdle in adoption is that BTS is 'pre-mined' and the early stakeholders control it.   I had that reaction and that's what turned me off initially when I first learned about it in a webinar late last year.  Bytemaster responded very well to Andreas Antonopoulus's questions about it here: http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-129-dogeparty-and-delegated-proof-of-stake

I agree logically and economically the way BTS was created and has grown makes perfect sense as a startup business, but it is a very difficult  psychological  hurdle to overcome, especially with something that is perceived as sacred as money.  I also don't like the feeling of being a late adopter and it's the same problem Bitcoin had when prices started rising quickly....  It's the economics of envy as Bytemaster mentioned.  I'm an anarchocapitalist and it took me a while to overcome the psychological hurdle so I can't imagine what the average person would have to go through to understand.  Sometimes I wonder if a 100% freely distributed coin with built in referral incentives and inflation going to development might not be more appealing for mass marketing and network effect.  On the other hand when people buy something, people value it more, perceive it to have greater value, have a greater sense of ownership of both the asset and their decisions.  A purchase can create a commitment & consistency bias.

In any case I think messaging is incredibly important to address this question.  I think the focus should probably move away from Bitshares as a global currency even though that is an appropriate label.   The 'Decentralized Exchange' tagline and rebranding is great because it emphasizes a different aspect of Bitshares and complements Bitcoin.  Promoting Bitshares as a company also makes sense and will make it easier for people to accept.   You can just tell people they are buying shares in a company like Apple Inc. in 1980... better yet it's one of the very first Distributed Autonomous Companies ever!  You can further explain that Bitshares has an explicit revenue model as a service that charges transaction fees that are eventually paid as dividends to the company that will drive the value of the company.  --BTW since transaction fees may eventually outpace the pay for delegates or any needs for the system, doesn't it mean that way far out in the future if everyone is using Bitshares that the transaction costs will eventually just go back to the users/shareholders and it really is more like a mutual benefit organization then a typical for-profit organization?  Pretty fascinating to think about.... maybe we should call it a mutual benefit organization than a company then?  Wouldn't the 'mutual benefit organization' idea dispel the psychological hurdle I am describing?   Am I missing something?  Curious to know your thoughts.  Thanks. 
« Last Edit: February 28, 2015, 05:16:16 am by merivercap »
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Offline merivercap

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Here are 2 misconceived/FUD points that I often hear people mention:

-BitShares is centralized! There are only 101 delegates.
-The peg will never work! As soon as there is a margin call, margin calls will cascade and the whole thing will collapse and BitUSD will be black-swaned into nothing.

What would be your answers?

I would say:
-101 delegate positions are meant to replace the concentration of mining pools and is more decentralized.

How do you answer the second one?  In the unlikely event BTS falls by 67%, bitUSD holders will get 100% worth the collateral in BTS. 

BTW transaction fees will be the main revenue source in the long run to maintain the value of BTS.  What kind of transaction fees & volume do we have currently and do we have something that tracks that?  I couldn't find it in the blockexplorer.  Thanks.
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Offline merivercap

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1. Increased liquidity
2. Slick one-click mobile design
3. Easy ecommerce integration
4. ? ? ?
5. PROFIT

Yeah huge market.  Nice chart. You'll probably need gateways for retailers. 
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Offline speedy

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Yeah that idea of cascading margin calls has become really popular since that Preston article. What they dont get/like to ignore is that the margin call takes place on the internal exchange, and has no effect on how much the BTS collateral is actually worth on the external exchanges, therefore cascading margin calls is just a nice soundbite.

Offline xeroc

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Here are 2 misconceived/FUD points that I often hear people mention:

-BitShares is centralized! There are only 101 delegates.
-The peg will never work! As soon as there is a margin call, margin calls will cascade and the whole thing will collapse and BitUSD will be black-swaned into nothing.
Wow @2
mI thought you can even see the margin call in a graphical representation at btsblocks.com .. so that reason is just misinformation, i.e. FUD ..

Offline speedy

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Here are 2 misconceived/FUD points that I often hear people mention:

-BitShares is centralized! There are only 101 delegates.
-The peg will never work! As soon as there is a margin call, margin calls will cascade and the whole thing will collapse and BitUSD will be black-swaned into nothing.

Offline CLains

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1. Increased liquidity
2. Slick one-click mobile design
3. Easy ecommerce integration
4. ? ? ?
5. PROFIT
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 10:22:08 am by CLains »

Offline merivercap

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> Biggest misconceptions or obstacles needed to overcome for adoption of BTS?

That's easy: It's the people
Reason: People don't understand the advantages of a decentralized exchange with market pegged assets .. not yet ..
Can you remember 2009 when the bitcoin paper was published and no one cared?

But what specifically about the people?  Bitcoin is difficult to understand.  Money is also difficult to understand.  bitUSD I suspect is easier to understand...  ELI5 is important.  I changed the title a bit and I think your comment on the other thread fits here better.

for me the biggest thing is that you can own (a percentage) of the system by holding BTS (NOTES or whatever the base asset is) ..

You can actually telly your friends:
- I own a bank
- I own a stock exchange
- I own a forex
- I own a music industry :)
- I own a gambling industry :)
 ....

I think that is a compelling way to describe it.  On one hand it may be overwhelming to describe all those various systems and maybe better to select the few industries that interests someone the most..... on the other hand I can imagine an infomercial/sales pitch that will go through that whole laundry list of DACs... bank, stock exchange.. foreign exchange.. etc.. and ending with 'You can have the whole shebang for a limited time of $9.99 per share..... hurry before this offer ends...!'...
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Offline xeroc

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> Biggest misconceptions or obstacles needed to overcome for adoption of BTS?

That's easy: It's the people
Reason: People don't understand the advantages of a decentralized exchange with market pegged assets .. not yet ..
Can you remember 2009 when the bitcoin paper was published and no one cared?

Offline merivercap

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Just curious what you guys think.. maybe from the mainstream perspective and the Bitcoiner perspective....
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 07:26:43 am by merivercap »
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