Author Topic: Now that Daniel Larimer (aka bytemaster) is gone...  (Read 44166 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline speedy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1160
    • View Profile
  • BitShares: speedy
I agree that a rebrand could be helpful, and calling it simply DEX is a great way to hammer home what it is. BitShares was quite confusing.

How about a community poll on rebranding to DEX? Its such a great name Im surprised there isnt a crypto out there already using it.

dex.openledger.info is so much better than bitshares.openledger.info
« Last Edit: June 03, 2016, 10:25:12 am by speedy »

jakub

  • Guest
I'd like to offer the community my perspective - as someone who is both an insider and outsider (I feel this way after being absent here for the last 4 months).

1. No matter if Dan Larimer has indeed dumped most of his stake or not, he is gone. The market cap has surely suffered because of that but overall it's a good thing. It feels to me like a toxic relationship has finally come to an end.
For me, on the intellectual level Dan is one of the brightest people in the industry, but as a business partner and a community leader he is quite destructive.
Now it's time to move on: enjoy the good aspect (i.e. Dan's genius we inherited in the Graphene code) and let go of the bad aspect (i.e. play the victim and blame Dan for being disloyal to us).

2. Recently I've gone through the details of most of the other blockchain projects that have similar or higher market evaluation, and the conclusion is quite overwhelming: as far as decentralized exchange (DEX) is concerned, currently there is only one other system that is comparable to BitShares in terms of sophistication of the underlying technology and maturity of the user interface - it's Ripple. Nothing else is even remotely close to us.

3. There is one huge challenge ahead of us: addressing the decision making and governance issue, with the additional difficulty of cultural splits. After all the experiments we've had with DPOS and worker proposals, it looks to me that without someone taking on the role of a community leader there is little chance for much progress. We can stay stagnant for a couple of months but eventually the competition will catch on and our technological advantage will be gone. Ideally, someone like abit or xeroc will need to step up: combining a strong commitment to BitShares, technical expertise and a good relationship with most of the community. We as a community should encourage this to happen and be very generous in terms of financial rewards: it's a tough role which should be rewarded accordingly. We can dream about decentralization, but I'm not aware of a business project that has succeeded without a clear leadership. For me, decentralization means that we can survive when a leader is gone, but still we cannot move forward without having one.

4. And last, but most important. Now, that Dan is gone and a new era begins, we should definitely scrap the name "BitShares" and replace it with something more neutral (e.g. "DEX"). Even if you initially think it's an unnecessary marketing gimmick, please do consider doing this. Treat is as a ritual and a symbol. Emotions, rituals and symbols are important - they define identity which in turn drives motivation.
It will take some effort to implement the rebranding, but I'm sure it will pay off big time. It will be an indication both for us and the outside world that something important has changed - that our community has finally got rid of its biggest liability (Dan's personality) while at the same time embraced its biggest asset (Dan's intellectual genius).
It is one of the few cases when rebranding does make sense, as it serves a much bigger purpose than just drawing attention. We need a new identity. And we need it mainly for us, internally.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2016, 09:20:40 am by jakub »