Author Topic: [Proposal] Distribute free CDs/DVD copies of Bitshares, direct mail AOL style  (Read 3501 times)

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Offline luckybit

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A very important aspect of the crypto-revolution is that it eliminates the need to exchange physical objects. Isn't this proposal just going in the opposite direction (namely backwards)?

Sending out safe hardware crypto-wallets, that would be a different thing! Actually there are pretty good open-source ones. What do you think?

Even better. I presented the idea as the first edition and you just improved upon it. It's just a matter of cost but who is going to turn down a free secure wallet?

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Offline isza

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A very important aspect of the crypto-revolution is that it eliminates the need to exchange physical objects. Isn't this proposal just going in the opposite direction (namely backwards)?

Sending out safe hardware crypto-wallets, that would be a different thing! Actually there are pretty good open-source ones. What do you think?
« Last Edit: March 11, 2014, 09:46:59 pm by isza »

Offline luckybit

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I can see the concept better transmitted with something like this: http://www.flash-usb-drive.com/index.php/products

Perhaps in a very targeted campaign.

This actually would be better. But what about videos?
Maybe add truecrypt too.

How about this one? http://www.flash-usb-drive.com/index.php/products/drives/custom-metal-card

$5.35 each, so $53,500 and you can ship to 10,000 people. That is a pretty good deal if done right.

« Last Edit: March 11, 2014, 06:37:02 pm by luckybit »
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Offline bitcoinba

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I can see the concept better transmitted with something like this: http://www.flash-usb-drive.com/index.php/products

Perhaps in a very targeted campaign.

Offline G1ng3rBr34dM4n

I'll reiterate isza's post by saying I would emphasize maybe we should "skate to where the puck is headed, not where its at [or was 20 years ago]"

...I don't even own a computer that has an optical drive anymore...

Food for thought.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2014, 02:02:27 pm by G1ng3rBr34dM4n »

Offline isza

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This is a promising proposal, but I think it would work better if they sent floppy disks via pigeon post.

Offline luckybit

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Anonymity is compromised the moment you start mailing material.
Anonymity isn't sacred for every user.

Not everyone wants anonymity. If early users promoting the Internet said we shouldn't promote AOL because insecure, it's expensive, slow, and it's not anonymous, who exactly would have tried the Internet?

If the early promoters of operating systems said let's not bother packing Windows in with computers, let's just ship computers without an OS or with a copy of Unix and let them install that then how many people would have got on the Internet or have been introduced to personal computers?

The people who never heard of Bitshares but want the financial services it offers and aren't necessarily concerned with the anonymity. The vast majority of people who will use Bitshares want to protect their money.

If they want to receive it anonymously then they can borrow one of these DVDs or CDs from a friend or get on Tor and download Bitshares.

I do see your argument that in some countries where it could be banned they might want anonymity. But I remember when I first got Linux I had to give my address to get a copy of the CD, and I also remember receiving DVDs from AOL for years in the late 90s to early 2000.

I also received CDs for Internet Explorer, Netscape, Microsoft Word, and a bunch of other software. Believe it or not this is how most people discover new technology, they aren't all going to be on Bitcointalk or surfing the dark web.

They might be reading a finance or investment magazine and stumble upon an advertisement for some new Forex software.

lol, my customers will have to give up anonymity in order to trade for USD, no getting around that.

Anonymity I think is a non issue. The benefit of direct marketing is it's long term and it's aggressive. When you have an address book packed with email address and home addresses you can use that information to introduce them to entire families of products. The entire family of Bitshares products and Invictus DACs could be given away to millions of people just as AOL did in the past. You can also use that information to find people/groups for crowd funding new projects, this is similar to how political donations or cause donations work where in the non-profit arena.

If it worked so well for AOL why not for Invictus? I don't think DACs are going to catch on unless we look outside the Bitcoin community. I also don't think DACs will catch on unless we drop the politics and appeal to economic self interest.

« Last Edit: March 10, 2014, 01:55:07 pm by luckybit »
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Offline barwizi

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Anonymity is compromised the moment you start mailing material.
Anonymity isn't sacred for every user.

Not everyone wants anonymity. If early users promoting the Internet said we shouldn't promote AOL because insecure, it's expensive, slow, and it's not anonymous, who exactly would have tried the Internet?

If the early promoters of operating systems said let's not bother packing Windows in with computers, let's just ship computers without an OS or with a copy of Unix and let them install that then how many people would have got on the Internet or have been introduced to personal computers?

The people who never heard of Bitshares but want the financial services it offers and aren't necessarily concerned with the anonymity. The vast majority of people who will use Bitshares want to protect their money.

If they want to receive it anonymously then they can borrow one of these DVDs or CDs from a friend or get on Tor and download Bitshares.

I do see your argument that in some countries where it could be banned they might want anonymity. But I remember when I first got Linux I had to give my address to get a copy of the CD, and I also remember receiving DVDs from AOL for years in the late 90s to early 2000.

I also received CDs for Internet Explorer, Netscape, Microsoft Word, and a bunch of other software. Believe it or not this is how most people discover new technology, they aren't all going to be on Bitcointalk or surfing the dark web.

They might be reading a finance or investment magazine and stumble upon an advertisement for some new Forex software.

lol, my customers will have to give up anonymity in order to trade for USD, no getting around that.
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Offline luckybit

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Anonymity is compromised the moment you start mailing material.
Anonymity isn't sacred for every user.

Not everyone wants anonymity. If early users promoting the Internet said we shouldn't promote AOL because insecure, it's expensive, slow, and it's not anonymous, who exactly would have tried the Internet?

If the early promoters of operating systems said let's not bother packing Windows in with computers, let's just ship computers without an OS or with a copy of Unix and let them install that then how many people would have got on the Internet or have been introduced to personal computers?

The people who never heard of Bitshares but want the financial services it offers and aren't necessarily concerned with the anonymity. The vast majority of people who will use Bitshares want to protect their money.

If they want to receive it anonymously then they can borrow one of these DVDs or CDs from a friend or get on Tor and download Bitshares.

I do see your argument that in some countries where it could be banned they might want anonymity. But I remember when I first got Linux I had to give my address to get a copy of the CD, and I also remember receiving DVDs from AOL for years in the late 90s to early 2000.

I also received CDs for Internet Explorer, Netscape, Microsoft Word, and a bunch of other software. Believe it or not this is how most people discover new technology, they aren't all going to be on Bitcointalk or surfing the dark web.

They might be reading a finance or investment magazine and stumble upon an advertisement for some new Forex software.
If I understood right, you propose to prepare a cd/dvd with all the "information package" and actually mail it?

Today I believe this method will not work.
All the information can be found on the web, quick, easy, cheap. I believe the new website will be ready soon and I think it can serve this role, with some press coverage it could work perfect.

Everyone is on the web but you're not going to reach people who don't spend a lot of time on the web. You have people in the world who aren't obsessed with Bitcoin, how will you reach these people? Maybe they are into Gold, into Forex, or are looking for some safe investment but would never care about Bitcoin.

It's the same problem I see that nerds had in the past where they have a new toy but don't want to explain it or show it to anyone outside of the nerd community. The nerds expect that everyone is just going to find their way to their community, their website, etc when from what I've seen in marketing it never actually works that way.

At some point you have to actually approach your target demographic and not assume they'll always approach you. So I guess the difference is between active marketing and passive. If you're doing passive marketing you're leaving hints around and expecting people to pick up on them and go to your website to learn more. If you're doing active marketing you're going to people and giving them the product to try or demo.

I believe press coverage and websites will not be enough.

I propose we take a more active approach. For the cost which is cheap it's probably going to have a long term impact which far exceeds the cost and the performance can be measured.

« Last Edit: March 10, 2014, 01:47:14 pm by luckybit »
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chryspano

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If I understood right, you propose to prepare a cd/dvd with all the "information package" and actually mail it?

Today I believe this method will not work.
All the information can be found on the web, quick, easy, cheap. I believe the new website will be ready soon and I think it can serve this role, with some press coverage it could work perfect.

Offline barwizi

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Anonymity is compromised the moment you start mailing material.
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The magical land of crypto, no freebies people.

Offline luckybit

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Anyone who has talent to make infographics, who can elegantly explain the concepts, and who has a direct marketing background could help set this up as a project.

Over time as addresses are collected from people who are interested or who fit the demographic then later on when new DACs are released this list can be used over and over to reach thousands or perhaps millions of people. We should not expect the demographic to find its way to this forum, we should find them and give our products to them along with education.


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Offline luckybit

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I think one of the best marketing strategies I can think of is to use direct mail and giveaways.

The more people who try the software the faster it will catch on and even if it does not catch on immediately, the more people who have a wallet the quicker it can go viral. AOL did exactly this to promote the Internet and AOL instant messenger.

For years people were introduced to the Internet by AOL's direct mail. We should find the ideal target demographics who would be interested in being early adopters and initiate a targeted direct mail campaign. A bitcoin wallet such as electrum and a Bitshares wallet should be included. Information on what Bitshares is, how it works, information on Bitcoin and how that works, how to print paper wallets, videos, interviews, a documentary, all of that should be included on the DVD.

In my opinion finance students, business students, computer science students, unemployed college graduates, gamers, all should be in the initial target demographic because I think if most of these people knew what Bitshares is and what it can do to improve their lives they'd at least check it out.

It should be presented as Bitcoin 2.0 in the documentation. The documentation should be heavily visual. It should also include some success stories such as people who are starting businesses or who are using Bitshares so that other people can learn why people would benefit from using it.

Please consider this marketing approach. If you like it then I propose this approach be one of the first community based approaches. The community should come together to create the direct mail package. Brian should lead the initiative of bringing the community together for this project. Video footage should be assembled by Invictus. Bounties could pay for the infographics. Exclusive interviews could be included too.

Linux, AOL, Microsoft, all have used this method. If not for the fact that I could get a free Linux CD back in the day there is no way I would have ever have been able to try it. I don't think it would cost too much to make these CDs and send them out, nor would it be difficult to find the demographic to send it out to. Over time people will hear about it in the news or some economic crisis will happen they will remember they have it installed already or they have a CD in their house somewhere.

Metrics to measure the success or failure of this approach would be the amount of users who install a Bitshares wallet or Keyhotee.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2014, 12:38:05 pm by luckybit »
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