How much is a new user worth?

[GaltReport]

...
a) We need to go hard or go home, or someone else will come and blow our space up.  We don't want to be 2nd best in the space that we (I use that term generously... more like you) invented. ...

 

[Stan]

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

I'm no marketing expert (but I know several of them are lurking about here).

It seems like they ought to be able to design the right "funnels" to reach the right demographic.  If this is used to clinch the deal after the new prospect has passed a few gates that the penny pinchers won't go past then it seems like you can greatly reduce the wasted ammo.

"But wait!  If you act now, you can get a debit card pre-loaded with ten trillion pico-bitUSD!  Just pay shipping and handling and call 1-800-BIT-GOLD now.  Don't delay, act today!  That number again 1-800-BIT-GOLD.  Robotically honest operators are standing by!"

[oldman]

Folks are getting a bit short-sighted here.

The problem with diluting is that it sets precedent.

Diluting under the wise and benign rule of BM seems like a good idea because it satisfies short-term greed with no perceived downside.

Bitshares just prints some money to boost the economy.

Sound familiar?

Dilution, inflation, debasement... whatever you want to call it, the end result is always the same.

I state categorically that I3 and the Bitshares community have a moral imperative not to inflate/dilute/debase the share supply.

Doing so is akin to voting to be infected by a disease that will slowly kill BTSX.

A few will get wealthy in the short term, the masses will suffer in the long term.

We do not want to become the US Gov.

I3 has ample development funds that if spent wisely will get Bitshares to critical mass.

They need to get the client/trading platform sorted, phone apps pushed out, fiat gateways in place.

Then do a simple marketing campaign to the crypto crowd and perhaps a non-crypto-but-tech-savvy demographic (ie. Gen X/Y).

This should cause the market cap to increase substantially.

At that point, once the 'hey look at us' marketing is exhausted, they could consider using a referral system or other shenanigans to engage other demographics.

Low hanging fruit first.

[James212]

Anyway, My 2 cents.

1. While dilution has its own concerns, I think the counter opinions trump it. 
a) We need to go hard or go home, or someone else will come and blow our space up.  We don't want to be 2nd best in the space that we (I use that term generously... more like you) invented. My experience is it is common for technologists to think great products sell themselves.  They never do in reality. Money for marketing needs to come from somewhere. Be it dilution, dev funds, or other. So you need to have a strategy for it no matter what the proposed marketing plan is... Be it referral program or other.   So what is BTSX's strategy for funding marketing?  You have to have one or you are toast to someone who does.

  Very well said!

[gamey]

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

Yes I'm afraid it'll attract people who hang out on fatwallet or whatever those penny pinching sites are.  That has been something of a concern.  People will just use it up and move on.  OpenBazaar community is better, but not sure how to get them to adopt bitsharesx.

[vegolino]

Bytemaster you have my full support for dilution 

[eagleeye]

Why not just advertise it "A credit card that pays you interest"  they hold the $1000 dollars and boom they get interest from it.  (This is a 11 page thread im only on page 2)

[eagleeye]

Yup Bytemaster does it again.

[Empirical1.1]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.

As in not enough or too much?

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

 

Been very impressed with your logic and knowledge here. A big asset in this area, lot of good but measured ideas. 

[bitmarket]

What a truly epic thread... So many good points it is making my head spin.  I think I can make killer videos, just about this discussion.

Anyway, My 2 cents.

1. While dilution has its own concerns, I think the counter opinions trump it. 
a) We need to go hard or go home, or someone else will come and blow our space up.  We don't want to be 2nd best in the space that we (I use that term generously... more like you) invented. My experience is it is common for technologists to think great products sell themselves.  They never do in reality. Money for marketing needs to come from somewhere. Be it dilution, dev funds, or other. So you need to have a strategy for it no matter what the proposed marketing plan is... Be it referral program or other.   So what is BTSX's strategy for funding marketing?  You have to have one or you are toast to someone who does.
b) The dilution of shares to buy assets(people, customers, employees, marketing) is perfectly reasonable business behavior.  Moving forward Arhags point about a constitutional amendment process (AKA hard fork or not) should be how it is handled.  Put it on the endless list of things for Devs to do.

2. We have the opportunity to do some amazing ground breaking stuff here. Not necessarily now, but its fun to think about what is possible.  Just for shits and giggles imagine doing a proper acquisition. Imagine buying a company like Bitpay or coinbase through share dilution. Possibilities are amazing.

3. I think a bitusd drop (think referral program)is a great way to get bitUSD's in peoples hands but of course the devil is in the detail. You want the right people for the least cost.

4.I love referral programs because they are the least risky form of marketing.  You only pay once you have a result. The key is to clearly identify your result so you are happy when you pay.  I think Stan's suggestion of being a bank first and later a currency is profound. The goal of the referral is to get people to buy and hold bitUSD.

There seems to be 2 main attractions to holding bitUSD:
A)There is talk of bitUSD holders earning interest, but I must confess I do not understand this process or how this interest rate is determined. Can someone please explain this so I get my head around it. 
B) Your money is collateralize 200%.  This is huge.  I know there is a huge market for this.  I know one wesbite. www.sovereignman.com that has over 100,000 free subscribers, and 5,000 paid subscribers to subscribe to find out things like where is the safest jurisdiction to store your money. At present his best advice is to get an account in a Singapore Bank because they are capitalized at 25%. And because you can hold 3 assets: gold Singapore Dollars and USD. They still pay near zero interest, and you have to physically fly there to open an account, and they charge fees (min $5/month. Plus you have to declare it on your FBAR form and everything else. If the bitUSD interest rate is close to 5%p.a. then this is by far the best coolest bank in the world.

5. And finally MethodX's suggestion of integrating with OB was great.  Although this seemingly contradicts my above praise of "Be a bank first" This union would be perfect.  OB would love to promote it self with:  Sign up and fund your OB account with $100 bitUSD and we will give you $5bitUSD now.    This is exactly the closed crypto world where bitUSD will flourish.

[bitcoinba]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.

As in not enough or too much?

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

 

[donkeypong]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.

As in not enough or too much?

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

That's a cool idea also. Win-win. Maybe OB would go for it.

[Method-X]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.

As in not enough or too much?

The strategy in general is old hat. It will mostly attract frugal people trying to penny pinch. These kind of give-aways were unique 10 years ago when PayPal did it... not so much anymore. I see this as basically airdropping BitUSD on a strategically poor demographic. There are WAY better places to seed BitUSD. Example: Airdrop BitUSD on the OpenBazaar community (after integrating BitUSD into their code). This way it'll be spent within a community that will genuinely benefit from a non-volatile crypto and it has a good potential of spreading to other markets after OB success.  We get to piggyback on OB publicity, real demand is created for BitUSD, important eyes are on OB, the PEG is enforced through increased volume, etc, etc etc. See this post.

[tonyk]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.

As in not enough or too much?

[Method-X]

A traditional company issues new shares when it needs capital for business expansion. It buys back stocks when it has plenty of cash. Bitshares X as a company, in fact constantly buys back its shares through burning BTSX. And when the company operates better in the future, the burning rate would increase. It makes a lot of sense to issue new stocks to expand business, given that we already have a clear and well-thought strategy.

You make a good point. Shares vs. coin metaphor.

Inflation aside, I'm still not convinced a $100 bonus on a BitUSD debit card will be a catalyst for adoption to begin with.