Pre-poposal: DASH REMITTANCES - Increasing the supply of Dash in Venezuela

[AlejandroE]

Hello Dash Community! We are excited to introduce you the pre-proposal for Dash Remittances - The best way to increase the supply of Dash in Venezuela!

1- MAIN OBJECTIVE:
Dash Remittances aims to increase the supply of Dash in Venezuela in an organic way, so we can scale the community, the merchants and the transactions to higher limits. Right now we have created a whole ecosystem in the country (mostly in Caracas, our capital), we have +900 merchants accepting Dash, a community that has grown up to 10k users. And now it is time to scale in order to keep Dash flowing in the economy and increase its usage.

2- THE PROBLEM:
Currently the supply of Dash in Venezuela is not enough to cover the whole economy.

The current liquidity of Bolivares in the economy is aprox: Bs. 1,250,000,000,000,000. Which with a fair Bs/USD rate of Bs.1,500,000 per dollar, it gives us $833 millions. This, with a Dash rate of 150$ = 5,333,333 DASH aprox. This is a general number for the whole macroeconomy. If we can get 5% of that it would be 277,000 DASH ($41 millions).

Currently, there are aprox $200,000 in DASH flowing in the Venezuelan economy so it is clear that we need more Dash.

3- THE OPPORTUNITY:
There are aprox 4 millions of Venezuelan living overseas, and 3 millions in Venezuela are receiving remittances every month. In average each remit is around $50. In 2017 within $1,2 - $1,5 billions entered to Venezuela in terms of remittances. So it is a BIG opportunity for Dash to enter this market since almost all the remits are made with a 3rd party (middleman) who charge up to 30%, they are not reliable and it takes a lot of time to complete the procedure.

4- THE SOLUTION:
We will teach Venezuelan living overseas how to send money home with Dash. We will use presential lectures and videos. We will show them that it is easier, cheaper and more secure to send money to their relatives using Dash with no middle man needed.

- Where? We will start these activities in Spain. We chose it for 3 main reasons:

1. It is the second biggest Venezuelan community (after the US), with a total of 200,000 Venezuelan living there.
2. It is easier to buy Dash than in other countries (i.e. Kraken and Bitnovo).
3. Venezuelan community in Spain is not so spread like in other countries (so it is easier to gather them), also in Spain people can save more money.

- How?

• Set up 2 weekly lectures for 20 persons each, for a total of 160 people/month.
• Make video tutorials about how to buy Dash with Euro and how to send it.
• These tutorial videos will be a complement of the video tutorials from Dash Help (How to use the Dash Wallet). And will e able to see by everyone for free.

- Lectures and Alliances:

• Teach Venezuelan how to buy Dash in Kraken, Uphold, Bittrex, Bitnovo.
• Give them a tip of 2$ each.
• Make a live demo of sending Dash to Venezuela throught Skype.
• Ask people just the email of their relatives in Venezuela so we can send them a weekly newsletter from Dash Merchant Venezuela showing them where they can spend their Dash and we will ask them which are the merchants that they go often to make purchases so we can affiliate them.
• As in our other projects, Dash Help will be the official support center for Dash Remittances, where people will be able to ask anything they want related to Dash and how to remit money.
• Promote the use of Dash Text so people can send Dash to their family by just typing commands.
• Dash Text integration with Whatsapp so people can use it more easily.

5- BUSINESS MODEL AND SUSTAINANILITY:
In case a person doesn't want to deal with the remit process (which will be very easy), we will offer the service so we to do it for them, and we will charge a small fee of the amount that wants to be remitted. The fee would be smaller than the other remittances companies so we can be competitive and in the same way we can start charging clients since the very begining.

6- WHO ARE WE: We are the same team of:

- Dash Help Support Center:

- Dash Merchant Venezuela:

- Dash Text:

Gorka Garcia: Project Manager Bachelor of Business Administration with a Diploma in Transportation and Maritime Trade at UCAB. He worked in the administration of companies in the metallurgical sector. He lives in Spain.

Alejandro Echeverría: Proposal owner, strategy. Mechanical Engineer, co-founder of Dash Help - Support Center, Dash Merchant Venezuela and Dash Text. He is also advisor for some teams in the Dash Community like Dash Argentina and Dash Youth Venezuela. Dedicated himself to make profitable business models (Easymed, TuGruero- https://tugruero.io/, Ctrl+C-USB). DASH Forum/Discord: AlejandroE. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-echeverrria-b739b1101/).

Lorenzo Rey: Project Lead. I am an Electronic Engineer, CTO of Dash Help (Support Center), Dash Merchant - Massive Adoption Program and Dash Text. I am also a spokesperson for Dash in Venezuela and Latin America, I've been the speaker in Dash Caracas conferences, in Dash Youth conferences and presentations, and in events such as the Crypto Latin Fest. I've worked with Rodrigo from Dash Brasil, and with Sam Barbosa, Developer of the Dash Core Team. I've also been an advisor for many other projects such as Dash Trip, Dash Youth, Agrocognitive, and more. DASH Forum: LorenzoRey, Telegram: LorenzoRey, Discord: LorenzoReyC Ig: LorenzoReyC Tw: LorenzoReyC

Carlos Echeverria: He´s got a degree in Business Administration from UNIMET (Universidad Metropolitana) in Caracas, Venezuela. He has been in charge of the finance and administration of all above companies as equal business asociated. (Ig: carlosjem1993. Tw: carlosjem. DASH Forum/Discord: carlosjem/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-echeverria-081a57a9/).

Carlos Heinze: Production engineer from USB (Universidad Simon Bolivar) in Caracas, Venezuela. He has been in charge of the operations of customer service, call center support and logistic of all above companies as equal business asociate. (Ig/Tw: @nachoheinze. DASH Forum: Carlos Heinze. Discord: CarlosH, Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-heinze-43483ab8/).

7- BUDGET:

Thanks for taking the time for reading this proposal!

Contact Information:

Email Address: [email protected]
Website: www.dashremittances.io (in construction)

Social Networks:
-Facebook: Dash Remittances
-Instagram: @dashremittances
-Twitter: @dashremittances

 

[akhavr]

2- THE PROBLEM:​

Currently the supply of Dash in Venezuela is not enough to cover the whole economy.

The current liquidity of Bolivares in the economy is aprox: Bs. 1,250,000,000,000,000. Which with a fair Bs/USD rate of Bs.1,500,000 per dollar, it gives us $833 millions. This, with a Dash rate of 150$ = 5,333,333 DASH aprox. This is a general number for the whole macroeconomy. If we can get 5% of that it would be 277,000 DASH ($41 millions).

Currently, there are aprox $200,000 in DASH flowing in the Venezuelan economy so it is clear that we need more Dash.

I find this line of reasoning to be a problem. If there would be a real shortage of Dash within Venezuelan economy, then Bolivar/Dash rate would be so high, so Bolivar-Dash-USD (or -EUR) arbitrage would be extremely profitable. If it is the case - there should be trails left, on a blockchain, exchange rates, etc.

Are there any?

 

[Unstoppable]

Are the bitnovo cards in spain still available? Are they easy to find? Tell me more about that situation. Do they work well, are they fairly priced?

 

[bhkien]

I am wondering why number of transactions still low when we have a lot of Dash acceptance merchants?

 

[AlejandroE]

I am wondering why number of transactions still low when we have a lot of Dash acceptance merchants?

Hello bhkien, thanks for your question, we have achieved great numbers of merchant adoption and transaction volume has increased, however we are far from where we want to be, merchants understand that accepting Dash won't magically fill their stores with clients paying with Dash, but being prepared for a growing Dash economy is good for their businesess long term.

So we've got a growing number of merchants, but we need to incentivize the users as well, this proposal is one of the most important ways to target the users, to get Dash into peoples hands so they can go and spend it in Dash accepting merchants, and which will help transaction volume to increase.

 

[AlejandroE]

I find this line of reasoning to be a problem. If there would be a real shortage of Dash within Venezuelan economy, then Bolivar/Dash rate would be so high, so Bolivar-Dash-USD (or -EUR) arbitrage would be extremely profitable. If it is the case - there should be trails left, on a blockchain, exchange rates, etc.

Are there any?

Hello akhavr! thanks for your comment.

It would only be high if that shortage was complemented by high demand for it, that's not the case yet (speaking about countrywide numbers), currently, if you look at the numbers compared to other cryptocurrencies, Dash is the most successful yet in Venezuela, but remember that the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem is still very small, demand from actual masses is yet to occur and we're working on that. This proposal both brings more Dash into the economy, but also creates demand for it.

 

[Argon31]

$150/Month Hosting? Hmmmm...I am smelling greed..

When you already have a funded project, what is the desperation to get more money out of the treasury?

 

[bhkien]

Hello bhkien, thanks for your question, we have achieved great numbers of merchant adoption and transaction volume has increased, however we are far from where we want to be, merchants understand that accepting Dash won't magically fill their stores with clients paying with Dash, but being prepared for a growing Dash economy is good for their businesess long term.

So we've got a growing number of merchants, but we need to incentivize the users as well, this proposal is one of the most important ways to target the users, to get Dash into peoples hands so they can go and spend it in Dash accepting merchants, and which will help transaction volume to increase.

How many merchants accept Dash is enough?

If we have enough number of Dash accepting merchants, how can we incentive users to spend Dash?

Is there any strategy to let users spend Dash even with a small number of Dash accepting merchants?

 

[AlejandroE]

Are the bitnovo cards in spain still available? Are they easy to find? Tell me more about that situation. Do they work well, are they fairly priced?

Hello Unstoppable, thanks for your question.

Yes, Bitnovo cards are still available in Spain, you can buy a Dash in different ways, some of them are:1- Bitnovo cards which work like a debit card and you can recharge them whenever you can with Dash. 2- Prepaid cards with Dash which you can redeem to your wallet (these cards are available in more than 15.000 places according to their site, our representant ther, Gorka, has confirmed that there Bitnovo cashiers "everywhere"). 3- Buy Dash directly in the Bitnovo website with bank transfer, debid card and BTC.

However we are still studying our options and we will use Kraken as our first option. Let me know if you need some more info. Thanks so much.

Best,
Alejandro

 

[AlejandroE]

$150/Month Hosting? Hmmmm...I am smelling greed..

When you already have a funded project, what is the desperation to get more money out of the treasury?

Hello Argon31, We feel like you think it's weird for the same team to have multiple projects, I'd like you to understand our strategy and our philosophy which we discussed on the "Los 3 amigos" podcast with @Mark Mason and @thedesertlynx

Many projects ask huge amounts of money from the treasury to do everything in one proposal. That takes away the opportunity from MNOs to vote on what things they like and which things they don't like, also they take longer to produce results, and they also put strain in the budget.

We have one project at it's core: Massive Adoption of Dash in Venezuela, and there are many angles to attack in order to achieve that, some are being attacked by other teams, such as Dash Youth, Dash Trip, Dash Conferences, etc. In our case, we develop solutions and things that work together with each other. We started with Dash Help providing support, then we created Dash Merchant that benefits greatly from the existence of the Support Center, business can call any time to solve their issues, working with merchants we found out there are many problems at the point of sale because of bad signal reception, bad smartphones, etc. So we came up with Dash Text, an easy way to pay with dumb phones and no internet connectivity. Now Dash Text is also one of the best tools to get Venezuelans outside the country to send remittances, so the Dash Remittances proposal benefits greatly from Dash Text.

We create solutions that have synergy with each other, and we show quick results with each one of them, but they all belong to the same greater project, we just think its wiser to show results separately with each project, and give the opportunity for MNOs to support our initiatives one by one, and we also think it's healthier (specially considering the current dash price) not to submit a mega proposal asking for too many funds at once to do everything.

But combining all our proposals, we have asked for less funds than various other proposals, and we have given way more results, we hope you can support us!

 

[AlejandroE]

How many merchants accept Dash is enough?

If we have enough number of Dash accepting merchants, how can we incentive users to spend Dash?

Is there any strategy to let users spend Dash even with a small number of Dash accepting merchants?

You can have a million merchants, if people don't have Dash, it still won't matter, you need to put focus on the user as well.
And yes this proposal is part of the strategy to do that, for users to spend Dash you need to put Dash into their hands organically, not with airdrops, the current state of remittances to Venezuela is a mess, and there's a huge market for it as we described in the proposal, so this is a great way to organically put Dash into people's hands, and combined with other efforts and strategies like discounts, dash back, publicity, they will spend those Dash in the merchants that already accept it, both users and merchants will continue to grow together over time, but you have to put focus on both.

 

[TaoOfSatoshi]

You can have a million merchants, if people don't have Dash, it still won't matter, you need to put focus on the user as well.
And yes this proposal is part of the strategy to do that, for users to spend Dash you need to put Dash into their hands organically, not with airdrops, the current state of remittances to Venezuela is a mess, and there's a huge market for it as we described in the proposal, so this is a great way to organically put Dash into people's hands, and combined with other efforts and strategies like discounts, dash back, publicity, they will spend those Dash in the merchants that already accept it, both users and merchants will continue to grow together over time, but you have to put focus on both.

Yes, you need the three cogs of adoption: Merchants, consumers, and liquidity. Without all three, we will fail to garner adoption. You have my support!

 

[Unstoppable]

I'll be voting yes.

 

[AlejandroE]

Yes, you need the three cogs of adoption: Merchants, consumers, and liquidity. Without all three, we will fail to garner adoption. You have my support!

Thank you so much Tao!

 

[AlejandroE]

I'll be voting yes.

Thanks so much, like in all our projects we will work hard! The key is to keep focus on our strategy.

 

[DashToshi]

You're asking for $150/mo for hosting when a $5/mo will surely be more than enough for a static website
Also noticed you're asking the same amount for the other projects that you manage.
Why not use Digital Ocean (which is a very reliable solution) and only charges you $5/mo for their cheapest plan?
That would save $145 for this proposal only and you could probably do the same for all the other proposals that you manage.
And I'm not even suggesting you to host all your websites in the same server (which would be totally possible and easy for static websites at least).

 

[AlejandroE]

Hello, thanks for your comment and suggestion. Remember that we make projections of the budget based on the volatility of Dash (remember that in the last 3 months Dash and cryptos in general lost 65% of their value),and also notice that in some of our projects (like Dash Help and Dash Merchant) we work up to 2 more months without funding. So the budget is set up to be covered in all these cirumsntances.

I hope I have properly answered you. If you need something else, let me know!

Best,
Alejandro

 

[Arthyron]

@AlejandroE -- Thank you for your pre-proposal, another great idea from a proven team already doing a tremendous job in one of our most critical markets. My only concerns are whether you feel that you and your team are too busy splitting your efforts, roles, and resources between so many projects? Additionally, the transfer of remittances internationally can often be very complicated from a legal standpoint. What are the legal concerns in actively operating a remittance service in Spain -> Venezuela? Will you need to obtain a money transfer license of some sort?

 

[AlejandroE]

@AlejandroE -- Thank you for your pre-proposal, another great idea from a proven team already doing a tremendous job in one of our most critical markets. My only concerns are whether you feel that you and your team are too busy splitting your efforts, roles, and resources between so many projects? Additionally, the transfer of remittances internationally can often be very complicated from a legal standpoint. What are the legal concerns in actively operating a remittance service in Spain -> Venezuela? Will you need to obtain a money transfer license of some sort?

Hello Arthyron thanks for your words and support Regarding yout concerns:

1- Before Dash, we were already managing 4 succesful companies in Venezuela (and we still manage them today) with over 35 employees. The key here is to know how to delegate and have a profesional team that you can trust. We always measure our steps very well before any action is taken, so we can be sure every new project will have the proper attention. It is all about creating systems that can run by itselfs following your strategy, and the team below us is key on this.

2- Regarding the legal issue in the remittances business, we are already doing all the research on that. However, Dash Remittances will first focus on teaching people how to remit money using Dash, then we will move on with the business model as a "middle man" for those who don't want to deal with the process.

I hope I have answered your questions. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks again!

Alejandro

 

[Quansen]

Do you plan to issue equity of this business to the upcoming Dash Ventures trust? How about issuing equity for the other business you set up in the past? If yes to what extend?

Keep up the good work, you’re really making it happen #dashening