CaptainPicard
New member
Hey Everyone,
I am new to the forum but I’ve been an “armchair” DASH supporter for a couple of years. I’d like to congratulate the Dash team for the great work they have done.
I just watched the Dash Core Team Q4 2016 Summary Call on YouTube and a few suggestions came to my mind. I hope this is the appropriate place to share them.
Here are my top three recommendations for the Dash Team:
1. Modeling BitPay’s Success With Their Mass Pay Tool
I happened to check out BitPay’s website recently. I was curious how their business was faring during what appeared to be a stagnant period for Bitcoin merchant adoption. From what I can tell, BitPay’s business is booming but not necessarily for the reasons one might expect.
While BitPay is known for helping merchants accept Bitcoin and then converting it straight into fiat, they also offer a service which I believe to be vastly more valuable - global mass payments. BitPay is seeing huge adoption in this area (1800% growth through 2015/2016 according to their website). Their main clients are marketplaces, affiliate programs, international payroll, and app store payouts. (I would post a link to the related BitPay blog post but I can't post links as a new user of the forum)
With the proliferation of affiliate businesses, microtask businesses, global freelancing, etc., paying out thousands of people all over the world in varied amounts (sometimes very small amounts) is both daunting and expensive. PayPal also offers a similar masspay tool and I imagine BitPay is drawing some of their clients from PayPal and other traditional global payment services.
I think Dash offers a competitive advantage in the area of mass global payments and mass pay is a use case that is often overlooked in the crypto space. Mass pay is also a great way to increase user adoption since some of these businesses are capable of introducing Dash to thousands of new users, some of whom may already be familiar with Bitcoin, others who aren’t.
The way I assume the mass pay feature works is the business owner invites their recipients to receive Dash instead of PayPal (or any other related payment service like Payza), with the benefits of no fees, no chargeback risk, and no concern that PayPal might some day block their account. Of course, the recipient would then have to convert to Bitcoin/fiat if they want to spend their Dash, but some users may just hold on to their Dash, while others can be directed to exchanges, ATMs, etc. to convert to fiat if they want. Once merchant adoption grows they would eventually be able to buy things directly with Dash (and the coveted "circle" is complete).
Mass pay for businesses is one of the “add-on” features that could be built in-house to make Dash a stronger player in the payments business. Alternatively, Dash might consider partnering with BitPay. If a user is already willing to accept Bitcoin for payment, the leap to also accept Dash is pretty easy (especially in light of Bitcoin’s rising fees).
2. The Need For An Outstanding Dash Mobile Wallet
Let’s face it, mobile is where it’s at. No payments service has a chance for mass adoption without a slick mobile wallet interface that “just works”. Early reviews of mobile wallet apps that use Dash have been mediocre to poor (at least from what I read on Google Play). I did not see mobile wallet development mentioned anywhere during the 2016 Q4 Dash conference call.
There is no easier way to introduce people to Dash than by saying “Hey, just download this app to your phone and I’ll send you some free Dash”. Likewise, there is nothing worse than getting your friend to install a mobile wallet that is glitchy and just “didn’t work”.
A top notch “official” mobile wallet for Dash is critical for mass adoption in my view. Leaving mobile wallet development to third-party wallet services might not be sufficient to ensure Dash’s recent wave of new users have a good mobile experience.
3. Planning For Dash Price Fluctuations
One thing that was not mentioned in the meeting was the likelihood of a temporary decrease in Dash marketcap and therefore a decrease in the Dash development budget. I sure the team is aware, but prices can drop as fast as they rose, and Dash (the team) needs to have a contingency plan in their budget to remain resilient during a temporary price/marketcap drop.
For example, with the big new budget For Q1 2017 Dash runs out and hires a bunch of programmers, but some time later an unexpected price drop slashes the budget... how does Dash afford to keep the new members of the team?
Of course, I hope Dash goes “to the moon”, but let’s be realistic, what plan does the Dash team have in place to cover a short term cash shortage?
Dash could perhaps use a blended average based on past budgets to establish the future budget while any surplus is held in cold storage, at least until a full budget cycle has been completed. Another idea would be for the Dash team to use some amount of surplus development funds to run their own Masternodes, which could be removed (“cashed out”) if and when the team deems it necessary to cover cash shortfalls or to maintain a consistent development budget (a Dash savings account). I assume it won’t be easy to get traditional bank financing if necessary to cover a short term cash shortage. Mr. Ryan Taylor seems like a smart and experienced financial manager so I am sure he is thinking of this.
Thanks for reading! I’m sure I’ll have more to add later.
By the way, I am a freelance writer/copywriter/editor (among other things). If the Dash team needs help in this area (for example, to examine, organize, and disseminate the legal guidelines for running a Dash ATM as was mentioned in the 2016 Q4 video) I am available for freelance work and willing to work for Dash ; )
I am new to the forum but I’ve been an “armchair” DASH supporter for a couple of years. I’d like to congratulate the Dash team for the great work they have done.
I just watched the Dash Core Team Q4 2016 Summary Call on YouTube and a few suggestions came to my mind. I hope this is the appropriate place to share them.
Here are my top three recommendations for the Dash Team:
- Modeling BitPay’s Success With Their “Mass Pay” Tool
- The Need For An Outstanding Dash Mobile Wallet
- Planning For Dash Price Fluctuations
1. Modeling BitPay’s Success With Their Mass Pay Tool
I happened to check out BitPay’s website recently. I was curious how their business was faring during what appeared to be a stagnant period for Bitcoin merchant adoption. From what I can tell, BitPay’s business is booming but not necessarily for the reasons one might expect.
While BitPay is known for helping merchants accept Bitcoin and then converting it straight into fiat, they also offer a service which I believe to be vastly more valuable - global mass payments. BitPay is seeing huge adoption in this area (1800% growth through 2015/2016 according to their website). Their main clients are marketplaces, affiliate programs, international payroll, and app store payouts. (I would post a link to the related BitPay blog post but I can't post links as a new user of the forum)
With the proliferation of affiliate businesses, microtask businesses, global freelancing, etc., paying out thousands of people all over the world in varied amounts (sometimes very small amounts) is both daunting and expensive. PayPal also offers a similar masspay tool and I imagine BitPay is drawing some of their clients from PayPal and other traditional global payment services.
I think Dash offers a competitive advantage in the area of mass global payments and mass pay is a use case that is often overlooked in the crypto space. Mass pay is also a great way to increase user adoption since some of these businesses are capable of introducing Dash to thousands of new users, some of whom may already be familiar with Bitcoin, others who aren’t.
The way I assume the mass pay feature works is the business owner invites their recipients to receive Dash instead of PayPal (or any other related payment service like Payza), with the benefits of no fees, no chargeback risk, and no concern that PayPal might some day block their account. Of course, the recipient would then have to convert to Bitcoin/fiat if they want to spend their Dash, but some users may just hold on to their Dash, while others can be directed to exchanges, ATMs, etc. to convert to fiat if they want. Once merchant adoption grows they would eventually be able to buy things directly with Dash (and the coveted "circle" is complete).
Mass pay for businesses is one of the “add-on” features that could be built in-house to make Dash a stronger player in the payments business. Alternatively, Dash might consider partnering with BitPay. If a user is already willing to accept Bitcoin for payment, the leap to also accept Dash is pretty easy (especially in light of Bitcoin’s rising fees).
2. The Need For An Outstanding Dash Mobile Wallet
Let’s face it, mobile is where it’s at. No payments service has a chance for mass adoption without a slick mobile wallet interface that “just works”. Early reviews of mobile wallet apps that use Dash have been mediocre to poor (at least from what I read on Google Play). I did not see mobile wallet development mentioned anywhere during the 2016 Q4 Dash conference call.
There is no easier way to introduce people to Dash than by saying “Hey, just download this app to your phone and I’ll send you some free Dash”. Likewise, there is nothing worse than getting your friend to install a mobile wallet that is glitchy and just “didn’t work”.
A top notch “official” mobile wallet for Dash is critical for mass adoption in my view. Leaving mobile wallet development to third-party wallet services might not be sufficient to ensure Dash’s recent wave of new users have a good mobile experience.
3. Planning For Dash Price Fluctuations
One thing that was not mentioned in the meeting was the likelihood of a temporary decrease in Dash marketcap and therefore a decrease in the Dash development budget. I sure the team is aware, but prices can drop as fast as they rose, and Dash (the team) needs to have a contingency plan in their budget to remain resilient during a temporary price/marketcap drop.
For example, with the big new budget For Q1 2017 Dash runs out and hires a bunch of programmers, but some time later an unexpected price drop slashes the budget... how does Dash afford to keep the new members of the team?
Of course, I hope Dash goes “to the moon”, but let’s be realistic, what plan does the Dash team have in place to cover a short term cash shortage?
Dash could perhaps use a blended average based on past budgets to establish the future budget while any surplus is held in cold storage, at least until a full budget cycle has been completed. Another idea would be for the Dash team to use some amount of surplus development funds to run their own Masternodes, which could be removed (“cashed out”) if and when the team deems it necessary to cover cash shortfalls or to maintain a consistent development budget (a Dash savings account). I assume it won’t be easy to get traditional bank financing if necessary to cover a short term cash shortage. Mr. Ryan Taylor seems like a smart and experienced financial manager so I am sure he is thinking of this.
Thanks for reading! I’m sure I’ll have more to add later.
By the way, I am a freelance writer/copywriter/editor (among other things). If the Dash team needs help in this area (for example, to examine, organize, and disseminate the legal guidelines for running a Dash ATM as was mentioned in the 2016 Q4 video) I am available for freelance work and willing to work for Dash ; )
