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Pre-Proposal: Alt36 + Dash Payment Platform

ThirtySix

Active member
This proposal would fund the creation of a Dash-integrated payment gateway targeting the legal cannabis industry in the US through partnerships with the 2 largest cannabis POS providers. The gateway package would include a loyalty program, customer offers (e.g., discounts, free samples, customer retention), federal and state tax reporting, supplier/employee/vendor payments using Dash, reconciliation reports, local sales tax calculation and payment submission, and onsite Dash ATM.

Link to pre-proposal document:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7j9p4q0v3kshren/Dash Proposal - Alt36 + Dash Payment Platform.pdf?dl=0
If you have questions or concerns that you would like a response to please include @ThirtySix in your comment to help ensure we receive notification.


PRODUCT36

(Dash payment project by Alt Thirty Six)​

Alt Thirty Six is a financial technology company specializing in data intelligence and digital payments. We create transparency into payment ecosystems by providing valuable business intelligence from transactions. Our simplicity and ease-of-use allows business managers and executives to make real-time, critical decisions to lower fees and identify opportunities for increasing revenue.


Our main verticals are cash-based, cannabis retailers having difficulty accessing banking and payment services. In 2016, cash-based cannabis sales were approximately $6.7 billion and estimated to hit $11 billion by 2020. Federal regulation has resulted in cash-only transactions between retail merchants, suppliers, and their customers with limited or no access to banking institutions. The negative effects of cash handling include: increased time investment, issues paying suppliers/vendors/employees and excessive fees which reduce their bottom-line.


The Situation

As of today, there are limited places that consumers can use digital currencies. The delay between payment and confirmation with other digital currencies is too long to facilitate transactions at the point-of-sale, and we feel strongly that Dash is the future of digital currency because of its instant transaction technology which will enable very fast point-of-sale transactions for our merchants. Dash will be the exclusive digital currency in our payments platform, which will also include traditional electronic payment methods for industry verticals that can access them.

Regarding traditional payments, we know that merchants are leaving money on the table with transaction and processing fees and see the market opportunity for digital currency options. Our goal is to help merchants save as much money as they can on traditional payment fees, and also give them the option to start using digital currency to save even more on their transaction costs. United States card issuers (Visa/MC) and the issuing banks (BofA/WellsFargo/Chase) generate over $30 billion annually from interchange fees at the increased expense of organizations and merchants. Interchange fees are those fees set by the network, charged to acquirers, and received by issuers as part of a debit or credit card transaction. With traditional payment methods, there are significant costs associated with a transaction. Also, credit cards are not even an option for many businesses and emerging industries. Chargebacks are also very costly.

For our cannabis merchants that deal with high volumes of cash transactions, cash-handling costs can represent approximately 10-15% of total revenue generated. Cash handling costs exceed the cost of payment cards - the merchants need trusted personnel to handle the money, and also armored trucks to transport the cash (which include fixed costs per dispatch, plus a percentage of the volume transported). On top of that, business bank deposit fees can be up to 3% of the deposit, and may require multiple bank drops to keep each deposit under a daily threshold (e.g., $10,000 per bank per business day). Paying suppliers is equally costly to withdraw and transport cash. Adding Dash to our payments platform would result in the extreme reduction in the cost of transacting payments and would save millions in industry overhead costs for merchants and their suppliers.

Issues with Traditional Payments

Today’s enterprise technology and payment processors have created excessive costs and very poor experiences for merchants accepting electronic payments. As a result, many retail executives and business managers lack the understanding and knowledge about electronic payments to make cost reduction strategies that will have a significant impact on their business. Issues such as outdated technology, confusing information, and time-consuming processes can cost companies millions of dollars each year. Digital currencies can address much of the cost issue, but there are many challenges to accepting and holding digital currencies, such as tax accounting and reporting.

Another issue we see is the fact that currently, digital currencies have an inability to access traditional financial tools. Merchants that are currently accepting digital currencies have many business issues such as: more bodies to reconcile the traditional payments and digital currency payments, legal issues, and tax issues. Two separate systems will throw off the business’s financial reporting when a merchant wants to print a report on what their total revenue for the day was - and we have a solution for that problem which is discussed below.

There are large and valuable markets that we will serve. Our initial channel strategy is to partner with existing industry-specific point-of-sale (POS) software providers to up-sell their existing customers with our payment solutions. We are also evaluating other channel strategies to continuously broaden our customer base.

Alt Thirty Six believes that digital currencies are the next phase in the evolution of money, and we want to add Dash as the payment option to the Alt Thirty Six payment platform. Alt Thirty Six strongly believes that this will be a win-win for both Dash and Alt Thirty Six - and that together we will both become stronger. Adding Dash to our payment platform will significantly increase the rate of adoption of Dash as a currency. We have partners and merchants that want to leverage Dash as a payment option immediately. Adding Dash as a payment option will help them save a large sum of money on cash-handling costs, along with payment processing and transaction fees. The Alt Thirty Six payment platform will encourage rapid adoption by making it extremely simple for retailers to transact in the Dash currency.


Issues Accepting Digital Currency

1. To process digital currency payments, merchants utilize completely different channels and reconciliation methods than traditional payment methods, which results in two reconciliation processes;

2. Tax reporting is extremely difficult for state and federal compliance;

3. Managing funds and converting to a fiat currency is challenging;

4. Two completely separate point-of-sale (POS) software solutions must run in parallel if a merchant wants to accept digital currencies. This causes additional work, legal issues, tax issues, and throws off the business’s reporting when a merchant wants reconcile daily sales, etc. In short, current solutions are inadequate for enterprise customers.​


The Solution: PRODUCT36

Ken Ramirez, CoFounder + CEO

Lauren Murphy, CoFounder + President

Our total solution will be the first to apply a fully-integrated payment gateway for online and merchant purchases that will enable digital currency payments and traditional payments to have a single set of reports, reconciliation processes, tax reporting, loyalty programs, etc. The product development has been segmented into 2 stages to allow for an expedited launch date. Phase 1 includes the development of the Dash exclusive digital currency application and Phase 2 includes the development of the traditional fiat application to support traditional and digital currency.

Project Summary - continued on 2nd post.
 
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Project Summary

Phase 1 - Dash payment gateway option for merchants.

As merchants seek ways to minimize the costs of payment processing, Alt Thirty Six seeks to completely displace traditional payment processing fees charged by the processors and issuing banks. We’ve partnered with the most innovative companies in payments, blockchain, and digital currency to create a simple, but powerful digital platform. We see the potential for digital currency to revolutionize global financial services, making commerce faster, more secure, and less expensive.

We have spent the last 6 months researching Dash, researching the point-of-sale (POS) environment, reviewing the BlockCypher-Dash API, addressing state and federal tax issues, and meeting with potential partners to bring together all of the necessary parties and components to build a system that is industry -verticalized. We will be integrating all of these different solutions together into a simple and cohesive solution for the merchants. Dash’s brand and Alt Thirty Six’s brand are both simplicity and ease-of-use. We both share a similar strategy for our consumer product.

Our Phase 1 and Phase 2 ecosystem will allow for the acceptance of both traditional and digital currency to position organizations for the next generation of digital commerce that will revolutionize the payments industry. We’re designing our platform to solve all the traditional problems associated with Bitcoin, traditional payments, and digital currencies, specifically the ability to accept digital payments at the traditional point-of-sale (POS) locations. Utilizing wireless technology (IoT), we will enable merchants to easily begin accepting digital payments at physical locations without the cost of cash and traditional payment cards. Phase 1 of this project will be to create the solution to allow our merchants to easily accept Dash as a digital currency payment.

This project will add Dash as the primary payment option for our customers in an extremely simple way and will help merchants accept Dash payments without all the complexities. As more merchants accept digital currencies, more transactions will be a key part of Dash’s growth. We will make Dash more accessible for commerce and would like to see Dash become the #1 digital currency in the world. Not only are we redefining traditional payments, we want to lead the commerce revolution with our digital payments platform, and this is why we strongly believe that we are a natural partner for Dash.

Our payment platform will be the gateway between the merchant and the customer by routing transactions through the Dash network, which includes State and Federal tax calculations and enhanced reporting for the merchant.

This solution will fully eliminate the need for cash-related activities including transactions, management, and banking by utilizing blockchain and a decentralized digital currency to transfer funds between merchant and customer at a fraction of cash handling costs. Integrating with the industry leading POS providers, we enable their customers to transact utilizing an application with a built-in mobile wallet, proximity notifications, and customer loyalty programs. Any portion of cash that can be replaced by digital currencies has value.

There is definitely a market for merchants that want to use digital currency and pay all of the taxes on those transactions. Included in our platform, our merchants will receive financial reconciliation reports which includes their estimated tax obligations based on their Dash transactions. These reports can be used to help determine tax amount merchants will need to pay to the IRS and State.

We are a Value-Added Service provider for processing digital currency transactions surrounding the Dash hot wallet. As a business, we will make money with our Value-Added services:

• Time-Saving Reconciliation Reports

• Federal and State Tax reports

• Processing fees

• Loyalty program

• Supplier/Employee/Vendor Management​

*At this stage, we will not be holding any client tokens/digital currency on our platform.

Technical Development

Alt Thirty Six is partnered with an IT development firm that combines the innovative DNA of a start-up with the wisdom, scalability, and process rigor of a Fortune 100 company. They offer both technical implementation services as well as strategic advisory services, offering an advantage over the competition with comprehensive services including DevOps, Cloud, Mobile, UI/UX, Big Data, Block Chain, Advanced Analytics & Predictive Modeling, Database Migrations & management, Payment Strategy, and more.

Partnerships

We have three major verticals identified and solidified reseller partnerships that will adopt the Alt Thirty Six + Dash payment solutions:

• Independent Software Vendors (ISV) – Music & celebrity apparel company (100+ online stores), online marketing automation partner (600+ clients), and more.

• Value Added Reseller (VAR) –IBM, Sirius Computer Solutions, Industry Specific point-of-sale (POS) Partners

• Ecommerce Retailers – Sirius Computer Solutions​

*We will be utilizing the BlockCypher-Dash API as part of the solution.

Through the ISV and eCommerce retailer channels we are a registered partner of IBM and approved partner of Sirius Computer Solutions. They are waiting for our technology to go-live to sell into the major Fortune 1000 Internet retailers needing better payment solutions. We will be able to process both digital currency and regular credit card/debit fiat payments. We are positioning the DASH network as the exclusive digital currency accepted through our platform.

Major online retailers such as Cheap-O-Air, Tiger Direct, and Overstock.com are already accepting BitCoin digital currency as an online payment type. The Fortune 1000 enterprises are spending billions a year in interchange and card brand fees. Enabling them to accept Dash would eliminate these fees and provide a savings they never thought possible. Sirius Computer Solutions has agreed to integrate Alt Thirty Six with IBM Websphere Commerce and co-sell the product to their Fortune 1000 clients.

Current Progress

For the past 2 years, we've been working closely with finance executives from Fortune 1000 to design and architect a highly-scalable and secure payment technology that creates transparency within the omni-channel payments ecosystem. We've listened to countless hours of feedback and participated in thousands of user-centered design sessions to understand the exact needs of enterprise executives and finance teams.

We’ve partnered with MasterCard (MC) and IBM to utilize their platform features, providing integrations to the traditional payment processors (TSYS, Elavon). Integrating with MasterCard and IBM’s payment gateways allows for utilization of their connectivity and provides global brand recognition with the Fortune 1000. We are also working with MasterCard’s MasterPass team to have Dash added as a payment type in their mobile wallet. We will integrate the MC wallet into our service offering for the Fortune 1000, so those already using MasterPass or those adding MasterPass to their checkouts both online and in person will also be able to accept Dash. All of the Dash transactions through MasterPass will route through Alt Thirty Six to route to the Dash network.

In addition to integrating to the IBM gateway, our partner, Sirius Computer Solutions, who is IBM’s largest reseller by 2x to their competitors, will be integrating Alt Thirty Six into the IBM Websphere Commerce online platform. This platform is used by the Fortune 1000 and integrated into online retail stores to generate customer-traffic, drive conversion rates, and increase revenue. Alt Thirty Six will be integrated into this platform and others by Sirius Computer Solutions and the Fortune 1000 will be using our payment gateway, allowing merchants to accept both fiat and Dash.

Phase 1: Dash Funding Details and Proposal Terms

We are asking the Dash network for 6800 DASH ($496,000 USD). The funding will be used to contribute to the Alt Thirty Six + Dash integration, product design, and technical development for the Dash integration (NOT the fiat portion of the project, which will be completed in Phase 2.) The Dash project cost details are listed below. Alt Thirty Six also has skin in the game as we are contributing $669,000 USD to the project, which is more than 65% of the total project costs.

Full costs are expected to be 6800 DASH ($496,000 USD) and we are asking for 4 goal-based payments that will be adjusted according to the Dash/US Dollar exchange rate at the time. We will submit 2 proposals: the 1st for the 50% of the total funding, distributed over the next 2 months and the 2nd for the remaining 50%, distributed over next 2 months following.

We have requested that the Dash Core team holds the project funds in escrow until requested for product development requirements. This will protect Dash as the value is expected to increase. The funding schedule is proposed as follows:

1. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six 50% upfront to start the project, funded in two disbursements over the next two months by a project manager appointed by the Dash Core team.

2. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six 25% upon completion of Technical Development.

3. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six the final 25% after all testing and product is ready to launch.

Development Timeline: 6 months

1. 1st Funding Payment: 25% Funding

2. Dash Business Requirements and Design Sprints - 4 weeks

3. 2nd Funding Payment: 25% Funding

4. Dash Technical Development - 12 weeks

5. 2nd Funding Payment: 25%

6. Quality Assurance Testing, Load Testing, Bug Fixes, Enhancements - 4 weeks

7. User Acceptance Testing/Usability Testing - 1 week

8. Time Variance - 2.5 weeks

9. 4th and final Funding Payment: 25%

10. Push to Production and Go Live 2-3 days

Dash's Contribution Total for Project

1) Technology Design Sprints, Business Requirements, API Research, App Research, Business Logic.

$56,000

2) IT Technology Development costs

$250,000

2a) Technical Requirements
2b) Technical Design and Architecture
2c) Database Layer Development
2d) API Layer Development
2e) Front-end Development
2f) Secure, Elastic, Cloud Solution that can scale horizontally based on the load​

3) Quality Assurance Testing
$90,000

3a) Unit Testing
3b) Integration Testing
3c) End-to-End Testing
3d) Stress Testing
3e) Regression Testing​

4) Alt36 Product Mgr for Product 36 and Product Documentation
$50,000

5) Blockchain Development Costs
$50,000

Total Dash Contribution Total for Project
$496,000



Alt36's estimated contribution to the Dash Project

1.) Prior Costs already invested in the project $200,000

2.) Technical Development/Cloud Ops/Support $120,000

3.) Administrative Costs $6,000

4.) Operational Costs $6,000

5.) Non-Alt36 Travel Expenses $5,000

6.) Tradeshows and Marketing Campaign expenses $50,000

7.) PCI Level 1 and SOC2 Compliance costs $105,000

8.) Estimated Additional Blockchain development costs $25,000

9.) Project Variance/Hired Guns $25,000

10.) Development Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months $20,000

11.) Production Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months $107,000

12.) Deployment Software $25,000


Alt Thirty Six's estimated contribution to the Dash Project
$694,000



Total Dash Project Cost paid by Alt Thirty Six + Dash
$1,190,000



------
Our Board Advisors
Nitin Guar

Director of Blockchain Labs, IBM
-
Dragan Boscovic, Ph.D.
Professor + Director of CASCADE, Arizona State University
DVS MediaX, Stanford University
-
Jeffrey White
Head of U.S. Acquiring Relationships, Mastercard Worldwide
-
Mary Anne Keegan
Chief Marketing Officer, AlertGPS
Former Chief Marketing Officer + Chief Sales Officer, Early Warning
-
Rich Hybner

Chief Financial Officer, Private Company (NDA Protected)
Former CFO, The Wall Street Journal
-
Rick Ogelsby
Head of Product Consulting, Double Diamond Group
President, AZ Payments Group
-
Rafael de Souza, Ph.D.
Professor, Universidade de São Paulo
Vice President, International Astrostatistics Association
Research, Eötvös Loránd University

What’s next?
We are extremely connected within the payments ecosystem and have many partnerships in the works. There are a number of next steps we are going to pursue after the Dash payment product is launched:

Phase 2 - Add fiat currency to the Alt Thirty Six platform

Phase 3 - Build custom POS and IoT devices

Phase 4 - Direct integrations to payment processors/eCommerce platforms

Phase 5 - Change the world with Dash!
 
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Really exciting proposal! Yes it is expensive but it will pay for itself very fast.
As long as they deliver everything they promised and stick to their schedule I will be a very happy boy.
You have my votes :cool:
Thank you so much for supporting the project. We will be working closely with a project manager that will be assigned by the Dash Core team. We will be sharing our progress along the way and ensuring we are sticking to the timelines that are set. We will also provide an update at the time we submit the second portion of the proposal.
 
  • May I ask what experience does your team have handling this kind of project?
  • What similar projects have you guys been involved with?
  • Where can we read more about who exactly is involved with Alt Thirty Six? (IT team)
  • "This project will add Dash as the primary payment option ". If Dash funds all this we would need some sort of contract that you wouldn't be adding other cryptocurrency for a while.
  • How does your company make money?
  • How exactly would Dash benefit from this project?
  • What are the legal risks of having dash involved in this kind of business?
  • "11.) Production Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months $107,000" how this will be sustained after 12 months?
Thank you.
 
Thank you so much for supporting the project. We will be working closely with a project manager that will be assigned by the Dash Core team. We will be sharing our progress along the way and ensuring we are sticking to the timelines that are set. We will also provide an update at the time we submit the second portion of the proposal.

Sounds good. Hopefully we can get an indepth interview with you for Dash Force News. That should help get some more people onboard. @tao should be contacting you shortly with the details.
https://www.dashforcenews.com/
 
I'm sure I'm the outlier, but having reviewed deals, here are my initial comments. I have great regard for the possibilities here, so no disrespect intended to ThirtySix or its business proposal. The proposal indeed sounds very compelling as written.

I also don't question the genuineness of the business claims or the benefit of a Dash integration, yet the upfront costs (pre-deliverables) and unproven nature of this proposal should call for more due diligence and detail evaluation than MNO's can responsibly provide alone. Of course, other MNO's make their own calls.

My own belief is that the the facts and terms of a deal this size this should be evaluated (for terms and specifics) and vetted by the core business team first, otherwise MNO's are just accepting all project risk and funding execution upon themselves as a governance body, apart from the benefit of a management team who can examine the details sufficiently. We simply cannot. We would be either trusting or not trusting. Your proposal calls for more.

I won't block this, for I see do its strong potential (as @mastermined above says, "as long as they deliver everything they promise..."), but for the above reasons, I cannot yet support it. Perhaps as the discussion unfolds...thanks for the opportunity, though! I hope the core business team will vet this for terms and facts. Danny?
 
I'm sure I'm the outlier, but having reviewed deals, here are my initial comments. I have great regard for the possibilities here, so no disrespect intended to ThirtySix or its business proposal. The proposal indeed sounds very compelling as written.

I also don't question the genuineness of the business claims or the benefit of a Dash integration, yet the upfront costs (pre-deliverables) and unproven nature of this proposal should call for more due diligence and detail evaluation than MNO's can responsibly provide alone. Of course, other MNO's make their own calls.

My own belief is that the the facts and terms of a deal this size this should be evaluated (for terms and specifics) and vetted by the core business team first, otherwise MNO's are just accepting all project risk and funding execution upon themselves as a governance body, apart from the benefit of a management team who can examine the details sufficiently. We simply cannot. We would be either trusting or not trusting. Your proposal calls for more.

I won't block this, for I see do its strong potential (as @mastermined above says, "as long as they deliver everything they promise..."), but for the above reasons, I cannot yet support it. Perhaps as the discussion unfolds...thanks for the opportunity, though! I hope the core business team will vet this for terms and facts. Danny?

I too had the same concerns but looks like core has been doing their due diligence on this prop for "months".

From Slack...
"babygiraffe [5:43 PM]
@tao I have been advising alt36 for months. They have been building a set of partners for a comprehensive solution for the past few months and have made amazing progress. They have the top 2 PoS providers in the cannabis industry and all the critical partners on board. Check out their board of advisors."


Also this...

"babygiraffe [5:45 PM]
The total flowing through those two PoS systems alone is $1.5 billion."
 
I too had the same concerns but looks like core has been doing their due diligence on this prop for "months".

From Slack...
"babygiraffe [5:43 PM]
@tao I have been advising alt36 for months. They have been building a set of partners for a comprehensive solution for the past few months and have made amazing progress. They have the top 2 PoS providers in the cannabis industry and all the critical partners on board. Check out their board of advisors."
I too saw this, and agree they are capable. The plain fact is, we ought to have a fiduciary opinion from our hired team advisors, not just a technological one. Nothing tells us that the terms of this deal are sound, and IMO, MNO's cannot get to that themselves. Nothing against ThirtySix...they should negotiate soundly from their standpoint, yet there is a very real precedent going on here for significant funds. I say we need a fiduciary opinion from our hired business developers.

Why would we not rely on their judgments and insights about the terms of the deal (not just the capability of the partner)?
 
Reference information:
-Only two shareholders above 20% which are the operators. No information on the NASDAQ.​
Asking Amount: 6800 DASH ($496,000 USD) across 4 goal based payments to be given by a project manager of our choosing.

@ThirtySix

  1. To whom are we addressing now and will you continue to represent ThirtySix in ongoing communications inside this thread?
  2. Why submit this proposal now?
  3. Why Dash - what factors made you decide against other virtual currencies such as USDTether, Ether, and Ethereum's stable coin dai? What are your thoughts on the recent announcement of http://tokencard.io/ and how that might be an alternative solution for your companies needs?
  4. You state: "We will be able to process both digital currency and regular credit card/debit fiat payments." and "...solving the problem...the ability to accept digital payments at the traditional point-of-sale (POS) locations."
a.) Will major retailers such as Walmart be able to use your PoS software alongside their existing software to accept dash payments? And if so, what kind of fees can they expect for accepting dash payments instore or online? What will swipe fees and online transaction fees be for traditional cards using the service?
b.) What kind of monthly or yearly fees should a merchant expect using your service or PoS provider(s)?
c.) Will the PoS software be proprietary? If not, what offer might Dash make to have it open source?
d.) Will your platform or any of its related partners offer an option to exchange dash to fiat? If so, are you able to provide us details on who such exchange(s) might be?
e.) Assuming this system is up and running, could you provide details of what happens on the frontend and backend if someone makes a payment in dash - what app or hardware wallet might they use, once the buyer sends the dash where is it held, etc.?​
 
I too saw this, and agree they are capable. The plain fact is, we ought to have a fiduciary opinion from our hired team advisors, not just a technological one. Nothing tells us that the terms of this deal are sound, and IMO, MNO's cannot get to that themselves. Nothing against ThirtySix...they should negotiate soundly from their standpoint, yet there is a very real precedent going on here for significant funds. I say we need a fiduciary opinion from our hired business developers.

Why would we not rely on their judgments and insights about the terms of the deal (not just the capability of the partner)?


I agree and believe this is being done. Looks like core holds the funds as the project is delivered. Unless you are asking for something in addition?



Project Summary

Full costs are expected to be 6800 DASH ($496,000 USD) and we are asking for 4 goal-based payments that will be adjusted according to the Dash/US Dollar exchange rate at the time. We will submit 2 proposals: the 1st for the 50% of the total funding, distributed over the next 2 months and the 2nd for the remaining 50%, distributed over next 2 months following.

We have requested that the Dash Core team holds the project funds in escrow until requested for product development requirements. This will protect Dash as the value is expected to increase. The funding schedule is proposed as follows:

1. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six 50% upfront to start the project, funded in two disbursements over the next two months by a project manager appointed by the Dash Core team.

2. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six 25% upon completion of Technical Development.

3. Dash to fund Alt Thirty Six the final 25% after all testing and product is ready to launch.

Development Timeline: 6 months

1. 1st Funding Payment: 25% Funding

2. Dash Business Requirements and Design Sprints - 4 weeks

3. 2nd Funding Payment: 25% Funding

4. Dash Technical Development - 12 weeks

5. 2nd Funding Payment: 25%

6. Quality Assurance Testing, Load Testing, Bug Fixes, Enhancements - 4 weeks

7. User Acceptance Testing/Usability Testing - 1 week

8. Time Variance - 2.5 weeks

9. 4th and final Funding Payment: 25%

10. Push to Production and Go Live 2-3 days
 
Yeah, this is a lot to process and a couple of the goals are very important to growth.

Here is my bullet list. Forgive me if something is already mentioned in the proposal.
1. How does the dash to USD process work?
2. Will it allow automatic conversion to USD?
3. Will the system allow taxes to be spit off and paid while the rest kept in DASH?
4. Who is the liquidity provider for the dash(buyer)? We want to do more DASH > USD vs DASH > BTC > USD
5. How many people are going to be paid with dash vs conversion to usd. It's very appreciated to try to keep as much dash within the ecosystem and possibly create dash fans out of the developers working for you.
6. How will you profit from the DASH part of the business?
7. Does DASH benefit by automatically being the lowest cost option? How much is that incentive.
8. What happens if Cryptocurrency X offers you 1 million dollars to implement them?
9. Is there a disadvantage in not accepting other crypto currencies?
10. Would it be possible to have a shapeshift like product to allow for a X to Dash conversion?

Is there any discussion for giving back to a community? DASH will help grow your company. The community gets a service before it would be financially viable for existing company to implement DASH. There is very little discussion on how the fees would work. Obviously if these where higher than other options nobody would use the service. Do we get a guarantee that the fees will always be cheaper than any other service available? I think for the long term stability of your business you can't be locked into DASH only.

There is also the risk (or a cost) that other companies won't do similar projects as they already have competition.

This seems like a mutually guaranteed success project. I'm just not a fan where you build a product with "free capital" from the community and make money on success. This is a risk, and what happens to all this code if Alt Thirty Six closes due to failure/lawsuit/government actions. Or you sell the company? The community takes a risk on you and you take a risk on the community. Usually the investor gets favorable terms as they hold a lot of risk.

There are a few options available
1. A zero percent interest loan on amazing repayment terms.
2. Massive discounts or incentives for DASH users($500k?)
3. Share of the transaction profits.
4. Equity in the company/project.

Going to post later asking about some other things.
Thanks
 
  • May I ask what experience does your team have handling this kind of project?
  • What similar projects have you guys been involved with?
  • Where can we read more about who exactly is involved with Alt Thirty Six? (IT team)
  • "This project will add Dash as the primary payment option ". If Dash funds all this we would need some sort of contract that you wouldn't be adding other cryptocurrency for a while.
  • How does your company make money?
  • How exactly would Dash benefit from this project?
  • What are the legal risks of having dash involved in this kind of business?
  • "11.) Production Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months $107,000" how this will be sustained after 12 months?
Thank you.

Thank you for your questions, here are the answers:
May I ask what experience does your team have handling this kind of project?

The Co-Founders have been in the payment space for a combined 10+ years. The president, Lauren Murphy has many years of experience in the payments industry specifically within the technology. She has worked on and lead many technical implementation projects for companies around their payment systems that were processing $100mm-$4billion a year in sales volume. She has also worked first hand on building out plans for payment technology and feature modules within payment systems and managing the progress of this project.

The CEO, Ken Ramirez is extremely experienced with creating strategy and solidifying partnerships that have a need to specific technical solutions. Ken’s relationships have influenced the opportunities Alt Thirty Six has today that will use a piece of technology like Product36. Our focus is to help grow the business of all parties we work with and have a vested interest in the success of all parties.

In addition to the Co-Founders there are the Board of Advisors that have a wealth of experience in building technology, blockchain, card brand acquiring, product consulting, and data scientist projects.

What similar projects have you guys been involved with?

The Board of Advisors have been involved in several blockchain projects and on going tech development within major universities. The Co-Founders and technical team have been involved in the build out of several projects that leverage data such as a web-based data analysis platform to review current status and any inefficiencies in the payment stream, fiat payment gateway development for 4 of the largest fiat payment processes in the US.
In additional to financial services, the technical team has worked on several projects in the healthcare, education, retail, logistics, Mobile POS integration and some blockchain related projects.

Where can we read more about who exactly is involved with Alt Thirty Six? (IT team)
Please checkout our website, alt36.com for more information on our company and team. You can also checkout the linkedIn profiles of all individual mentioned in our proposal.

"This project will add Dash as the primary payment option ". If Dash funds all this we would need some sort of contract that you wouldn't be adding other cryptocurrency for a while.
Yes we could sign this type of contract.

How does your company make money?
Right now we generate revenue from regular credit card processing clients and operate as a franchise of several payment processors. We also make money on our data audit reviews that pass through our analytics system to identify inefficiencies, potential improvements and growth related suggestions.

How exactly would Dash benefit from this project?
This project will influence the mainstream adoption of dash and use among retailers. The initial industry we are working with will be the first use case that can go cashless and operate their business in dash with minimal need to transfer out into fiat.

What are the legal risks of having dash involved in this kind of business?
The legal threats to this project within the MJ industry are federal laws. (Currently regular fiat credit card/debit card payments are not allowed but once laws change we will be able to enable this on the technology for all dispensaries.) There is a gray area around digital currency payments for the sale of MJ and legal advisement has been identified to make sure all the security protections are in place. The main concern with the technology is cross-borders, so we will treat each state as it’s own country and abide by local regulations and make sure the payment does not cross state lines. We will roll the solution out to a state where MJ is fully legal on a state level vs. just for medical use.

"11.) Production Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months $107,000" how this will be sustained after 12 months?
We will sustain operations for the project and on going costs of production, server, network costs through the revenue that is generated from Product36 as well as existing revenue streams.

I hope I have answered all of your questions, let me know if there are any pieces that were missed or possibly if we have sparked additional questions.
 
I agree and believe this is being done. Looks like core holds the funds as the project is delivered. Unless you are asking for something in addition?
Holding of the funds is the easy part. Any escrow agent can do that without responsibility for the terms of the agreement. I'm asking for Dash's hired business developers to share in the review of the deal and offer opinion that the price and terms of the deal are sensible from Dash's perspective...that we aren't foolishly overpaying for what Dash is getting, or that we are not leaving foolish escape clauses in place, or that the figures the other side is taking credit for contributing are not just funds they would pay no matter what Dash does, etc...somebody has to review the actual deal terms from Dash's beneficial interest. MNO's cannot do that.

Normally, that takes a lot of effort for a deal this size. Surely, their side did this. I just want a business developer representing Dash to say the terms of the deal look acceptable to them from a business standpoint.

EDIT: I realize (and support) that our contracted team needs to avoid even the perception of legal liability...still, somehow, MNO's need the benefit of their full-time engagement and review on something like this, or we're really just 'winging it.'
 
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Thanks for your pre-proposal!

Re: "Dash will be the exclusive digital currency in our payments platform"
Will this be made to be legally enforceable for a certain minimum period of time (or indefinitely)?
At this point in time we have no other intentions of incorporating other currencies into this product. However, as the industry continues to grow we will explore any options to increase the value of the Dash network.
 
At this point in time we have no other intentions of incorporating other currencies into this product. However, as the industry continues to grow we will explore any options to increase the value of the Dash network.

In a previous proposal that was funded by the Dash network, Living Room of Satoshi, when asked whether the Dash exclusivity would be permanent (or at least for a certain minimum amount of time), responded with "I don't have any plans to re-introduce those [altcoins]" Source: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/...ansfers-to-45-000-billers-in-australia.10531/

6 months later they added Ethereum and Litecoin.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/5zw5r1/livingroom_of_satoshi_breaking_the_terms_of_a/


Having no present "intention" to incorporate other currencies isn't good enough. I would like to see a legally enforceable commitment.
 
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In a previous proposal that was funded by the Dash network, Living Room of Satoshi, when asked whether the Dash exclusivity would be permanent, responded with "I don't have any plans to re-introduce those [altcoins]" Source: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/...ansfers-to-45-000-billers-in-australia.10531/

6 months later they added Ethereum and Litecoin.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/5zw5r1/livingroom_of_satoshi_breaking_the_terms_of_a/


Having no present "intention" to incorporate other currencies isn't good enough.
You're making my point! Take note @mastermined
 
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