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Promote DASH to UK Gold dealers and Jewelers, then survey them to understand barriers for adoption.

Is this idea any good?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 100.0%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7

CaptAhab

Active member
Pilot study, to promote awareness of DASH and understand any potential barriers to the adoption of DASH in a UK business sector.


Aim

Many Treasury project proposals are aimed at the consumer. This proposal is aimed at business.

To alert entrepreneurs and Chief Executives in a targeted sector that digital cash, specifically Dash, is heading their way.

To survey the sector to gauge interest and any potential barriers to adoption and feedback findings to help future development and uptake.


Proposal
As a pilot project

· Promote the use and adoption of Dash to the UK’s Jewellery, precious metals, and luxury goods manufacturers.

· To survey members of the National Association of Jewellers on their attitude and likelihood of using Dash, and report back findings.


Why this is a good idea

· Increase the awareness of Dash to people who buy and sell gold in the UK, a group that should understand Dash as an asset as well as a currency.

· Increase the number of high net worth individuals aware of Dash.

· Facilitate more people in the UK buying into Dash by signing up gold and precious metal dealers thereby increasing the confidence in Dash as a recognisable currency.

· Provide insight into how this sector views Dash, and what barriers we need to overcome to further its adoption.


What we will do

· Submit article to The Jeweller Magazine (Trade Press)

· Take soundings on scope of survey, and contact Dash development team for input.

· Deliver an online survey for verified member companies that collects data on likely uptake of Dash, and pays a Dash reward on completion of the survey to random selection of 16 respondents who respond by deadline. One survey per member company (potential 2200 respondents)

· Sponsor awards at the Annual Benevolent Ball of the National Association of Jewellers on December 7th 2017 and staff stand at event (sponsorship of "Website of the Year" award reserved)

· Following awards event set up meetings and calls with interested companies in the sector encouraging them to open a Dash wallet and start trading with it, and get them listed on the Dash merchants page. With specific focus on companies that responded to the survey.



Why us?

Stuart Bean - I have extensive experience in lobbying and marketing, having had a 20-year career working in this field, and I have many hundreds of useful contacts. I have a MSc in Global Politics and Political Economy. I worked for a UK Political Party before moving into lobbying. I have marketing, event, lobbying and business experience which I have developed over a 20-year career speaking and working with Business leaders. Including FTSE 100 CEOs.


I have held darkcoin/Dash since April 2014.


Stuart Thomlinson - owner of Survey Wisdom - an IT consultancy specialising in Market Research. I have 20 years experience of designing and implementing market research surveys, and analysing the results. I provide consultancy to clients in many sectors including luxury automotive marques, tobacco / vaping , pharma , government and trade associations.


What will success look like?

· Increased awareness of Dash and engagement with Dash within this specific business community (with a view to rolling out to wider selection of Trade Associations once pilot project evaluated)

· Clear understanding of potential scope of adoption of Dash by the sector and barriers to achieving adoption


Future expansion of project

Subject to evaluation of success of pilot, roll out across other sectors via Trade Associations (costs would be variable dependent on best route into sector - some articles and events would be secured for no fees others would be paid for articles and events)



Costs

*each phase will be completed ahead of next activity to ensure project success and confidence in delivery

*costs assuming 120 GBP per Dash


Phase

Milestones

Costs



Salary

Operational

Phase one

Meet with the National Association of Jewellers;

Agree sponsorship of awards;

Research and write article and submit to journal.


Design and program online survey


Pay for Awards sponsorship



15 Dash plus 2 Dash expenses (travel and hospitality)










15 Dash


£3,000 (25 Dash)




Total 57 Dash

Phase two

Roll out survey



Dash incentive

(10 Dash to winner, 1 Dash to each of 15 runners up)



Article in The Jeweller Magazine (Trade Press) - 2-page advertorial




Annual Benevolent Ball of the National Association of Jewellers







10 Dash















10 Dash salary for preparation and attendance at event

7 dash travel and accommodation

7 Dash salary for additional staffing of stand at event




25 Dash





£2250 (19 Dash)






Event stand - £550 (4 Dash)


Marketing material - design and

print (costs tbc)



TOTAL 82 Dash plus cost of printed material

Phase three

Analysis of survey


Follow up with companies


15 Dash


*costs dependent on volume generated from survey returns








Background supporting information



Key messages for business

· Cryptocurrencies are being adopted by consumers; Japan already recognises Bitcoin.

· Adoption is exponential, and is focused on younger and more well-off people.

· Big name companies (such as Microsoft, Paypal, Tesla, Gap and Dell) are accepting cyrptos.

· Early adoption gives first mover advantage

· Consumers, especially young ones, love cryptocurrencies.

· Offers significant cost and time savings over normal money transfers.

· Faster payments help with cashflow.

· Borderless payments removes the costs of compliance.

· Removes the costs of hedging against currency fluctuations when importing or exporting goods.

· You don’t have to understand everything about it before adopting it. Solutions exist that allow you to operate, without worry, with prices shown in £s.

· Offer consumers privacy that may make more sales occur.

· Reduces the chances of fraud, with less information on individuals needing to be given to merchants, that are needed at the moment to satisfy credit card companies.

· Reduces risk of data theft and ensuing insurance premiums.

· As cryptocurrencies are not Fiat they don't suffer from inflation

· As the value is growing they make a good alternative investment vehicle.

· You can cash out and have conventional money in your bank account instantly.



Challenge

Reaching out to the 3-4 million businesses in the UK is an almost impossible task, so how do we spread the word of the coming change that digital cash represents?


Solution

In the UK there are many hundreds of Trade Associations, each representing the interests of their member companies in a given sector. Trade Associations are trusted membership bodies that sit at the heart of business sectors. This makes them powerful allies in spreading the word about the adoption of digital cash.


We will use our extensive knowledge of UK Trade Associations to raise awareness of Dash and the emergence of digital cash and the demise of fiat monies. This work will tee up further work down the line to spread the word of Evolution.



What’s in it for the Trade Associations?

Trade Associations are always looking for ways to help their member companies. Giving them a heads up on new technology is one way of doing this. Companies would expect one of the first places they would hear about new initiatives would be through their Trade Association. Trade Associations represent one of the most influential groups within British business. They represent business and influence Government. As such they are a unique group for Dash to approach.
 
What do people think?

I'm Stuart T. in this proposal, so I would be handling the Market Research side of this. We would definitely be open to your input when it comes to designing the questionnaire.

Thanks to Stuart B's extensive contacts from his work with the CBI's Trade Association Forum, we definitely have the ear of the National Association of Jewellers - they have already agreed to promote this for us should our proposal get approval.

Comments / suggestions on our proposal most welcome.
 
What an excellent proposal. You guys sound like you are well placed and well connected to reach out to multiple businesses at once in distinctly targeted categories, and then evangelise about Dash Digital Cash.

The cost seems realistic and reasonable too.

This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to happen.

Good luck.
 
Proposal Evaluation Committee


Hi Capt

If you have not done this yet, please read: How to submit a Dash Pre-Proposal https://goo.gl/7jmwXQ
As you adjust your Pre-Proposal to our feedback, the evaluation is adjusted and this may be done a number of times (up to 2 or more).
Each time the chance of your Proposal being accepted by the MNO’s will increase.
If you want to know who will be doing the Evaluations – see here: Official PEC Pre-P https://goo.gl/qrbeXK

The evaluations also have another function:
To give the MNO’s and community a Prioritized List of Evaluated Proposals. This list will save the MNO’s and everyone else time and increase the chance of your proposal gaining votes. It will also prevent your proposal from getting lost amongst the horde or prevent it from not being read, because it’s too long or non-conforming.

To adjust your Pre-Proposal for the 1st evaluation will be a time consuming (+- 2 hours of work), but believe me it will be well worth your time if you are serious about getting your Proposal passed.

You might be tempted to quickly post your proposal now, but I would strongly advise you not to do so: The Master Node Owners are very suspicious about people submitting proposals at the last moment before a vote and most of them do not pass.

Keep your Pre-Proposal here on this thread. Improve it as our Reports and the community feedback indicate and you'll have a far better chance of getting the necessary votes next month

Good luck with your Proposal!
 
Hello @CaptAhab

Your proposal, on its face, looks like an excellent proposal and just he kind of thing Dash should fund. However, I'm always a little bothered when someone is brand new to the community and the first thing they do is start pitching for money.

My preference would be for you to engage us and educate us about your area of expertise so that we become more informed and more inclined to support your proposal. I would like to see some preliminary research that would indicate your understanding of Dash and how it might fit with the market you want to study.

This is just my "2 duffs", so feel free to discount accordingly.
 
Many thanks for taking the time to reply, glad you think on the face of it that it’s an excellent proposal, it has taken some work to put together.

Whist I take your point about pitching for money - it is a double-edged sword - surely we need to encourage new people with new ideas?


I am not new to this forum - I have been a member since 2015. Just not actively participating but certainly learning. I bought Dash in Apr 2014 and have been keeping a keen eye out for opportunities


I am now in the fortunate position to be able dedicate some time to taking forward ideas, that until now have had to be on the backburner. Sadly, our proposal is very time sensitive, the association have kindly reserved the award sponsorship for me as a favour, but I will need to “put my duffs where my mouth is” at some point. I have worked with them on the timings of the survey and the article and awards. But strict deadlines mean defined deliverables. This also means that if we don’t deliver, you can stop the funding. But we intend to deliver on this.
 
Hello @CaptAhab

Your proposal, on its face, looks like an excellent proposal and just he kind of thing Dash should fund. However, I'm always a little bothered when someone is brand new to the community and the first thing they do is start pitching for money.

My preference would be for you to engage us and educate us about your area of expertise so that we become more informed and more inclined to support your proposal. I would like to see some preliminary research that would indicate your understanding of Dash and how it might fit with the market you want to study.

This is just my "2 duffs", so feel free to discount accordingly.

Many thanks for your feedback. In 2014 the UK jewelry and watch sector was worth £5bn, so the potential rewards are huge.

For the reasons we've outlined in our initial post it seems to us that DASH could be a good fit for this sector, but of course we don't know for sure whether retailers would agree - hence the proposed research!

Stuart B has run this past the head of the National Association of Jewellers and she is definitely behind us and believes it would be of interest to retailers in this sector.

Our options for the kind of preliminary research you mentioned are a bit limited because access to the National Association of Jewellers member list to use as sample for a survey is going to be conditional on our sponsorship of the awards, so we do need the budget before we can get started.

As this our first proposal, and a first exploration of this sector we have tried hard to keep our costs as modest as possible.

Again - thanks for your interest and feedback.

If you know of any members who might be interested in this project and/or have insights into the retail integration of DASH we'd be really grateful if you could point them in our direction.
 
@CaptAhab -- my apologies! I overlooked the year on your registration date. You have been around Dash a heck of a lot longer than I.

I suggest working with @Biltong and his PEC to beat your pre-proposal into shape. If you can get passing marks from them, you will be well prepared to submit your proposal.

I think it's too late for this cycle, but you are in a good position for the next cycle.

Work on getting your pre-proposal as concise as possible. Currently there is a lot of scrolling to get through it (a spacing issue).

You will be educating us in this process as you make your case. I looking forward to learning more!
 
Hello,

I have been assigned to look at your pre-proposal by the PEC
  1. There is an official Dash Project Template (.docx file) on the wiki, to help you create a more detailed pre-proposal. Can you use this template to format your proposal post?
  1. Are you happy to provide me with a way to verify your online presence, for example keybase.io (plus any social media you'd find useful) ?
    • anonymous proposals are possible and you do not have to link to any personal details
I'm currently part of the PEC experiment, we are looking to create a simple and effective way to standardise and report on the pre-proposal process so the MNOs have everything they need to cast informed votes and proposal owners can clarify their plans.
 
I'm concerned that you are misleading someone who is new to the proposal process into thinking that they should use "official" documents.

I think that you should make it clear that participation in the PEC program is not in any way "official" and it is entirely voluntary.
 
Let me state here that PEC is not official, it is an experiment that is part of a pre-proposal that will be submit to the budget later on.

It is in no way compulsatory to take our remarks and comment into account but we will indeed post an evaluation of each pre-proposal.

As for the official documents, that's my understanding that any document created by the Core Team located in the Official Documentation space of Dash is to be considered official. Those documents have nothing to do with the PEC but we recommend to use it.

You might have missed it, but I stated clearly in my last paragraph: "I'm currently part of the PEC experiment."
 
Last edited:
Hi Captahab,

Here is your report,

PEC Report Leonidas & Semarg for Captahab - Evaluation 1 v02 - checked.png

Couple of notes:
  • There is NO pass/failure mark. The percentage simply allows us to create a Prioritized List of Evaluated Proposals. The idea being that a MNO with very little time can concentrate on Proposals at the bottom of the list only. MNO’s with more time will obviously look at all proposals as per normal
  • The evaluation also enables the Evaluators to look for scammers etc and red-flag a proposal that is a possible danger to Dash. They have more time and tools to look for the tell-tale signs.
  • How did the Evaluators decide on marks: PEC Evaluator Guidelines https://goo.gl/Futw1d
  • MNO’s have been very lenient in the past. So even if you have, what you might consider a low mark, you might still pass the Vote ;)
  • Most Important: The evaluation is to give you an idea of where you can improve your proposal to have a better chance of earning MNO votes.

When you improve your proposal, please color all new material in red and don’t delete any word/sentence, but use strike through or underline. This will make it easier for the evaluator to find changes, when she or he re-evaluates your improved proposal. The MNO’s will also so be interested to see what you changed to improve your proposal.

Since you were unlucky enough to submit your Pre-Proposal just as the PEC started, you had a handicap: You did not know the importance of the Dash Project Proposal Template https://goo.gl/m0jgfS .

This Template was created some years ago by the MNO’s to get all the information that they need to make an informed decision. It is also the easiest way for you to earn extra marks ;) If your proposal did not cover a question in the Template – just put the Heading and answer in your detail doc. If your proposal does cover the question: Just put the Heading with the words: See original Proposal.
E.g.: Project Scope - Milestones and Schedule: See original Proposal.

We know this is a painful bureaucratic exercise, but once you’ve done your improvements for this 1st one, the next couple of improvements (maybe just one?) will be easy, and of course – you are bound to have more proposals in the future!

Good luck
 
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