Happy Birthday Dyna! Is Smokey in the doghouse??   Thanks, Chase. Smokey is a funny guy. i HOPE You are all celebrating well and maybe next year we can all meet you in the forst DNOTES convention? DYNA'S Birthday with Dnotes peeps/  I am kinda in the doghouse.....Dyna gets real embarrassed when folks talk him up. He is the most humble guy I know personally. I thought......hell with it. I just make sure I do not embellish the truth. Just the facts, ma'am. Interesting note: Dyna was part of the third-world's "poor masses". He grew up in the mountains of Malaysia, his family farmed coconuts and palm oil. No electricity. Dirt floor hut. Only thing they had with a motor on it was a WW2 British Army Jeep. Farmed with water buffalo. But....out of six kids, they all graduated high school, most (or all) went to college. All were VERY successful. Secret to the family: A VERY extraordinary mother, AND an exceptional dad. When he talks about the "poor masses", he knows what he is talking about. Correction. Eight kids. Two girls and six boys. One time eight out of eght had their own business. One of the sisters finally gave up and decided to work for a large company. We never had a fight or a serious argument, but lots of passionate debates though. I also come from a business-minded family, BUT at our house, the were no "quiet discussions". We were loud, proud, and as competitive as the hogs at the troth. Thier were four of us, 5 years apart youngest to oldest. (dont think my parents had TV then, nuttin else to do I guess). We played Monopoly, Risk, Poker, and every other thing that could have a winner. Second place was the first loser. Only thing that saved us from being hooligans was a dad that was as strong-willed and as smart as his children, and a mother that showed unconditional love to all her kids, all the time. Funny, Yoda......how we grew up literally a world apart, but somehow found each other, and we are gonna change the world! Rock On, Old Man!!!!! Interesting note: Dyna came to America in his early 20's, with hardley any money (a couple hundred bucks I think). He flew into New York in Janruary. He had never seen weather as cold as this. THEN, he flew to Chicago (New York was just a layover). It was about zero degrees there and he had lived on the equator all his life! Welcome to Winter, Old Man! Smokey |
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Happy Birthday Dyna! Is Smokey in the doghouse?? Thanks, Chase. Smokey is a funny guy. i HOPE You are all celebrating well and maybe next year we can all meet you in the forst DNOTES convention? DYNA'S Birthday with Dnotes peeps/ I am kinda in the doghouse.....Dyna gets real embarrassed when folks talk him up. He is the most humble guy I know personally. I thought......hell with it. I just make sure I do not embellish the truth. Just the facts, ma'am. Interesting note: Dyna was part of the third-world's "poor masses". He grew up in the mountains of Malaysia, his family farmed coconuts and palm oil. No electricity. Dirt floor hut. Only thing they had with a motor on it was a WW2 British Army Jeep. Farmed with water buffalo. But....out of six kids, they all graduated high school, most (or all) went to college. All were VERY successful. Secret to the family: A VERY extraordinary mother, AND an exceptional dad. When he talks about the "poor masses", he knows what he is talking about. |
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What major issues with the existing financial system can DNotes solve?
Half of the world's population does not have banking access and is therefore excluded from participating in economic growth.
Edit - DNotes can also help address all the other issues faced by people without banking access in the following article...
That is a big one for sure. There are many initiatives to provide people everywhere in the world access to computers and internet, it will be nice if we can help the cause with DNotes.
What technologies are most important to the future and success of DNotes?
What major issues with the existing financial system can DNotes solve?
1) Micro transactions, under $1 are not feasible. The transaction fees make micro transactions unprofitable if not impossible.
What services are most important to the future and success of DNotes?
1) Direct and simple fiat to DNotes exchange.
What major obstacles does DNotes face to achieve success?
1) Half of the world's population does not have banking access and is therefore excluded from participating in economic growth.
That is a huge one, but one that some of the world's most powerful people are trying to solve. It is THE most important problem that if solved, will help the MOST people in the BEST way, so it should be the number one priority of anyone wanting to help "the poor masses". Interesting note: Dyan's company (Dyna founded it and took it public) was the first company in the world to put the Power Supply "inside the box". Before that, when you got a new PC, it had a separate, independent power supply, because of interference. His company was the first to solve this basic problem. Just talked to him, I thought mebbe he would be celebrating his birthday, but no.....he is working his ass off instead. He says maybe next year. Happy Birthday Old Man. Smokey |
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This is a very interesting article from 2012: "Banking in the developing world" "The poor are different" HOW many people in the world have bank accounts and what do they use them for? You would think there would be answers to those questions, given that banking is the quintessentially global business, and is important not only in the West but in developing countries, where banks can help poor people save, borrow and invest. Yet, until now, data on the global reach of financial institutions have been limited. The IMF publishes a financial access survey of depositors and borrowers. But there is little about how much people save or why they borrow. Especially little is known about the banking practices of the poor, women and young people. So a big data hole got plugged last year when the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup World Poll carried out the biggest survey yet of how people save, borrow, make payments and manage risk. The results have just appeared. Roughly half of all adults in the world have an individual or joint bank account, according to the new Global Findex database. As one would expect, there is a big difference between banking in the West (where is 89% of adults have accounts) and the developing world (41%). The difference is wider still when it comes to credit cards; half of adults have them in the West, just 7% in developing countries. Within countries, levels of banking climb sharply with income and education. In Africa, for instance, 55% of people with tertiary education have bank accounts. But only just over 10% of those with primary or no education do. Banking displays a significant gender gap. In developing countries, 46% of adult men say they have an account, but only 37% of women. The gap is largest in South Asia and the Middle East and north Africa. It is a bit lower in the rest of Africa, where banking penetration as a whole is low: 27% of men have accounts, 22% of women. The bigger surprises concern how people use banks and other financial institutions. One might expect that, outside the West, banks (which tend to be relatively expensive) would be used largely for business. Not at all. The vast majority of people in developing countries—88%—say they use banks solely for personal use. The commonest reason for taking out a loan, for example, is to pay for family emergencies (typically someone falling ill). That is followed by school fees, home construction and the expenses of a wedding or funeral. In Africa, 38% of those with bank accounts say they use them to receive remittances from family members abroad. One particularly important reason for having an account in Europe, Central Asia and Latin America is to bank money from the government, either salaries or benefits. In comparison, banks do not seem to be used so much for what seems like a basic purpose: saving money. More than a third (36%) of adults said they had saved some money last year. But only a fifth (22%) said they used a bank or other formal financial institution to do it; 29% saved, but not at a bank (presumably they put the money under the mattress or used it to buy jewellery). A popular form of saving in Africa was the savings club. A group of people get together to bank their pennies regularly and each month the club pays out the entire pot to each member in turn. The modest use of banks for saving points to what seems like the overall story that emerges from the research. The extent of banking around the world is much patchier and less predictable than one might expect. Of course, bank usage tends to increase with income both globally and within countries. But income does not seem to be the sole determinant. Ghana and Benin are near-neighbours in West Africa and have similar levels of income. Yet Ghana has three times as many banks per head of the adult population as Benin does. Nigeria and Cameron are neighbours and have roughly the same level of banking among the poorest fifth of their populations (17% of the lowest quintiles in each country have bank accounts). Yet rich Nigerians are almost three times more likely than rich Cameroonians to have accounts. The moral is that other things matter as well as income. Policy makes a difference: does the government make it easy for banks to spread? The banks themselves make a difference: after lack of money, one of the commonest reasons people give for not having an account is the paperwork. And mobile phones make a huge difference. In Kenya, a stunning 68% of adults say they have used a mobile phone to send or receive money in the past 12 months. More than half of them have bank accounts. http://www.economist.com/blogs/feastandfamine/2012/04/banking-developing-worldVery enlightening, very insightful. The last paragraph, about the cell phones hit home to me. Dyna has been pounding this point into my head for quite some time. All you need to be a "Citizen of the World" is a smart phone (mini-computer), and an internet connection. Bill Gates knows this, he seems to be concentrating on figuring out how to get the "masses" an internet connection. Won't be long until the only "dead spot" will be the South Pole!! This is another reason to believe that Crypto-Currency will be not only more convienient, safer, quicker and cheaper than fiat for everyone, but it will be ESSENTIAL for the "unbanked" to be able to do things we in the west take for granted. Interesting fact: Did you know? Our very own Dyna (Alan to most, Yoda to me) once shared a podium with Bill Gates at a PC trade show. This was very early in the game, before Gates had "handlers", back when he was a wild-eyed, greasy-haired nerd. Dyna met Gates on a few other occasions after that for business, while Microsoft was growing to be the powerhouse it is now. He was kinda "handed over" to Steve Ballmer while Dyna was developing his DTR. Dyna was developing the first portable puters with the full power of a desktop, the DTR (Desk Top Replacement). They did not call them laptops back then. The DTR was powered by a 486 processor, the most powerful at the time. All other "portable puters" used a miserable little processor. BTW.....today is Dyna's birthday! He is almost 10 years old in dog years........ Smokey |
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Press Release – 1st Draft.
Sneak Peek:
Unprecedented Digital Currency Retirement Savings Plan Provides Relief for Underfunded Retirement Accounts
DNotes is adding an Unprecedented Digital Currency Retirement Savings Plan to Provide Relief for Underfunded Retirement Accounts; offering up to 12% Yearly Interest Bonus, with one million donated DNotes for the purpose.
Illinois, USA. DNotes, best known as the most stable digital currency with a solid and consistent uptrend, announced an unprecedented new savings plan to help provide some relief for underfunded individual retirement accounts using digital currency savings to supplement the short falls. According to DNotes Co-Founder Alan Yong, one million DNotes has been donated to CR.I.S.P. (Cryptocurrency Investment Savings Plan) for Retirement to encourage savers to supplement their underfunded individual retirement accounts with a long term commitment of 5, 10, 15, or 20 year duration and receive up to 12% yearly interest bonus. ………………….
……..Bitcoin as a digital currency and the associated blockchain technologies are viewed by many highly regarded industry leaders, including Yong, as the greatest technology innovation since the internet. Yong added that the distributed and consensus technologies coupled with the blockchain protocols have significant and positive world changing implications.
Mr. Yong went on to stress that, “We never had and never will have a better opportunity to help the financially disadvantaged and the enormous population of the unbanked who have little means of rising from poverty.” ……………..
Closer to home, the seriously under funded individual retirement savings are also troubling. RJF, Director of CR.I.S.P. for Retirement expressed his concern, “In these uncertain financial times, it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain a retirement account that will actually see you through your golden years. We believe that the concept of using DNotes to augment your retirement savings is an important consideration.” ..........................
……………………………………………….
I am of the opinion that the Retirement CRISP will end up being the most important CRISP, because of the number of folks it is going to help, AND the impact it may have on thier lives. The others are very important, but so many people are in trouble with retirement, and in such BIG trouble. This press release brings up those points very well. Smokey |
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Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:
"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"
Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?
This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants. Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption. Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology. I was trying to find an article I had read awhile ago about chargebacks, but haven't found it yet. It gave the details on things like most reversed transactions are from online purchases, a lot of them are consumer fraud (receiving the merchandise, but saying you didn't), etc. I'm of the opinion that this ("bitcoin's flaw") is just the credit card companies using this fact as their trump card. Things will evolve and work themselves out and their argument will become mute. Some of this can be dealt with on the shipping side ie. shipping insurance to guarantee receipt and in good condition where the customer must acknowledge upon receipt. Best sellers ratings for reputable online businesses. Apps that will recognize the addresses of the businesses on your safe list and issue you a warning if necessary, etc. Who knows, this could weed out bad businesses and bad customers. I did find this article on how much chargebacks cost merchants: "The Unknown Costs of a Chargeback" - http://www.chargeback.com/blog/the-unknown-costs-of-a-chargebackThanks, Chase. That is an excellent article about the staggering cost of Chargeback. It is a serious burden to merchants and a lot of them are small business owners struggling to find enough money to cover the next payroll. When it is the merchant's fault they should absolutely take every responsibility to make the customer whole and satisfied. The consumer fraud component is the most troubling. If payments using Bitcoin are reversible, the negative impact will be crippling. We can forget about mass merchant adoption. The banks, credit/debit card companies, and the likes of Western Union will win the war. Irreversible payment does not equate to “no refund; all sales are final.” Reputable merchants will stand by the products and services you purchased, irrespective of the form of payment used. .5% cost was a bit of an eye opener for me, that is substantial, and reversible transactions would only make that figure grow. Half a percent is huge!! Especially when it is on top of 2% to 4% of the CC fees themselves. As an online merchant, we pay 10K to 20K a year for the luxury and convienience of taking Credit Cards. That does not sound like a lot, but if ANY line item expense is over a percent, it has a HUGE effect on the bottom line. If I could switch from CC to Bitcoin overnight, my profit margin would be 2% to 4% higher!! That is HUGE in ANY business. The "standard" cost is crippling to the bottom line, but chargebacks are another "thing to hate", from a merchants point of view. It does not cost us a half percent, by any means (good customer service here!!), BUT.....a customer can do it within a certain amount of time when using CC or PayPal. So, to me, the merchant, it is kinda scary....NO CC or PayPal transaction is really safe untill a certain amount of time has passed. And we always seem to have "that one person", who will order flowers one day, and open a dispute two days later claiming they have not recieved the flowers yet! Or, simply change their mind, refuse the package, and start a chargeback. It is costly (what do you do with the product that comes back?), and frustrating. This is one MAJOR reason I (a merchant) would prefer Bitcoin to CC. Just because a Bitoin transaction is not reversable, in no way means "no refunds". Just because you paid cash at Wal Mart means no refund? Not in any way. It just means the customer cannot "scam" me, or change their mind without notification and just refuse the package. It does not stop refunds. It does make it harder to scam a merchant. The CC companies will jump on this, and claim a bitcoin transaction is not "safe" for the consumer. They will tout the "safety" of using a CC. The consumer does not realize that it is he, the consumer, that pays the CC cost. It is the consumer who pays for the scammers. To me, this is the "big secret". The consumer does not realize the true cost of that little piece of plastic. Smokey |
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Here's something I would like to hear some comments on. I initially posted this in the Digibyte forum since they were discussing the issue but, I would like to see what everyone here thinks:
"I'm hearing a lot of noise about Bitcoin's "flaw" regarding non reversible transactions. This is both a good and bad feature in the protocol depending on what the transaction is for. Perhaps, a solution would be to change the code so the transaction IS reversible for some period of time or, until the receiving party physically accepts it. Thoughts?"
Seems this is one of the holdups for mass adoption although most of that noise is coming from the established money/credit providers. Do you agree?
This is my take and I will try to make it brief. The irreversible feature of Bitcoin is an important security component and a great selling point to merchants. Legitimate merchants stand by their products and services they sell. Buyers have full recourse to a refund of their payments, if they so demand, within some reasonable scope of limitations, either directly or through the court of laws. I do not see this as an added risk exposure to the consumers, but a significant protection for merchants. Reversible payments will drastically increase merchants’ risk exposure and a huge deterrent to mass merchant adoption. Anonymity, with the exception of certain merchants, is also a deterrent to mass adoption. Unfortunately, I am having a very busy day and do not have the time to elaborate this further. I will conclude that in the absence of the irreversible feature and a required true anonymity for DNotes my optimism for the success of DNotes would be severely degraded. That is how strongly I feel about these two functions of Bitcoin as a digital currency technology. This is one rare time I would outright disagree with Bill Gates. Point #1: If you allow "chargebacks", then it is NOT a currency. If you make any crypto-currency reversable, then that currency IS NOT currency. It is NOT money. It becomes another "form of payment" needing a "trusted third party". Point #2: If a bitcoin transaction can be reversed, the extra anonymity inherent to blockchain transactions would make it ALMOST impossible to know WHO reversed the transaction. (I say ALMOST impossible, because the blockchain is really totally transparent, so it is not impossible, but tracking down a single transaction, especially if that transaction [darkcoin stuff] is intentionally made hard to track would make it impossible for almost all Merchants). In other words, from a merchant's point of view (and I am an experienced merchant with income that is about 75% credit card, 20% PayPal, and less than 5% checks and cash), I would NEVER take crypto-currency that could have that kind of risk exposure. Credit Cards and PayPal are bad enough for chargebacks. I could not imagine trying to track and identify a "chargeback" of crypto-currency. Summary: Irreversable transactions are part of the very fabric of what makes crypto-currency crypto-currency. Take that fundamental rule away, it is no longer money. It is a form of payment, needing a "trusted" third party. That fact, by definition, means it is NOT crypto-currency, and NOT money. Just my two cents worth..... Smokey |
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Hi all, thought I'd throw out my couple fav's for our fun apprentice parody name competition, Smokey can feel free to review my list and add or what not I tried to go with one from each person. Then DYNA can choose his pick of the bunch. Populuxe - "Dynamite Deal" QiWoman - "Insignis Apprentice" (Insignas is latin for rapid growth) Variant65 - "It's CRISP" Malfort - "MentorNotes" Any thoughts on these Smokey? Hope I didn't miss anybody! Apprentice Parody The winner of Apprentice Parody is "MentorNotes" by Malfort The Runner-up is "Insignis Apprentice" by QiWoman Congratulations to Malfort and all participants. Smokeys believe that you all are winners just by participating. Now TeeGee can get creative and setup a “MentorNotes” fund for students to own some DNotes. I will make a generous donation once a program is in place. I envision that various funds could be setup with different sponsors who believe that education can make positive difference. Congrats, Mafort, and today, you all win: Mafort recieved 2500 DNotes for participating, and 5000 from me for winning. QiWoman recieved 2500 for participating, and another 2500 from me for second place. Variant65 recieved 2500 DNotes from me for participating. Populuxe: I need his Deposit Addy, and he will recieve 2500 from me for participating. This is in addition to any DNotess promised by anyone else. Keep in mind, these DNotes are from my personal stash, I sold quite a few dayliles in the last year and turned em into DNotes. It was a good decision for me, the DNotes are growing MUCH faster than the Daylilies are!! Smokey Is there an exchange that does direct conversion?  I am not sure if I clearly understand your question. Are you referring to converting fiat currency to DNotes? Our current recommended process is not ideal but still deserves our highest recommendation because we believe in the value of being the best of class, even if it takes extra efforts. There are many good reasons why Coinbase was able to raise $75 million with the participation of some top bankers, recently. Until there is a better solution, we recommend opening an account with Coinbase with a link to your bank account. In most states, you can also sign up for a USD account and add your savings to that account using USD so that you can purchase Bitcoin at anytime with instant delivery. Depending on your credit history, you can also be qualified for $1,000 instant buy by providing a major credit card. They do not accept credit cards as a source of payment but use it as a backup. Once you have Bitcoin purchased, the Bitcoin can be sent to one of the exchanges where DNotes is traded (Allcoin, Poloniex, C-cex, and Comkort) From there, you purchase DNotes and send them to your CR.I.S.P. Savings or one of the DNotesVault general accounts. Once you get use to the process it is not that complicated. Try to take it one step at a time, it is fairly straight forward. Building a stable and trustworthy currency is complicated. It can take years and a lot of hard work. However, because it is of critical importance we believe it is well worth it. Having some extra money saved for retirement is of critical importance. I strongly encourage you to make the extra efforts to do it right and not have any doubt in your mind that your hard earned dollars are safely protected. Our second choice is Circle. They are doing significantly better now but not without problems as can be seen below. Our ultimately goal is to have our own fully registered, regulated and licensed exchange with partner banks or our own bank. However, don't count on that to happen anytime soon. It will take a few years. ********************** Circle.com is having trouble and making excuses (self.Bitcoin) submitted 3 months ago by bitcoin844 Is anyone else having troubles with Circle.com? My account has both a verified bank account and credit card. My supposedly "instant" buy order of $500 I placed on Friday morning still hasn't funded. I wrote support asking them to cancel the order and they sent me this form response "We're writing today to follow up on an issue you reported with Circle deposits. We may have delayed your transaction due to our fraud prevention monitoring. We apologize for any inconvenience. We should have this issue resolved in the next few days. Since our launch on September 29th, we have seen a tremendous global response to Circle. As we ramp users, we continue to optimize and improve our systems. Thank you for your patience, continued feedback, and support. Chris, Team Circle" I have talked to two other people that have used Circle.com since since Wednesday, both tried to buy coin and haven't received it. Both tried to cancel and got the same form response. Read more: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2iet4l/circlecom_is_having_trouble_and_making_excuses/"I sold quite a few dayliles in the last year and turned em into DNotes" I think RJF was just having some fun with Smokey's post. Shark! You may be right, Chase. I had to give up my "nap" trying to figure out what RJF was asking about lol. Talking about hard earned $$$. Those guys work hard. I was with them for six years. At least, I love flowers; may be they love money and now they seem to love DNotes even more. My guess is that everyone associated with the daylily farm now owns a decent amount of DNotes. Hope they will end up to be among the richest farmers one day. Sorry about you're nap! Ah........why I am always the last to get it?!!! Good one, RJF!! Dyna's "nap" is usually about 20 minutes anyway......I have longer eye-blinks than that! Since old folks need less sleep, and I know Dyna only sleeps about 5 hours a night.....that must mean he is really, really old........ Smokey |
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Hi all, thought I'd throw out my couple fav's for our fun apprentice parody name competition, Smokey can feel free to review my list and add or what not I tried to go with one from each person. Then DYNA can choose his pick of the bunch. Populuxe - "Dynamite Deal" QiWoman - "Insignis Apprentice" (Insignas is latin for rapid growth) Variant65 - "It's CRISP" Malfort - "MentorNotes" Any thoughts on these Smokey? Hope I didn't miss anybody! Apprentice Parody The winner of Apprentice Parody is "MentorNotes" by Malfort The Runner-up is "Insignis Apprentice" by QiWoman Congratulations to Malfort and all participants. Smokeys believe that you all are winners just by participating. Now TeeGee can get creative and setup a “MentorNotes” fund for students to own some DNotes. I will make a generous donation once a program is in place. I envision that various funds could be setup with different sponsors who believe that education can make positive difference. Congrats, Mafort, and today, you all win: Mafort recieved 2500 DNotes for participating, and 5000 from me for winning. QiWoman recieved 2500 for participating, and another 2500 from me for second place. Variant65 recieved 2500 DNotes from me for participating. Populuxe: I need his Deposit Addy, and he will recieve 2500 from me for participating. This is in addition to any DNotess promised by anyone else. Keep in mind, these DNotes are from my personal stash, I sold quite a few dayliles in the last year and turned em into DNotes. It was a good decision for me, the DNotes are growing MUCH faster than the Daylilies are!! Smokey Is there an exchange that does direct conversion? Not yet! I will defer to Dyna, but an exchange with the ability to convert fiat directly to DNotes is in our intermediate/long range plans. This is a relatively high priority project, but is subject to Government Regulations, which could change at any time. Just like in the daylily garden. You can plan on planting, you set everything up perfectly, but if it rains (the gov regulations change) you ain't gonna plant!!! Keep in mind, however, in the Crypto-World, Long-Range Planning could be next year!! Smokey |
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Hi all, thought I'd throw out my couple fav's for our fun apprentice parody name competition, Smokey can feel free to review my list and add or what not I tried to go with one from each person. Then DYNA can choose his pick of the bunch. Populuxe - "Dynamite Deal" QiWoman - "Insignis Apprentice" (Insignas is latin for rapid growth) Variant65 - "It's CRISP" Malfort - "MentorNotes" Any thoughts on these Smokey? Hope I didn't miss anybody! Apprentice Parody The winner of Apprentice Parody is "MentorNotes" by Malfort The Runner-up is "Insignis Apprentice" by QiWoman Congratulations to Malfort and all participants. Smokeys believe that you all are winners just by participating. Now TeeGee can get creative and setup a “MentorNotes” fund for students to own some DNotes. I will make a generous donation once a program is in place. I envision that various funds could be setup with different sponsors who believe that education can make positive difference. Congrats, Mafort, and today, you all win: Mafort recieved 2500 DNotes for participating, and 5000 from me for winning. QiWoman recieved 2500 for participating, and another 2500 from me for second place. Variant65 recieved 2500 DNotes from me for participating. Populuxe: I need his Deposit Addy, and he will recieve 2500 from me for participating. This is in addition to any DNotess promised by anyone else. Keep in mind, these DNotes are from my personal stash, I sold quite a few dayliles in the last year and turned em into DNotes. It was a good decision for me, the DNotes are growing MUCH faster than the Daylilies are!! Smokey |
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Hi all, thought I'd throw out my couple fav's for our fun apprentice parody name competition, Smokey can feel free to review my list and add or what not I tried to go with one from each person. Then DYNA can choose his pick of the bunch. Populuxe - "Dynamite Deal" QiWoman - "Insignis Apprentice" (Insignas is latin for rapid growth) Variant65 - "It's CRISP" Malfort - "MentorNotes" Any thoughts on these Smokey? Hope I didn't miss anybody! Let Dyna take it from here. I have sent "second place prizes" of 2500 DNotes to all entries. Still need QiWoman's and Populuxe's Deposit Address. When you two post your addy, I will send you 2500 also!! Smokey |
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Quick recap:
I like Director of CR.I.S.P. for Retirement as well.
Agree checkbox upon creating a CR.I.S.P for Retirement account will state:
"I agree that my current and future deposits made to this account will be locked and not available for withdrawal for duration or length of time I selected. I understand that any request for hardship withdrawal will be considered on a case by case basis."
Somewhere on the retirement dashboard it will state:
"Depositors are reminded that compliance with all existing and future laws governing financial instruments, reporting, paying of taxes or fees and digital currency regulation is the express responsibility of the depositor."
I agree. All other CRISP Directors would have that title also ( I would assume). It looks like we are full steam ahead from here. Great job everyone! We have an amazing team, and I am very excited and very impressed. Smokey |
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Here is some quick retirement facts I'll place here that are related to data RJF wanted to see. *A recent report by Jack VanDerhei of the Employee Benefits Research Institute should worry you: Assuming you're retired for 35 years (generous, but not totally unrealistic), and factoring in nursing home and home health care costs: 83% of those in the lowest income quartile will run out of money, 47% of those in the second-lowest quartile will run out, 28% of those in the second-highest quartile will run out, and 13% of those in the highest income quartile will run out. When the retirement time is chopped down to 20 years (to age 85), 8% of the highest quartile income earners will still run out of money. *The mean and median values of IRA accounts is $70,000 and $20,000 respectively. The mean average is propped up by the fact that 6.3% of IRA accounts are in excess of $250,000 98.5% of taxpayers have IRA account balances at $1,000,000 or less. 1.2% of tax payers have IRA account balances at $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. 0.2% (or 83,529) taxpayers have IRA account balances of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 0.1% (or 36,171) taxpayers have IRA account balances of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 <0.1% (or 7,952) taxpayers have IRA account balances of $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 <0.1% (or 791) taxpayers have IRA account balances of $10,000,000 to $25,000,000 <0.1% (or 314) taxpayers have IRA account balances of $25,000,000 or more *As of 2010, low savings rates, financial crises, and poor stock market performance had caused retirement savings account values to fall so low that 75% of Americans nearing retirement age had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts, which Forbes called "the greatest retirement crisis in American history." - Wikipedia, footnote 7 *In 2010, the median household retirement account balance for workers aged 55 to 64 was $120,000, which will provide only a trivial supplement to Social Security benefits, but a third of households had no retirement savings at all. - Wikipedia, footnote 33 For the most part, it appears that American incomes and retirement balances are so varied, that calculated proportions of income spend on healthcare are difficult to come across. The following figures should make it clear that it is very high however! *Fidelity’s annual Retiree Health Care Costs Estimate estimate suggests that a 65‐year‐old couple retiring in 2014 would need $220,000 (in today's dollars) in total to pay for medical expenses throughout their retirement (17 years for men, 20 years for women, on average), not including nursing home or long‐term care. and... *According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a 65-year-old couple with median prescription-drug expenses who retire this year will need $295,000 to enjoy a 75 percent chance of being able to pay all their remaining lifetime medical bills, and $360,000 to have a 90 percent chance. *I have struggled to find any good data that finds ‘average returns’ on IRA’s because there are so many different investment portfolios. One company that I looked at is below, I found that most of the returns listed under 10 year rate of return had a tendency to fall somewhere between 5 and 8%. I found similar results with another investment firm called vanguard. - https://www.tiaa-cref.org/public/tcfpi/InvestResearch Sad state of affairs indeed. The way I see it, several things are coming together to create a crisis for retirees: Stock Market problems, very low interest offered, Social Security and Medicare in crisis, inflation, dismal economy, and the fact that the "baby boomers" are going to be taxing the Social Security and Medicare system even more. Looks like we all should be responsible for our retirement, Uncle Sam may be too broke to help you!! Smokey |
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Here is the latest version.
CR.I.S.P. for Retirement initial features:
Separate tab in the DNotesVault for Retirement Dashboard
The retirement dashboard will include:
1) Display Number of Accounts
2) Display Total amount on Deposit in DNotes and USD
3) Display Total USD Value at time of Deposit
4) A button to create a retirement account with the following form:
a) Select from 5, 10, 15, or 20 year plans paying 0.7%, 0.8%, 0.9%, and 1% monthly bonuses.
b) Type a label for this account, the label will default 5YEAR, 10YEAR, 15YEAR, and 20YEAR respectively
5) A table with each of your retirement accounts with the following columns
a) The account label
b) An address that may deposit DNotes at any time
c) Number of DNotes
d) The USD deposit value
e) The Current USD value
f) A withdrawal button
Note: If you click the withdrawal button before the term has ended, you will be sent to a hardship withdrawal form.
g) A date of completion for each account.
Bonuses will be paid monthly until the 1,000,000 DNotes retirement fund is exhausted.
If you have any comments, please let us know, we will lock these features in tomorrow.
That is a great start. Consistent with our philosophy, we are making the whole process easy to understand, easy to setup and secure. CR.I.S.P. for Retirement will only be available to those who are willing to have their retirement savings locked for a minimum period of 5 years. Additional terms include 10 years, 15 years and 20 years. 1,000,000 DNotes has been donated to be distributed as bonus. Being simple and easy to understand is key. We have to all need to keep in mind just how complicated the crypto-world is. It still amazes me just how little newbies know about crypto, and just how hard the concepts are to grasp for most of them. We can (and will) add additonal features when the timing is right. Smokey |
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So we earn some monthly roi AND have appreciation when we lock in for 5 years? That's so awesome. What is the minimum we need to put in to start a retirement package and what is the minimum we need to add monthly? I would think it would be "no minimum", on starting or adding. The beauty of Dyna's concept of what a retirement program in the crypto-currency world should look and feel like, is that it really does follow the "decentralized" mind-set the crypto-currency would is built around. The program is TOTALLY "self-directed": YOU decide how much to save (no minimums or maximums) YOU decide when to save (frequency of deposits) YOU decide how to save (where is the money going to come from?) YOU decide when to be able to take it out (You can create multiple accounts, with different maturation dates) Our job end job is to make DNotes the Currency of the Future. To facilitate future adoption, we want to reach as many people as possible, as soon as possible. Long-term investors are critical. Rewarding those who agree to hold DNotes for a set period of time, and increasing the reward for holding them longer makes a lot of sense. Understand also, that the Million DNotes to be used for the reward system comes from our personal stash of DNotes. We at first agreed on 500,000, but when Dyna could not contact me, he increased the proposed Reward System Fund to 1,000,000 DNotes. He knew me well enough to know that I would support that decision wholeheartedly. Dyna is a selfless, humble genius. He is devoted to making this world a better place, and helping the common man (or woman) that helps himself. By making retirement secure for thousands, or millions of folks who we "encouraged" to "help themselves" in a time of great economic uncertainty is a legacy we all here at DNotes aspire too. This program may be the most important program we will ever come up with. I predict the long-term effects will be even grander than what we envision it. I know I will get a call in the morning from Dyna. He is going to chastise me for praising him too much. Don't care. I stand by my words. Take that, humble genius. Smokey |
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Looks like we lost a few good posts..........TeeGee.........I think you lost the same very informative, great post TWICE!!! Ouch.....
Smokey
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This is a first! I am sure there will be many many more to follow. I think this year will have "mainstream" investment money going into the crypto-currency industry in a big way. I personally expect much more "mainstream" money going into the infrastructure and supporting websites/businesses than in investing in the coin itself. That sector of the market is a much safer and more mainstream investment than investing in the coins themselves, although it does signal that the big investors will be investing in coins also. "Mainstream" investment money will always start with the safer stuff, then move slowly into the riskier segment of the market (coins) themselves. Smokey |
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I wrote one of my massive posts last night that I sometimes do... little did I know, my wifi had become disconnected, so when I clicked "post" I got a nice "connect to the internet" page. Attempting to go back in the hope my big long message would still be saved, I had no luck. It never re-wrote it because I was annoyed and it was near bed time, but I'll write something similar today. Historically I've always written my posts in google drive before copy / pasting onto the forum reply box... may I suggest to others to do the same if you ever plan on spending an hour+ on a post you're really excited about? I think we have good time frames in line for the releases of CR.I.S.P for Retirement, followed by CR.I.S.P for Students. I have read some rather interesting, but not entirely unsurprising information gathered from a survey of 4500 ohio university students which I will share at the end of this post. I agreed with one of the posts made earlier that CR.I.S.P for retirement is something that Students will also have their minds on, so we may start with releasing the program that will attract a wider audience. I think a challenge will be preferred risk aversion among people closer to retirement. We will always be encouraging people to begin small with their portfolios (for students this might just be an encouragement to buy $10 on a pre-funded card / vault account or something), but convincing these same people that DNotes provides the investment vehicle to possibly take their small capital input, and turn it into something much larger within a matter of 5-10 years will be a real challenge. Students on the other hand, tend to have a lower propensity for 'delayed gratification', nor any material investment capital to utilise in their oft constrained budgets. I think CR.I.S.P for Students and Retirement will reward those most who get in earlier, like all great investments. The better we can communicate value in the DNotes investment vehicle, the more people we know will prosper. I thought I'd leave a few quick quotes that demonstrate the secondary consequences of student debt before all those in the DNote community from the USA go to bed in a couple of hours (RJF, I will be in touch to see if I can go through any research on retirement demographics etc at your direction in the next day or two). The following quotes and points made are from the Ohio student survey of 4500 students. One in three students suffer insomnia due to financial worries, and 37 per cent report anxiety over their finances:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-finance/9604951/One-in-three-students-suffer-insomnia-due-to-finance-worries-survey-finds.html“Not having enough money to participate in the same activities as peers had the
largest positive effect (OR=5.708) on reporting financial stress. Students who regularly
spent more than they could afford by using credit or by borrowing were significantly more
likely to report financial stress than those who did not regularly overspend ”"In the same study, students who need to work to support themselves through tertiary education report more financial stress. Women also report higher stress levels. Students are more concerned by their level of debt at graduation, than by their current debt level."Interesting stuff... Oh yeah, also the average student debt is now more than 30,000 per person! The US Government borrows this from the FED (criminal banking cartel) at 0.25%, and then sells the money to students at a higher than 6% stafford interest rate for 2015... shocking. "Direct unsubsidized loans — the Stafford for graduate students — currently carry a 5.41% interest rate but will increase to 6.21% for loans disbursed starting July 1 2015. The US government borrows the money to facilitate these loans at 0.25% from the FED."Oh, and I almost forgot, how sick is this!??? If the government were a private loan provider, it would be one of the most profitable companies, next to Exxon mobil and Apple - http://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-government-profits-from-student-loans-to-the-tune-of-40-billion-a-year/197199/and this!? In the UK - According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the average student debt will be £44,015 - higher even than the US. The Higher Education Commission says that it is particularly concerned about the future level of student debt with financial experts estimating that 73 per cent of all students will still be unable to pay off their student loans after 30 years, when debts are automatically wiped. Urghhh... Not sure what to say now. But baby steps and we will fix it. After reading your excellent post, I'm thinking of another product directly aimed at helping to pay off those loans. A CR.I.S.P, for Student Loan Repayment....As far as retirement, I would like to see some data on: - how many people run out of funds before they pass away
- How many people end up spending their IRAs on medical bills
- What does the average non skilled worker receive in monthly payout from a traditional retirement plan vs. an IRA
- What is the average rate of interest applied to retirement plans
Since the DNotes should be held for a number of years to realize the greatest amount of appreciation and therefore aren't really a good option to pay for current tuition, this may be a really good idea for pitching the CR.I.S.P. for students. Buy an extra $20+ in DNotes now to help pay off the student loan you are still going to have in 10 years. Very sad situation.  Exactly Chase. I'm thinking maybe each CR.I.S.P holder could pre-set a holdings value at which their Student loan contributions would set in. First payment of 20 Notes when USD value of portfolio hits 10,000 Second payment timed-send of 20 Dnotes triggered when USD value of portfolio hits 15,000, or after 1 year of first payment Third.... and so forth. It would be a fair mix of wiping some student loan debt, while also not missing out on appreciation. That said, by that stage I imagine some clever students will have worked out to run some fancy scripts that auto repay the loan more often when DNotes appreciation is lower than the interest payment on their Student loans, and make fewer payments when the DNotes appreciation exceeds the interest payment on their student loan. Students are clever, one day we could even get a bunch young IT students on board as junior developers or something - "CR.I.S.P for Internships" - where you learn from established IT developers (DNotes) in exchange for doing ground work coding (as long as they're good coders). All the coders leave with a few DNotes and a written reference or whatever. Management / strategy students could learn from DYNA in a mentor capacity by helping out with community projects, and in exchange DYNA could choose one lucky intern to be his "Apprentice". This "Apprentice" then gets to run their very own managed project under DYNA's wing for DNotes, much like Donald Trump had people do in that way over-run TV Show "The Apprentice" (just a little carried away here). Now for a bit of fun, the best name anybody in the community comes up with for such an 'apprentice' parody, I'll send 500 DNotes - Just leave your Vault e-mail or Vault address and I'll announce a winner in a day or two - silent forum lurkers, this is your opportunity to come and say hello and get paid for it. I'll begin with "NoteWorthy" (but I'm ineligible to enter, so are any references to Trumps hair piece) How about Dyna's DNotes DApprentice......I will disqualify myself, but I will add 5000 DNotes to TeeGee's 500. That makes 5500 to the winner........anyone want to add to that? Smokey |
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It is 12:06 am in Chicago. I read TeeGee post twice but ran out enough brain power to post a response he deserves. I got an idea. Just re-post it in hold, since it will be better than what I can likely come up. It is certainly worth reading a few times over. I do have a favorite part : "The coolest thing is that nobody owns it - not the government, not the bank, but the holders. This can not be said for any other money eco-system".Quote from TeeGee:I have some of my own thoughts to add about the bitcoin crash. For those who have time to read what I found to be a fascinating article on the Willy Bot and Markus Bot at Mt. Gox, you may do so here: https://willyreport.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/the-willy-report-proof-of-massive-fraudulent-trading-activity-at-mt-gox-and-how-it-has-affected-the-price-of-bitcoin/I have elucidated a rather pertinent extract that I agree with (I do not believe the entire article is factually proven, but provides a good theory to explain the 2013 rally): "Mt. Gox has effectively been abusing Bitcoin to operate a Ponzi scheme for at least a year. The November “bubble” well into the $1000’s – and possibly April’s as well – was driven by hundreds of millions of dollars of fake liquidity pumped into the market out of thin air (note that this is equivalent to “with depositors’ money”). It is only natural that the Bitcoin price would deflate for around 5 months since its December peak, since there was never enough fiat coming in to support these kind of prices in the first place." ---------DELETED SOME STUFF FOR QUOTE ----------- I had my first day back at work today for the year... told my boss I'd give her and her husband (IT guy) some DNotes... she seemed quite receptive while I explained away the advantages of crypto. Bed time [2:22am]. Look forward to hearing any thoughts in the morning (I'll compress it down maybe for a re-post later). That makes perfect sense. I always felt the 1k+ price of Bitcoin was artificial mainly due to the time of ramp up, no way that many people found out about Bitcoin that fast and dumped enough money into it to warrant that price. It especially makes sense if what Ross Ulbrict is now saying about Karpeles being "dread pirate roberts" behind Silk Road. He would have had virtually unlimited funds to use on Mt Gox to fix the price as well as access to users funds. Think about that for a moment. One man's greed could well have created a sea change in the way we see and use money. Stuff like this doesn't happen very often in history and when it it does, its life changing... EDIT: Since Satoshi of course.. Sometimes there is a significant advantage not to be the first pioneer. Bitcoin is simply an incredibly advanced digital currency technology that has challenged the best of computer scientists for decades. Coupled with the blockchain technology it is destined to be the next greatest technology revolution since the internet. Personally I am a firm believer that it will be bigger, more disruptive and more widely beneficial than anything mankind has seen. Technology innovation never starts and ends as a perfect form. It always evolves and get better over time. Problems are identified and resolved with never ending potential for expanded applications. That is the technical side of the enterprise. The human side of the enterprise can be just as challenging, especially in the case of Bitcoin. Being a huge technology breakthrough known to a very small population, it presented a tempting first mover advantage to exploit the opportunity for personal gain. When there were no comparables or historical records, human greed can always over-power reasonable mind. I believe that is what happened in the case Bitcoin when its price shot up from $200 on Nov. 1, 2013 to $1,200 in 30 days. Those are the most damaging 30 days in the history of Bitcoin. It created a culture of greed, get rich quick mentality, and the need for instant gratifications more pronounced than I have witnessed anywhere. Over time artificially inflated valuations are never sustainable. They are always corrected over time. Unfortunately, the inherent nature of human greed and fear when energized by herd mentality always lead to the extreme end of the spectrum. We all can agree now that at $1,200 Bitcoin was significantly overvalued. I will state with certainly that Bitcoin at $200 is undervalued. Like it or not. What is bad for Bitcoin has proven to be just as bad for other coins. I share your pain and frustration. Meanwhile, remember this. What is good for Bitcoin will also be good for other cryptocurrencies. “A Rising tide lifts all boats”. Let us hope that we have learned a good lesson. Rocketing price appreciation to the moon is a curse, not a blessing. It has caused irreparable damages to many of our industry peers. Let’s not wish for it, participate or encourage it but work hard together to earn sustainable value appreciation because of productive contributions we made to the value of our stakes. This is the fundament believe system of DNotes. It makes sense to us. We welcome you to join us and share our commitment to make a difference. A more respectful and constructive culture will certainly go a long way in our quest for mass adoption of digital currency. Please share your prospectives, no matter how brief. Thank you. Two big things I take from this: Personally I am a firm believer that it will be bigger, more disruptive and more widely beneficial than anything mankind has seen. I agree. This is (will be) the biggest thing modern Mankind has seen up to this point. Bigger than the Industrial Revolution. Bigger than the internet itself! We have not even BEGUN to realize what the blockchain is capable of. It's greatest contributions are yet to be discovered, in my opinion. Look at almost all "things" or "events" that caused major upheaval and change in the past. When they were new, NOBODY could grasp the true impact of the "thing" or "event". In fact, most major breakthroughs have a FAR larger impact in areas that the original "inventors" never dreamed of. Same thing with the Blockchain. It's greatest uses have not even been thought of yet!!! What is good for Bitcoin will also be good for other cryptocurrencies. “A Rising tide lifts all boats”. As for this topic, alas it is true. True for all crypto-currency. It is too soon to try to "uncouple" from Bitcoin. That is true for ALL other coins. We do have long-range plans to address this issue, but any time spent on it now is very pre-mature. So, like it or not, we are tied at the hip with Bitcoin, and there is very little we can do about it. One thing we can do to help the industry in general is to build a very stable, very trusted currency that will make the industry as a group proud, that "cheerleaders" of the industy can point to and use as an example of what the industry SHOULD look like, and CAN be. So, in my opinion, any time and treasure spent on anything past brief disscussions of "uncoupling" from Bitcoin is time that should be spent on working on the tasks set right in front of us, instead of chasing rainbows. Respectfully, Grasshopper....... |
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Bitcoin has lost over 80% of its value from its peak at around $1,200 it reached just a little over a year ago. The most recent drop of over 30% from $300 to $200 is quite definitely sucking a lot of energy out of our industry resulting in high anxiety and much worry. For whatever it's worth let me give you my take, hopefully it brings a little comfort.
I always look at things from a somewhat different prospective or, more accurately, from many different prospective, often using a system approach, allowing me to look closely at all the different components that are inter-connected to form the main system. In addition, I have found it helpful to utilize multi-discipline model; economic, financial, and behavioral model. I am not going to bore you with details. However, I will share two conclusions with you that may shade a little light, hopefully along with some comfort.
Herd mentality is a very powerful force in human behavior both negatively and positively. Herd mentality is always emotionally charged, spontaneous and never objective. It has a very high tendency to end in either extremely of the spectrum, with a period of adjustment once the dust settled. As much as Bitcoin was over-valued at $1,200, I am certain that it is under-valued at $200 due to herd mentality at play.
My second observation is a little more complex but explain why our industry has been spinning its wheels and difficult to establish an objective valuation. I often refer to the phenomena as “build and destroy”. In a highly productive environment, once a baseline is established, it is quite easy to account for incremental value added to the baseline. Using DNotes as an example, a productive and healthy growth path will constantly add value over a given period of time. This gives the planners the confidence to project a reliable long term value appreciation path. It is more in tune with publicly traded company with solid fundamentals and healthy growth potential. The entity becomes more and more valuable over time.
Our industry in general has been both productive and destructive. As a group we “build and destroy”. We know for a fact that a lot of value has been added in just 2014 alone. Close to $400 million was invested by VCs (venture capital). Together with time and money from the rest of us along with all the new technologies and infrastructures added last year alone, our industry as a whole should be worth a lot more today and it was a year ago. It probably should be, and hence undervalued. However, here is the problem. Our industry has also been rather destructive and that negative value is nearly impossible to account for. One can argue that this holds true with every industry at it formative stage. That is true, but never to this extremely.
Personally, I believe that there are many great people in our industry, including a lot of very smart individuals. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. It may be time for more of us to come together and be much more productive this year than 2014. This is our invitation to others who share our values and vision that as much as this technology revolution, we are already a part of, may be disruptive, but it does not have to be destructive. That will be the best for our generation and many more to come. It is with such inspiration and vision that DNotes core mission is founded.
Wow. What an explanation! You certainly have a way with being able to explain things in simple concepts. Even after being your student for over ten years, I am still learning...... Sincerly, Grasshopper |
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