It is hard enough, for the average consumers to understand Bitcoin and digital currency like DNotes. Our industry seems to take pride in making things more complicated and confusing than necessary. It does not matter how complex the back-end is to provide the best technical solutions, but the front-end and user-interface must be very simple, easy to understand and easy to use.

There is niche demand of DAC and decentralized exchange, but the overall demand will remain low. It is simplicity, trusted brand, verifiable fundamental value, and a total package that will eventually rule and gain the needed mass acceptance. That is the direction DNotes is heading. It is not unusual that big bold ideas are dismissive at the early stages and stayed undervalued. Once everything is in place and anyone can understand people start to wonder how they could have missed something so obvious.

DNotes is money. Keep it simple, so that even a three year old can understand, so that when everything is said and done, it can be conveniently used to buy something of value or stored safely without the fear of losing its buying power. We are not there yet, but we will get there sooner or later.  

That is the objective. If we can keep the market more active and our "friendly" bot can make a few extra DNotes to grow the account than it is worth the effort. It sounds simple; to buy low and sell it a little higher. In practice it will work well on up trends but not so well on a down draft. In any case, I have given Joe the green light to go ahead with it.

I am very confident that DNotes price will recover before long. I just finished writing the first draft of the last chapter of my book and will start working on the Smokeys Daylily Gardens Story and the DNotes Story as attachments to the book. It is looking good and I will be reaching out for editing help in a week or two. The book will be published in late March with a dedicated website. It will be a revenue generator for the new company. I am very excited about it. It will be very helpful for many small business owners and startups.

DNotes is a very large scale global project involving an immensely innovative technology. We are blessed to have the vision to see way beyond the horizon of five, ten, twenty years from now and have been positioning our strategic plans accordingly. At the beginning, it was easier for a smaller group of investors to understand what we were trying to accomplish and do differently. As our ecosystem continued to grow and become more complex, it is harder for others to buy in what we are trying to accomplish. Essentially, at this time, there are more DNotes for sale than investors interested to buy.  Eventually they will get it. Once that happen, there will be more people wanting to buy DNotes than available for sale. The price of DNotes will adjust upward until it reaches the next equilibrium.

We seem to have forgotten the powerful combination of our family of CRISPs and DNotesVault. Two dynamics could play out in a significant manner this year. The book will reach a very large number of small business owners and startups. That will give us "a foot in the door" to many small business owners and their employees, whose retirements are underfunded or non-existence.

Additionally, China's economy and its currency are going through significant adjustments. Many Chinese investors have been grabbing up Bitcoin and altcoins, irrespective of investment quality. As expected, there will be a lot of P & Ds. In fact, it is already happening.

Although, we did not plan to expand to the Chinese market till later this year, we are now making some serious efforts to contact the Chinese exchanges that trade altcoins. Frankly, the CRISPs and DNotesVault combination is the perfect package for Chinese investors to acquire DNotes in Chinese Yuan and have the DNotes safely stored in cold storage in the US. I believe that DNotes will be a big hit once it becomes available in China. May be later this year we will begin to listen in to conversation at cocktail parties, "I could have bought 100 K DNotes at 950 satoshi each, and now it is trading at ten times that", or "I shouldn't have sold mine for $1 K. It is now worth over $10 K" Such is life. I sold a large number of Priceline at $1 when the Internet bubble busted. Priceline is currently traded at over 1K per share.

Quote from: TeeGee on Today at 12:11:02 PM

Fed policy will always baffle me. To be more specific, the fact that central banks exist will always baffle me. When somebody knows how the people allowed central banks to be created...?

The Fed probably didn't even want to raise rates. The Fed probably already knew that if they raised rates that they would need to drop them back to zero and look stupid. Instead, after talking about how the economy is strengthening for over a year, they ran out of excuses for why they hadn't raised rates yet.

They raised rates just to show that they thought the economy was strong enough to handle it, yet markets have already been pricing them in.

Quote From Shepherd Today:

The Fed missed the opportunity of raising the interest rate just once by .25% instead of four times, when the US economy was doing okay. If they did that, they would have something in their "tool box" to use if and when the economy needs help this year, which I believe is likely.

I agree. It is excellent. Love to see published on LinkedIn.

Welcome to DNotes, CeEichler and thanks for making your first stop here. There is certainly a lot to learn in the digital currency world. If you are a student, be sure to check out DNotesVault to get some free DNotes:http://dnotesvault.com/crisp-for-students.php

You may also want to visit DCEBrief to keep up with current events happening in our industry:  http://www.dcebrief.com/

This is my favorite:

"Do people buy drugs with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Yep! That’s because it is money. People use digital money to buy goods just like they use paper cash. Paper cash, for the record, is still the most common way to buy such party goods."

That’s because it is money.

The best part of it is that, one day, DNotes will not only be equal to fiat currency in meeting the full functions of money, but it will be superior to fiat currency.

I certainly hope so. Great customer experience is invaluable. The founder of PayServices, Willie, was a good customer of Dauphin Technology. He told me a great customer support experience he had with Dauphin 25 years ago. He sent back a laptop computer for repair he "fried" by mistake when trying to fixed it. The computer was needed for an important presentation. Upon arrival I was notified for immediate attention. It was promptly repaired and tested. We assigned our Import and Export Manager to use his connection and hand delivered the computer to be on the next flight to Belgium. Willie's customer was pleasantly surprised and delighted. The story is still being told after twenty-five years. That is the power of great customer experience.

RJF, that is unfortunate, and very frustrating. There have been a couple of incidents where our forum members took months to recover their original status. To a certain extent we are all "customers" It is unbelievable why customer support, customer satisfaction, and great customer experience are not a high priority to top management. Customers are the final link connecting to business success. Once that link is broken, as in the case of Cryptsy, the company is gone for good.

I just had a bad experience with Coinbase. Most likely due to third party software upgrade I lost my "Instant Buy". They must have tightened their address match and I have one address line with ... Rd and one without. It took me six weeks and countless hours to finally recovered my instantly buy. For sure customer support do not work on Saturday or Sunday at Coinbase.

For those who are managing your own business or those who are planning to start a business, that note of this, "What is your business?  At the most fundamental level, it is the customer. Your business is not defined by your credential, name of your company, or how much publicity you received for your exciting innovative ideas. It is defined by successfully satisfying the customer’s want for the product or service purchased. Consequently, the fundamental mission and purpose of every business is to satisfy the customer." Alan Yong, The Four Pillars of Business Success, 2016

Thanks for checking them out. We are working with them in limited capacity. They have a big bold idea and like any big idea it takes a great deal of positioning and execution of multiple strategies. It will take them some time to become a significant force. We could be more involved later. At his point finishing my book to the point of being ready for editing is my highest priority. I am getting very close.

Interesting study.

“initial finding is that non Bitcoin users feel that they can't use Bitcoin because they don't understand the technical aspects of how it works--feel they need more technical knowledge than they have in order to use it.”

We could have told them. Our industry has made Bitcoin and digital currency sounded incredibly complicated. Perception is reality. So to the average consumer, it is very complicated and they don’t understand it. It sounded very intimidating and too hard to warp one’s head around it. This unfortunately, will be the biggest challenge to mass acceptance. Gaining consumers’ trust and confidence is a very difficult and time consuming process. That is what we have set out to do. We are very certain that we are on the right track. This may be a long hard journey but the ultimate reward from mass acceptance is huge.

We have been taking very good notes regarding some of the major technical constraints and problems that need to be solved and we are comfortable that DNotes will be able to make major advances in the future. Good timing is very important to us. It is too early to make a major change while so many issues are still unsettled.

Once again P & D is back in full force. The “wild west” is back; this time with strong connection to the East – China. Almost any coin listed on a Chinese exchange is going through the roof. As Mark has indicated a number of times earlier, it will eventually help out other altcoins. We will patiently wait for our turn.

Quote from: indiamikezulu on Today at 05:05:17 AM

Crazy Week Four?

Tee hee . . . I no longer feel so much like tin-foil-hat guy!

Food for Thought: we are experiencing yet another fabulous upheaval of the terrain of Planet Krypto:

Ian and I used the term 'bell jar' to describe the era in which a rise in Bitcoin's price 'simply equalled' a fall in altcoin prices.

Some time later, we declared that we were 'post-bell-jar': yes, there remained an 'hydraulic effect'; but the fabulous inflow of capital in December, 2013, placed us, we felt, 'post-bell-jar.'

Then came The Big Sideways -- 23 months. In that period, we fought for price-independence, coaxing communities to abandon the one-more-exchange/one-more-gambling-site/don't-worry-about-the-rest-of-the-world attitudes of the bell-jar era. We championed 2.0s.* We argued for the organisation of multi-lingual threads -- especially Chinese.

Well, here's today's Shot in The Dark:

the dynamic of 'almost all incoming capital comes in via Bitcoin, then does or does not flow to other cryptos' is over. We are now in the earliest stage of a fantastic fragmentation (driven substantially by GFC Two) in which we'll see capital flowing in through Bitcoin and the 2.0s and 'Chinese' coins** and perhaps other 'national coins' (second round of national coins!).

Simultaneously, within the crypto sphere, we'll see a 'split' between those established cryptos that will attract capital, and boom; and those that won't, which will die.


*Lots to discuss here: being pro-2.0 is not being anti-1.0. We fought/fight for community programs that aggregate all manner of services around a 'basic' coin, which is what we think Ordinary People will find more useful than many 2.0 projects.

**http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/xiaomicoin/#markets

Quote From Shepherd:

Mark, you and Ian are correct that there has been changing dynamics going on in the altcoin world. Speculative momentum has picked noticeably, especially when they are listed on at least one Chinese exchange. A few old favorites are making for a comeback, but there are also newer names that came from no where. “Greed” is back. Eventually, the rough diamonds will be discovered. We are here for the long haul.

The lack of leadership often leads to a chaotic environment that is toxic, unproductive, and very political. Although Mr. Harper pointed out that “open-source software development requires intensive collaboration – particularly around a protocol with strong network effects”, that is not likely to happen.

I do agree with the following statement:

“Good behavior is good “politics,” which is something this non-political money needs.”

Mark, as always we appreciate your dedication to keeping us informed on the deteriorating global financial conditions. You have given us plenty of early warning. This community has very broad interest beyond just digital currency. That is one of the reasons why we often see things differently.

 

Another excellent article. Very sound and reasonable arguments. Evander is a solid defender of Bitcoin. We need more of him.

Especially at the formative stage of a big bold idea, that is enormously innovative with world changing implications, great leadership is vital. Great leaders formulate vision and establish strategic goals and inspire followers with a clear sense of direction and purpose. This leads to a unity of common people working together in the attainment of uncommon achievement, that otherwise may not be possible.

Great leaders inspire mutual cooperation and respect, resulting in a highly productive environment. Over a period of time, a new culture is created with those who share the same vision and its mission to accomplish a common goal. Such organization is much more orderly, productive, and rewarding, and capable of great achievements.

In contract, a leaderless organization has a high tendency to be chaotic, political, and counter productive. Bitcoin as a technology is amazing. Its short comings are not from a near perfect and highly innovative technology that will continue to evolve and get better, but from the lack of leadership.

Uncertainty is not a good thing for any long term investment. The lack of leadership with sufficient self interest to lead Bitcoin out this "Toxic Environment" may not be forth-coming and will continue to be a drag to the industry. This will make mass acceptance of Bitcoin extremely remote.

That is quite a week on digital currency - the future of money. I pay a lot of attention to prevailing sentiments and trends in our industry that has been filled with great confusion and mixed emotion. Sometimes, it is the little tidbits of news that signal the trend.

Thanks, for reporting on "Wyoming Bill Would Define Crypto as Acceptable Investment."  That is a good sign. I have no doubt that it is not Blockchain alone, but digital currency with Blockchain as a total package that is the greatest technology revolution since the Internet.

Quote from: indiamikezulu on Today at 02:51:19 AM

Would love to see you post a one-paragraph insight on Factom.

And a note on Dnotes: we shouldn't worry about 2.0s shooting up in price. The Big Picture is that, finally, capital is flowing into altcoins. We just need to keep working: some of that capital will eventually begin flowing into Dnotes itself.

Quote From Shepherd Today:

Factom is a relatively small project. From a technology prospective, it serves a narrow focus in data recording providing a time stamp for audit trail. This is a simple but important function with massive potential. It is the most viable Blockchain project that takes full advantage of Bitcoin Blockchain by serving as a Factom anchor – from the client data to the Blockchain with very low overhead. 

However, the price at $1 is overvalued, in my opinion, perhaps due to its current listing on Yuanbaohu exchange in China. Yuanbaohu is related to Ybcoin.

I agree that a lot more money will be going to altcoins this year.

That is excellent. Andreas Antonopoulos is an impressive guy.

That is shocking. Though Venezuela may be the worst case, the vast majority of the world's population are not just struggling to get ahead. They loosing significant ground in real earning and purchasing power.