The Byteball Platform - Thoughts on a Rebrand Greetings Byteball Community and Team.My apologies for such a long post, and a re-post from our Reddit thread, but I felt some may not see it otherwise and that a full explanation was in order...
It's been a long time since I've posted any content on this thread, because, with a deep history in marketing and trading in various markets, I immediately realized the implications of the insensitive handling of the cancellation of the airdrops back in late Feb early March 2018. Yes, the old model was deeply flawed and needed a massive adjustment, but in my opinion, the goodwill and enthusiasm that the original distribution method generated was very strong and wonderfully price supportive over time, and promoted more everyday use of the assets. It encouraged more widespread adoption, through the energy and enthusiasm it created and it attracted new talent and new investors. It was very community friendly, and that is a good thing from any perspective. Very marketing friendly.
Now, with so many ID related distributions, things seem to have shifted somewhat in the opposite direction. There is not that much opportunity for those of us that prefer more anonymity to feel the excitement of getting an incoming transaction in the wallet. What a shame - I think Byteball is missing out Big Time!
The original distribution method was a very efficient & beneficial way to handle distribution of some of the remaining assets - over a long time into the future if done a bit differently - I believe it was a mistake to cancel them altogether, and a bit of a betrayal of those of us who did not participate in getting any free Bytes, instead, having to purchase them on the open market instead - I knew that the abrupt cancellation would cost the support of a large part of the community, and withdraw one of the pillars of price support in the marketplace. The rest is history.
So, after my appeal for a rethink (see here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ByteBall/comments/7ylc73/dear_tonych/), and a more united community (see here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ByteBall/comments/7zvigt/dear_fellow_byteballers/) got almost no response, in despair, I felt it was futile and began to retire from Byteball and the community, realizing that Byteball was in for a really rough ride with a greatly reduced community and a steady drop in value. However, I never lost my admiration and respect for what Tonych has created or the belief in the concept and infrastructure that has already been built with this amazing technology. I was no longer involved but continued to keep an eye on things.
However, in recent months, things began to change. I recognized that some profoundly new thinking and action plans have been implemented, and while not perfect, they are a huge step in the right direction. I'm extremely encouraged by what I see, and believe it is only a matter of time before this project takes it's rightful place among the top 10 crypto currencies, and so, I decided to re invest some of my time and energy.(almost immediately thereafter, took a 50% cut in terms of fiat :-) - shocking to say the least! The outside buying I expected just wasn't there in enough size to overcome the liquidation trend.
Which brings me to my latest concern:From watching some of the latest video interviews, and reading team member comments, it seems the Team is considering a name change. If Byteball is to be re-named, it must be done with the utmost care, level thinking and fresh eyes. I do in fact believe we could do better when it comes to a name for the Platform. I have argued strongly against it in the past (see here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1608859.msg28035225#msg28035225), because I didn't think the name was so terrible (like the denomination issue) and it was not the most important thing to be addressed at that time . It would have been a huge amount of work and a huge waste of resources back then. But now, with some foundational elements in place (or in the works) and a more flexible attitude, it could be time to tackle this divisive "name thing".
There are many, many options for a new name, but I believe it should contain the word "Byte" if possible, to maintain some sort of continuity with the legacy product. My thoughts are that an easy way to do this would be to simply rename the platform to G-Byte (As in "the G-Byte Digital Asset Platform") I believe there could be value in leaving the "G" in G-Byte undefined and leaving it to the imagination, but it would be pronounced "G Byte". I like the ambiguity of the "G", because G could mean just "G" or Go or Gas or General or Great or Global or Gravity or Graph or Giga or Genuine or Genius or an endless multitude of different things. Leaving it to the imagination could be a good thing.
But there are many other possibilities as well - the question is how to choose one that lasts. A lot might depend on availability as well,
but the name of the Core Platform is not the main reason for this post as I know others are working on it as well.
Above all, I believe the name of Blackbytes should change. It's not a great name in our increasingly politically correct world. I think a far better name for BlackBytes is
CashByte. I think we should seize the name CashByte or CashBytes and push it like crazy. I have absolutely no doubt that CashByte could become a household name in a few years time.
In fact, There could be considerable advantages in re-orienting the marketing efforts and shifting to
focus equally on the public "G-Byte" (or whatever name is decided) as well as the privacy focused CashByte. There is no reason for this to interfere with any of the current distribution methods or other offerings. It's really worth thinking about.
To test the concept and give the Byteball Community and Team a taste for what a G-Byte, CashByte combo might look and feel like, I will refer to CashByte & G-Byte for the remainder of this post. Old Byteball & Blackbytes = CashByte on the G-Byte Digital Asset Platform.
Here are just a few good reasons to consider this:1. Everyone knows what cash is and just about everyone who uses a computer knows about Bytes. Ordinary people will immediately understand what CashBytes are.
2. There are twice as many Cashbyte in existence as G-Bytes (presumably the idea was for them to be used twice as much, eventually being the dominant currency), with regular Bytes powering a multitude of other digital assets & ICO's. Shouldn't we be pressing the privacy side much more?
Question for Tonych: why were more than twice as many private currency units created? What was the intent?
3. Many of the current top 100 crypto currencies are highly focused on privacy, and clearly, privacy is extremely important in a world of constant and pervasive surveillance. G-Byte has a privacy option on DAG. It's is a vastly underappreciated aspect of the G-Byte platform. Imagine seeing "CashByte" on the G-Byte Digital Asset Platform climbing the ranks of the top 50 again. (if total capitalization includes "CashByte" as well)
4. Changing the marketing orientation from only G-Byte to both CashByte and G-Byte, opens up a whole new world of marketing opportunities, while not in any way interfering with the distribution methods currently in place for the non private currency - in fact, CashByte can be used to illustrate how the public asset is (like Etherium) used to enable transactions for all sorts of assets issued on the G-Byte network, not just CashByte. If you are involved in an ICO, you will need to acquire some G-Byte to enable your project, and if you're using CashByte, you also gonna need some G-Byte to make it happen.
An old idea revitalized:With a bit of a marketing effort behind it, why not update and re-introduce the old airdrop program on the full moons at a vastly reduced rate. Along with everything that is already in place and on the way, this could give the project a reboot and the attention it deserves. It could be a very powerful growth engine for the decade to come.
Given that there are more than twice as many CashByte as G-Byte still to be distributed (quite a massive amount in fact), I think they can and should be used to create community enthusiasm and outside buying interest for G-Byte. This can easily be done with a vastly reduced airdrop campaign - ideally, a very small amount (say 1- 2% % per year, distributed monthly to G-Byte holders). It would be a fantastic way to repair a misstep of the past, create and maintain buzz and draw in additional development and investors. At this early stage, it could give the platform an automatic publicity and demand boost that it absolutely needs to have to be viable going forward. Seriously, ask yourselves, who is going to buy all of the remaining currency that must be sold to fund the operation without some kind of incentive to do so?
CashByte - Cash made for the Internet Age!
In full disclosure, I have gone to the trouble of registering some domains to try to protect the names I have mentioned. I was worried that they could be unavailable or fall into unsympathetic hands. Not all were available in the exact form desired, but enough of them were secured to make this a viable option if that is what the Team and Community desire.
If the Community, Team and Tony like the idea or a part of it, then it is my intention to transfer ownership of the relevant domain(s) at a nominal fee to the organization. I am asking for 10 GBYTE and 10 x 2.11 GBB (BlackBytes) as payment from the Community funds for my efforts. If no one cares, then I guess it's my loss and I'm ok with that.
P.S. Please bear with me if it takes me a little time to respond to any feedback this post might get - I'm absolutely swamped at the moment.
