I've been following this thread for a while, but hadn't commented so far because I was unsure what to say without sounding like an arrogant ass
I still can't think of anything to say without sounding like an arrogant ass, so I guess I'll have to run the risk
Mass market has been the goal for eMunie since day one, and its part of the reason why eMunie has taken so long because we weren't willing to compromise it in anyway. Before I get to that, lets define what mass market is:
Mass market is the general consumer, period! Its Joe public, your Grandma, your technically illiterate girlfriend, people who don't care about how money works or decentralization. Its a $40 TRILLION per year market and rising fast each year (almost $1T per year at present).
Nothing in crypto at present, released or in development has the means to capture that market...other than eMunie and I'll tell you why.
Attracting the mass market can not be achieved by just one thing. Features and tech alone won't do it, nor will marketing. There are a number of critical requirements and ALL of them need to be met, otherwise you'll fail.
To achieve it the following is required (in no particular order):
Scalability - VISA alone processes on average 2000 transactions per second. Add on Mastercard, Paypal, and all the consumer bank-bank transfers, the total volume is approaching 10,000 transactions per second. Holiday periods are at least double.
Ease of use - Products for the consumer need to be 110% fool proof.
ANY action that requires them to have to think will result in them discarding and leaving. That is not because they are stupid, but because they EXPECT products to be simple.
Incentives - Mass market doesn't care about liberalism, decentralization, and all that jazz which attracted us here in the first place. The incentives to use it need to be different and relate to them as a consumer.
Women - 60-70% of consumer purchases are made by women. Women make lots of small value purchases, men make fewer higher value purchases. Women also influence men to make purchases they otherwise may not. You need women!
Stability - The value of the currency
HAS to be stable. "Stable" is defined as no more than 2% +/- value movement in each 24 hours over the long term.
Integration - It should integrate with the existing infrastructure as much as possible without forfeiting control to that infrastructure. That means both physical and virtual debit cards (read no middlemen) that operate with existing point of sale hardware, and it should be FAST! Longer than 10 seconds and you'll annoy customer and merchant. Easy online payment API's should also be available and be easy to use.
On/Off Ramps - Efficient and reliable on/off ramps for fiat are required, again without giving away control. Buying crypto at the moment is difficult and time consuming, it needs to be simple and easy.
Advertising - A smart, maintained, targeted advertising strategy is needed, and it should use ALL forms, internet, TV, radio, billboards, magazines, newspapers, etc. Unless you are Apple or some other large corp, you won't have the budget to advertise globally and succeed! Start with small, promising territories first and build up. Oh and don't forget that what works in one territory might not in another due to cultural differences.
Acceptance - Users will want to spend it, so you need to have at least some general consumer acceptance in place. Internet service providers and online gambling will not cut it, consumers will want to buy real everyday products.
I could go on and on (an marketing document I'm currently working on is almost 70 pages, and that's just for internal use), but they are some of the primary requirements that are absolutely critical. There are many more besides these which, while not deemed to be critical, still require careful forethought and action.
All of the above (and more) have had a lot of time spent on them to ensure that eMunie will truly stand a chance to penetrate the mass market. Whether it be the technology, the marketing strategy, the infrastructure consideration, or the preparation of merchant relationships, all have been clearly defined and implemented into the project and the long term roll out plan.
If you're a crypto project and are targeting mass market, and haven't at least got clear direction on ALL of the above...you need to rethink everything, or save your time and effort!
