Crazy long comment below. I'm sorry, but both
@GreyGhost and
@hobbskevin asked for it. Anyway, this is not longer than other exchanges between GG and me in the past
I like some of the conclusions and it is obvious that Vanbex already has a good understanding of the project, but I don't fully agree with the way forward. I have tried to make the comments more or less in the same order of topics in the audit, but sometimes I deviate a little.
1. Dash will be a decentralized monetary system, currency or payment method fall short
I agree that Dash is much more than a currency. Currency is a useful term to communicate because it is something everyone understands, but it falls short. As for decentralized payment method, I think that it also falls short. I know it comes from the Evolution paper, but that is already months old
With the latest developments in fiat gateways and governance (soon to be launched Sentinel) I would describe Dash more as a decentralized monetary system. Payment method makes me think about it being a part of the fiat world, but Dash will not be a part, it will be a totally new system. It is connected to other monetary systems via gateways, like the dollar is connected to the euro, but it has its own rules and institutions, like the dollar or the euro have them. Of course it will also be a payment method (already is), but that is just the surface.
These mockup posted by
@eduffield at Bitcointalk shows the power of Evolution working with fiat gateways. You go in and out of fiat as you please and instantly from your wallet. And when you are in Dash you are in a different reality with companies, employees and all kind of objects coded in the protocol.
2. InstantX
Of course I agree intantX is amazing. One thing I would add to the analysis and further action is that it is important to educate the public that Bitcoin is not instant. Many people see an unconfirmed btc transactions and they think that is enough. They don't understand the concept of double spends and the need for confirmations, so they think it is fine. I have had this experience in a few real life conversations with Bitcoin users.
I would put a lot of focus on showing that zero conf is dangerous. How Peter Todd double spent Coinbase, arguably the biggest Bitcoin player. Show that many transactions don't get ever confirmed because the fee is not enough, especially now that blocks are quite full. Show that other are confirmed late, so you miss the time window that some payment processors give you to make a payment.
3. DarkSend
This is my favourite feature
I agree with others that DashSecure seems to say that the other tx are not secure, so I would go with something else, if anything. I'm not sure we really need a name for this.
Like with instantX, I think that most people don't really understand the problem with Bitcoin's traceability, so it is necessary to educate them if we expect them to accept Dash as a superior alternative. I still hear at Bitcoin meetups that Bitcoin is "anonymous enough", which is crazy! The problem of Coinbase shutting accounts because people were gambling, or all the blochain analytics firms should be brought up. Also the fact that the blockchain is there forever. You may be traced in the future and they can go back to that big donation you made to whatever cause that will put you in a list. Or you fucking grocery shopping, that it's nobody's business.
I think privacy is important. There is a war on cash and we need to provide alternatives to those concerned with this. Money is important and governments want to control it because it is the way to control people. I don't think we should shy away from this narrative. I know many people around would prefer us to be more friendly, but I don't agree. Anyway, this is just my personal view, I know we will not go crazy there
4. Too soon to focus on merchant adoption
I don't agree with this at all. I don't think we are at the point where we should start asking everyone to accept Dash. We are a small community and we don't like to spend our hard earned/bought coins. There are significant costs to get Dash atm, so when you need to pay something that you can pay with your credit card it makes little sense to use Dash if you are still accumulating.
If we ask many merchants to accept Dash what will likely happen is that they will see no sales and they will get disenchanted. Most would eventually drop Dash. This has already happened to Bitcoin with some merchants and we are tiny compared to them. This is pure egg and chicken. I would focus on a few selected merchants that are close to our community and then feature them as examples.
As we grow in user base we will need to grow the merchants base, but going too fast there will only kill opportunities for the future.
5. Fiat gateways
I'd say the same as with adoption. We should not overtake ourselves with approaching too many business. Some of the outcomes from that project are open source tools that will be available for others to use. It is great to campaign around that, but we need to be careful. Most integrations need a lot of support from developers and we have very few available, so we need to prioritize.
6. We still need comparisons to Bitcoin
From my comments supra I guess it is obvious that I don't agree about not comparing ourselves to them. It is true that there is much more people who don't use Bitcoin than people who use it, but the bitcoiners are the easy low hanging fruit. Crytocurrencies is such an alien concept that it would be foolish not to try to convert those who are already educated.
Our product right now sucks for people who are into this space. Once we have Evolution working things may change a little, but that won't happen until 2017 the soonest, so until then I would focus on people who already know something about Bitcoin. This doesn't mean that we should not do a test here and there with people who are into crypto, but I don't think that should be our focus.
7. Masternodes are key, but I would not market the investment opportunity
I don't agree at all about marketing this as an investment product. It definitely is, but I would not want anyone who is not really knowledgeable about us investing a lot. We are still experimenting and we have a super healthy network of masternodes. Almost two thirds of our money base are in masternodes, I don't think we should focus on getting more. They will come anyway, let's not look like all those people selling investments on the internet. Of course, this doesn't apply to talking to knowlegable people in the space about this and giving them as much info as needed, I just oppose creating narratives around this.
I do agree, however, about documenting more so people understand better the power of network of masternodes that you can trust as a group because of how incentives play. Quorums are super important for our future, the more we document and explain, the better. I would not rename them in any way. A quorum is a quorum, no need to have a dozen product names.
I would not touch DashDrive yet. Too soon and too open yet.
8. Summary of my comments to the audit
The vision needs to be even more far fetched and powerful that what it is suggested (monetary system instead of payment method). We are not doing that yet, but we should.
I think we still need to fish in Bitcoin's pond. Once we have Evolution working that will change, but that time is not here yet. The best way for people to really value our special features is to understand how they compare to Bitcoin's.
I think it is too early to focus a lot on merchant adoption because we don't have users yet. We need to sync new users with new merchants or we'll frustrate everyone.
