Proposal: Core Team Public Relations (July)

[glennaustin]

This proposal is cross-posted at https://www.dashcentral.org/p/core-pr-201807

Proposal background
This proposal seeks funding for continuing our current public relations contract with Wachsman. The current contract restarted at the beginning of April and runs through the end of June. We intend on renewing the contract for the 3rd quarter (covering July, August and September).

This proposal seeks $60,0000 of which $45,000 is required to cover the expense for the contract period and $15,000 is intended as a small buffer to account for risk due to currency fluctuation. This buffer is necessary as we have completely depleted the funds in our public relations budget and need the funds to ensure that we will meet our contractual obligations.

In our last public relations proposal, we provided the Dash community with a detailed view into our relationship with Wachsman and the services they provide to us. The link to that proposal can be found here: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-core-team-public-relations-may.36365/

As in the past, our contract with Wachsman will be short-term (3 months) so we can re-evaluate our relationship on a periodic basis to determine whether they are the right fit for Dash at each stage of our evolution.

If you have additional questions, please direct them to @fernando

Edit:
Wachsman accomplishments YTD 2018 can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bDoz9FpuMgizXYPCUxhFhKpFKixyKxfh/view?usp=sharing

The following language is the commentary around all the accomplishments listed in the shared document provided by Bradley Zastrow, Head of Business Development for Dash:

1) Wachsman has helped organize all conference related tasks at 12 separate events in 8 countries. These have included strategising, contacting journalists, meticulously preparing for interviews, arranging speaking engagements, negotiating booth placement, merchandise production and logistics, and booth designs, negotiations, and much more.

2) They have also secured 180+ media placements (articles/tv appearances), 30 of which are mainstream media and the remaining 134 of them are with cryptocurrency industry related media agencies. In addition, Wachsman has also secured 30 Q&A/Interviews/thought pieces. These media appearances include Forbes, Fox Business, Business Insider, Reuters, and Fortune among many others. The results of a recently completed week-long media tour in New York included additional mainstream publications which plan to publish articles within the next 3-4 weeks.

Edit:
@fernando and @tungfa have been supporting the funding of this proposal and you can find their remarks sprinkled throughout the comments section. I have edited this proposal with comments posted by Fernando regarding our relationship with Wachsman:

1- Dash is a project that we have been immensely proud to represent since we commenced our partnership in 2016, and the Dash Core Team have consistently received top care and consideration since we began working together. We service Dash Core directly, but we have always tried to our best to provide above and beyond Public Relations support to help Dash grow, including serving the best interests of Dash community members, and Dash Masternode owners. We consider ourselves lifelong partners of Dash, and have continually dedicated more staff and resources onto the Dash account as time has progressed.

2- Wachsman executes earned Public Relations, and Events Management support for Dash. We do not carry out marketing, advertising, or pay for play media opportunities. We have limited social media capability, but as noted in some of the comments, that is an area of improvement and we will be sure to include far more Dash mentions on Wachsman’s social profiles. Earned Public Relations means we use our comprehensive database of media contacts to find and pitch interesting story ideas to reporters, podcasters, bloggers, writers and broadcasters. We connect these contacts with key members of the Dash Core Team, and train such spokespersons on how best to get Dash messaging and positive narratives across. We also provide our media contacts with quotes from key Dash Core Team members when news breaks, to keep Dash in the media landscape.

3- We have worked tirelessly to shift the Dash narrative away from the project’s privacy functionality, and that narrative is slowly shifting in our favor. It does take time, and it will take even more time, but we have spent an inordinate amount of time educating reporters on the other incredible value adds that Dash possesses.

4- One often overlooked function of a good PR firm, particularly one in the fintech space, is how they assist clients in complex crises. Wachsman has a comprehensive damage mitigation protocol in place so that the reputation of Dash, its leaders, and its partners are held in the most positive light at possible.

Recent examples of this include the Miami networking incident, as well as the spate of threat intelligence reports that came out in February/March falsely labeling Dash as a leading dark web market alternative (continuing the privacy coin narrative).

5- We are open to media ideas from Dash community members and masternode owners, something Fernando has mentioned in the proposal forum. A big challenge to storytelling in general, as numerous conversations with reporters have revealed, is that the bar for coverage only increases by the day because they need to prioritize their limited time and resources. Dash’s decentralized governance structure is one of the biggest reasons why we believe it’s going to be around for the long-term, and the projects/community efforts it enables set it apart from every other project in the industry today. However, as many MNOs have pointed out, Dash Core is *not* Dash, but a part of the broader Dash community. Prioritizing ways we can all better collaborate on Dash Core & community storytelling will help these efforts, especially as most top-tier reporters require a certain level of access/exclusive insight into projects from the community itself.

==============

A quantitative breakdown of coverage/mentions secured as a result of Wachsman outreach since January 1, 2018:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pcd0jVWa8hZbMNGiRNAV1TyK1pBONC_Xr6qby0aeqJE/edit?usp=sharing

-In the monthly breakdown tab, we have highlighted Dash Force News links; while they technically are included in our final tally, that's solely for consistency in the tallying process and not what we internally consider "earned coverage"

-We have also included an events tab highlighting conferences we've supported this year, and the areas that we directly supported

==============

A snapshot of coverage data from Meltwater that was pulled this morning for January 1 - June 8, 2018:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UC-0MI_BWpD6_Xzj_q11OzbCDQOwzLlBOAcYVMbGid0/edit?usp=sharing

While this snapshot includes both Wachsman coverage and organic mentions/price analysis of Dash, we think it is still a useful snap shot of general coverage trends for H1 2018

Requested funding is as follows for the July 2nd budget cycle:
190.00 Dash ($60,000 USD @ $315.771 per Dash)
5.00 Dash proposal fee reimbursement

Total: 195.00 Dash

Note: Any unused budget will be applied toward future public relations expenses.

Manually vote YES on this proposal:
dash-cli gobject vote-many 9815fef2c343cf822dcf48194be34e59e8491670a8ba7f6f62eaff041272890e funding yes
OR from the qt console:
gobject vote-many 9815fef2c343cf822dcf48194be34e59e8491670a8ba7f6f62eaff041272890e funding yes

Manually vote NO on this proposal:
dash-cli gobject vote-many 9815fef2c343cf822dcf48194be34e59e8491670a8ba7f6f62eaff041272890e funding no
OR from the qt console:
gobject vote-many 9815fef2c343cf822dcf48194be34e59e8491670a8ba7f6f62eaff041272890e funding no

 

[Critical Input]

Should I vote for this company?
My following questions seek not to cause conflict. I'm just wondering and maybe asking the wrong questions ...so in good faith..

1) So what are the main home runs Wachsman has hit so far for Dash?

2) What is an instance of Dash crisis management Wachsman has tended to, and was it effective?

3) Are we seeing actual Wachsman employees at conferences speaking about Dash?

4) What has Wachsman done online to assist with Dash's online perception?
[negative perceptions of masternode system / negative perceptions of the initial fast-mine ]

5) Who decided Amanda's activity in partnership with Wachsman was not worth continuing (It seemed to be Amanda and I have a lot of faith in Amanda...she is straight forward). In other words, I'm wondering who had the balls to end the campaign?

6) 'Conference support' - are Wachsman drawing new people to conferences? please elaborate a little.

 

[amanda_b_johnson]

Hi, @Critical Input. I'd just like to answer your 5th question, as it pertains to me.

My short-lived PR efforts were with a different company -- one unrelated to Wachsman PR and located on the other side of the country (Wachsman is in New York, the firm I hired is in Los Angeles).

Actually, when I first started brainstorming a PR effort last fall, I reached out to Wachsman. I thought that this would only make sense, as they're already kept abreast of important announcements/releases from Dash Core Group. I believed this would streamline the dissemination of information and eliminate potential redundancies.

Wachsman's staff held a conference call with me and ultimately informed me that they weren't interested to work with me. I don't know why.

 

[amanda_b_johnson]

In addition, for what it's worth, I suspect that Dash may benefit from transitioning to in-house marketing and PR.

It's most convenient to attempt to outsource these needs -- after all, outside PR and marketing companies are already set up. They claim to have indispensable industry relationships. And they specialize in the thing that you yourself do not specialize in (otherwise, why hire them?)

But my (limited) experience has shown me that these medium-to-large companies -- not being investors in Dash and/or not having a business model that's reliant on Dash's success -- care much less about outcomes than those who are/do. This shouldn't surprise us -- after all, the entire design of masternodes is based on the belief that only proven investors should perform Dash's most critical services!

The situation is only worsened when you consider that many of these firms understandably lack the ability to fully imagine Dash's potential. Their business model simplistically requires that they stick Dash in a "PR box" -- the fintech box, the cryptocurrency box, or the payments company box. This limits their imagination. What's more, keep in mind that they have several or many other clients in these very same boxes! Their same-box clients literally have to compete with each other for time and attention.

To me, all this points to a major need for the Dash DAO to put out a bounty for in-house marketing and PR. What a potentially inexperienced team may lack in industry connections and know-how can be made up for over time. Because what really matters is doing/saying something that stands out at the right time for the right reason -- if you can just do that, the media outlets will come crawling to you, regardless of whether you'd had much of a name or reputation for yourself prior.

Prime example -- Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. Went from zero to all-over-the-media in a matter of days (and is still a meme!), just for being part of the right story at the right time. We require a team of people who can consistently create stories about Dash and tell them at the right time, connecting them to the right reasons.

Much easier said than done.

 

[tungfa]

Should I vote for this company?
My following questions seek not to cause conflict. I'm just wondering and maybe asking the wrong questions ...so in good faith..

1) So what are the main home runs Wachsman has hit so far for Dash?

2) What is an instance of Dash crisis management Wachsman has tended to, and was it effective?

3) Are we seeing actual Wachsman employees at conferences speaking about Dash?

4) What has Wachsman done online to assist with Dash's online perception?
[negative perceptions of masternode system / negative perceptions of the initial fast-mine ]

5) Who decided Amanda's activity in partnership with Wachsman was not worth continuing (It seemed to be Amanda and I have a lot of faith in Amanda...she is straight forward). In other words, I'm wondering who had the balls to end the campaign?

6) 'Conference support' - are Wachsman drawing new people to conferences? please elaborate a little.

we are with wachsman since couple of years by now , we tried multiple other agencies before (voted in over proposals), and tbh all others failed and wachsman is delivering consistent !
we have a lot of direct feedback with them , reg “crisis management” (when needed we always double check strategies with them ), conferences and general PR stuff
yes they are present at conferences and doing a good job setting up booth , advising and running booth and background tasks and the likes
the field of “crypto PR agencies “ is a huge industry by now , and every 2nd guy thinks he can do that and sure will charge and arm and a leg for it .... wachsman has proven itself to us - is delivering as asked and i would not suggest to change agency now tbh ! (that would throw us way back in our PR efforts )

amanda’s proposals had nothing to do with wachsman , she worked with an agency out east.

amanda :
comparing Dash to Dorian Nakamoto does not make any sense in my belive / understanding
D.Nakamoto was and still is in the press not by his own doing , but by the general media pushing him and his name out there further for their own good - they are NOT doing this for him , and he is definately not doing this for his own PR “needs” !
online “celebraties” as this run on a different level than us as a company , this can not be compared , and as usual we in Dash try to keep the hype down and stick to the facts - dorian or whoever is pushing that can go full overboard (which we are not doing on purpose)

 

[Stealth923]

We have had Wachsman on the books for a long time now and I have seen ZERO evidence that they are doing a good job with Dash.
1) Dash is still seen as a privacy coin, we are a leading payments platform yet from a PR perspective nothing has changed. From a PR perspective what have they done to change this, nothing I have seen.
2) When a Press Release is sent out Dash is only represented on junk sites that no one visits. Its very embarrassing to have to tweet out weird/junk sites to show Dash news. Do they not have any influence among the big crypto news outlets and or dont put any effort in for Dash?
3) Zero effort in trying to proactively change our image in the crypto space where Dash is seen as the black sheep of crypto.
In my opinion they are doing the bare minimum to get our money then will bugger off when it gets too hard. If I am wrong, then please show evidence of the above!. In my case I am voting no to fire them.

I would be happy to pay 3x Waschmans cost to get a proactive PR firm who is in the firing line for Dash and can be seen to slowly break down walls and change perception, which is what a good PR firm does. Our existing firm hides in the shadows taking our money while putting us on junk sites...

@tungfa

 

[solarguy]

I have made numerous suggestions to get Ryan on two high level podcasts:

"How I Built This" with Guy Raz on NPR

and

"Unchained" and "Unconfirmed" by Laura Shin, formerly with Forbes, now independent.

Are these, and other similar high level podcasts on their radar? Can we see a list of significant podcasts they have gotten Dash on?

How about a list of important podcasts they are working on?

Why have they not enlisted the community to help us get Dash on either, or any podcasts or other venues? Dash has a highly motivated community. This tool is being grossly under utilised, or not utilised at all.

Is Wachsman open to ideas from the community, or do they have a clear plan/agenda, and that's pretty much what they are going to do. What does that plan look like?

What is Wachsman's side of the story with regards to working with Amanda B. Johnson. If it really is, " weren't interested to work with me. I don't know why." that would appear to be negligent from my point of view.

The last article I can find on Coindesk regarding Dash is from November of 2017. What efforts has Wachsman made with regards to CoinDesk? Wachsman represents both CoinDesk and Dash. You would think they would have some influence there, yes?

I'm not ready to pull the plug, but I'm not ready to rubber stamp Wachsman without a more in-depth understanding of their efforts.

Edit: Same question with regards to the influential YouTube content creators in the crypto space. Who have they reached out to? Who is on their to-do list? Can they use the influence of the Dash community to amplify their efforts? If not, why not?

 

[Blake]

Would like to see an itemized list?

What have they done?

 

[JOL]

I reviewed all of the 2016 publications on the forum relating to this company's collaboration with the DAO. However, remembering that CORE GROUP is not a company with private profit-making shareholders, but to this day the only organization entirely under the control of the DAO, it is the result of our need for professionalism and coordination that has made it exist. Until now, when the community has expressed requests to CORE TEAM, when it was vital and relevant, it has always taken them into account.
Although it is indeed difficult to understand the work done by this provider, I hear no argument that would justify saying that their work is domageable in Dash's image.
I share the community's request to have more information about what is producing, all aware that not everything can be publicly disclosed or risk losing the effect of some action taken. But a minimum is required.

A general sharing of the vision as well as what to avoid, could be shared and discussed, should be considered.

I think that at this stage it would be more domageable for Dash to stop this collaboration as it is than to continue.

I do not think that CORETEAM and this company should be taken as a scapegoat for Dash's poor image.

It would also be wise to look at the side of certain community organization and ask questions if their communication strategies are effective or even domageable in this case.

As for the price, I can hardly see the MNOs asking to justify this price with regard to the votes previously made on very expensive proposals for useless and unprofessional work.


We must keep a sense of proportion !

 

[Arthyron]

(Cross-Posted from Dash Central):

So Tungfa has clarified that Wachsman has been indispensable to the efforts and activities of Dash Core as they go about their business on our behalf, and so while that may not translate to what is valuable to *us* as MNOs of the DAO, it's clear that from the perspective of what Core is and what Core does, Wachsman is apparently doing a good job.

What I think we have here is one of the first instances in which the efforts and activities of the Core team have become decoupled from that of the DAO, and I don't mean this in any negative sense, but in a pragmatic one. Core is doing their thing and I am in full support of their efforts, but their thing is just a part of what the DAO as a whole is and should be doing.

Given the feedback so far from MNOs and other community members, it seems like the path forward will either entail a dedicated, Core in-house PR person as has been suggested on the forum by Amanda and others, or perhaps even a separate PR person or department that answers directly to the DAO instead of through Core as a middleman. So what I propose is that the DAO/Community start exploring the possibility that we need our own separate PR team or agents that function as the spokespeople and primary "lightning rod" for Dash's presence in online communities that functions independently of but in coordination with Wachsman.

This way, Core can keep their operations going the way they want--which has hitherto worked out well for us all--and we can have the kind of exposure and presence and articulated image and values in various online communities and platforms that we feel we need to have moving forward. I think even in this present market, Dash can definitely afford it...just in the next cycle.

As long as the two PR groups are not working at cross-purposes and funding both of them doesn't become too exorbitant, I don't see why we can't diversify our efforts.

 

[JOL]

@Arthyron, more than one RP departement, can be usfull as a regionalisation by culture language country or continent. At this stage one RP under the DAO controle is sufficient from my point of view.
It must strive to give a more neutral and internationally acceptable image. Outside any religious or national or political ideology.

If some MNO think than we need some more space in dash budget, look to the side of Anypay, already 219 Dash, and to come 219X2= 438 Dash for a none professional already existing tool than solved nothing.

None professionnal mean community antousiast with no background on the industry they try to push.

 

[tungfa]

You post makes abundantly clear there is a Dash Inner Circle which does not operate in the same world under the same conditions as the rest of us.

When the Inner Circle's highly paid PR firm refuses to work with @amanda_b_johnson but won't say why, there is a clear decoupling of the Dash community and the cozy, insular club of Dash Core.

Why should we simply take on faith that Wachsman "has been indispensable" with so little data to back up that assertion? We demand much higher quality of reporting from all other projects.

If anything, Core must be held to higher standards than every other treasury-funded project. It's appalling to see we are slipping in the opposite direction, where fealty and consequent rubber-stamping are taken for granted by an pathologically out-of-touch Inner Circle deep in their cash-padded bubble.

tx Demo
that was very enlightning
(fuelling the fire again eh)

 

[Arthyron]

@Arthyron, more than one RP departement, can be usfull as a regionalisation by culture language country or continent. At this stage one RP under the DAO controle is sufficient from my point of view.
It must strive to give a more neutral and internationally acceptable image. Outside any religious or national or political ideology.

If some MNO think than we need some more space in dash budget, look to the side of Anypay, already 219 Dash, and to come 219X2= 438 Dash for a none professional already existing tool than solved nothing.

None professionnal mean community antousiast with no background on the industry they try to push.

I can understand the desire to have one PR form at this point, I'm just suggesting the possibility of other options if we want Core to have the support they feel they need *and* also want the DAO to have its own public representation. That really seems the only way to ensure that both Core and the DAO get exactly what they want aside from Wachsman altering their focus slightly to include the DAO's requirements. However, in order for them to comply with the DAO's requirements, the DAO will have to agree on what it is we want them to do, how we want them to allocate time and resources, and the message(s) we want communicated to the world.

While it's possible that an existing proposal may be defunded to fit in Core's budget, I would prefer not to do this. We already had one great proposal go unfunded last cycle due to votes arriving past the deadline.

You post makes abundantly clear there is a Dash Inner Circle which does not operate in the same world under the same conditions as the rest of us.

When the Inner Circle's highly paid PR firm refuses to work with @amanda_b_johnson but won't say why, there is a clear decoupling of the Dash community and the cozy, insular club of Dash Core.

Why should we simply take on faith that Wachsman "has been indispensable" with so little data to back up that assertion? We demand much higher quality of reporting from all other projects.

If anything, Core must be held to higher standards than every other treasury-funded project. It's appalling to see we are slipping in the opposite direction, where fealty and consequent rubber-stamping are taken for granted by an pathologically out-of-touch Inner Circle deep in their cash-padded bubble.

Another brand-new sockpuppet account beating the same old drum the sockpuppets always do, that Dash is this Insider/"Old Boys Club"/Mafia organization. How do you expect people to take seriously the opinions of a sockpuppet account that explicitly denigrates Dash as having a meaningful and valuable contribution to community discourse? The fact that this debate is even taking place and is being seriously engaged on Dash Central and that not everyone agrees on this topic disproves your assertions. The current lack of voter support for this proposal compared to the others is also evidence that everything you're saying is simply false. There are several distinct positions held by several people in the community on this topic. Mine is just one of those.

None of us besides Core members really know the ins-and-outs of Core's operations, so we must either take their word on matters of importance to them or instead engage in paranoid conjecture. Without evidence either way, we either listen to the people who have been performing admirably on our behalf or we make up nonsense and garbage and fling it all around pointlessly. The only other option is withholding judgement until we have more clarity and data on the topic, which is something several MNOs have requested (i.e. an accounting of what WPR has done so far that merits this kind of expenditure and our continued partnership with them). This is a reasonable request and I hope someone with Core can shed some light on it, but I'm honestly not losing sleep at this point if they don't. I may, however, be in the minority there, as MNOs go, judging from the current discourse in Dash Central.

Please engage honestly about the topic of Dash's PR, instead of playing schoolmarm and waggling your bossy accusation finger around as a way to stop the conversation.

Until you prove your identity, it's equally possible you are this Demo person with whom you are so obsessed.

Besides, English isn't Demo's first language and it shows....

Please get back on topic and stop with the ad-hom accusations. They are flame-bait and don't contribute to a productive discourse.

I have to note the entitled irony of a blatant, antagonistic sockpuppet demanding honesty and tone policing and concern trolling.

 

[solarguy]

I'm not Demo.

Please engage honestly about the topic of Dash's PR, instead of playing schoolmarm and waggling your bossy accusation finger around as a way to stop the conversation.

Until you prove your identity, it's equally possible you are this Demo person with whom you are so obsessed.

Besides, English isn't Demo's first language and it shows....

Please get back on topic and stop with the ad-hom accusations. They are flame-bait and don't contribute to a productive discourse.

Don't you have something to explain about why Wachsman PR refused to work with Amanda and refused to say why? Should we just forget all about that because it's not convenient for your narrative?

And have you participated in this forum previously under a different moniker?? If it was not you, we had someone very much like you previously.

 

[tungfa]

The long-overdue debate is finally being held on Dash Central, now that even (people like) you finally can see what many others were already talking about ages ago; IE Dash has an insular inner circle and that makes it centralized, unresponsive, and a poor choice of model for FOSS/fintech/crypto project governance.

I know the ins-and-outs of Bitcoin Core's operations, as well as a few other coins, so why does Dash get to keep its Core in stealth mode yet still feel entitled to claim likewise decentralization in terms of governance?



If Dash Core wants to be a black box, fine. Just don't tell me about your DGBB and how you are exempt from securities regulation, because at some point you will be forced to pick a lane.

For your amusement, here is some additional paranoid conjecture:

Prediction: Regardless of the publicly available sampling of debate available (whether it seems 'popular' or not) Dash Core Group will get its way and retain Wachsman PR because their clique control enough Masternodes to nullify any scattered resistance among fiscally conservative and/or pro-open governance MNOs.

more feeling fires ?
core proposals have been voted down before
the old "core holds all MN's" is such nonsense and u know it
try again please

 

[Arthyron]

The long-overdue debate is finally being held on Dash Central, now that even (people like) you finally can see what many others were already talking about ages ago; IE Dash has an insular inner circle and that makes it centralized, unresponsive, and a poor choice of model for FOSS/fintech/crypto project governance.

I know the ins-and-outs of Bitcoin Core's operations, as well as a few other coins, so why does Dash get to keep its Core in stealth mode yet still feel entitled to claim likewise decentralization in terms of governance

Umm...those sorts of debates have *always* been held throughout Dash's history and there have been a number of Core's proposals that never passed. You keep pushing for this narrative that confirms your bias, but you don't have any facts to support it, and the very public history of Dash and its governance system--which anyone can view at any time--directly contradicts your narrative. So far, Dash is among only a handful of projects that have meaningful, responsive, functional, currently operating, tried and tested governance, whether or not you believe it is "good" or "poor." Most of the other projects that also have anything resembling a working governance system either directly copied or heavily borrowed from Dash. I'm also fairly certain we are the *only* project with formal, functional governance that also has formal, international legal standing for our governance architecture and its participants.

Dash does not have an insular inner circle by any means. We have one of the most low-key, open, welcoming communities out there. Visit the Dash Nation Discord server yourself and see it in real time. The only question of of insularity is whether or not people take the time to actually participate and get involved in one of the dozens of initiatives out there. I lurked around this project since the very early days and didn't really get actively involved until early last year, and I can tell you that all it takes is participation. I've gone from an unknown lurker to a very active community member and participant at many levels in that span of time.There are plenty of people who are not members of Core or even Masternode Owners that regularly contribute to the community. Once again, the facts don't conform to your narrative.

I mean...even the data concerning our wallet distribution, masternode distribution, etc is among the most diverse and decentralized of the major projects out there. You simply could not be more wrong on nearly every count.

So since you don't have facts to substantiate your narrative, what are your perceptions based on? What did Dash ever do to you to make you so bitter and vitriolic?

If Dash Core wants to be a black box, fine. Just don't tell me about your DGBB and how you are exempt from securities regulation, because at some point you will be forced to pick a lane.

For your amusement, here is some additional paranoid conjecture:

Prediction: Regardless of the publicly available sampling of debate available (whether it seems 'popular' or not) Dash Core Group will get its way and retain Wachsman PR because their clique control enough Masternodes to nullify any scattered resistance among fiscally conservative and/or pro-open governance MNOs.

Core doesn't want to be a "black box" by any means, and within the last few months Core has worked extensively with the MNOs to increase communication and transparency in their operations. The real obstacle is that Core is growing at an accelerated rate with dozens of new hires and the scope of their major projects is expanding as well. So when you say "Core," you'd almost be equivocating given how much that particular team has changed and grown and evolved even over the last year or so. You're mistaking a germinating seed for a black box.

Multiple points of legal counsel across multiple contractors and subcontractors have ensured us that we are not in any way violating securities regulations. So unless you're a lawyer working for the SEC, none of us have any reason to take you seriously. Actually, an immense amount of ongoing work has been done and is being done to flesh out the legal standing of the DAO, the Dash Core Team (which is owned by the DAO), and hopefully in the relatively near future, a parallel organization called Dash Ventures. It's unprecedented and complex, but so far I've seen no reason to suspect that we're violating laws or regulations of any kind, aside from random accusations from people that hide behind sockpuppets.

Given the data we have available through some of our other funded projects (Dash Intel, Dash Watch, etc), it's highly unlikely that the members of Dash Core own enough masternodes to have a meaningful sway over the voting, and furthermore, this assumes that they are all acting in concert to do so, when in fact even members of Core have had public disagreements on this forum. Once again, the facts don't fit your narrative. Whatever will you do?

 

[solarguy]

If you (Ignore_the_Dash_Instamine) are so convinced that our project is that ill informed, and that poorly governed, perhaps you should go put a bunch of money toward shorting Dash.


But thanks for investing the time and effort. It sharpens our arguments and refines our thinking about the Dash ecosystem. You have made us better and stronger.

 

[Fiicus]

It seems there's a gulf between what people expect from public relations, and what wachsman is doing. People expect it to be marketing, branding, and just getting the right messages to come from the right people. What it seems that they're doing is being a useful consultation and information dissemination type of service for the message that cores trying to send. Is it worth as much as we're paying? Only core can know the answer to that, and they wouldn't renew it if that wasn't the case.

That said, I do agree with the general sentiment that our marketing/public relations is very weak. My belief has always been that it's primarily due to us having a ridiculously outdated roadmap that doesn't allow for anyone to manage investor expectations, paint a bright future for the world, and get the message about what dash will be that's based on a clear path forward. Instead we fall back on "Evolution" as our singular marketable thing, and when evolution goes live only a MVP will be available, which will surprise a lot of people who have unrealistic expectations. Keeping investors happy is important, regardless of how many times people say "The best tech will win", that doesn't make it true, and tech moves so fast that we don't know what better tech may be some geniuses garage plan. We need to create reasonable expectations, have goals and an actionable plan forward with a unified message that isn't "Someday evolution." That's a little off topic, but definitely important.

 

[Arthyron]

What happens if the "indispensable" Wachsman isn't funded? This claim of necessity seems like a double bind for Core because if WPR is actually indispensable then they're in big trouble, but if WPR isn't actually indispensable then Core was exaggerating or bamboozled.

As I explained on Dash Central, if WPR's support is taken away, then Core will suddenly have to find ways to fill those roles and perform those services and facilitate those needs on their own, which means more resources that could have been directed toward completing projects would then have to be diverted to filling in the gaps of logistics. The aggregate effect of making sudden changes in a complex, growing entity like Core, is like ripping parts out of a complex machine as it's working. It might hobble along, but it's not ideal to the purpose that machine fulfills.

 

[solarguy]

I like Arthyron's idea. Do both. Let Wachsman do what they do well, start an independent team that answers directly to the Masternode community to carry out our ideas about PR. It could start very small and grow with experience and success. Once they demonstrate competence and success, raise the funding.