ECC should just be replaced with @hanh.
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Interesting comment from Dan Held at Bitcoin Builders. Starts at 2:37:00 time stamp.
Tl;dr: Narratives on whatâs going to drive adoption have come and gone, but the only thing that has consistently driven people (normies) to the space is speculation.
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1RDGlavrlpOJL
My takeaway was⌠how can Zcash become a part of the speculative games to drive awareness + acquisition (buying ZEC for number go up), and then retain people with its utility?
Really recommend people listen to his thoughts here!
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After some thought, I understand the utility of speculation to attract people to a project. However, it is very tricky to use that as a jumping off point for the development and implementation adoption tactics.
First, while speculative activity can be commensurate with reality (i.e., the speculation pays off because what was speculated on comes to fruition), it is not always the case. Many people lose a lot of money from speculation. One can argue that there is a level of fiduciary duty when talking about speculation due to the consequences that can arise. While I personally think even everyday community members should try to base their recommendations of Zcash on facts, there is nothing stopping people from speaking their mind about whether or not they think Zcash is the âinvestment of the centuryâ. But when it comes to Dev Fund recipients, I think this âfiduciary dutyâ gets much more serious. Which leads me to point 2.
Second, making a convincing, and rational, argument for why Zcash is a good speculative bet requires a fair amount of understanding of the world, investment trends, technological capability, etc. Many of the people who have the most understanding of this, the time to dedicate to it, and the craftsmanship to produce something that will become distributed widely are already Dev Fund recipients. Therefore, there is a bit of a Catch-22 for Zcash. If a Dev Fund recipient were to put their time into crafting narratives as to why Zcash would be a good investment, they put Zcash at risk of regulatory scrutiny. Yet, without these speculative narratives, Zcash is fighting with one arm tied behind its back, thereby preventing an avenue for price appreciation which would fuel the Dev Fund and reward community members. So there is a damned-if-we-do, damned-if-we-donât dynamic here (catch-22).
I see the way forward is a few different broad strokes.
First, both new and current users of Zcash should find a rewarding experience. This encompasses a few aspects.
- Frictionless UX. Every bump in the road during usage is an added transaction cost. Fiat onboarding/offboarding, sync times, address confusion, unclear wallet recommendations, inability to spend funds where desired, tax accounting, etc.The transaction cost for using Zcash is not just the nominal miner fee, it is all these things added together. Today, the transaction costs for Zcash are very high.
Second, the motivation and vision for Zcash need to be very clear and convincing.
- In todayâs world, the concept of privacy is grossly misunderstood. Understanding why privacy is one of the most important areas of humanityâs future is critical to people embracing Zcashâs mythology, which imo is a large part of why people put themselves in different camps. Mythology and narrative is a magnet to attract people.
- (Furthermore, if you want to think about it from an investment narrative perspective, the history of economics for the past several hundred years is that the middle- and lower-classes typically want what the upper-classes have. Right now, that trend is towards personalization. Rich people can afford personal assistants, so digital assistants and âpersonalizationâ is a major trend that tech companies are using to attract the masses to their services. But perhaps privacy will follow a similar trend. What do you want after you have all the conveniences that the rich have? Perhaps you want your autonomy and privacy back - just like they have.)
- Once the narrative about the motivation for Zcash has been made clearly and convincingly, the vision is what comes next. In Zcash, the vision is highly disjointed. Is it âjustâ private money? Is it a going to be a platform for all sorts of functionalities? Is it a network state with its own revenue stream and governance? What will the world look like with widespread Zcash adoption?
These are just a few thoughts about how to attract people to Zcash. Iâd be curious to hear more.
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Why did ECC take a loan from Least Authority for $3.75M? Having USD debts is a bad idea and reminds me of IMF and World Bank loans.
What is the collateral in this deal?
Does Zooko, Amber, Za, Nate and Daira still hold equity in Least Authority?
Lastly, if this loan was from say JP Morgan Chase would everyone find this okay?
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[Correction] Yes, I hold equity in Least Authority Enterprises LLC (which is the entity that was a party to the loan).
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as much as I think financial speculation is good, this article compares meme grifting, and the marketing surrounding it, as âa debilitating K-Hole in a Prague dive-bar. And youâve lost your wallet.â
so, yeah two sides to this. worth a read!
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Engagement improvement can be made without going down grifty pump tactics. Sometimes i feel we get bogged down in whinging about the current problems (wallet sync, spam attack etc) rather than trying to get people hyped for the future (POS, ZSAs, ledger shielded tx etc).
In my opinion there is low visibilty/awareness of what is great about zcash, and too much focus on the negativity
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100% agree
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