Thanks smaragda, all good suggestions there! CfB and jl777 are obviously two key guys in the NXT ecosystem with a lot of knowledge and skill, and picking their brains on ideas that might help ORA would be fantastic, but honestly, I think we need to develop some momentum on our own now. Sure, there will be communication asking for advice, and there has been already with both CfB & jl777 previously, but we need to get ourselves together and make ORA an 'attractive' proposition for guys of that calibre to get involved. I'm confident we can do that, and your suggestions are very welcome!
When I communicated with jl777 previously his advice was pretty much what I relayed in this thread, and it is basically the same advice I've had from coinsolidation from Bitmark, who I've had the benefit of communicating with also - "what will people use ORA for, what does it offer that makes it useful, what is its 'killer feature' that can make it survive in a crowded market?". I think there are many possible paths to follow and explore here, and I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart enough to think of many of the best ideas, that's why I always try and encourage people to get involved, and why when I try and think of something on my own I need to get philosophical and meditate; to squeeze every last drop of 'horse power' out of my mental engine
We know ORA will be an MS currency now, and if we can assemble a list of ideas (even idea fragments), then maybe the 'killer feature' will jump out at us. Some ideas I've got include things like:
- in game currency for online games
- community 'token' on a community website
- add 'escrow' features to ORA to allow reversible transactions (essential for online commerce IMO)
In a more general sense I'm trying to follow this thought pattern:
1- think of 'activities' and 'things' that the world needs more of
2- find ones that aren't properly monetised in the current financial framework of global fiat, credit cards, paypal etc
3- think of ways/systems that ORA, running on mobile devices via our custom ORA app as an MS currency can monetise the thing in 1- above, so the world/ people produce/have more of it
When I 'meditate' on ORA that's what I've been doing lately, and IMO the 'killer feature' jl777 and coinsolidation referred too *might* be discovered by anyone. The other day for example, I was imagining the 'thing' the world needed more of *could* be more people eating organic veggies grown in urban backyards that currently sit idle as an agricultural food producing resource, so I tried to imagine if ORA becoming the 'go to' crypto for monetising urban gardens and home grown veggies market was possible. It met my condition for something that the world needs more of, but isn't currently been done at the 'maximum' level or amount because fiat probably doesn't handle monetising small scale backyard veggy gardens that well.
Let me stress that I DON'T think this idea is THE 'killer feature' for ORA, but the process of thinking about the task of 'killer feature' hunting is on the right track (hopefully). It doesn't hurt, and it can be fun
It's basic 'community currency' stuff that old hippies like me have been thinking about for years (match unmet needs with unused resources via a 'token' or community currency), but really hasn't been possible on a large scale logistically, up until the invention of crypto currencies & blockchains.
Perhaps you already have your killer feature, the combination of a starfish community, thought leading, willingness to cooperate, and willingness to use technologies which others have created.
You do not have a developer, I suggest that you do not need one.
There are hundreds of active projects currently competing in similar spaces. The coin associated with each is what fragments the wider communities and force projects to die, and rare developers to duplicate efforts, some need to die gracefully so projects can consolidate.
I feel it is a fair analysis, to say that commonly the projects and services built on top of coins are what now separate them from the pack. Personally I can see multiple projects that would benefit massively by being merged. Again, the underlying (often neglected) crypto coins are what prohibit this.
The alt coin community has a need: Allow projects to merge together, with respective currencies gracefully made legacy.
The post above this is discussing this already, swapping RSU to ORA.
With this in mind here is a back of the envelope proposal for your discussion:
Create a new MS currency, do not distribute it.
Create an Asset for each project merge.
Provide a burn address for each coin in the merge.
Issue the asset against coins burned to each burner.
Once the burn period is over, swap the asset for a portion of the created MS currency.
In this way, coins can be made legacy, and ORA can become not a currency, but an umbrella project with a starfish community, where each arm is a project which has merged in existing projects.
This approach allows all those who want to move and merge to do so, whilst allowing those who don't to keep the coin they have and try to continue it without the broader community. It's opt in, optional.
New projects could also be created in the same way, where an asset is created, released in the usual way to investors, and then the asset swapped for a portion of the MS currency.
Existing assets which represent projects, for example omnigames, could also be swapped for a portion of the MS currency. Assets representing investment portfolio's are likely out of scope?
From a financial aspect, every new project joining would inflate the supply, but bring an increase in value which should offset or exceed the inflation caused by the new portion currency issued.
From an emission perspective, it's close to perfect, new currency is only issued when there is a demand for it, when new projects are added.
The hard work required is doing the maths to ensure everything is fair around the new MS being issued. It is possible, and I would be happy to help if needed.
Perhaps this will be contentious, but if you did this, I would propose that ORA (and indirectly RSU) become the first project, and receive the first portion of the new MS currency. Community organization, outreach, oversight, admin - all of that is a big enough project by itself to warrant being one arm, or perhaps the body, of this starfish.
Finally, this is an observation framed as a proposal, I see you doing this already in some capactity, and you have effectively already proposed this to others, including myself, for other projects.
Edit: the obvious part, each of the projects would utilize the MS currency within it, increasing the odds of one or more of them becoming "killer" within it's domain.
Warmest Regards,
Mark