Your legitimate concern will not be understood well, is likely to be labeled as FUD and you may even be considered a troll now by people who are unfamiliar with strategic thinking, corporate vision and communication, long term outlook, marketing and promotion, product management, human psychology, public relations and so on. However, I do feel you 100%, marketing-wise, we're likely taking another step backwards (with the suggested DarkTor) or at least we're making it even more difficult to reach mainstream adoption. It's as if this is an unknown world to the core darkcoin supporters? Despite the wonderful technical innovation, the more darkness there will be in the image of the product, the less mainstream this product will end up being in my opinion (please understand the consequences). Most people look at the name/image/package of the product, rather than the superiority of the innerworkings (take Doge as a hint from within the crypto world).
I'm well aware that Evan has explicitly said that several features, including the name are now "locked in". Community members have said "it's already been discussed", but this is not really true (check the first few pages of this thread). I sincerely hope that some day Evan reconsiders the name. Doesn't he want to take his precious out there for everyone to enjoy? I'm starting to have some doubts to be honest. Try convincing non-tech, non-cryptocurrency people about the wonders of Darkcoin. Not easy. Not easy at all. All they hear is "dark", "dark", "dark" and their mind associates it with bad/illegal things. The general public doesn't like the name at all. I've undergone test cases which left me with an upset feeling in my stomach.
I've been thinking about this for a long time now, and the short answer is that Darkcoin deserves a much better 'mainstream' name to make promotion a much easier task "outside the crypto/tech world". Imho the name "ecash" could be a potential winner, as often used here in this forum. I like this one a lot and see no issues with it from a marketing perspective, but unfortunately this has been and is still used officially by certain organizations (needs to be investigated more deeply). We could however make it clear to everyone that this is ours to take.
Since this is clearly not the place to have an efficient and grown up intelligent discussion on branding, marketing and PR, I kindly invite you and anyone who shares the same concern to visit the darkcointalk.org thread I opened on 24/05/2014 (
https://darkcointalk.org/threads/10-reasons-to-invest-in-darkcoin.814/#post-4804). Share your opinion and solutions to the issue. Let's see if we can work together to at least present alternatives to Evan which are a lot easier to market.
People need to stop thinking about what 'they' like, and consider what the general public likes.
Thanks Nthelight, you've added much to what I'm trying to articulate.
And before everyone jumps down our throats with a collective repulsion of: "stop worrying about 'what the public wants' and the 'mainstream' as DRK isn't about making 'the public' happy", you MUST understand that branding and public opinion are massively important to the success of a product or service, even if it's going to remain relatively niche. You simply cannot underestimate how badly this could turn out and how toxic the term "DarkCoin" could so easily become if perceptions are not carefully managed. The attitude here is quite often "f^*@ them, what would they know" and that's guaranteed to make DRK fail.
This bit you wrote...
#01 - The branding provides, in my humble opinion, challenges towards large market adoption. Merchants are not likely to readily accept darkcoin due to its associations with illicit activities, whether it's justified or not. The least you could say is that it's not mainstream and is effectively somewhat branded to end up in a niche market. When customers and businesses buy or accept darkcoins, they will reconsider or get rid off it when the image of illegality is omnipresent. You bought darkcoins? So, you're a criminal? What do you have to hide? Anyone, including the believers, will continue to associate dark technology with illicit activities, because it may briefly make the price go up. If you do not understand how damaging this will be to the image and value of the product, then you need to stop for a minute and try to think about the longer term and the big picture. Soon there may be no difference in people's mind between darkcoin, dark network and the infamous dark web. I find this the quintessential reason why Darkcoin MAY fail entirely, despite it's innovation.
...is key to the risk I've been talking about. If the factors above are not considered DRK will come unstuck badly. Having great technology is just one factor in a product's success (and, of course, a very important one) but the other factors around branding and perception are way more critical for long term sustainability/survival.
Thanks for your input, I will post over in that thread you've mentioned.
