I'll be speaking at the Cryptocurrency Convention on Apr 9th in NewYork, detailing how DarkSend works and promoting DarkCoin. If anyone will be in NewYork at that time I'd love to meet you!
http://cryptocurrencyconvention.com/*My details should be up on the site soon
THIS is the type of "marketing" this coin needs.
Edu, can you talk any about what type of testing (beyond this community doing some DS transactions) you are doing? It's been mentioned before to try to let some "white-hat" types take a hammer to it... anything like that? To me, i'd like some sort of 3rd party endorsement on the anonymous transactions.
There were a few people that came into the forums and said that it wasn't anonymous and could break it, I'll reach out to them and see if they're up for taking a look at it.
I would contact forum folks carefully, too many trolls with their own coin agendas. I would use the upcoming conference as a way to network some connections. Put it in your talk or something that you are looking for a verified third-party to help confirm the coin's claims.
Again on the marketing stuff, you need to set an agenda for everyone to follow. I think there are way too many voices screaming marketing and what they are really doing is pushing DRK to be "just another coin". This coin will not succeed because there's a dice game.
IMO, these are the core elements that should always be addressed:
1. Why anonymity is important in cryptocurrencies. What are the shortcomings of the current cryptoworld (only in terms of BTC, I think discussing DRK w/ any other coin is counter-productive).
2. How does DRK solve the anonymity issue. To what extent are DRK transactions anonymous? This needs to put proven and put into an understandable diagram. Again, in my mind, this is the biggest priority for DarkSend. If everyone goes off into a tangent working on dice games or other alt-coin "standards" AND DarkSend ends up failing, then the coin will fail with it. I can't put it any more bluntly than that. So if everyone is focusing on shit like dice games and not figuring out how to validate the anonymity factor, all other effort is wasted.
3. If #2 is proven, how does DRK fit into the Crypto-World alongside BTC? Competitor/compliment?
4. Become a (or THE) Crypto-Anonymity spokesman. You get noticed by leading, not following. I think you can solve this by putting some effort into media outreach. The CryptoLife Blog did that nice piece about anonymity that featured some nice coverage of DRK, along with some other coins. So, you should do some basic PR outreach (this is where you could bring in someone from the community to help). Here's what I would do:
- Find someone you know and trust to handle all of your public relations effort. Announce it here and announce a basic PR plan with milestones. This would be something like:
A. Make a list of the top 5-10 crypto bloggers/journalists that have big enough voices in the community that it's worthwhile.
B. Have the marketing person conduct outreach saying that you are available to discuss crypto-anonymity, interviews about DarkSend and/or whatever you're planning on talking about at the conference.
C. If interviews are scheduled, always be there for them or respond promptly (if done via email). Journalists are notoriously self-centered and can take something like a perceived slight and turn it into a negative article.
4. Use your conference appearance to really build some new relationships that can help the coin's future.
-----
Again, I would implore you NOT to be distracted by these alt-clone marketing suggestions. This is the wrong place to put your attention. Develop the coin & conduct outreach to the media and NOT focusing on the crypto coin miners/traders.
This is why its important to see some more senior peeps that have a broader perspective to chime in. Its always important to lead...and I think organizer has some very valid points. Like always...it comes down to a plan and a time line.