Yes Suchpool are Quebecers. I chatted with them briefly in May and they did not seem too excited or inspired by Quebecoin. They run QBC on their pool for profit/BTC and not because they loved the idea – and there’s nothing wrong with that. They looked like a group of fun folks.
Unfortunately, the launch of Quebecoin back in April had none of the ingredients of innovation needed to set it apart from all of the other fad altcoins that have been popping up everywhere like bad weeds. It also did not come with the promised maple syrup for IPO investors
. That leads to an identity crisis, which fails to attract people to join the conversation and promote development. So it is not surprising that someone heavily involved with the industry would not be impressed with someone who has merely cooked up a different flavor of the same recipe that was already been copied and followed a thousand times.
We don't have the tool/services in place to even "spend" QBC right now. We're truly like Bitcoin back in 2010 when it was barely known. And we see other crypto-projects/coins evolve around us fucking fast… QBC isn't a coins that can innovate at that speed. Like Snowcrawl said, we don't have the resource required for that... how many developepr will be excited to work on QBC with no promises of a reward that can feed their familly? A very few. Some did already, but they can't be doing this for ever, they're hungry too you know...
Earlier in this thread I did set up a kind of experimental transaction for Quebecoin. To make the Quebecoin equivalent of a $20 donation to a charity. I picked a Montreal based charity called Mission Bon Accueil, or in English "Welcome Hall Mission". They provide food and shelter to Montreal's homeless and most vulnerable. I asked for everyone to pitch in some Quebecoins, arbitrarily setting the number of Quebecoins to be collected to roughly what $20 worth of bitcoin would allow you to mine at that given time.
http://www.missionbonaccueil.com/en#.VEvDKvnF8rThe idea was similar to the one used by bitcointalk's Laszlo, when he asked if someone could send him pizza in exchange for bitcoins. In 2010 it was such an early point in bitcoin's history that essentially nobody had yet used it as a currency. Laszlo was simply using the most basic tools he had at his disposal to try to make that first transaction happen. And that was all that was needed to get the ball rolling For example he did not say: "For the first bitcoin transaction I am hiring a team of web developers to create a highly advanced website that will allow you to select a pizzeria close to where I live and will automatically convert bitcoins to fiat and wire the money to the restaurant."
I think that for the earliest use, Quebecoin would work more like a token. Imagine those plastic tokens that you use in the laundry rooms of certain apartment complexes. The tenants have to buy them in order to do their laundry, and it prevents people who don't live there from doing their laundry. Because the machines do not accept quarters. That's a rather unexciting, low tech concept. But then again so was asking someone to send you a pizza for a few thousand bitcoins back in 2010.
So there could initially be some specific use for Quebecoin at one local online store, for example. It would be a matter of finding a business that is small enough that they would not mind taking a chance on an unusual marketing strategy involving our little cryptocurrency. To offer customers the chance to use Quebecoin in some very limited way. At first the only customers who would show up would be a few people from this thread. I am thinking that the only value for Quebecoin would be to receive a discount code to use at check-out in order to save a certain percentage on the total sales price, or perhaps to get free shipping.
The benefit for this small retailer is that they would gradually be introduced to the concepts of cryptocurrency. Without taking the risk of diving head first in accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. Learning the basics of how to manage wallets and how to transfer the Quebecoins they receive into Bitcoin. I would also consider providing an extra incentive to the first merchant who adopts Quebecoin. Such as complimentary cloud hashing shares. Let's say about 20 MHS of Zeushash.com litecoin shares. That would also give them some crypto income that they could use.
Even this small amount of activity would be enough to drive up some demand for QBC, and give it some small value. Gradually you could, over time add more merchant activity, and more substantial products and services being offered in exchange for Quebecoin.
Of course my main goal here would be to find ways to encourage more people from Quebec to get involved with using and benefiting from bitcoin. The kind of people who do not hang out on bitcointalk, and who probably don't read English very well. Quebecoin is nothing more than a tool for reaching that goal. Ideally finding new people who are not already aware of cryptocurrency, or how it works and who probably doubt that it is something that they could be concerned with. Trying to make the process of using it simpler than it already is for people who's level of computer literacy is limited to using email. For them we would need to design a simple online wallet. Expecting them to be able to download the Windows wallet as it is now, is already too complicated.
Realistically that is a very broad goal, which could be achieved either with or without Quebecoin. Depending upon whether or not Quebecoin would end up becoming a viable concept. I think that the project that ML-R is working on has much of the same goal in mind.
Cryptomen (the service) is setting it's nest up in a huge niche, which HUGE potential. If they manage to pull it off and remain true to their goals, it'll be crazy.
