lol that's why I wanted to know if there was a white board for the last meet up
Here's a little starting Plan/to do list. There are a lot of things we can't do without Jake.Hobson's input but we can get some ideas/work going in the meantime. I'm not going to go into details or ideas we discussed during the meet up, I think people should just group up and get started on the things they care about from where we left off. Things are listed more or less in order or priority/critical path. Can we start a wiki to exchange ideas/write things down and get things organized, give access to the core members?
Starting plan:
1. Obtain legal advice/confirmations on the status of Coins/CAD trading & exchange (at the Federal & Provincial level). (Jake)
We can't start investing money & time without knowing where to stand from a legal & financial point of view. Unless someone else wants to lobby & hire lawyers we're completely dependent on Jake (and indirectly, Cavirtex & other exchanges) for this. As far as I can tell, the banks are trying delaying tactics to make it too risky to invest in Bitcoin startups, and it's working for now. My own lawyer contacts don't want to get involved with bitcoins because of how they're associated with criminality. We can only wait for news.
2. Prepare a marketing plan/strategy for local merchants. (Jake, Bruno, Ryan, etc.)
We have to start working on the 'chicken and egg' problem; we can't get people to use cryptos if the stores don't take them, and vice-versa. We have to start implementing a strategy as soon as possible.
1. Prepare a 'tech package' of what a merchant needs to buy, install, etc & costs associated with a 'BTC cash register' and bookkeeping. (This is dependent on Jake's "other project")
2. Adopt basic marketing approaches for merchant adoption like fidelity programs, groupon-like programs, 'buy without cash days' and other list-style programs. (If you're into marketing, get started thinking about this right away!
)
3. Prepare sites, data, techniques, flyers, training booklets, and our in-house training program for merchants. (Depends on 2, and will take a while to produce, so can't be neglected.)
3. Prepare a marketing plan/strategy for customers.
1-3 Same thing as point 2 really, but for the different people we want to attract to cryptos.
4. Prepare training program, including installation of wallets, security, and more advanced topics like scams, gambling & investments/trading. (Everyone can get started on this, there's a LOT to cover and it's independent of everything else. It will take a lot of time to get it right for Mr. & Mrs. Joe Fiat!)
4. Open the store/crypto saloon pew pew (Need Jake again for this)
1. We need to be able to access the store/training/meetup area to prepare it, don't know if Eszter got the key after all...
2. Establish a charter/legal entity for the store, procedures & bookkeeping, etc. insurance...
3. Obtain a decent inventory for opening day (and ways to manage the inventory/sales when it's just on display by the store, hence procedures above)
4. Find a good name for the place (not a priority, but it's nice to have a project name in mind)
4. Find volunteers (or find a way to get 'seed BTC') to man the store
5. Train volunteers and get the marketing machine rolling
6. Launch
7. Lunch (hamburgers are fine
)
8. ...
9. Profit! (for all humanity
)
5. Prepare contingency/continuation plan
Right now the whole project is completely dependent on Jake. Once we get things rolling it shouldn't be a problem anymore, but we should plan for all possibilities, such as what happens if BTC implodes, what happens if a volunteer installs keyloggers, do we establish a legal fund, etc...
6. Expand & Make new contacts
Once we have an actual crypto presence we can start working on other projects
Well, that's just an overview but it shows there are some things we can work on right now. I have a miner blowing 85 c air in my face and a cat that thinks my keyboard is the coolest place in the house so hope I didn't ramble too much.
I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff.
And remember, yolo! (you only launch once!)