The price will never rise until the community grows. We're all just the same people standing around patting each other on the back and holding on, as people slowly leave the crowd. Innovation is great, enthusiasm is excellent - but we need more people. Things gain value when more people want them. We need more people wanting DigiByte. I see lots of talk in this thread, but that's about it. Not much mention on twitter, the reddit subscription base is super small compared to how active this thread is, and even when something cool happens, like DigiShield - the culmination of grabbing that opportunity for promotion is a modification to the title of this thread and an internal celebration.
This community and team is competent, capable, and enthusiastic - but we're far too comfortable keeping this a member's only club. Open the windows and doors, fire up the signs, tell your friends. This coin will continue a downward trend despite development without social growth. I urge the development team and particularly the PR director to address this officially sooner rather than later. If the team does not include someone dedicated to promotions and projects for the marketing of DigiByte on a social-media wide level, it is my opinion that this should be the first order of business. A growing user-base should be the number one concern of everybody interested in DigiByte's success.
Yes, development of support services helps to convince people - but that doesn't mean we can't bring people in now. Tell them about those upcoming services, even if they don't exist yet. Highlight the current strengths and unique features of the coin (sensible/transparent premine, professional team, DigiShield, etc) and try to find ways to do it quickly, unobtrusively, inclusively. Giveaways, tip-fests on reddit, contests for user-created promotional content, etc. When trying to gain new merchants and developers for services, a large user-base is a great selling point on why they should care.
IMO without some more promotional support the community will continue to slowly dwindle, eventually passing a critical point where the core believers aren't around any longer to help growth. Every once in a while the coin will be used for a P&D and mostly forgotten. Many scrypt coins have followed this pattern, why should DGB be any different? Make it different.
+1 Well said! Couldn't agree more.
Get to Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Tomorrow's update is a major one and it shouldn't go unnoticed. Keep spreading the word!
Emphasize custom anti-multipool code "DigiShield", block reward getting reduced by 0.5% every week starting next Friday, lead developer acting professional by releasing LinkedIn profile, and so on. Mentioning the increased value and volume should help too.
Total hash rate should increase significantly by tomorrow if we do this right!