So you have a business that accepts bitcoin/devcoin. But you really don't care about bitcoin, so it's superfluous to the definition because really you say in the next sentence that any other coins are just going to be used to buy devcoin. So what you really have is an invention that sells a product/service and turns those profits in to cryptocurrency buys/bids/funding projects/bounties/pay devtome writers.
That's not a business. You're trying to create an economic system. In fact, I've read these threads and I think I am unlearning what ya'll want to accomplish.
Yeah, any time someone says "Increase the value of devcoins for everyone", they're implying a more robust economic system. The ultimate accomplishment is to proliferate open source.
If accepting DeVCoin would make any sense to such sites as a business proposition then creating yet another such site seems redundant, since it would make sense for such sites to support DeVCoin so if they are not themselves idiots - which presumably they are not if the are already succeeding even without DeVCoins having any involvement - they will do the sensible thing and accept DeVCoins.
Meanwhile I foresee us basically ending up having put someone into a business of their own (since there is no legal entity constituting the DeVCoin project that could own shares of the business) who will simply find, like all the other such auction sites, that it makes no sense to bother with DeVCoins.
On the other hand if we create free open source software for doing such sites, maybe hundreds or thousands of people will try to make a go of such sites and maybe - not likely but maybe - among them will turn out to be someone who will somehow make a go of it, and at that point we could approach them hoping they are more sympathetic to the idea of accepting DeVCoins (since DeVCoins made available to them the free open source software that made their business possible) than quibids or other sites using similar models but possibly not using free open source software to do it, let alone free open souce software that is only free and open source thanks to the DeVCoin project.
The other problem is that a site that accepts devcoins as a secondary coin will have their own base currency to work in, strengthening
that, as money flows in. Devcoin economic value will be lower, compared to an equivalent site that uses dvc as the base currency to measure profit. What we want, is not for businesses to be sympathetic to our cause, but to follow our lead - where they choose to accept devcoins because it suits them. We can do that by creating a strong economic system. The fact that devcoins are less attractive to speculators actually makes it better suited to this task than the other crypto currencies.
One of the ultimate problems with bitcoins et al, is that they want to replace fiat as the go-to trade currency, but they're just not as good as fiat at doing that because of the deflation driven speculation - most fiat businesses that 'accept bitcoins' have probably never even see one. Devcoins are in the unique position where the production of coins is infinite (is it the only one?). It's the closest coin to fiat in terms of inflation, which makes it far better as a potential trading currency than all of the other coins - the cost of production is very low with merged mining etc. If it's going to succeed in its mission (proliferate open source), then in my opinion it should be taking advantage of this strength.
I believe for it to fully realize it's unique market position, it should focus on becoming the currency that people naturally want to convert all other crypto-currencies into, to
get work done, like purchase inputs with and pay salaries from (so a form of cashflow currency - I don't know how realistic this is at the moment). We have a chance of achieving that because: it is an administrated coin (so emphasis on products can be made), we're interesting to
creators of work not just speculators, the price is actually relatively stable, and we have all the other benefits of cryptocurrencies. Combine this with your last paragraph, and I think it's a recipe for success. Open source is very much about empowering people, and it leaves us with a very important question to ask:
Does the devcoin project want to create individual businesses and hope to compete against all the other already successful businesses, or create a framework for business (with open source tools, plus maybe an example business) for others to push their own success? Gabe Newell / Valve was doing very well from steam and traditional game production, but is doing phenomenally better with f2p and user empowerment. He's completely sold on the idea of empowering people, and has essentially created an economy of his own (TF2 hats and DOTA 2 items). I think in the vein of the original devcoin goal, the second version makes more sense.
The credit union is a good idea for this, and ultimately we as administrators should be looking at ways to empower people into creating them with open source software - whether by just finding and packaging it into an example, working credit union, which others can freely copy, or creating one from scratch, which others can freely copy. Of course in most cases we'll use the cheapest option, with the caveat that the solution must be completely open source and freely usable. I think we should stick to innovating and let the market decide its value.
