Anyway, it occurred to me that creating a coin or token might be more successful in raising funds than the fundraising route, and it could potentially give more back to people who invest.
There are lots of kinks to work out, but what I imagined was something like an ICO, but you get a product in return for buying a certain amount of coins.
So lets say, hypothetically, a product costs $50. If the tokens cost $1, then every 50 tokens would entitle you to one product. There would be other levels as well like special colours for more tokens.
You choose how many tokens you want to buy, then you choose what product you want to receive for it from the list. You put in your shipping address and wallet address, and deposit your payment.
This would only happen when purchasing ICO tokens, once the ICO is over, you will still be able to purchase products with the token, but it will be at the current rate, so if the value of the token goes up, then you will get products cheaper than what you would have paid in fiat currency. However it does of course have the downside of if the value goes down, you end up paying more.
However, if the ICO is a success, it will mean that my company can make some really great new products, and if the token/coin increases in value, it means the initial investors will be able to get those products at a very good price.
It would also be good to be able to crowdfund/vote for new products with the coins. For example if I put up a product, you can vote for it by depositing coins - if the crowdfund is not successful, you can just withdraw your coins, if it is successful then your coins are taken as payment. There could also be a method by which people can design a product, submit it, and if it passes certain criteria (as in, it is physically and legally possible to make the product), it can have the required funding calculated and put onto the platform for voting. If successful, it will be sent to industrial designers and then off to the factory for production.
I haven't thought about this very in depth yet, I can see a lot of potential issues, but I feel like it could also have a lot of potential benefits as well.
My questions to those that are more experienced, are things like:
- Can you see a way that this could work? Or is it a silly idea?
- What else can I do with the coins/tokens, to make them more desirable and useful?
- Can I use the blockchain to verify ICO investors and automatically authenticate them (via web form for example) for special rewards?
- How would you go about it, or have you seen anyone else do this and made it a success?
- Do you know of people with good reputation that could help with it? (coding, general advice etc)
I've posted here to brainstorm and see if the idea has any potential, so I would welcome ideas and opinions about it.
Thanks!