Here are some more thoughts I have about strategic moves for NEM future.
NEM Battle Plan
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Nice post. Can't express how much I agree with the simplicity and ease-of-use point you made. If we want NEM to gain wider adoption from
outside the (relatively small) cryptocurrency crowd, the NEM ecosystem
categorically needs to be as simple to gain access and use as possible. This is something I've been stressing time and time again since I discovered NEM. Thankfully it seems the client is being built with ease-of-use in mind.
If a new potential Nemster inquisitively follows a few links when (s)he sees NEM mentioned somewhere, if it takes more than a handful of minutes to find out what NEM is, figure out how to obtain NEM coins and use the client then they'll close the tab and completely forget about it.
Some features I think are important in achieving the above goals are listed below:
(A) Easy-to-follow video and text guides. These must be:
- Friendly, aesthetically pleasing, concise and informative.
- Available in different languages.
- Embedded within the client.
(B) Strong, linguistically diverse and supportive communities to help out with technical problems.
- NEM forum, website, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit et al. Perhaps a moderated live chat within the client made for helping new Nemsters out.
(C) Everything related to NEM must be possible
completely within the client.
- If the entire NEM ecosystem can be accessed and used in the same place it would mean the NEM ecosystem feels like a cohesive product and not a scattering of websites with the NEM logo pasted on them. Any newcomer who has to visit a million different websites will be put off. However, if everything they need to access is within the client, they will feel like they are in control and therefore happy to use NEM. Transactions, messages, asset exchange, block explorer et al.
- There could be an 'in client' web-browser to access forums/social media websites I mentioned above. The client is going to be browser-based, so I don't see this being much of a problem. Having a tab in the sidebar for social media would be a welcome sight for confused newcomers.
(D) There needs to be a simple, elegant and easy-to-setup solution for merchants to accept NEM as payment.
- The only way a currency will become widespread and stable is if it can actually be used. Removing the hurdle of difficult implementation for less tech-savvy shop owners will be a huge advantage.
Concerning
(A), I am no graphic designer, but I can write out the text for guides/videos once I am familiar with the NEM client. For
(B), I am already trying to help Nemsters out on the
NEM subreddit, and have written an
F.A.Q. thread on the forum to help answer common questions. The entire NEM community should be eager to help out newbies and answer their questions; which I am thankfully seeing a lot of! So kudos to those who do. Unfortunately
(C) and
(D) are outside my area of expertise; I'm no computer scientist, merely a humble physicist.
TL;DR - appeal to the newbies and NEM will be unstoppable.