It's been said many times but could use repeating. There was a general consensus to focus on the technology first.
It seems like we are behind schedule but that's fine; Sling has shown what happens when you hastily put out a shitty marketplace. Many things are required to be done first; and properly before all the parts come together to create this wonderful game changing market. Just keep buying cheap coins. I'm positive that very soon there will be another big DNM bust; and probably an exit scam. It would even be worth waiting to release after one of these events.
Exactly. First to market doesn't always mean success. That comes from proper planning, research, development and testing. Every release thus far here has had all of the above. There are other use-cases for SDC marketplace aside from illegal items ones I would think will bring even more commerce to the platform and wider adoption.
Grey market sales like online classifieds such as craigslist are done in person with cash. It's a sort of "Shadow Economy" that exists alongside retail and wholesale. The lack of smart escrow and the amount of scamming that takes place makes cash transactions the only viable solution. This limits shipping options for most sales. SDC is a "e-cash" option that would allow these types of sales to happen while still protecting the identities of the users and privacy of the transaction from prying eyes.
This is great news for the SDC developers and the shadow market project! It is proof that the decentralized marketplace concept is a viable investment for tech investment funds. There are numerous libertarian billionaires that could look to Shadow for an alternative investment more along the lines of their own political ideology. The "Paypal Mafia" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia) are known libertarians along with Elon Musk who btw is also South African just like our development team! Unlike the OpenBazaar developers who are tied into a separate currency and development in Bitcoin, SDC has both a currency and marketplace to go along with it and thus have much more flexibility designing, developing and maintaining the system...
Musk- no way! If he is a libertarian, I am John Galt. Everything he does is fueled by Obama money, and if he is involved you can guarantee it will be kid-friendly and government-approved.
Elon Musk was a co-founder at PayPal alongside Peter Thiel one of the most vocal libertarians in Silicon Valley. They've been good friends for decades. Accepting government loans from a system which one has already paid into is not at all contrary to libertarian beliefs as to how the system should be structured in the first place.
"Somewhat libertarian, but Peter’s extremely libertarian.” - Elon Musk (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/28/no-death-no-taxes)