Proposal “Continuationfunding-PHASETWO-ProjectProp“ (Completed)Back
| Title: | Continuation funding - Understanding the barriers to adoption of Dash by UK businesses and merchants in the Gold and Jewellery Sector (Phase 2) |
| Owner: | CaptAhab |
| Monthly amount: | 43 DASH (1281 USD) |
| Completed payments: | 3 totaling in 129 DASH (0 month remaining) |
| Payment start/end: | 2017-09-18 / 2017-12-13 (added on 2017-09-13) |
| Votes: | 820 Yes / 170 No / 44 Abstain |
| External information: | www.dashtreasury.org/p-3014.prop |
Proposal description
Continuation funding
Understanding the barriers to adoption of Dash by UK businesses and merchants in the Gold and Jewellery Sector (Phase 2)
Stuart Bean - stuart.bean@simplyassociations.co.uk
Understanding the barriers to adoption of Dash by UK businesses and merchants in the Gold and Jewellery Sector (Phase 2)
Stuart Bean - stuart.bean@simplyassociations.co.uk
PHASE ONE OF THE PROJECT HAS BEEN DELIVERED - see progress report. We are now sharing the draft survey on the Dash Forum ahead of issuing to NAJ members and have a near final proof of article.
This proposal requests funding for the second, and final, stage of this project - 42.8666 Dash/3 months - total of 128.6 Dash.
Aim: Conduct a market survey of the practical, technical and perceived challenges stopping businesses and merchants in the UK accepting Dash.
Problem: There are few merchants in the UK who accept Dash. The lack of merchants accepting Dash is holding back uptake by the UK consumer. Engaging with the 3-4 million businesses in the UK is a difficult task. So how do we reach out to survey them?
Solution: We use business networks. In the UK there are many hundreds of Trade Associations (TAs). These are networks of businesses. TAs are trusted bodies that sit at the heart of business sectors.
Project: as a pilot project we will work with the National Association of Jewellers (NAJ) to;
- Promote Dash and this project to UK gold dealers and jewellers, alerting entrepreneurs and Chief Executives that digital cash, specifically Dash, is heading their way.
- Survey the 2200 NAJ members on their attitude and plans for future use of Dash, and what’s stopping them using it.
- Incentivise completion of the survey by providing a Dash prize to 10 respondents. First prize 5 Dash with 9 runners up getting 2 Dash each.
- Capture data on companies who wish to explore becoming Dash merchants.
- Undertake feasibility studies conducting technical assessments with four companies to understand their existing online sales processes and the size of the task in signing them up as Dash merchants and develop an outline plan for implementation. If we do not have enough viable interest we will offer a free technical seminar to all interested members.
- Report back findings to Dash community and development team, to inform future work
- UK gold dealers are a natural group that should understand Dash as an asset as well as a currency.
- This proposal will increase the number of high net worth individuals aware of Dash.
- In 2014 this industry in the UK was worth £5 billion (manufacturing) and £7.3 billion (retail).
- Increasing consumer confidence in Dash and offering the hesitant consumer tangible assets that can be bought with Dash in the form of gold will be significant. Proving that one of the oldest symbols of value can be bought by one of the newest.
- Stuart Bean - stuart.bean@simplyassociations.co.uk
- Stuart Thomlinson - stuart@surveywisdom.com
- Paul Tanner - paul@virtual-techno.com
Scope of project
As a pilot study this is aimed at the jewellery sector and the 2200 businesses in the NAJ. Subject to evaluation of this pilot project, this could be rolled out through Trade Associations in other sectors.
Project Milestones and Schedule
Phase 1 - August/September 2017 - all milestones for Phase 1 of the project have been delivered - see progress report
We are now sharing the draft survey on the Dash Forum ahead of issuing to NAJ members
- Produce article on Dash and its opportunities in the sector and highlighting survey to members. Copy deadline 5th September for The Jeweller Magazine - Media pack available here
- Design survey - Questions centered around awareness of cryptocurrencies and their acceptance of Dash as a potential method of payment for their business in the future. Those showing interest will be offered the chance to opt into further market research on this subject or feasibility studies/technical seminar. The survey will be short and engaging. As part of the questionnaire design process we would start a thread on the Dash community forum where members could add their suggestions.
Phase 2 - October 2017
- Publish article in the October edition of The Jeweller Magazine (Trade Press; readership 25,000)
- Deliver online survey for verified 2200 NAJ member companies collecting data on likely uptake of Dash, and incentivise by providing a Dash prize to 10 respondents. First prize 5 Dash with 9 runners up getting 2 Dash each. One survey per member company rolled out after members receive their copies of magazine on 10th October.
- Collate result of survey
- Contact prize winners and assist to set up Dash wallets
- Perform feasibility studies with 4 merchants or deliver free technical seminar
- Sponsor awards at the Annual Benevolent Ball of the National Association of Jewellers on December 7th 2017 (sponsorship of "Website of the Year"- award reserved) . Details of sponsorship package available here
- Publish results of survey and feasibility study/technical seminar on Dash Forum
Budget
Phase 1 of the project - 103.3 Dash/1 month - payment received- has been delivered - see progress report. We will be sharing the draft survey on the Dash Forum ahead of issuing to NAJ members
Phase 2 - 42.8666 Dash/3 months.
Reimburse Proposal Submission Cost - 5 Dash (October)
Online survey admin / rollout - 16.8 Dash (October)
Contact 5 winners and assist to set up wallets and transfer Dash prizes (prizes plus admin) - 30 Dash (November)
Feasibility study - 4 merchants or free technical seminar - 19.2 Dash (November)
Collate and publish results of survey - 21.6 Dash (November)
Awards event - preparation, attendance, travel, accommodation - 36 Dash (December)
TOTAL - 128.6 Dash - 42.8666 Dash/3 months
What will success look like?
- Increased awareness of Dash within this specific business community and its Trade Association
- Clear understanding of the barriers to adoption of Dash by this sector
- Identified group of businesses who would like to become Dash Merchants
External dependencies - Trade Associations may not be interested (Medium)
Mitigation - By sponsoring award and publishing article in Trade Press we ensure access to member community to carry out survey. Pre-project early engagement has helped ensure buy-in. The National Association of Jewellers are supportive of the project and have allowed us to reserve award sponsorship. Stuart Bean has extensive networks with Trade Associations (see https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bean-275ba84/)
Survey Wisdom is very experienced in this field and will manage engagement through the design and roll out of survey. Offering incentivisation to selection of respondents being given Dash will encourage participation.
Revised Risk - Low
Merchants might be nervous about costs, security, value fluctuations etc (Medium)
Engaging with a few merchants to discuss implementation in detail will provide comfort on these issues. We can deliver a free technical seminar on Dash, if there is lack of take up for feasibility study, in the first instance.
Revised Risk - Low
Project team fail to deliver individual components of project (Medium)
The project members are all experienced individuals and have also worked together previously. Stuart Bean will have overall oversight of project. He and Stuart Thomlinson have worked together including successfully delivering Voices of British Business - a survey commissioned by Stuart Bean, delivered by Stuart Thomlinson at Survey Wisdom, sponsored by Government . Paul Tanner has previously worked with Stuart Bean at the Trade Association Forum delivering an early online payment solution for the TAF website.
Revised Risk - Low
Progress reporting: The project team will report progress of delivery of milestones against timetable on the Dash forum
Why us?
Stuart Bean has extensive experience in lobbying and marketing, having had a 20-year career working at the Confederation of British Industry. He has wide ranging contacts and expertise in events, lobbying and working with UK Business leaders, including FTSE 100 CEOs. Stuart previously worked for a UK Political Party. More recently he has run his own business as part of a UK National Franchise (www.barkingmad.uk.com) which he is currently selling, and has set up a new business - Simply Associations Ltd - to include work with UK Trade Associations. Stuart has a MSc in Global Politics and Political Economy from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been involved with Darkcoin/Dash since April 2014.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-bean-275ba84/
keybase.io/captahab
Stuart Thomlinson is owner of Survey Wisdom - an IT consultancy specialising in Market Research. Stuart has 20 years experience of designing and implementing market research surveys, and analysing the results. He provides consultancy to clients in many sectors including luxury automotive marques, tobacco / vaping , pharma , government and trade associations.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-thomlinson-7371b011/
Keybase.io/ridingonalion
Paul Tanner is an experienced engineer and project manager. Paul has held management positions in several tech startups and developed numerous electronic and software products. He works on a diverse range of IT projects in the roles of CTO, project manager, developer and architect. Paul's recent projects have been focused on practical implementation of the "Internet of Things". These have included two consumer energy portals, an assisted living care-in-the-home system, an assistive street and an energy-optimised smart house. He has also been an advisor and beta tester for a smart heating product. In support of these projects Paul has been testing IoT products, integrating them into online solutions and liaising with hardware/ firmware suppliers on compliance, security and availability. Paul is a graduate of MIT with a BS in Electrical Engineering.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultanner/
keybase.io/handymannn
URL: https://www.dashtreasury.org/p-3014.prop
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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?
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Analyse the survey
We have a draft report prepared on the survey results, which includes proposed next steps informed by the responses received. We will be including specific worked up proposals on key areas of work and will be having further discussions with the NAJ’s new Chief Executive who takes up appointment in January.
These include important areas of work around overcoming negative perceptions of cryptocurrencies and extending awareness of Dash pre- Evolution, to make the ground ready for mainstreaming adoption post the Evolution release.
Make contact with winners of Dash who took part in the survey and set up winners with wallets and transfer Dash ( 5 Dash for one winner and nine runners up with 2 Dash each)
Dash winners were randomly selected and contacted in December. We have set up 6 of the 10 wallets and their funds have been sent, and we will be working with the other prize winners to set up their wallets in the New Year. We are in the process of preparing a press release to be issued in January by the NAJ.
Attend the awards dinner, representing Dash
We attended the NAJ Awards evening on 7 December 2017. Dash was the headline sponsor for the NAJ Awards event - http://www.naj.co.uk/en/naj-awards-2017/. We included this article in their Awards event brochure.
Since then we have been approached by others in the industry seeking Dash sponsorship for industry related initiatives - we will be considering this as a potential route for Dash for further exposure within this important sector. However the key to a sponsorship function is access to members and Dash must be mindful of this with future work. In our view it is not viable to simply offer sponsorship without other work included as part of a package.
Begin integration studies
We have had multiple expressions of interest from companies seeking to be involved in the integration projects. We have made contact with merchants who expressed an interest in participating in these feasibility studies and will be progressing these initially with 4 merchants during January.
The survey asked whether there was an appetite for a Technical forum/seminar, and there was not a great deal of interest so we are proceeding with feasibility integration studies as a better route.
.
November 2017 update
The project is on track and progressing well.
Progress
Stage one
The Jeweller Magazine published our article on Dash on 16 October 2017 - see here for copy of article. We developed the survey with input from the Dash Community. The survey was issued to the National Association of Jeweller's membership on 18 October 2017.
Stage two
Raising the profile of Dash.
We secured good coverage of the survey’s launch in the Jewellery sector Trade Press.
https://www.retail-jeweller.com/new...rticle?blocktitle=Latest-News&contentID=18229
https://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/20800-naj-dash-digital-currency-survey
http://www.professionaljeweller.com/naj-partners-dash-digital-currency-survey/
https://jewelleryoutlook.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2134
In addition Dash is being featured in an in depth feature in Jewellery Focus monthly review that was published in November for subscribers only. This was a result of our work in this field.
Survey
The survey closed on 13th November and we have had responses from 201 companies. The survey took an average timing of about 17 minutes to complete. We received 41 complete returns and 160 partial responses - which provides us with a useful pool of information to draw from. Respondents came from across the sector, and from a wide range of turnovers, including some of the largest UK firms in the sector.
Next steps
We are beginning the analysis of data with a view to reporting back to the Dash community. Our report will include identification of key issues and barriers sighted by merchants and an outline of issues we need to progress.
Emerging themes include - education, security, costs, knowledge, and inevitably compliance concerns. We are pleased by the number of people who are open to the possibilities of using Dash in their business. We have been in touch with the Core team regarding the work that has already been done on KYC/AML compliance.
Integration studies
We have had multiple expressions of interest from companies seeking to be involved in the integration projects. We will take steps to progress these in December, but most likely these will be taken forward in January, due the the Christmas season being the busiest time of the year for this industry.
Financial position
The Dash price has moved favourably and in light of this the project will use any surplus to carry forward and subsidise the next steps.
Next steps
During December we will
analyse the survey
make contact with winners of Dash who took part in the survey and set up winners with wallets and transfer Dash ( 5 Dash for one winner and nine runners up with 2 Dash each).
Attend the awards dinner, representing Dash, which should generate further trade press coverage
Begin integration studies
In January we will;
continue to conduct the integration studies and report findings, with proposed next steps
The Jeweller Magazine published the Dash article on 16 October
The survey was issued to National Association of Jeweller's membership on 18 October and responses are being submitted.
The NAJ will be conducting a social media campaign to further promote the DASH project to the sector.
The NAJ are issuing a press release next week, to give the project increased publicity.
We have contributed to an in depth article in Jewellery Focus on cryptocurrencies which will be published in November. This followed our issuing a press release on the project to them and has galvanised their interest in this area.
We have begun work on the integration project. This will initially consist of interviews with those survey respondents who indicate their willingness to discuss integration of Dash payments into their business processes.
I voted yes because I think the demographic you are pursuing are a good fit for Dash and will "get it" and become early adopters.
And, in for a penny, in for a pound. Since we already funded the first phase, it would be a shame to not put it in action.
I'm rooting for you...
solarguy
Many old investors today have a very high purchasing power, and we have to make them see that using Dash gives them the ability to have privacy, imediated and low fee, in an article where privacy is especially important when buying it.
I think we should finish this work to encourage the dealers of this sector (jewels) in London (financial city) the use of cryptocurrencies, and to teach them that Dash is the solution. Not Bitcoin.
That's why I voted yes.
The example we have is that if someone wants to buy a gold bullion and pays 10,000 pounds with credit card, many networks ann people will know that he has bought gold..
With Dash, your privacy would be protected.
Thank you for your proposal.
Please vote for this proposal, we have done all the prep and already PAID £5000 for the award, so it will be very frustrating not to be able to continue, as we love Dash and are really looking forward to delivering this project.
However, I see no research has actually been published, and you're now planning DASH sponsorship of a conference within your industry -- which is not actually aligned with the proposal.
So abstaining for now.
With Dash, activating privatesend your privacy would be safe.
But of course, Prince Harry can not do this for one simple reason:
Harry does not know Dash, nor how he can help him.
Who says Harry, says Emma Watson and many celebrities.. in UK
Whilst there are other business sectors we will want to engage with in future, the jewellery and gold sector is a key sector for Dash - they are a natural partner for Dash and we need to encourage use of Dash with them.
UK gold dealers will understand Dash as an asset as well as a currency. We are wanting to increase the number of high net worth individuals aware of Dash and given this is a big manufacturing and retail industry it is a good place to start.
There are a number of components to our project but please be assured they are all interconnected and form part of a whole. Together they form part of an overall targeted promotion to, and engagement with, this key sector.
We had to separate out the project into two phases for logistical reasons - as we were required to pay upfront for the sponsorship - however the two phases are part and parcel of the same project. This includes the article publication in the trade press, the sponsorship role, the survey and engaging directly with potential merchants through seminars.
The sponsorship of the National Association of Jewellers Awards - an event where Dash as the headline sponsor gets the opportunity to promote itself to key players - has already been paid for in the initial phase of the project. The reason we went through the Trade Association route is to gain access to the CEOs of the 2200 member companies. As part of our negotiations over the sponsorship we secured access to their member companies for the survey.
You quite rightly point out we have not published this work - the survey roll out is phase 2 of the project.
The survey is both a fact finding mission and a promotional tool. We will be paying good prizes to winners to encourage completion of the survey. At the end we hope keen companies will come forward and we can set them up to sell with Dash. This would be a great result, really encouraging mainstream consumer adoption.
We do hope you will consider changing your abstention to become a yes vote.
https://uk.focusvision.com/survey/selfserve/20fc/170900/articlex.png
But saying a Dash wallet is like a credit card machine without the fees hurts a little...
Thats why its so important to get this industry in our boat
On dash.org forum was mentioned Contribution of 3000£ for sponsorship, why the difference?
I couldn't find The article or a draft of the survey yet, could you share?
The headline sponsorship role we secured for Dash is a total of £5k (plus VAT). Our original proposal included £3k for sponsorship of a single award and £2,250 for the article so a total of £5,250. The headline sponsorship is therefore a better value for money option as it includes publication of the article and an overall higher profile sponsorship deal for Dash.
As you would expect with a sponsorship role the exposure will increase over the coming months as we near the event, and will generate coverage after the event in December. It would be unusual for this type of event to have seen much activity at this point in the proceedings
The sponsorship role has enabled us to secure direct access to members, which otherwise we would not have been able to engage with.
We were required to pay upfront the sponsorship fees so could not split the payments for the entire project evenly over a number of months - hence the two phases to the proposal - and the higher single cost for the first part of the project. Both phases are however part of the same project.
The payment for the initial phase has covered work we have done and the sponsorship costs and it is now ready to move to the second phase which is implementation and outcome focussed.
The publication of the article next month is key as it precedes the invitation to members to complete the survey.
Our progress report confirms we will be sharing the survey ahead of issuing to NAJ members.
I am sorry you could not view the article, it is included in the progress report -
- please let me know if you can't view it and I will send it to you
I searched the progress report but did not find The Article. You're talking about the glossy Media Pack? There is no article in there... Please post a link here.
In addition to a well planned survey, issued to 2,200 members we have secured access to as part of this project, we have an article to 25,000 jewellers in their trade press and headline sponsorship of leading industry awards evening. Followed up by setting up 10 wallets for winners and four in depth case studies on integrating Dash as a payment method with real business. Plus of course the results of the survey, to feedback to aid development to the DAO, but also to feedback to the jewellers themselves as a further story of Dash adoption by the sector..
Depending on the outcomes this could well tee up lots of further opportunities and interest from the sector.
This not any sector it is a vital one that is wealthy and has very wealthy clients, but adoption is very important as being able to buy products like Gold with Dash will make people feel more confident about investing and using Dash.