Welcome!

This proposal is for the second quarter of the Dash Growth business development and marketing initiative. Please see our first proposal, which includes our strategy as well as links to our growth marketing plan and more.

What we came into

When we started at the beginning of this year, there was no team explicitly tasked with business development and marketing. There was no single internal record of businesses and business relationships (or at least I have not been made aware of any after asking repeatedly). There were listings on the website and a few internal lists and emails, but nothing formalized.

We also had no reliable block explorer API provider to recommend to new partners seeking to integrate InstantSend. We did have solid InstantSend documentation for running your own node infrastructure, but many partners requested a third-party provider, which we were unable to provide. Our Insight instance, the best option, recorded 10-15 second delays in internal testing, and was not a suitable solution.

Overall, we have a very wide range of businesses and services that support Dash, but very few established direct lines of communication to them.

What we accomplished

First, we finally have a comprehensive internal list of partners, including contact info for our points of contact at each organization, which features of Dash they currently support, and (most importantly) a record of every single interaction we have had with them. This list is 93 items long and is growing every week as new partners are discovered or onboarded. This has been shared with DCG, and can be shared with any additional DFOs which are doing business development.

Second, we have partnered with Blockchair, a block explorer and API provider. Blockchair previously supported Dash, but did not have functioning InstantSend recognition. They now do, and now any partner can use their services to easily integrate InstantSend recognition. We also have a custom branded block explorer.
https://blockchair.com/dash/?from=dash

Third, we partnered with Spritz Finance, a crypto spending tool allowing users to pay all their bills, spend via a prepaid card, on-ramp, and off-ramp. Spritz integrated Dash last year, but now has integrated InstantSend, lowered Dash-specific fees at our request, and has participated in co-marketing activities such as promotional posts (including emailing their whole user base about InstantSend and lowered Dash fees) and joint AMAs. We also have an affiliate relationship with Spritz, where any user who signs up with our code will lead to them compensating us in Dash. If you’re interested in trying out Spritz, please use this link:
https://spritz.finance/dash

Fourth, we partnered with ivendPay, a merchant solutions provider with ecommerce and point-of-sale apps, as well as point-of-sale hardware, and vending machines. ivendPay previously supported Dash, but now has integrated InstantSend and announced a co-promotion partnership. We have also established an affiliate relationship, so if you’re interested in signing up with their merchant services, please use this link:
https://app.ivendpay.com/dash

Fifth, CommEX, a new CIS-region exchange taking over Binance’s former business in the area, has launched and added Dash. We have announced a partnership and done joint AMAs on Telegram. Additionally, the Russian Dash community (not us) has formed an affiliate relationship, so when signing up for CommEX, please use their link:
http://www.commex.com/en/register?ref=Dash


Sixth, we ran a promotion with Topper, an Uphold product integrated into the Dash wallets, allowing users to buy Dash with no fee for a few days.

We are in the process of establishing more relationships with partners. In the meantime, we have established the following affiliate relationships but have not yet announced formalized partnerships. Please use the following links when using these services:

Bitrefill:
https://www.bitrefill.com/invite/dash

Rango Exchange:
https://rango.vip/a/hzok71

THORWallet:
https://app.thorwallet.org/referrals?code=566974

CoinPayments:
https://www.coinpayments.net/index.php?ref=79193eade59f2a1356236918bf093f90

SwapSpace:
https://swapspace.co?ref=e5bfecaedea4ebe1f2e9fd74

SimpleSwap:
https://simpleswap.io/?ref=b1f2ce2f8ac3&from=btc&to=dash&amount=0.1

SideShift:
https://sideshift.ai/a/Dash

TradingView:
https://www.tradingview.com/?aff_id=136325&source=Dashdotorg

Exolix:
https://exolix.com?ref=163C080B133E11F3D3D90F56849B944C

Changelly:
https://changelly.com/?from=btc&to=eth&amount=0.1&ref_id=YUb9WxWWj8rhrAvN


We have also seen a significant increase in activity on X/Twitter. This quarter so far we have roughly 1.5 million impressions, including roughly 1,400 link clicks. Most of these are affiliate link clicks. We will have more complete data on the results in the future as we gather signup data from our partners.

Finally, we have a series of conference appearances lined up for next quarter. These include:

-Speaking twice at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum
-Speaking at ETHDam
-Attending Web3 Dubai (one of two conferences where Ernesto Contreras negotiated a free Dash sponsorship)
-Attending Consensus
-Speaking at the Porcupine Freedom Festival


What’s left for Q1, and where we’re going in Q2

For the rest of this quarter, we are finishing establishing affiliate relationships and co-marketing agreements with our partners. This will enable us to not only track signups and new Dash users, but also to derive extra income from them, and amplify all our promotional efforts by leveraging our partners to market Dash for us. Building out this network is also crucial as promoting major releases like Evolution will be much easier with dozens of respected blockchain companies sharing the news on our behalf. We will also have good relationships to onboard them to start using Evolution features.

We are also finalizing the addition of affiliate codes to the website. This will continue to track our performance in driving new Dash users, and monetize our user growth so that we can re-invest it into growing the project.

Q2:

For Q2 we have:

-Conferences (aforementioned, and possibly more)
-Building out how-to content with partners to better drive user adoption
-Driving user partner adoption through more explicit promotions of Dash services

We are also exploring ways of increasing Dash's impact for the Russian community. The Russian-speaking world is the #2 source of traffic to the Dash website, and we have a strong community in the CIS region.

Future goals

A major future goal is to obtain licensing to operate in New York, and acquire whitelisted status with NYDFS. In speaking to potential partners, Dash’s exclusion from this list is a major blockage from the US payments and financial scene. Coinbase does not allow New York residents to buy Dash, and many important payment providers like BitPay are unable to support Dash because of this. Solving this blockage will be very resource-intensive, as we not only have to convince a company to petition NYDFS on our behalf to be able to add Dash support (which itself may be costly as it would cost the company resources to pursue), but we also need solid legal representation. We are currently pursuing avenues through several different partners and have located potential counsel, but this is a long-term project and will certainly require additional funding asks when the time comes.

Our long-term goal is universality with Dash: universally-supported by payment processors and merchants, universal recognition of InstantSend transactions, as broad as possible support for CoinJoin in wallets, and universal support for usernames.

Ask

We are maintaining our 350 Dash monthly ask. This is enough to sustain our two full-time salaries, and more if the price remains above $35. We intend to maintain this ask and submit separate proposals for advertising campaigns etc. when the time comes.