Proposal description
Please note: For the last 3 months we have self-funded the costs of Dash Retail whilst we go through an extensive development period. This undertaking reduces the exposure and risk the DAO faces and it's worth noting that our actual budget is around 100 Dash a month. I have added a comment below inviting feedback on this approach.
Major Updates
Dash Retail Successful Launch
Dash Retail was successfully launched and has had consistent uptime, use and customer retention. Local teams and merchants have received the system well and we continue to develop it based on their feedback. Whilst COVID-19 has definitely impacted our work and adoption, we've carried on improving the system with new features during this time.
Development Progress
We have invested significant time into improving the core of Dash Retail:
- Android app now released on play store to early testers (expect full release in the next week or so).
- iOS app development near release (all features finished bar NFC due to complexities around iOS and NFC)
- System wide improvements ready for more cryptocurrencies and fiat off-ramp support.
- Developing a comprehensive custodial NFC card solution.
- Fixing all expired rate sources on Dash Rates and improved issue tracking and redundancy.
- Refactoring of AWS infrastructure to lower all costs.
- Translation integration in existing DCG flow (Transifex).
- Development of dashretail.org marketing + documentation website (releasing soon, major changes coming to DR will require rewriting and re-recording of documentation + videos)
- Initial discovery work on incumbent POS device integration (Clover, Verifone, Ingenico)
Business Development
- Completion of licensing of Dash Retail to Dash Core Group along with updated source code access.
- Partnership work with fiat-offramp payment rail providers, AML + compliance, merchants and incumbent PSPs.
- Work with Chinese manufacturers + sourcing agents to proactively source suitable NFC + POS Hardware for DR.
Physical Hardware
- Investigation and auditing of 8 different POS device samples to find best-fit solution including modifying android app to suit, physical investigation, price suitability, speed on running app, suitability to market (3g, wifi, secure access module, NFC, etc.)
- Negotiation and order of 50x Z100C Android POS Devices with charging base stations (to go to local teams).
- Technical audits, sourcing and design of NFC cards for Dash Card custodial NFC card scheme.
Dash Retail Features
- Easy onboarding for new Dash Merchants
- Full separation of merchants from clerks that scales to thousands of clerks
- Full transparent reporting to Dash Watch via backend read-only access
- Split payouts (including support for fiat payout via Uphold and soon our own fiat off-ramps)
- Easy set-up of hardware devices, android or iOS phones or computers
- Comprehensive pricing system that now powers the fiat prices in Dash wallets (Android, iOS, etc.) + Anypay.
- Full adoption agent system for merchant sign up and support- Support for text based payment (Dash Text, Cointigo)
- Dedicated hardware options
- Full accounting with payment tracking, reporting, CSV export
- Full localization with more language improvements coming soon
- Security features to protect merchants including 2FA
- Android application and soon iOS application
- Tap Payments with Dash Cards (NFC)
- In-store purchase and sale of Dash
- 100% uptime + active merchant development support (merchant specific features and global improvements).
Dash Card Tap Payment (NFC)
Tap to pay is fast, easy and convenient for you and your grandma, it's also accessible to those without smart phones. At the moment this solution is custodial, but there are potential avenues to make them fully non-custodial in the future. Our solution is completely protected from replay attacks and card cloning and we're looking forward to expanding it further.
In-store Dash Purchase
Dash Retail allows merchants to sell their Dash (or their agents Dash with a settlement system) directly to their customers or buy Dash from customers providing one solution to the chicken and egg problem.
Partnerships
Dash Core Group
We're working with the business development arm of Dash Core Group to improve Dash merchant adoption with the use of Dash Retail, we are sending out physical devices to Ernesto and Omar at DCG to deploy to merchants and use for demonstrations and otherwise. Ryan has also provided us invaluable advice on the payments space and the various opportunities available to Dash Retail (especially as it becomes more commercialized with fiat offramps).
Dash Help + Support
Dash Help is directly integrated into Dash Retail, and the team have actively been providing feedback to help us improve Dash Retail for our merchants. We are posting out physical POS devices and NFC cards to this team.
Dash Text
Dash Text is fully integrated into Dash Retail and we'll be working closer with this team and their on-going developments
Dash Mall + Parking
We've been working directly with Dash Mall + Parking to identify the best opportunities for us in their market, they've helped define our POS and Dash Card systems and we'll be sending them around 20 devices and 5000 cards to help ramp up their deployment efforts in line with covid relief.
Other Teams
Dash Retail is live now and can be used by anyone, please feel free to use it and provide feedback. If you're interested in receiving hardware devices or NFC cards please reach out to us.
Transparency + Accountability
Finances
All of our finances are reported at a granular level to Dash Watch and we're happy to evidence and provide invoices.
Reporting
All of our transaction data is transparently reported to Dash Watch. This also allows them to view performance of local teams using our system.
Source Code Access
Dash Core Group (and by extension the DAO) have full access and license to our source code. If any other project wants to use our source code (or should we be unable to perform) the DAO can award that source code and sublicense by means of a governance vote.
Budget
Over the last 3 months we have self-funded our costs, reducing the exposure to the DAO. Whilst this proposal is asking for 200 Dash a month for 3 months, it's more like 100 Dash a month including paying back 3 prior months. We also take greatly reduced salaries (and even further reduce these when we are self funding) to be as respectful of the DAO's budget as possible (whilst still covering our costs and some ramen!).
Upcoming Work (Roadmap)
Local Hardware Deployment (1 month)
The 50 devices we have ordered should arrive soon, from there they will be set-up and initialized on our end before being shipped out to the local teams, this will give a physical reference point they can use to either onboard the merchants with a physical POS device or use to explain and get the merchants to use our live android app and soon to be released iOS app (or even our web app).
Dash Card Pilot with Dash Mall + Parking and others (1 - 2 months)
We're in the final stages of testing our custodial NFC solution and are at a stage where we're looking forward to piloting these in the wild with merchants across Latin America and further afield.
Direct Fiat Offramp Release (1 - 3 months)
Dash Retail is adding direct fiat off-ramps, this will allow business to use the Dash Retail system to accept Dash and receive their local currency, with supported currencies like USD, CAD, GBP and EUROs. We're currently testing this system locally but it will be ready for public use in the next few months.
Online Invoicing + Ecommerce Integrations (2 - 6 months)
We'll be adding support for digital invoicing which leads nicely into full woocommerce / magento / shopify plugin development.
More Cryptocurrency Support (3 - 9 months)
Whilst this may be contentious, we think it's important that we offer support for other cryptocurrencies too. On a level playing field Dash outshines them all at the point of sale and we shouldn't limit our adoption by not accepting other cryptocurrencies. "A rising tide raises all ships".
Incumbent Device Integrations (3 - 12 months)
We believe the above tasks to be higher priority to DRs immediate adoption, but it's also important we consider the legacy payments space and how to upgrade it in a seamless way to crypto support. This will involve creating bespoke apps for existing hardware, like Clover, Verifone and Ingenico systems.
Get in Touch
We are happy to answer any questions either on this proposal or you can reach out directly on the details below.
Email: ash@ashfrancis.com
Telegram: @ashfrancis
Twitter: @ashtonfrancis
Discord: Ash#8776
Skype: ash.francis
Thank you for reading and for all your support.
Major Updates
Dash Retail Successful Launch
Dash Retail was successfully launched and has had consistent uptime, use and customer retention. Local teams and merchants have received the system well and we continue to develop it based on their feedback. Whilst COVID-19 has definitely impacted our work and adoption, we've carried on improving the system with new features during this time.
Development Progress
We have invested significant time into improving the core of Dash Retail:
- Android app now released on play store to early testers (expect full release in the next week or so).
- iOS app development near release (all features finished bar NFC due to complexities around iOS and NFC)
- System wide improvements ready for more cryptocurrencies and fiat off-ramp support.
- Developing a comprehensive custodial NFC card solution.
- Fixing all expired rate sources on Dash Rates and improved issue tracking and redundancy.
- Refactoring of AWS infrastructure to lower all costs.
- Translation integration in existing DCG flow (Transifex).
- Development of dashretail.org marketing + documentation website (releasing soon, major changes coming to DR will require rewriting and re-recording of documentation + videos)
- Initial discovery work on incumbent POS device integration (Clover, Verifone, Ingenico)
Business Development
- Completion of licensing of Dash Retail to Dash Core Group along with updated source code access.
- Partnership work with fiat-offramp payment rail providers, AML + compliance, merchants and incumbent PSPs.
- Work with Chinese manufacturers + sourcing agents to proactively source suitable NFC + POS Hardware for DR.
Physical Hardware
- Investigation and auditing of 8 different POS device samples to find best-fit solution including modifying android app to suit, physical investigation, price suitability, speed on running app, suitability to market (3g, wifi, secure access module, NFC, etc.)
- Negotiation and order of 50x Z100C Android POS Devices with charging base stations (to go to local teams).
- Technical audits, sourcing and design of NFC cards for Dash Card custodial NFC card scheme.
Dash Retail Features
- Easy onboarding for new Dash Merchants
- Full separation of merchants from clerks that scales to thousands of clerks
- Full transparent reporting to Dash Watch via backend read-only access
- Split payouts (including support for fiat payout via Uphold and soon our own fiat off-ramps)
- Easy set-up of hardware devices, android or iOS phones or computers
- Comprehensive pricing system that now powers the fiat prices in Dash wallets (Android, iOS, etc.) + Anypay.
- Full adoption agent system for merchant sign up and support- Support for text based payment (Dash Text, Cointigo)
- Dedicated hardware options
- Full accounting with payment tracking, reporting, CSV export
- Full localization with more language improvements coming soon
- Security features to protect merchants including 2FA
- Android application and soon iOS application
- Tap Payments with Dash Cards (NFC)
- In-store purchase and sale of Dash
- 100% uptime + active merchant development support (merchant specific features and global improvements).
Dash Card Tap Payment (NFC)
Tap to pay is fast, easy and convenient for you and your grandma, it's also accessible to those without smart phones. At the moment this solution is custodial, but there are potential avenues to make them fully non-custodial in the future. Our solution is completely protected from replay attacks and card cloning and we're looking forward to expanding it further.
In-store Dash Purchase
Dash Retail allows merchants to sell their Dash (or their agents Dash with a settlement system) directly to their customers or buy Dash from customers providing one solution to the chicken and egg problem.
Partnerships
Dash Core Group
We're working with the business development arm of Dash Core Group to improve Dash merchant adoption with the use of Dash Retail, we are sending out physical devices to Ernesto and Omar at DCG to deploy to merchants and use for demonstrations and otherwise. Ryan has also provided us invaluable advice on the payments space and the various opportunities available to Dash Retail (especially as it becomes more commercialized with fiat offramps).
Dash Help + Support
Dash Help is directly integrated into Dash Retail, and the team have actively been providing feedback to help us improve Dash Retail for our merchants. We are posting out physical POS devices and NFC cards to this team.
Dash Text
Dash Text is fully integrated into Dash Retail and we'll be working closer with this team and their on-going developments
Dash Mall + Parking
We've been working directly with Dash Mall + Parking to identify the best opportunities for us in their market, they've helped define our POS and Dash Card systems and we'll be sending them around 20 devices and 5000 cards to help ramp up their deployment efforts in line with covid relief.
Other Teams
Dash Retail is live now and can be used by anyone, please feel free to use it and provide feedback. If you're interested in receiving hardware devices or NFC cards please reach out to us.
Transparency + Accountability
Finances
All of our finances are reported at a granular level to Dash Watch and we're happy to evidence and provide invoices.
Reporting
All of our transaction data is transparently reported to Dash Watch. This also allows them to view performance of local teams using our system.
Source Code Access
Dash Core Group (and by extension the DAO) have full access and license to our source code. If any other project wants to use our source code (or should we be unable to perform) the DAO can award that source code and sublicense by means of a governance vote.
Budget
Over the last 3 months we have self-funded our costs, reducing the exposure to the DAO. Whilst this proposal is asking for 200 Dash a month for 3 months, it's more like 100 Dash a month including paying back 3 prior months. We also take greatly reduced salaries (and even further reduce these when we are self funding) to be as respectful of the DAO's budget as possible (whilst still covering our costs and some ramen!).
Upcoming Work (Roadmap)
Local Hardware Deployment (1 month)
The 50 devices we have ordered should arrive soon, from there they will be set-up and initialized on our end before being shipped out to the local teams, this will give a physical reference point they can use to either onboard the merchants with a physical POS device or use to explain and get the merchants to use our live android app and soon to be released iOS app (or even our web app).
Dash Card Pilot with Dash Mall + Parking and others (1 - 2 months)
We're in the final stages of testing our custodial NFC solution and are at a stage where we're looking forward to piloting these in the wild with merchants across Latin America and further afield.
Direct Fiat Offramp Release (1 - 3 months)
Dash Retail is adding direct fiat off-ramps, this will allow business to use the Dash Retail system to accept Dash and receive their local currency, with supported currencies like USD, CAD, GBP and EUROs. We're currently testing this system locally but it will be ready for public use in the next few months.
Online Invoicing + Ecommerce Integrations (2 - 6 months)
We'll be adding support for digital invoicing which leads nicely into full woocommerce / magento / shopify plugin development.
More Cryptocurrency Support (3 - 9 months)
Whilst this may be contentious, we think it's important that we offer support for other cryptocurrencies too. On a level playing field Dash outshines them all at the point of sale and we shouldn't limit our adoption by not accepting other cryptocurrencies. "A rising tide raises all ships".
Incumbent Device Integrations (3 - 12 months)
We believe the above tasks to be higher priority to DRs immediate adoption, but it's also important we consider the legacy payments space and how to upgrade it in a seamless way to crypto support. This will involve creating bespoke apps for existing hardware, like Clover, Verifone and Ingenico systems.
Get in Touch
We are happy to answer any questions either on this proposal or you can reach out directly on the details below.
Email: ash@ashfrancis.com
Telegram: @ashfrancis
Twitter: @ashtonfrancis
Discord: Ash#8776
Skype: ash.francis
Thank you for reading and for all your support.
Show full description ...
Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?
Submit comment
Dash Retail Oct 2020 by AshFrancis
https://beta.dashwatch.org/r/DEC20/dash-retail-oct-2020
Dash Retail Oct 2020 by AshFrancis
https://beta.dashwatch.org/r/NOV20/dash-retail-oct-2020
Just a quick update, we've received all 50 POS devices and are in the process of setting them up before forwarding them to the local teams, we've also ordered 10,000 Dash Cards which should arrive in the next few weeks.
Cheers and if you have any questions please let me know!
https://www.fintrac-canafe.gc.ca/msb-esm/intro-eng
If this is true, it means that the custodial cards you're developing won't be supported either. So here are two more questions:
1 - Am I correct that you need to register as an MSB before you can legally operate the webapp?
2 - Is your plan to register as an MSB?
Cheers.
2. The cards have "dashcard.org" printed on them. Can you tell us about this entity?
There has been no DashRetail product release. What is at app.dashretail.org is a DEMO. I say this because there are no terms and conditions anywhere for this webapp -- not even a single web page where terms and conditions are presented.
If this had been an open source project you could at least say that the terms and conditions are in the code you can view, but that is not the case. We have a closed-source, custodial webapp that is actually holding user funds temporarily and with no terms and conditions.
We have been in this situation since March. No progress. I don't see how the DAO can justify rewarding DR with additional funds when they seemingly refuse to deliver on basic promises and refuse to deliver actual value.
Why are we wasting funds on this? The MO of this PO should be clear. We're just going to get more demos, more youtube videos of demos, and more proposals.
Dash Retail 4 by AshFrancis
https://beta.dashwatch.org/r/OCT20/dash-retail-4
Guess I'll still take it.
DMP were expecting the first trial Dash cards and POS systems to be available at end of March however due to the fact that the POS systems and cards are manufactured in China release dates were pushed back.
I have not spoke to Ash for about 1 month now due to my time constraints. So I guess this would be a good opportunity to ask.
Please note that the goal of DMP project becoming self financing is largely dependent on having the POS system and payment cards. The team cannot make sufficient profit only from parking sales because the values are too low. The DMP team need the POS systems and cards not only to work towards financial self sufficiency but also to start their progress to establish DASH with the merchants in the malls.
Ash could you give a definitive date when DMP expect the POS systems and cards please? That is the date for delivered test units and cards actually delivered in Venezuela. I've asked this a few times however things have been pushed back. The team and myself need more concrete information now in order for us to develop the business dev strategy for DMP. Whatever the situation we need to know the date when the teams will have the POS systems and cards and how many they will have. Thanks Ash.
The POS devices were ordered a couple of weeks ago and are now in shipment to us, they should be here within 2 weeks. We will then set them up and forward on, maybe around 4 weeks turnaround so I would estimate they will arrive in Venezuela by end of November.
The Dash Cards we're on final testing, we're pretty happy with how they function so now it's a case of negotiating with the manufacturer and ensuring they understand our spec fully, I'd like to order another sample with design but I think for a small order it's worth removing the 1 month delay that would add and take a little risk on. I'd hope to have them in Venezuela within 2 months.
We would be looking at around 20 POS devices for DMP & 4000 cards initially. We would like to do a further order of $30 economical devices in the next few months, however these devices often have high minimum orders (1000+) so we would need the DAOs support on that front.
Thanks again!
Also, is it possible for you to join us on the Dash Discords so we can benefit from your knowledge and insights there?
it has been great to work with Ash, they are a very professional and committed team.
- No visible progress since March release of webapp.
- No actual users.
- No top-level domain website (promised for May).
- No Android app (promised for September).
This project is in chaos. In your past proposals you made promises on which you have not delivered. Now you present us with a new proposal with new promises.
Voting no. Add in Covid-19 and it's a double no.
- We have users, but not as many as we'd like, COVID hasn't exactly been helpful so we're focused on developing and improvement, not user growth right now.
- The local teams will have the devices soon and will be putting efforts into adoption whilst we add fiat & and other crypto support which will make the product significantly better for merchants and aid our adoption efforts.
- The top-level website is ready but there is no point me investing weeks into writing content and recording videos for a product which is changing rapidly, this would be an inefficient use of time.
- Android app is ready, we're doing final testing, again, we don't like to release prematurely and we had to shift from Desfire V2 to Ntag424 which has meant re-approaching our NFC integration (for cost reasons).
There is no chaos here, no matter how much you might try to present it as such Geert.
There IS a point. The point is you promised a top-level website and we gave you money to create a top-level website. I feel like I'm arguing with a teenager...
Geert: "I paid you to cut my lawn. Why didn't you do it?"
Teenager: "There is no point in me investing hours into cutting the grass and raking for a lawn which is continually growing, this would be an inefficient use of time."