What Is The Agoric Challenge?

@agoric.systems has developed what we believe to be a novel strategy for effectively onboarding users from around the globe to the Steem blockchain. We're calling it...
The Agoric Challenge.

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Because we have developed The Agoric Challenge this far, with private consultation from various members of the Steem community, and being that we are already determined to go ahead with making this a success, we are posting this here under both the #growth-ideas and #growth-proposals tags, for additional community consideration.

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Overview

• @agoric.systems has created a faucet at portal.agoric.co that enables us to register accounts, offer prizes, and guide the user sign up process on the Steem blockchain.
• This faucet is designed to use unique redeem codes which will be found on 'invite slips', or Agoric Scrip which we have printed, for distribution by the Agoric Systems team, or any member of the Steem community.
• This method of transmission offers new and versatile pathways for prospective users to register accounts and greatly reduces the friction to sign up for a Steem account.
• Discovery and redemption of Agoric Scrip may be incentivized through randomly distributed prizes of Steem gifted to new accounts created in this way, as funding allows.
• This strategy will organically leverage the power of our diverse and widely distributed Steem community by creating a kind of game, an invitation system, a global treasure hunt, and whatever else the collective imagination allows.

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The Challenge

The decentralized nature of the Steem blockchain means that no one team can possibly bear the burden of promoting the entire ecosystem to every conceivable demographic.

However, as has been noted by @andrarchy and @zurvanic in creating the Crowdsourced Marketing Protocol, and demonstrated through several community marketing initiatives thus far: there is also great power in the decentralized nature of the Steem community.

In addition, before the Steem ecosystem and its related apps become fully mature and user-friendly enough for the masses, it requires that we reach increasing numbers of early adopters, quality content creators, innovators, and thought leaders to help cultivate a robust and valuable community that can carry us to the mainstream.

The Power of How

@agoric.systems, in collaboration with Steemians around the globe, intends to leverage the power of our decentralized community by creating a game that the whole community can play, adapt, evolve, and co-create; a game designed to reach ever-widening circles of new users in an intriguing new manner.

This game is made possible through the distribution of paper wallets, or Agoric Scrip as we call them. Each scrip is printed with a unique invite code that will enable a prospective Steem user to register an account on the Steem blockchain through the faucet we operate at portal.agoric.co.

_{Agoric Scrip Design by @emanuellindqvist   -   Photo Credit: @kommienezuspadt}

Flipping the Scrip

The acquisition of physical scrip may be a prize for undertaking an adventure, a treasure hunt, for attending a live event, etc., and may be used to create a kind of intrigue marketing campaign, publicity stunt, and so forth, much to the benefit of Steem, Steemit.com, Busy.org, chainBB, D.tube, DSound and the whole family of emerging Steem-based apps.

Furthermore, possession of a unique physical scrip may potentially be employed to grant the holder special access to future events, services, token distributions, and more.

This is where the magic of a decentralized community can really shine! To be truly successful, we will need participation and collaboration from a broad segment of the Steem community. The potential dimensions of this project are vast, and the means of gamification are virtually limitless.

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_{Agoric Scrip Design by @emanuellindqvist   -   Photo Credit: @kommienezuspadt}

Phase One: SteemFest²

We begin Phase One of the Agoric Challenge at SteemFest², the ideal location to reach a large number of highly motivated Steem community members from a wide array of geographic locations.

Although we understand that many worthy Steemians are not able to reach SteemFest², those who can will have the opportunity to be seed participants in the first phase of the Agoric Challenge. Future phases of the Challenge will involve any member of the Steem Community, but our Phase One pilot is limited to attendees of SteemFest².

All attendees of SteemFest² will receive (two) Agoric Scrip. Attendees are encouraged to hold one ticket for themselves, for future use, and distribute the other to a prospective Steemian as an invitation.

_{Agoric Scrip Design by @emanuellindqvist   -   Photo Credit: @kommienezuspadt}

Beginning the global treasure hunt - The Agoric Challenge

If you are sufficiently intrigued by our proposal, and you are going to be at SteemFest² We want to meet you!

So keep an eye out for @lovejoy, @spurious-claims, and @robrigo, as we will be there representing Agoric Systems, and we are seeking community members from the broadest geographic distribution possible, and will be coordinating with those who would like to help make this project a global success!

We anticipate this campaign will run indefinitely and evolve towards a more fully-featured onboarding system through additional waves of distribution by an ever-increasing number of teams across the globe. The goal is the ongoing development of The Agoric Challenge, by Agoric Systems and its partners.

We are devising methods to incentivize, sustain, and expand participation in the Agoric Challenge, and we look forward to discussing these possibilities with you further, in person, in the comments below, and in the follow-ups to this post.

_{Agoric Scrip Design by @emanuellindqvist   -   Photo Credit: @kommienezuspadt}

Funding Goals for The Agoric Challenge, Phase One.

Currently it costs a faucet 6 STEEM to register an account on the Steem blockchain, and for the initial round we have printed 3,333 Agoric Scrip to be sent off into the world. At a minimum then, funding the creation of that many accounts will cost 19,998 STEEM. In addition to covering the account registration fee, the goal is to create random prizes associated with the acquisition of Agoric Scrip, so that a user will receive a ‘treasure’, of some kind, hence a global treasure hunt.

To be able to offer random prizes to the new account holders for their participation in the Agoric Challenge, we would like to fund the @agorian account in excess of the 19,998 STEEM minimum. We feel that anything beyond 25,000 STEEM in the faucet will allow us to create a compelling prize structure for the first round, with most accounts receiving just the registration fee, and a few accounts receiving some generous rewards.

We are aiming to reach our funding goal of 25,000 STEEM by the close of SteemFest² on November 6th, 2017 - and to be working with various teams around the globe to make a big impact between then and into the new year!

The @Agoric.Systems Funding Pledge

Agoric has already covered the printing costs of the initial run of Scrip, and we are willing to seed the faucet with 1000 STEEM to get the ball rolling. In addition, 100% of the liquid rewards from this and any #agoric-challenge posts made by @agoric.systems will be used to fund the faucet at portal.agoric.co.

All funds received at the @agorian account will be used exclusively for funding the faucet for new Steem sign ups and any associated prizes, and will never be used for anything else.

Furthermore, if @agoric.systems is voted into the active witness lineup we will pledge 10% of all earned funds back to @agorian for the duration that @agoric.systems is an active witness.

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If YOU would also like to help fund the faucet and expand the reach and impact of the Agoric Challenge, please contribute directly to our @agorian account and include “agoric-challenge” in the memo.

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What we present here is just the beginning, with some hints as to what is possible in future iterations. We appreciate and encourage any insights and ideas you would like to share to help us shape this game for the benefit - and the fun - of all!

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A very special thanks to @emanuellindqvist
who created such beautiful artwork for the Agoric Scrip!

Please show him some love!

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