In any business, the consumers are the source of its profit, strength and sustainability. Without the patronage of the consumers, a business will easily go bankrupt and cease to exist. It is no surprise that even in the cryptocurrency industry, developers place great importance in their online communities. These online communities are the equivalent of consumers in brick and mortar businesses. This belief is not unfounded because even one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bittrex, lists “high community demand” as the first condition for listing coins in its exchange.
Building an online community is no easy task. If people are not interested in your coin, they will not spend countless hours online interacting with the developer and with one another. Many developers do not have big budgets when starting a cryptocurrency. They have the ideas and the skills to kick start their projects but they cannot do it all with their limited budgets. Sooner or later, they will need help in promoting the coin, in organizing and moderating internet forums, fixing bugs in the program and in using and testing the coin itself.
One way to attract people to create an online community is by encouraging them to be part of a new cryptocurrency project. Being an early adopter in cryptocurrency means you become an early miner, join an airdrop or join a bounty campaign. Mining in cryptocurrency terms is running a computer program on video cards or ASICS (specialized computer) to receive digital currency as reward. Airdrop is a term generally used in the cryptocurrency industry that means to freely distribute coins to a group of people that holds another coin. It is a strategy to market a new coin and increase its value by letting people have some coins and use them. A bounty campaign is way to distribute coins to people in exchange for small tasks, jobs or projects. One popular type of a bounty campaign in the Bitcointalk forum is called a signature campaign. It is a form of marketing where a participant posts in different threads of the forum carrying a signature promoting a coin. The participant receives coins in exchange for his participation in the signature campaign.
When Deep Onion was announced in Bitcointalk last July 6, 2017, it immediately created a buzz because of its planned free airdrop. Many Bitcointalk members became excited because here is an anonymous -centric coin with TOR integration and is about to be airdropped for free. What do you have to lose? The entire event was risk free to all those interested in joining. Even before the start of the airdrop, Deep Onion was already attracting potential members of its soon to be created community.
There was reason to be excited about Deep Onion. There were many coins being launched but most of them were ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings. The ICOs were the rage and many of these groups that launched ICOs raised millions of dollars in funding. But this Deep Onion team did not go with the ICO route. Instead of raising millions of dollars upfront like the others were doing, the Deep Onion developers decided to go with free airdrops with the aim of creating a community that will be part of the success of Deep Onion. The Deep Onion developers wanted to work with the community in improving and developing the coin. They believed that a successful coin can only be achieved if there is commitment from the developers and the community using the coin. They didn’t want an ICO because they saw it as disconnecting the community from the developers with the developers getting a risk free fund while the community takes all the risk because they put up the money.
The developers of Deep Onion had a different twist on their so called airdrop. It was bit different from the regular airdrop cryptocurrency enthusiasts were accustomed to. You get hundreds of Deep Onion coins by doing a bounty campaign called a signature campaign. It was an airdrop exclusive to those participating in the signature campaign. It can be compared as similar to other common coin airdrops in the sense that they were exclusive to holders of a particular coin only. In this case, you don’t have to have any coin, but you have to do some simple tasks.
Here is the twist, as long as you fulfill making ten quality posts per week in Bitcointalk and follow the other rules, you get hundreds of Deep Onion per week, not once or twice but forty times. Yes, that’s forty weeks of airdrop for a signature campaign. Some were disappointed with the setup because it was not the airdrop they were used to. Others were all right with it and joined the Deep Onion airdrop. This was the start of the Deep Onion community.
The idea of getting Deep Onion coins by following a set of rules and posting regularly in the Bitcointalk was well received. The advantages were obvious; you do not need a mining rig to get Deep Onion. There was no risk of losing money because you will not use money to get the coins. The future financial potential of getting in early in an anonymous and privacy centric coin for free was huge. If the promise of Deep Onion can match up with Dash or Monero in the future, the rewards are unimaginable. Deep Onion quickly became popular among the Bitcointalk forum members.
Not everyone was able to join the signature campaign because only Bitcointalk members with rank of Junior Member and higher and who registered on or before July 12, 2017 were allowed to join. This restriction is normally implemented to prevent cheating. This prevents those already in the airdrop to create additional accounts to get more coins to the detriment of other members. Newbie members who were qualified by their Bitcointalk registration dates had to show their commitment by leveling up to Junior Member before they could join the airdrop.
When Deep Onion was listed in Novaexchange last August 2017, trading began and the coin was imbued with value with real bitcoin and real money. In that instant of Deep Onion listing, the idea of turning something for free into money has become real. When the trading value of Deep Onion jumped to around $4 per coin, even more people wanted to join the Deep Onion airdrop campaign. Cheaters also became a problem for the developers and moderators because there were many members who used multiple accounts. Many cheaters were banned and some were blacklisted. As expected, the popularity of Deep Onion grew and grew and the community is now growing by leaps and bounds. Those who were not eligible to join the airdrop became active in Deep Onion’s own forum where the developers created other means for them to get Deep Onion. There were giveaways, contests and bounties for content creation that gave Deep Onion coins as rewards.
The Deep Onion team has changed many of the rules of their airdrop since their coin launch in July. This was to address issues encountered along the way and to incorporate feedback from the ever growing Deep Onion community. At the time of this writing, the developers have launched a new set of rules to render multiple accounts useless and to relax the rules to allow more members to join the Deep Onion airdrop.
The Deep Onion team has successfully built a passionate and dedicated community that is now their partners in making the coin a successful project. How the developers were able to build such a committed community will become a template for other new coin launches in the future.
Now, an exciting future awaits Deep Onion. The community and developers must work hard to realize the vision they both embraced together.
Deep Onion in Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2006010.0
Deep Onion Forum
https://deeponion.org/community/
Deep Onion Airdrop
https://deeponion.org/airdrop.html
Excellent article, there is no doubt that DeepOnion has the biggest and best community in cryptoland. I will vote up and share on facebook. Thanks for your efforts.