Just building tools isn't enough anymore
The biggest problem in crypto right now in my opinion is that while we clearly have a lot of brain power in our space allocated toward technical development (including Steem, EOS, Ethereum, Tauchain, Tezos and more), we at the same time see very little brain power being allocated toward both marketing and business management. People often build fancy tools with the idea "if we build it they will come". In fact this is in my opinion the main mistake I see in the crypto projects which were not outright scams. They are building the tools or in some cases built the tool but the consumers or users never arrived.
In the early days of crypto when most of us were crypto geeks it was enough to just build fascinating new technologies. People did not care if those technologies made money for token holders because that was the era of experimentation to show what could be possible. It was a time before SEC and other regulators swooped in. It was a time before Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other companies began banning crypto ads. In a sense it was simply an easier environment for a lot of reasons to get investment (ICOs) or to attract users (Facebook and Google marketing allowed).
Today crypto and blockchain projects have attracted the attention of regulators and are seen as outright competition by other companies. The experimental phase seems to be coming to an end and now people want to see business use. Now people want to see token prices begin going up over time due to real growth in demand for the products and services exclusively offered in exchange for those tokens. When we see that only a few hundred users are playing cryptokitties or on Steem seeing user growth decline and retention decline, then we have to accept that it's not the technology which failed but the business management.
Agoras must be good for business
Agoras if it gets built will be a major technological achievement in the crypto space. These achievements are great but in order for AGRS tokens to rise in price there must be demand for them. Basic microeconomics shows us that there are economic agents who must be appealed to. For example households represent a category of economic agents who function as consumers. Agoras has to provide some critical product or service that every household needs and cannot get anywhere else.
A novel product or service which requires using the Agoras token. Zennet for example is a computational resources market which offers services in the form of computational resources. This is good but we have to recognize that SWOT analysis needs to be conducted. SWOT analysis is Strengths, Weakensses, Opportunities, Threats. In business, SWOT is used during the strategic planning phase. Agoras if it is going to grow to billions of users will need many use cases. It will have to be business friendly from the start (not just nerd friendly). People like you or me will have to be able to use Agoras to launch some unique business which we cannot build on AWS using hacks. The problem is we see projects already trying to offer computational resources and none of them seem to be attracting lots of revenue. We have the Enigma Project for example which will be offering a data and computational resources market, we have iExec which will be offering a computational resources market as well, and we have Golem. None of these projects so far have attracted many big or small businesses because none of them have attractive products and services which are worth buying at this time.
In other words, early developers in the Tau ecosystem will have to put a major emphasis on making sure that Agoras is good for business. This is at least my opinion on what should be done strategically because if not for the business genius who would be using Apple computers, or using Facebook, or Google? Or Amazon? It's not that these companies offer novel technology but what they do (particularly Amazon and Apple) is they learn from the data what their customers want or need then they simply offer well marketed services and products. The tools which have to be built in my opinion need to be the tools to help people launch and automate the running of their businesses. ICOs only raised funds but didn't help people actually run or automate the business.
Some ideas below on how current spare brain power can be allocated to help Tau
- Tau will need more knowledge about economics. If you have the free time then take a course on economics (particularly microeconomics). This knowledge will be useful and probably in demand.
- Tau will need more knowledge in the area of marketing and human psychology. Learn about marketing and about how behaviorism works. The lack of marketing will make it hard for any crypto project but marketing is also a sector which will be in demand in the crypto space. Businesses which start up using Agoras tech to improve marketing efficiency will be able to win big in my opinion.
The above two examples do not require a Phd in computer science and mathematics. Anyone can pick up a book on behaviorism and microeconomics. Anyone can watch videos and read the latest articles on marketing. Anyone can conduct the SWOT analysis for example. Not everyone has to be a programmer and in the current crypto industry we can see the limits of what programmers can do.
Note: The knowledge/skills in economics and marketing apply even if Tau never is completely built. This means it's likely to be in demand from the very programmers we see now making the tools with no customer demand and no understanding of why. Remember these tools have to do something most people on earth want to win demand from most people.
Thank you Dana, you inspired me once more!
AGRS is not even listed on coinmarketcap.com. To make it on major exchanges is the first thing they need to accomplish. Otherwise I agree.
good article Dana, it is time to reflect on the use that each one can give Tau. What do we want tau for if we have not reflected before on what can help us?