As stated during this week Townhall, one of the main open point on the hardwallet lite project (the same questions will apply with the hardwallet pro soon) is how will we distribute it? How will we get it in the hands of our users?
This is a key question for several reasons:
It forces us to think about who are our users? who do we want to reach? How will we get to them?
To find the right channels, and to pitch the product right, we have to be clear on who we’re talking to. First off, the first obvious choice is are we targeting Status users, or non Status users? The product will fit the needs of both, but we won’t prioritize the same channels depending on who we’re targeting in priority.
These users can also be either tech-savvy blockchain enthousiasts, or non tech-savvy people. And since our goal is to democratize access to the decentralized ecosystem, we should brainstorm on some of the drivers that these non tech-savvy users have. They could be a lot of different things e.g:
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someone who value a decentralized/secure chat and want the extra security of not storing their secrets in the desktop or android phone
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Someone who is curious about the crypto tokens craze, and doesn’t how to start to get some tokens, especially doesn’t want to open an account on an exchange.
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Someone who has heard about a cool dApp and wants to access it, cryptokitties, augur etc.
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etc.
There are a lot of channels we can use to give visibility and make our hwallet available:
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Our app (for Status users)
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Our web site
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Of course at start especially and for blockchain enthousiasts, at blockchain conferences
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Through a distribution network : online sellers, brick and mortar
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Through partners (Dapps that value the extra security of a hardwallet)
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etc.
And of course, where geographically are the users we want to serve ? There is a logistic dimension here, since the product will be shipped. We will need a warehouse, and shipping costs will vary depending on destinations. We are committed to inclusiveness but we can’t realistically serve all countries in the world for the get go.
Will we sell this?
Status is before all a network of users, and has no purpose to create a business selling products. We’re actually not structured as a an organization that will sell products to its users (or some business partners) with accounting, logistic, support (handle returns, support to our users), online marketing (will we buy banners ?, facebook ads ?) etc. Of course we can set-this up with the end goal to provide these products to our users, and we will rely as much as possible on external partners/suppliers, but we have to understand this can imply some paradigm shift too, and to make some compromise towards the DAO model.
If we sell it, then we need to define for how much. We know the hw lite will cost us around 3-4$ for 10k pieces, without shipping (shipping cost + logistic service from a partner to handle shipping).
Do we want to sell that in fiat ? In crypto ? At which amount ?
If we don’t sell it, we can offer it to Status users. Criteria could be a lot of different things, SNT users that hold more than xxx SNT for instance. Any ideas ?
How can we make this an engagement tool?
The card being a tangible product, it can help us reach non tech-savvy, non blockchain community.
This article (though my point is not about token value, just check the « Hardware & tangible proof points » paragraph) makes some good point (and links to some research) about how tangible products can draw strong emotive connections with a product (stronger than with pure software), and have a 'particular ability to capture mindshare, show development, and obtain support for a project, its goal, and its development towards delivering its vision’.
Being tangible can tighten the bounds from the users with Status, but being tangible also can:
- be re-insuring to start with Status experience for the first time,
- facilitate access to our ecosystem: what if I can purchase a card with fiat, online or in store, with the promis that if I tap this card on my phone, I will be guided to access the decentralized world in a couple of easy steps ?
Two examples:
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If we can bundle this card with crypto (there is a subject per say on how we would technically do that, and how we can manage the fiat/crypto fluctuations), let’s imagine the promise is that you can buy this 19.99$ card, you just tap it on your phone, and you’ll get 19.99$ or (or less, depending on how we manage the card and distribution costs in our business model) of cryptos in your wallet that you can exchange on DEXs. This could be fantastic way to engage people with Status.
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This bundling with some tokens might interest a lot of blockchain projects, to promote access to their tokens with our card, and to their service with our browser & wallet.
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If the driver is not crypto-tokens access, the card could also be promoted as the entry point in the most secure and decentralized chat system. Buy this card 9.99$ and you get access to Status chat in the most secure manner. If you’re living in a country where you fear the government, you might want to protect your chat with a physical device. Destruction of your device (your card) and its mnemonic is also a way to prevent access to your secret by torture.
These questions are super important also because they have operational impact on what we build
Some examples (some are super specific):
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All these distributions means or channels need time to build: are we building a distribution online shop ? do we add some ‘get your card’ section in our app ? etc.
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Is the cost of the card super critical? If yes (and it might be if we we want to make it a super cheap means of access to status or crypto! ), we can definitely strip down some features/finishings to bring cost down (super simple package, no contacts on the card itself, no fancy printing options on the card for instance).
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Where we will ship the product? It does impact where we position our logistic, and it does impact the cost fort the end user.
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Do we want our packaging to be compatible with brick and mortar? in this case we need hangers
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Let’s imagine we decide we want to promote use of our card with the desktop app as a super secure chat app, and the desktop app works in a mode where the card is always connected with the computer (in this mode whisper keys wouldn’t even touch the desktop) then keeping the contacts on the cards (the cards would be a dual mode card then) makes a lot of sense.
A last word about timelines, it’s also important to keep them in minds while discussing this. We’ll hardly get this product delivered in quantities before January 2019, based on the factories lead-time constraints (12 weeks from purchase order), and the development and test time line.
We can of course think of a several stage approach e.g.
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Alpha test 11/18-12/18 each core contributor has a card to use it. The card might not have a final packaging, might not be fully printed, the integration will still be in alpha.
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Beta test e.g. 01/19-03/19 we distribute several 1000s of cards at blockchain conferences. Targets are blockchain community members.
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Public launch e.g. 04/19, where we target non tech-savvy users through a online distribution web site (e.g)
Please share as many ideas here, you’re feedback is of course much appreciated, and actually it’s really needed for the progress of this awesome project!