I wanted to post here and give some small updates, since I know Black Friday is only a few days away and some people are hoping we'll have something for it.

I'll get right to it then. Unfortunately, there aren't going to be any big shopping related announcements or surprises for black Friday or cyber Monday. There is a simple explanation for that though. Merchants don't want to risk implementing new tech during or just before the holiday shopping season. There is too much risk that something could go wrong and their tech resources are also usually very busy just keeping their existing platforms and websites functional due to the heavy loads. Companies in general also don't like making sweeping changes during Q4 due to balancing yearly budgets and stuff like that. Even if the merger was completed months ago, it would be unlikely we'd have seen anything this holiday shopping season.

On to some good news. Many of GoCoin's existing merchants are very interested in Ziftrcoin. I've heard it's even been a deciding factor for some of them. I think it's safe for me to say that early next year people will start to see traction as merchants begin the integration process. It's worth mentioning that the coin is a large part of the merger and not something that will just be abandoned as the two payment platforms merge. I can't really say anything about them, but there are some big plans for the coins (of course plans can change too).

Regarding the merger itself, it's supposed to happen literally any day now. From what I've heard everything is done and agreed on, it's just a matter of getting the exact legal wording done with. I know there are some press releases and announcements waiting to go out, but that can't happen until this final step is done with.

Finally, regarding the give-away, there's still decisions being made about this, but we aren't just going to turn on a giant faucet and post a link on bitcointalk. Again, plans may change, but from what I've heard, the give-away will actually be done through a variety of different methods. For example, we've had some merchants that are interested in taking part in it themselves, such as giving them away to attendees at launch events and things of that nature.