Quote from: GrowersClub on January 16, 2018, 06:27:07 AM

Growers International - Update 1/15

Topics: Fork, Blockchain Dev, New Exchanges, Site Platform (devs, upgrades, features).

Fork:
   It has been a plan since our inception to fork to Ethereum or similar platform in order to execute smart contracts. Smart Contracts are necessary to perform our advanced blockchain features like Seed-2-Sale and Strain Chain Registry. Ethereum is not the only game in town and we now have more options for Smart Contracts than ever. Weve been pointed to Ubiq, Waves, NEO, IOTA, Meta, etc. There are two main reason why we have not forked yet. One - Our current bitcoin based blockchain is extremely stable and valuable. Our userbase enjoys the speed and consistency of the individual chain we are in control of. If we fork, we will be under another platforms umbrella so to speak. Two - Our original blockchain dev has become more and more difficult to get in touch with. Because of this, we are now actively seeking a new lead blockchain developer to push forward (more below). The potential fork will be reliant upon our new lead programmers skillset. We will keep the community updated every step of the way. This is a very crucial step and it must be executed properly.

Blockchain Dev:
   As mentioned above, we are actively seeking a new lead blockchain developer. Our original blockchain dev has been increasingly difficult to pin down and this is crunch time when it comes to building out our core blockchain enabled utilities. Growers International is hiring! Put the word out for any skilled dev who is familiar with Smart Contracts and is interested in leading the charge, payment will be discussed in accordance to workload, etc. Have them contact us through our bitcointalk account or email us directly at growersintl@gmail.com. We have quite a few connections in the crypto space so that is now being actively exercised as we search for the right person for the job. However, to speed up the process we are also looking to the community for any potential leads. The community will be updated accordingly and this will be a great step in the right direction for GRWI leading into the new year.

New Exchanges:
   New exchanges want a lot of money. $250,000 for HitBTC and Binance is near the same or even higher now. We can get added to other exchanges and possibly Binance with community vote once we get bigger. That will come after a few good waves of PR. We could also vote to go with any of the top leading platforms, just keep in mind that at a quarter million dollars it a very large part of the budget just to get listed on one exchange. We are looking into other new exchanges to get listed sooner. One of those is Altcoin.io, please spread the word to get voted onto this new decentralized exchange by clicking here: https://feedback.altcoinexchange.com/suggestions/3477/growers-international-grwi

We are always open to going on new exchanges and it is even possible to raise community funds or reach out to a 3rd party investor to make that happen. Nothing is off the table, it just all about timing. The GRWI budget would be much better spent on creating the actual utility of the coin and expanding the network prior to going on the biggest crypto exchanges.

Site Platform:
   Up to this point, our site has been hosted with Hostgator. Due to the size of our product database and our HG plan, our site seemed to time-out during any moment of congestion. This continues to be an issue but dont fret, we hard at work on a complete website overhaul. Yes, we have purchased a brand new dedicated server with GoDaddy and it is pretty much the fastest server they have to offer. This will come in handy when it comes to the horsepower needed for the site and various linked mobile apps, grow suite, and yet to be announced features. Some of those features are touched on below. Please bear with the current version of the site for the coming weeks until we get V2 online for everyone to check out. We encourage users to be patient and any created accounts may need to recreated once we launch the new site. We also have a few new developers on the crew who are hard at work putting V2 together. These fine new devs will be properly introduced through the new website and ANN team section featuring images and bios.
   eCommerce Product Hub: Growers International has had success with our massive product database (12,000+). Our unique business model acts more as a service to connect growers with vendors and suppliers alike. We are now hard at work at expanding upon this model and clarifying its function and benefits. We do not sell the products listed on our site directly. Instead, we work to connect your order with the closest brick and mortar store that is willing to work with the GRWI discount structure. Once an agreement is made, the order is fulfilled. We work to get the best prices possible for our members along with discreet shipping or hassle free pickup. As our partnerships with grow shops and member networks expand, we can offer more discounts with quicker service. This is all done free of charge for our members. All sales of products are processed by the 3rd party and any need for return or consultation can be done with the store directly. Cultivation consultation, troubleshooting, and help will soon be available for our members in quarter one 2018.
   Grow Room (Social Experience): We are working on an entire social media platform designed for growers around the world. Users can create a profile, upload their avatar, manage a friends list, customize their homepage, interact, chat, share knowledge, photo sharing, and most importantly tipping. We want to make it beneficial for growers to share their grow secrets and strategy. Knowledge is very valuable and our tipping system will designed to reward quality information shared through our platform. We are working with the app developer who created the first facebook tipping app for Dogecoin back in 2015. Tipping will be made easy with an online wallet hosted directly on our site. This will be accompanied by a question and answer platform much like Stack Overflow but the votes are powered by GRWI tipping. This leads into an entire grow knowledge base powered by members teaching other for quality advice and knowledge.

Regular updates and Newsletters to keep members informed are on the way. GRWI is just 5 months old and we are in a great position leading into 2018. The Crypto and Cannabis are both reach mainstream acceptance. Let's make this our year!

Rapid expansion commencing. The next update focus on PR.

Feel free to come ask us questions in our Discord or Telegram community channels:
Discord: https://t.co/nMSVHyGq8z
Telegram: https://t.co/LDowCh3gCM

- Growers International Team

Thank you for the update! There are many lower cap coins in this space that would be interested in partnering up for smart contracts PHORE was mentioned but I do not think they have smart contracts built into their code as of the time of this post. Please consider other coins such as KOMODO or E-classic I am sure if you reach out to the team they may also give insight to your vacant block chain position. While I understand the hesitation in wanting to stay on your own blockchain without having a dev that can handle the code in the event of mining pool orphaning or similar it can really tank the value of GRWI.

I will continue to Hodl, PoS rewards are nice, the team is actively communicating, and I love the idea of supporting a coin that supports my favorite hobby