Quote from: id10tothe9 on June 10, 2014, 06:49:25 AM

Orinoco Womble great thoughts and I hope you stay around because I think your contribution is valuable and we need such members in the community!

Thats very nice of you to say so. Being new to the current incarnation of the cryptosphere, I'll probably be around a fair bit - I usually throw myself fairly deeply into new hobbies!

Quote from: id10tothe9 on June 10, 2014, 06:49:25 AM

Project proposition to spread the use of FedoraCoin as a tipping currency in the physical world

Idea:
- have you often noticed when buying in your local shops, even in non-english speaking countries, how they have their tipping jar next to the counter and written on it "Tips"?
- We need to provide them with an additional option of accepting TiPS as a tipping currency by a very simple process that they would be willing to try out.

Goal of project:
spreading the use of TiPS in local shops around the world as an accepted currency to receive tips from customers.
How it should work:

Excuse the brain dump and the idea hijack; its not intended as a hijack - I just like to reason this kind of idea into a model to assess feasibility, and doing it in public gives others a framework for discussing the idea further).. its akin to what I do for a living these days. My background is needs analysis and solution development, originally software solutions, these days process-based.

Note that not all my blurb below is original - its derivative based on the work of id10tothe9 above, hence some overlap (like using 10's good idea of QR codes)

And also excuse any incomplete sentences, typos etc. - I've literally just written it all down and given it a rough structure, its not a polished document!

Here's a rough process..

1. Identify a problem
2. Identify the user group(s) who need a solution
3. Propose/develop a solution
4. Marketing

So lets apply it to the above post by id10tothe9 titled Project proposition to spread the use of FedoraCoin as a tipping currency in the physical world

1. Problem

There is one big inherent problem with tipping in general. I know people who work in hospitality, and the number of establishments where tip-distribution to staff is done on an uneven basis, or just not passed on to staff (especially credit-card tips added onto the bill) is disturbingly high. To the point where when I'm paying for dinner with a credit card, I'll still leave a cash tip, as it has a higher chance of being disbursed to the staff.

2. User group(s)

Hospitality employees, casual staff, and ethical owners of hospitality-industry businesses
People who want to tip

3. Solution

Implement a piece of software either as a separate tool, or as features added to the Fedora wallet.

The goal would be to provide a "front-end" address, and then automatically distribute tips sent to that address to an arbitrary number of registered addresses.

Useful features:

QR codes to both present the front-end tip address, and also to register the wallets of tippees would be the ideal way to do it - phones are omnipresent these days. e.g. Waiter A opens his TIPS wallet, generates an address, and then uses a wallet function to show a QR code which can be scanned by the "master tipping wallet" to register it
Optional automated de-registration of tippee addresses
Ability to export QR code from the (master) wallet as an image file (for simple printing or inclusion on menus/cards/napkins/etc., or just so the cafe owner can keep his staff wallet addresses handy to register without needing them to open their wallet each time)
Ability to schedule distribution from master address to registered addresses using an event-based approach (1-n specified times, or regular repeating intervals e.g. hourly) - Note time intervals rather than value-based distribution because that way it can be aligned with the shift roster, and because if its done by value and its a bad night/day, its possible noone would get paid!).
Automatic distribution of the tip "pot" immediately before any addresses are de-registered
Tipper receipt for initial tip
Tipper notification of disbursement of tip to n number of employees
Tippee notification of which/how many wallets received the tip they just got (so they can police the establishment owners - to make sure owners don't add extra addresses for themselves etc.)

4. Marketing

Being needs-driven, once marketing is underway, the user groups will actually help with the rollout and awareness-raising of their own volition as the solution directly fixes problems they have.

Pick marketing channels where hospitality staff will come across them.. online ones (twitter/fb) and physical ones (bars - seriously, everyone I've met who works in hospitality goes through a phase of drinking a lot after-hours with their work mates). E.g. print some drink mats (aka coasters) with "fed up with your tips being stolen?" and a URL to the tool/info will get them picked up and taken home for investigation.

If it can be developed, and announced/communicated well enough, hospitality-industry staff will start using the tool because they want the solution, so the primary marketing barrier becomes getting tippers to have a wallet and some fedora TIPS to tip with. This isn't as hard as it sounds - tipping is something people often lack confidence in in two key ways. a) what the "right" amount should be, and b) whether the tippee's will actually receive it. Point (a) is something we can't fix, but (b) is something which can definitely be addressed using the tool outlined above.

If establishments are showing the address and have a note about what its for, some tippers will follow the link and sort themselves out with a wallet etc. because they like the idea. Especially if you target somewhere with an IT/technically savvy population for initial marketing.

Lastly, communicate the expected milestones in project announcement, but not the schedule (i.e. just the objectives) - that way if/when it runs late, noone starts to bitch! So many software projects die before completion because deadlines are missed and the users get agro about it and move on!

Conclusion

Ok, so based on the rough analysis outlined in the above mess/points, it sounds to me like id10tothe9's idea has merit.

By which I mean that id10tothe9's initial proposal is solid as its written. My running with it could be seen as a "future evolution of the concept" and was an exercise in me reasoning out whether the initial proposal was worth investment, or would be a dead end.

The deeper questions are:

What does everyone else think?
Does it match the long-term goals of Fedoracoin?
Does the community want it?
Can the community find/interest developer(s) is building it?
How much will development cost? Can the community afford it?
Is someone willing to project-manage the thing? (I mean someone with real project-management experience/skills, as this is a reasonably complex delivery.. i.e. not just someone who sticks their hand up for everything they like the sound of )