Huge software rollout, empowr coin and a lot more By Johnny Cash on December 7, 2018 | |
Huge software rollout, empowr coin and a lot more Hello everyone, For the last 90 days, empowr’s engineering team has been working on a very large amount of software for you that, for reasons I’ll explain in this post, we’ve had to keep secret until today. Today, finally, we’re able to discuss it, as our engineers have completed their project and are very busy rolling the new software out. (You may have noticed that marketplace purchasing and cash outs have been shut down, while the new software is rolling out). Today, we’ll discuss the new software... ... and how we believe it should affect the price and stability of your coins. We'll also discuss some important options that relate to the future of our coin as well as everyone's coin balances, and ask for your ideas and feedback. But first: For the benefit of the thousands of new empowr citizens... ... we’ll start our conversation from 30,000 feet... ... discussing the general state of the cryptocurrency industry... ... before drilling down into today’s software launch and more. I think it’s safe to say that 2018 was the year of the coin. As many of you will recall, in the summer of 2017 a number of community members had suggested we seriously look into cryptocurrency as a solution to a number of challenges we were facing at the time. After a great deal of research, it became clear to us that our community members appeared to be quite right, for the reasons we discussed here together. Therefore, Starting in September 2017, we got very focused on removing our original patented invention of ‘virtual currency’ from most of our products, including: · our social network... · our marketplace and hundreds of related touch points... · our earnings from all sources ... · our success coaching tools, and ... · most everywhere else in the product suite... ... and replacing that currency with our new cryptocurrency. There have literally been thousands of touch points in our software that have needed to be rewritten and refactored in favor of our new cryptocurrency. In the meantime, the entire cryptocurrency landscape (industry) has also been shifting around. As many of you remember, at this time last year (December 2017) cryptocurrency had A LOT of excitement around it. Bitcoin was at $20,000 USD at this time last year:  Today Bitcoin down by 85%. And last year at this time, Ethereum was at $14,000 USD:  Today, it’s at $85 -- down by about 95%. So, what happened to all cryptocurrencies? Well, as we discussed exactly one year ago (last December) in this post titled “The Technology Hype Cycle”, that is the path that many new technologies tend to follow. As a reminder from that post: At first, when people learn about the new technology and the promises it holds to make things better, everyone gets very excited:
 Then, reality sets in:  The reality is this: Everything always takes longer than you think. As an example, developing complex software platforms takes a very long time. People want and expect everything to come together like magic, but in reality the process almost always takes much longer than everyone wants it to. Not only does the software need to be developed and tested, but eventually when the customers get access to it, they find that some of it they like, and some of it they do not like. So you go back to the drawing board. You need to figure out how to take away the parts they don’t want, yet leave in the parts they do. That is usually not a trivial process. To complicate things further, the environment in which the company operates is also moving around. For example, the government regulatory environment is changing by the week in many countries, which can also constantly send everyone back to the drawing board. In the end, with most new promising technologies, everything takes much longer than everyone wants it to. Along the way, most people will lose interest. In the case of cryptocurrency, people’s dreams of doubling their money every few days has disappeared. Most crypto companies have run out of money and have stopped operating. I believe the cryptocurrency industry is now in the stage called the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’: 
Why are many people feeling so negative about cryptocurrency? The answer becomes evident when you examine this question: How has this new technology changed anyone’s life? Take a moment to think about this question. Outside of empowr, when and where have you actually ever truly utilized cryptocurrency? If you’re like most people, your answer is simply: Never and Nowhere. The reality is that most people have never owned cryptocurrency. Those that have owned some cryptocurrency -- almost all of them purchased it in the hopes that its value would go up. In other words, they simply bought it as an investment. Very few people (other than empowr citizens) have utilized cryptocurrency for something other than hoping it’s value will go up.
Why is this?
In other words, why have so few people ever actually utilized cryptocurrency? Again, the answer is because it takes a long time to build the products, business models, communities, techniques and approaches that will allow cryptocurrency to bring value to consumers or anyone else. Until cryptocurrency is being used to make lives better in some way, it will be (and should be) viewed skeptically by smart people, especially now that the first crazy phase -- the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ phase -- is behind us. What happens next for cryptocurrency? Most people that were excited about cryptocurrency have moved on, taking their focus onto the next ‘shiny object’. Most crypto companies have closed their doors. Read related article Most employees of the few remaining cryptocurrencies companies have departed. The ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) have all but stopped. Most coin investors have left, having lost more than 90% of their coin investments. And yet, just a few people and companies keep marching forward Despite the depression many people are feeling, the small % of people that – from the beginning – have understood the ‘Technology Hype Cycle’... ... have kept moving forward, laying brick on top of brick, rolling with the punches, trying hard to not let themselves get (or stay) down and... ... most importantly... ... staying focused on their work. These few people understand that the faster they move, and the harder they work... ... when the tides turn... ... the much greater the odds that they will emerge on top. Not too long afterwards, all the effort they put into their work... ... all the bricks they have laid... ... will begin to show signs of promise. What they have created, will eventually improve one person’s life. Then another life. Then ten lives. Then hundreds of lives. And then thousands. Not too long afterwards, millions of lives are improved by the technology. Little by little, the original promise that the technology had, will start to shine through... ... and the excitement starts up again:  This time you may notice, however, that the upward slope is not quite as steep at the first upward slope. The excitement is more measured. People have been bitten once, so they are more careful. You could say that they are more ‘enlightened’. But since -- in the ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ phase -- real lives are being improved by the technology, people will be able to see that for themselves. The smartest people, investors and customers, the ones that are able to more quickly shake off the sense of ‘disillusionment’ with the technology because they understand how the Technology Hype Cycle works... ... they will be the first to put aside their skepticism and capture the opportunity before others, in the phase called the “Plateau of Productivity”:  And here’s my favorite part: The company and people that arrive at the Plateau of Productivity before others, will be first to hit the ‘Inflection Point’:  This ‘Inflection Point’ moment has other names in the management field of study. It is often called the ‘Boiling Point’... ... and sometimes it’s referred to as the point when the platform or technologies reaches a certain adoption level called ‘’Critical Mass’. The inflection point is a magical moment when, all of a sudden, the company, product and community seem to be able to do no wrong. Everyone is lifted up, as if some mighty wind or wave came straight out of nowhere and is giving lift to everyone and everything associated with the product. And, if you remember this from prior discussions, the first company to reach the inflection point will benefit from what’s called ‘The Network Effect’.
The Network Effect means it will be nearly impossible for competitors to catch it – as usership, revenues and other key business metrics explode. With each person that joins the community, a ‘lock-in’ further increases... ... accelerating the momentum of the platform in ways that competitors -- that may have only been a few weeks away from the inflection point themselves... ... will never be able to replicate. The bottom line is that platform that hits the inflection point first, usually wins the whole industry... ... and competitors begin the process of going out of business. OK, so in the interest of our time today... ... so we can now get to today’s main topic... ... if you’d like to know more about the Technology Hype Cycle and how it applies to us, please read my post from exactly one year ago on this topic. Now, let’s move on to our main topic. Our topic has a lot to do with our coin price Why has the price of the coin gone down so much in the last 3 or 4 months – and especially in the last 60 days (since the beginning of October)? The main reason can be summarized in one word: Fraud
It’s always sad to be reminded that not all human beings are honest. While most of you have been working hard on your marketplace, trading and coaching goals, a few people decided it was OK to steal from you and your fellow empowrians. Unfortunately, every economy attracts cheaters that will attempt to steal from other community members. Sadly, empowr is not an exception to that rule. Building software to fight fraud In the beginning of this post, I mentioned that there were thousands of touch points in the software that need to be refactored and recoded to work with cryptocurrency instead of our original virtual currency. A major amount of that software code relates to how we deal with fraudsters. Our engineers have been quietly but rapidly working on refactoring all our fraud algorithms to work with cryptocurrency and we’re now ready to complete the biggest rollout of them all. The rollout actually quietly began just a few weeks ago, and the good news is that most fraudsters are now being caught and their accounts are being quietly marked for deletion. As a reminder, just because the empowr fraud algorithms catch someone, it doesn’t mean it deletes their account immediately. It allows them to live on in fear, and continue to use the product without knowledge of how it is changing their experience and exactly when they will wake up one day and realize they’re unable to access their account. Indeed, if you notice a few people crying out there, calling empowr a scam, I can tell you that they are virtually all fraudsters that were recently booted out of empowr automatically by the system. A word to cheaters For those of you that have committed fraud and have not yet been deleted: We can see that hundreds of you are currently marked for fraud and account deletion. You know who you are, of course. As we’ve done in prior years, this is your chance to get yourself out of the nearly-deleted state your account is in. Carlos is a very determined President but he also has a big heart. If you reach out to him (send a confidential email to TheCoin@empowr.com) and are very honest about what you have been doing... ... and if he finds your comments not just sincere but helpful for the future of the community... ... I wouldn’t be surprised if he asks the engineers to unmark your account so it won’t be deleted. Otherwise, this is the perfect time to say your goodbyes and save your content before it is all gone forever -- along with ALL the coins in your balance. To everyone else – to all our hard-working, honest, focus and decent citizens: I apologize that you need to hear this, but, sadly, the world is also comprised of sad, small-minded people that we should all feel sorry for... ... but that doesn’t mean we’ll allow them to keep stealing from you. Indeed, the main reason – by far -- behind the drop in the coin price has been the fraud these people have been committing. The result of the massive fraud that has been taking place, has been a rapidly dropping coin price, as fraudsters rushed to cash out their stolen coins before they are caught. I can now assure you of 2 things: A. Almost all people committing fraud have been marked for deletion by the system. They will all be gone in the coming days (except for those that President Carlos forgives). B. All the ways they have been cheating are being monitored and/or closed down with this software release. Reporting fraud Already, a number of the cheaters that were caught are coming forward, bringing valuable information to empowr about their fraud techniques as well as pointing the finger some other fraudsters. In almost all cases, we can see that the friends that they are (confidentially) pointing us to, had already been marked for fraud and deletion by the new software. Some of their learnings have proven valuable. Without sharing too many details here, let me say that we are confident that nearly 100% of the ways a person can cheat empowr citizens (and not be caught and marked for deletion) will be eliminated as of this rollout. Once that happens – and all the ways to cheat have been blocked off – you will see much less coins flowing out to the exchange – removing the large downward pressure on the price of coins. Questions: Why has fraud been such a big issue on empowr? Why don’t we see the same thing happening with other coins? Answer: The answer to both questions is very simple: It is because the empowr coin is the only one that actually has a robust product and platform built and operating around it. We’re light years ahead of other coins in building our platform. Virtually all other coins are simply a coin plus a dream about what the coin might do someday... ... in other words, they are a coin + a fantasy about a product that might someday be built. Virtually all coins are not yet at a place where consumers are being compensated... ... as an example, for posting and sharing, selling and coaching... ... so the possibility of fraud simply doesn’t even exist yet with virtually all coins. Dealing with cryptocurrency fraud... ... building the techniques, technologies, features and approaches required to close down all the ways to cheat... ... is just another area that empowr is – with this big software rollout -- now shooting ahead of all competitors. This is yet another bridge that competitors will need to cross – long after that phase is behind us. So, how did the fraud cause the price of the coin to go down so much? 1. As fraudsters cheated to get more coins, they quickly dumped them on the exchange to make a quick profit... ... the supply of coins increased, pushing down the coin’s price. 2. A lower coin price meant that the empowr platform automatically increased the number of coins it was giving everyone. As a reminder, the empowr platform ensures that everyone is compensated based on the U.S. Dollar value of their work, so that they are always being compensated fairly despite any changes in the price of the coin. As the coin price went down, empowr worked to keep its commitment to its citizens and continue to pay them the dollar value of their services. Of course, the only way to pay citizens the same dollar value when the price of the coin is going down quickly -- is to quickly mint (create) a lot more coins. 3. As the number of coins going out to empowr citizens (and fraudsters) increased because of step 2, of course that caused the coin’s price to go down even further. 4. And again, the lower price caused the platform to pay out even more coins to everyone. And back to step 1.
As you can see, starting with an onslaught of fraudsters, the coin found itself in a downward spiral:
-- The lower the price, the more coins were needed to pay citizens. -- The more coins we paid citizens, the lower the price. The massive software rollout is meant to block fraudsters and interrupt the downward spiral.
empowr is called an Alpha stage project for this reason
From time to time, some community members ask us why we’re still calling ourselves an ‘Alpha stage project’. This is exactly the reason: ‘Alpha’ communicates to everyone that wishes to get involved... ... that we’re still very much solving major issues... ... removing big roadblocks... ... and creating critical ‘must-have’ solutions. Clean up required Because of the downward pricing spiral, we must now conduct a big clean-up, to help our coin gain momentum again. To help the coin regain its momentum, we need to take some supply out of the system. Remember, in just the last couple of weeks, the amount of coins delivered to everyone each day has gone up by a factor of over 1,000. To be specific, everyone received over 1,000 times more coins than they would have otherwise received. Our options are:
Option 0: Do nothing. With this option, you coins might continue to be worth what they are worth now -- which is close to zero. It seems like this is not a good option. Option 1: Hit the ‘kill’ switch on our coin, and launch a new coin This option will allow the platform and currency the opportunity for a fresh restart. Again, this type of scenario is precisely why we insist on continuing to call empowr an ‘Alpha stage project’ and warn all participants in the registration process not just that this could happen, but that it likely will. Option 2: Keep the current coin, but remove all coins from everyone’s balances to allow for a fresh start. This is very similar to option 1. Option 3: Find a way to turn this situation into a plus – an actual rewarding scenario – for our ‘Alpha users’ – while also helping the coin regain its momentum. In other words, if we can use our collective intelligence to, together, come up with a solution that helps the coin get back on its feet... ... by reducing the circulating supply of our coins... ... but also reward our Alpha community members – YOU – for your incredible patience, persistence and perseverance in the challenging Alpha stage... ... that would be the ideal situation. Here’s our best thoughts on an Option 3: Allow community members to retain their coins, by transferring most of their coins to their Founder Coins vault. From there, each month the platform will reward active citizens by continuously releasing a growing number of coins to them. With this approach, these coins will continue to be owned by the community... ... AND ... ... the coins should naturally be valued more –a lot more -- because the immediate supply will have been reduced massively. The supply of Founder coins will be released at the same pace as the growth of the empowr economy. I personally like Option 3 because we're always looking for new ways to thank and reward our Alpha citizens, and... ... as a reminder... ... around 95% to 99% of the coins in everyone's balances were not there just a couple of weeks before, and were added strictly due to the fraud that caused the price to fall. In other words, this entire last few weeks + this option 3 process might end representing, very simply put, a very significant award to the less than 1% of our future citizens... ... the people that simply got to empowr first and continued to stay active through the twists and turns: YOU Constructive thoughts, ideas and feedback requested We’re looking forward to your thoughts on these four (4) options as well as any other intelligent options you may have. We’re much less interested in anyone venting for the sake of venting. Look, we’re not insensitive to anyone’s feelings, but there’s a lot of work that continues to need to be done here... ... so comments that are not constructive will be deleted so that community members that are focused on solutions can be more easily heard. For the benefit of the new arrivals to empowr: Virtually every employee at empowr has not been compensated a single penny in a very long time, so that all resources could be focused on delivering this platform to you. In addition, not even one single employee has received a single empowr coin -- except for those few employees that you're aware of (Carlos, Annet and Bob) that started out as citizens and were previously earning coins as citizens, of course. These amazing people are working around the clock – for you – at great personal expense and difficulty... ... so if you don’t have anything constructive to say – I ask that you keep it to yourself. Many of empowr's Success Coaches and citizens have similar circumstances to that of empowr's employees... ... working very hard for many years -- some for well over a decade -- for little to no compensation... ... so they too should be protected from any non-constructive garbage that might pour out of the mouths of entitled people likely here for the wrong reason(s) and who likely couldn't give a damn about the mission and the Alpha agreement that they signed up to. You have joined an Alpha project and communty with the very clear understanding that you are emotionally able to deal with rapidly changing circumstances... ... and are actually expecting to face such issues, change and challenges, so they should come at little surprise. If you somehow forgot the agreement under which you were granted access to this Alpha project, I strongly suggest that you take a moment to read it again right now. "Don’t worry, this is the last time anything like this will happen" That is 100% NOT correct. This is not the first time something like this has happened... ... as anyone that's been involved for a while will tell you... ... and I am quite confident that it won’t be the last.
I feel confident that this likely won't be the last time, for a number of reasons, the top 2 being:
A. We continue to be an Alpha stage project. There are likely more bumps in the road. B. The Ethereum blockchain, that was the best when we launched our coin, has failed to improve much this year; it still can handle only 20 transactions per second. In contrast, millions of transactions are processed each day in empowr, so if Ethereum doesn't improve significantly by the time our Alpha phase is over, it will make sense to move to another blockchain. In summary, expect more moves as we make our way through our Alpha phase and into our Beta phase. And of course you can expect that we'll always do our best to make each move as smooth as possible for the majority of our citizens - even rewarding when possible.
If you haven't figured it out yet, participating in the building an entire economy like this is hard, hard work. Clearly, if we succeed, empowr will quite possibly become the most valuable company and platform on the planet -- by far - and everyone involved will naturally benefit. If that’s the case, then why has no one else attempted this? They have. Many others have tried. Almost all have failed, given up and disappeared. Why? Because it’s really, really hard stuff. The good news is that with each such experience, we’re getting better. As they say, "What doesn’t kill you, makes you even stronger". Events like this are important milestones on our way to success... ... that all would-be competitors will need to pass through too. Yes, it’s true that the pioneers (that’s us – you -- the empowr community) get the arrows... ... but everyone else simply gets killed... ... or much worse, they live a meaningless, purposeless life where they didn't even try to make the world a better place... ... living day to day with the soul-killing sense that their life on this planet will end up being of little to no consequence. Another giant leap forward As a result of this big push, over time we should begin to see the price of the coin stabilize... ... allowing everyone the ability to focus on their marketplace activities and sales with more confidence that... ... by the time your item sells, the coin price will not have changed dramatically. This rollout represents a giant step forward again... ... ahead of any other platforms in delivering what we believe is the future largest economy of the world. And it won’t be easy for competitors to copy us, because it will take them time (as in, many, many years) to build what we have... ... and it will also take massive amounts of money. To move more quickly, that money will need to come from profit-seeking investors who – by their very existence... ... will make it so that their platform will never be able to compete with us in the all-important aspect of ensuring all profits belong to the community... ... as opposed to being extracted out for their rich investors. It’s been a few tough months for many people I know the coin’s price has been emotionally difficult for some community members, despite the fact that the platform kept adjusting their compensation proportionally to make up for the falling price. But, together, we may now emerge as the first in the industry to emerge from the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’. With this launch, it will be very interesting to see what happens next. We’re very excited about what all of this might mean for you, our incredible community of citizens, success coaches and employees... ... as well as for the empowr economy, coin and mission. This launch hopefully marks a new beginning... ... as we close out the year (2018)... ... and begin the next year. If you’re reading this... ... if you’re still here.... A big thank you, thank you, thank you for your incredible and continued patience, focus and hard work ... ... and for your truly unbelievable belief in the mission and in each other – our citizens, coaches and employees.
We are all looking forward to your constructive thoughts and ideas. And soon after we hear from you, you will hear from us again with any follow-up information resulting from your ideas and thoughts... ... including any other details you'll need to know about the new software that is launching in the next 24-48 hours. Your truly, -JC (more) ►
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