• L-PACO [99]
    ideas

    Ideas for Redistribution of Alpaca Profits

    Alpaca Marketplace was never meant to be a for-profit project.

    The aim with Alpaca is and has always been to create a marketplace driven entirely through communal efforts.

    Now that the marketplace is fully functional and seeing more and more transactions each day, it is time that we begin to consider how marketplace- and mediation fees can be redistributed to benefit the community.

    A few ideas, which have already been discussed with the team:

    • Percentage profit-share given on month- or week basis to people who create publicity and bring in new buyers for Alpaca vendors.
    • Subsidies given to trusted vendors for selling Alpaca-exclusive or Alpaca-branded products.

    We have also considered the idea of referral or affiliate programs. However, such systems are inherently unsafe due to reduced anonymity for the referred user.

    We invite you to think of and suggest your own ideas. How can we pay back the community in a way that benefits us all?

    L-PACO

    “I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.” ― Robert Frost
  • HonestCocaine [38]

    Please no affiliate program that spams and clutters the site like Agora. Perhaps if only qualified members can be granted referral links and if they are caught abusing/spamming it beyond reason they lose their whole program.

    If there was a % of the money that went towards both charitable contributions like TAILS / TOR and also site advertising, I think that would be great.
    -HC

    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Forum Review/Chat Thread:
    http://thehub7dnl5nmcz5.onion/index.php?topic=4208.0
    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Profile/Store:
    http://alpaca7bcqv2rnu3.onion/vendor/honestcocaine/
    HonestCocaine's Grams Profile (Much of my feedback compiled neatly in one place):
    http://grams7enufi7jmdl.onion/vendor/HonestCocaine

  • Rigr [126]

    HonestCocaine [35]: I totally agree. I think spam is in nobody's interest.

    I've considered the possibility of an affiliate program on the listing level. Vendors could enable it and decide on commissions, minimum reputation, etc. It could even be linked to promotional codes allowing the affiliate to offer some discount as incentive. All commission would be given on a per-order basis, so buyer anonymity is secured.

    As for charity, I think it could definitely work but I imagine it would require some voting mechanism to ensure that funds are appropriated such that it pleases the majority of the community.

    Rigr

  • HonestCocaine [38]

    I think donation idea that works in the grand scheme, but there are some universal truths as well. I doubt a single person on a DNM would vote against something like TOR/Tails (so long as they don't get owned by the NSA). They would have to vote against the platform they are using to vote in that particular case.

    It would be an interesting dynamic if vendors could piece out referrals such that if someone generates a sale for me they get 1% of that individual sale. Not sure if that would also lead to mega spam.

    Another thing, perhaps I'm thinking way too advanced here, but if there were bounties for various projects to be done, like smart contracts, and this helped to fund that.

    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Forum Review/Chat Thread:
    http://thehub7dnl5nmcz5.onion/index.php?topic=4208.0
    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Profile/Store:
    http://alpaca7bcqv2rnu3.onion/vendor/honestcocaine/
    HonestCocaine's Grams Profile (Much of my feedback compiled neatly in one place):
    http://grams7enufi7jmdl.onion/vendor/HonestCocaine

  • Rigr [126]

    What kinds of projects do you have in mind?

    Rigr

  • HonestCocaine [38]

    Hopefully someone smarter than me can chime in, but here are two examples:

    A coding layout for a good referral program or any beneficial site addition. When I mean layout, I mean similar to the $20,000 prize that was offered to the DarkWallet team when they created DarkMarket. They had a theoretical system in place but needed the hard coding done by another team since they were busy.

    A coding layout or actual product external to this site. And if there was a voting scheme for what people deemed beneficial that would work as well, similar to the donation program. Donating to hard working individuals.

    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Forum Review/Chat Thread:
    http://thehub7dnl5nmcz5.onion/index.php?topic=4208.0
    HonestCocaine's Alpaca Profile/Store:
    http://alpaca7bcqv2rnu3.onion/vendor/honestcocaine/
    HonestCocaine's Grams Profile (Much of my feedback compiled neatly in one place):
    http://grams7enufi7jmdl.onion/vendor/HonestCocaine

  • L-PACO [99]

    BagMan [1]: Alpaca is largely a pro-bono project, so keeping it running is not a very expensive endeavor.
    We want the fees to benefit the community as a whole. If any vendor or buyer brings publicity to the marketplace he/she is helping the community by

    • bringing in more vendors and giving buyers a wider range of choices
    • bringing in more buyers and creating more sales for existing vendors

    If you were to create publicity and help the community grow, it could be arranged that you were given 'subsidies' on certain Alpaca-unique listing.

    All decisions on fee appropriation and redistribution would be made democratically amongst trusted users.

    L-PACO

    “I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.” ― Robert Frost
  • Tesy [3]
    View

    Posted on 11 September 2014 by BagMan [1] :

    Aparently thehub is having issues. Made an account "BagManAlpaca" made a post, got logged out for some reason and now they say "bagManAlpaca" doesn't exist.....Help!!! I'm a ghost!!!! :(

    This means you were not loved as a child.

  • pUnK [2]

    I really like the idea of giving a % of the profits to TAILS + TOR ... as without these 2 we woulnt be here would we :D .
    and besides, these 2 projects do so much more then allow us to do buisness.

    Freedom of speech is worth supporting.

    peace,
    mr_niix