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Re: Branding and messaging

 

I'll bite!


Naming
======

1. I think that MimbleWimble is more in the transaction type category,
instead of the blockchain type category.

Perhaps it's a silly distinction, but one of the things that I like so much
about Grin is that, if you squint a bit, it's just a good ol' blockchain in
terms of proof of work, mining, and transaction propagation.

So I might say that Grin is a bitcoin-style blockchain with mimblewimble
transactions, which have privacy and scaling benefits. (And, obviously,
turn the whole thing into quite the weird mutant, but don't require a
different, untested, and much weaker security model, like proof of stake.)

2. I think Grin is a great name. Does it have a Harry Potter connection? I
always assumed that it was from Gellert Grindelwald's name. Another really
apt connection is to the grin of the Cheshire Cat in Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland. After all, it's all that's left after the rest of the beast has
disappeared.

3. May I suggest the galleon, the sickle and the knut[0]? The galleon would
be ether, the knut would be wei, and the sickle would be somewhere in the
middle. If there's no utility to the sickle it could be left out, but it
might be good to have an intermediate unit, in case the price increases to
the point where galleons are too big, but knuts are still too small.

I think ethereum goes overboard with naming subunits[1], but three might be
the sweet spot.


Messaging
=========

I think that above and beyond formulating a coherent value proposition,
it's important to use terminology and framing which helps people understand
the advantages that a normal person would get from using Grin, and avoids
the impression that a privacy focused cryptocurrency only has illicit uses.
Zcashes messaging is good here, for example the "upholding confidentiality"
section on their home page[2].

Words like "obfuscate", "anonymous", and "secret" aren't good, since they
have negative connotations and conjure images of illicit activities.
However, words like "privacy" and "security" have positive connotations
that people can understand and relate to, and I think it'll be an ongoing
but important challenge to keep the messaging consistent and on point here.

[0] http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizarding_currency
[1] https://etherconverter.online
[2] https://z.cash

On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 10:22 PM Ignotus Peverell <
igno.peverell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> We're getting closer and closer to a testnet [1] and it may be a good idea
> to start thinking of outward communication. We want to have enough time to
> prepare so when the time comes, we don't get confused with the thousands of
> other projects in this noisy space, and have a chance to voice our
> strengths and differences. Messaging can also take time to refine. Now, as
> I know words like "narratives" (yeastplume used it first, not me :P) can
> make some developers' eyes glaze over, I'll start with something more fun
> and friendly: naming [2].
>
> We need names for a few things:
>
>    1. Our blockchain type. I'm happy to keep using MimbleWimble here. I
>    know that technically, the Grin blockchain will have quite a bit more than
>    just what's in the Jedusor white paper, but I think at a high level it's a
>    good approximation. Some people are also already familiar with it and heard
>    the name.
>    2. Our implementation. I'm not unhappy with grin but I'm not opposed
>    to renaming if too many folks are strongly against it.
>    3. Our coin. We have nothing so far here so we need to find a name. My
>    first inclination would be to accept propositions for names as replies to
>    this email, and then run a poll online. Sounds good as a process? We likely
>    need another name for smallest denominations too.
>
> To draw a parallel, in the Ethereum world 1) is Ethereum, 2) is Parity or
> geth, 3) is Ether/Wei.
>
>
> Now for the messaging and narratives. In my experience (which is a lot
> more shallow in that domain), we want to outline our strengths and
> differences to formulate a value proposition. From there we can distill
> messages of various lengths, adapted to different support (one-liner title,
> one paragraph article intro, full website, etc). And ideally, we'd have
> opportunities to try these messages in various environments to see how they
> work and incrementally improve them.
>
> So I'll start with a mixed bag of strengths and differences in no
> particular order and maybe we can figure out a way to go from there. If
> some people have more experience in how to go about this and a good process
> to get there, by all means please chime in.
>
>    - Strong anonymity provided by obfuscating amounts, sources and
>    destinations and removing data over time.
>    - Great scalability as most blockchain data gets removed, without
>    compromising security (the magic part).
>    - A diverse community of developers and cryptographers (no control
>    from a single entity).
>    - A brand new, clean (relatively) and modern blockchain implementation
>    with few fundamental primitives.
>    - A Harry Potter theme that, while quirky, has personality (obviously,
>    I may be biased).
>    - No ICO, pre-mine or funny business. We may still need to find a way
>    to get funding but hopefully it'll be reasonable and in line with other
>    funded open source projects/foundations.
>    - The person who started the project has a cool name and uses
>    parentheses a little too much (it's a side effect of the cloak).
>
> For others involved in this project, I'd love to hear what it means to you
> as well.
>
> - Igno
>
> [1] I know it's taking some time but I decided to include the UTXO sum
> tree in that milestone, which created a bit more work than I expected.
> [2] Throwing a Wikipedia article your way:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name#In_cryptography
> --
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