Should we Rebrand Peercoin's Slogan?

General
1

There has been some talk about rebranding Peercoin’s slogan…

http://www.reddit.com/r/peercoin/comments/29bhee/peercoin_slogan/

There seems to be a mistake assumption that “Secure. Sustainable. Peercoin is Here” is our slogan when it is not. This is featured on peercoin.net though, so that’s probably where the mistaken assumption came from. Our current slogan, which has been in use since last year is “The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin.”

The poster of that Reddit thread also offered up this…

I don’t like it, but I understand his point, which is to point people to the fact that the Peercoin network can be sustained on low-grade, energy efficient hardware, making it resistant to centralization. The message he’s trying to communicate is already in our current slogan. It’s just not blatant. It requires some knowledge of how Peercoin works to fully understand. I posted this and was responded to with this: “Shouldn’t the slogan be geared toward people with minimal to no understanding of how peercoin works?”

I thought about this and concluded that the vagueness of the current slogan might be a problem. I came up with an altered version, but before I show it to you, I want you to understand why the current slogan was chosen. At the time, the current slogan was backwards: “Sustainable & Secure” and we were debating whether to replace it with “The Gold Standard of Cryptocurrency.” We ended up just switching the words around and keeping the slogan we were already using, but the deciding factor of the community was a post made by iheartcryptocoin, which explains why the two words “Security & Sustainability” are so important. Everybody agreed with his post. Please read it here…

[quote=“iheartcryptocoin, post:17, topic:1044”]Hey Folks

I vote for the current slogan with swapped words. I played with both secure and sustainable, vs sustainable and secure during the initial drafting, and I personally preferred the former but I think I remember a couple of others preferring the latter so that is why it is as it is now. My vote is for “secure and sustainable”

“Secure” and “sustainable” capture the entire universe of what PPC does/stands for. These two simple words together open the door to the larger discussions we are referring to without ALSO invoking the emotional baggage that terms like “gold standard” carry for many people (baggage being positive or negative.)

Secure - can refer to both ‘military security’ (eg resistance to >50% attack), also refers to the ‘trustworthiness’ of the tech, and the community (secure = trust) etc etc

Sustainable - refers to the green nature (sustainable resource use) and can also refer to the need for a reserve currency to stand the test of time. Anything that is sustainable lasts etc etc

I could say more, however I’m sure we can all see other ways to tie these two words to our core values. These two concepts together can be used by anyone to capture/explaining the essence of PPC .

Finally, lets not invite arguments that don’t further our ultimate cause. We gain nothing from inviting arguments over Keynes or the austrain school, all of that really would distract from getting folks to just try out and use the coin. This is what phrases like “gold standard” invoke. The troll box is real, the troll mentality is real, and we need to stay focused and avoid distracting arguments.

So lets keep it simple, lets use these broad enough words that capture everything we might mean, and lets band together to tell the world about PPC![/quote]

I tried to think up something new which conveyed what the Reddit poster was talking about. As shown above in his example image, his slogan was “The Most Decentralized Currency in the World.” I tried to convey the same thing in as few words as possible. This is what I came up with…

“True Decentralization”

This simple slogan implies that something is not quite right about the decentralization of other cryptocurrencies and that Peercoin has solved the issue and is currently the only cryptocoin that is truly decentralized. The only problem is that we lose the important ideas that iheartcryptocoin mentioned that were present in the old slogan. So I came up with this revised version…

“Secure, Sustainable, True Decentralization”

I like this version better because it includes the 2 original ideas of security and sustainability, while also taking some of the vagueness out by introducing the 3rd point. When saying it aloud, there is a pause after each comma. Here is an image I made that shows it off…

What do you all think?

EDIT: Because of Cybnate’s suggestion, I decided to alter the slogan to the following, which sounds better and is shorter to write out…

“Secure, Sustainable, Truly Decentralized”

2

In addition to running the network on low-grade, energy efficient hardware, “True Decentralization” also refers to our community as a whole. We’ve gone to great lengths to prevent the formation of a Peercoin foundation by creating Peer4commit to fund projects. Other communities look forward to creating a foundation that lacks transparency and is comprised of a select group of members that have full control of the funds, not us!

My main concern is that Sunny has not started to phase out centralized checkpoints yet, so this slogan is technically untrue at the moment. That is scheduled to begin in v0.5, according to his latest weekly update. According to that update, is it clear whether Sunny is going to remove checkpoints completely, or is he going to make them decentralized, so that opponents can no longer point and say that Sunny has full control?

3

Maybe it needs time, I think I understand what you are trying to do, but I’m unsure about this.

I struggle with the word decentralization. We do go through great length to not make the same mistakes of central bankers ruling currencies and presenting the bill to the taxpayers.

Truly decentralized sounds a bit better to me. Need to think about this. But agree we have to be sure we can follow up on that promise with the voluntary check-pointing before using this widely.

4

[quote=“Cybnate, post:3, topic:2587”]Maybe it needs time, I think I understand what you are trying to do, but I’m unsure about this.

I struggle with the word decentralization. We do go through great length to not make the same mistakes of central bankers ruling currencies and presenting the bill to the taxpayers.

Truly decentralized sounds a bit better to me. Need to think about this. But agree we have to be sure we can follow up on that promise with the voluntary check-pointing before using this widely.[/quote]

I think you might be right. That sounds better and it’s shorter when written out. Here is a quick mockup to replace the other one…

5

I don’t like the word “decentralised” for two reasons

(1) Peercoin still needs check-pointing for security. Before we can consider decentralisation as a selling point, we have to (a) develop cold-locked minting (b) get people to mint © remove checkpoints

(2) A crypto-currency is supposed to be decentralised by definition, so where is the value in saying peercoin is decentralised? This is why, presumably, the word “true” is being inserted, to make peercoin distinct. By implication, however, this could be taken as criticism of bitcoin and other cryptos, and I feel this is making the slogan slightly argumentative. Given (1) above, we can be shot down very quickly

6

I agree with RobertLloyd on Truly Decentralised. I my mind Peercoin is different because it is not only secure and sustaintable, which are indeed vitally important, but also innovative and time-tested, a combination which pretty much only bitcoin can also claim.

7

Oh well, it was just an idea. So let’s say we didn’t use “Truly Decentralized,” but something else. Do any of you agree with the thinking in that Reddit thread? Do you believe we should even be thinking about changing our slogan in any way, or do you believe it’s perfect the way it is? “The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin”

8

In the reddit post, Cryptocoiner says the following:

“Secure. Sustainable. Peercoin is here”
I would not call it a slogan, but a mere flat description of what Peercoin is. And it is fair to say that it has not resonated much within the public. For people to be attracted and eventually buy, they need a superlative cue or a very strong statement.

I agree with Cryptocoiner’s view that the phrase is a description of what Peercoin is, as opposed to what it could do for the public - but adding the word decentralisation does not change that

To explain the benefit to the public, we must get the word “saving” into the slogan (assuming we are all agreed that this is what peercoin is best for)

Alternatively, we can combine the slogan with a longer mission statement. Yesterday, on the website development (themes & content) thread, I wrote the following:

Perhaps what the website needs is a “mission statement” that expands on the slogan “The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin”. Perhaps along the lines of:
“Peercoin is a crypto-currency, like bitcoin. Peercoin, like other crypto-currencies, can be spent online and in shops, but whereas other coins are designed for buying speed, peercoin’s mission is to provide a vehicle for saving. Peercoin: a safe storage of wealth in unsafe times”.

Maybe the last sentence of that could be adapted as a one-line slogan? Perhaps something like:

“Secure storage for savings. Peercoin is here”

That is just a suggestion, and I am happy to stick with the current slogan if we cannot get consensus - but I do think Cryptocoiner has a point - we need a slogan that provides a “hook”

9

Yes, the word decentralized does not belong in a slogan. In a addition to the points above, “de-” is a negative prefix which intones “removal” or “reduction”… things that make one uneasy when discussing money. Slogans must contain only positive-sounding words.

So in addition to secure and sustainable, I think we really need to start capitalizing on the word Peer itself. Even if a thousand other coins copy the Peercoin protocol, none of them will ever be able to claim this name. Peer implies all the meaning in “truly decentralized” plus even more such a “friendly”, “fair”, “accessible,” etc. Bitcoin is dominated by centralized industrial mining, but Peercoin is available to us all. I’m not sure yet how best to put this in a slogan but a suggestion to illustrate the point may be:

Secure. Sustainable. For Everyone.

10

@Sentinelrv
i am still liking The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin

or perhaps like this mockup:

but with:
Secure. Sustainable
Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency could maybe be replaced with something equivalent which would also explain what it is to the general public, perhaps electronic currency…

11

[quote=“RobertLloyd, post:8, topic:2587”]Alternatively, we can combine the slogan with a longer mission statement. Yesterday, on the website development (themes & content) thread, I wrote the following:

Perhaps what the website needs is a “mission statement” that expands on the slogan “The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin”. Perhaps along the lines of:
“Peercoin is a crypto-currency, like bitcoin. Peercoin, like other crypto-currencies, can be spent online and in shops, but whereas other coins are designed for buying speed, peercoin’s mission is to provide a vehicle for saving. Peercoin: a safe storage of wealth in unsafe times”.[/quote]

Check my reply to you about this in the website design visual thread.

12

I love the idea of Peercoin as a decentralized cryptocoin. However, until checkpoints are disabled as the default setting for new client installs, it should not be considered decentralized.

Due to the current checkpointing mechanism, Peercoin (as it stands today) is a centralized altcoin, with the potential for decentralization. Sorry to break it to you.

13

I agree with RobertLloyd and his points are spot-on. I understand what you are trying to do, but I don’t think this can be accomplished in a slogan without making it unwieldy. Plus the overkill video looks like it’s about to come online with the existing slogan.

14

I already know this, just so you know. Check my second reply in this thread. Anyway, I understand guys. The idea is a no go. Maybe somebody will come up with something better in the future though.

15

Hello,

It won’t prevent me from evangelizing and selling the coin as “decentralized” rather than “sustainable”, which is a vague and very abstract term.

Fyi, Bitcoin is getting recognized as centralized in that its security check based on pool miners is now in the facts centralized.

So being a crypto coin does not give automatically decentralization as attribute, contrary to what some are stating.

When Satoshi created bitcoin he thought and wanted that individual nodes would be able to do the mining to ensure decentralizatin but he did not foresee ASIC/FPGA s and pools coming.

However, Peercoin stands a real chance to achieve Satoshi original goal of a truly decentralized currency and _That _ matters tremendously now.

If it is not Peercoin, then another coin more competitive will appeal itself by being truly decentralized.

16

We would need to get rid of centralized checkpoints before claiming a true decentralized coin but i think that this is ultimately the main feature of peercoin.

17

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=674132.msg7637446#msg7637446

18

Please remember this:

“The MacBook Air. In a word, the thinnest laptop in the world”- Steve Jobs (when introducing the product)

Of course, it was not. Sony and many other makers had at the time many thinner products.

Slogan is not about stating truths, they are about catching the attention of the public. Of course, there has to be a product that can make you believe so or is potentially what the copy states literally. But there’s a great part catering to interpretation, which is relative to each one of us.

Also, the more we are battled or argued, the more we are publicized and talked about. Think articles.

A purple cow sells much more than a boring (what “secure”, “sustainable” convey) average one because it is much more remarkable.

I am in talk with Sunny through PMs, and it we are agreeing that Primecoin is more Secure and Sustainable than Peercoin, potentially.

19

[quote=“RobertLloyd, post:8, topic:2587”]In the reddit post, Cryptocoiner says the following:

“Secure. Sustainable. Peercoin is here”
I would not call it a slogan, but a mere flat description of what Peercoin is. And it is fair to say that it has not resonated much within the public. For people to be attracted and eventually buy, they need a superlative cue or a very strong statement.

I agree with Cryptocoiner’s view that the phrase is a description of what Peercoin is, as opposed to what it could do for the public - but adding the word decentralisation does not change that

To explain the benefit to the public, we must get the word “saving” into the slogan (assuming we are all agreed that this is what peercoin is best for)

Alternatively, we can combine the slogan with a longer mission statement. Yesterday, on the website development (themes & content) thread, I wrote the following:

Perhaps what the website needs is a “mission statement” that expands on the slogan “The Secure & Sustainable Cryptocoin”. Perhaps along the lines of:
“Peercoin is a crypto-currency, like bitcoin. Peercoin, like other crypto-currencies, can be spent online and in shops, but whereas other coins are designed for buying speed, peercoin’s mission is to provide a vehicle for saving. Peercoin: a safe storage of wealth in unsafe times”.

Maybe the last sentence of that could be adapted as a one-line slogan? Perhaps something like:

“Secure storage for savings. Peercoin is here”

That is just a suggestion, and I am happy to stick with the current slogan if we cannot get consensus - but I do think Cryptocoiner has a point - we need a slogan that provides a “hook”[/quote]

SOV - Store of Value

A primary concern for all players.
We are already familiar with PoW & PoS - SoV or SOV is just another 3 letter acronym.
Lay people can relate, it’s probably what’s driven them to crypto.
Let BtC have the transaction realm; PPC can distinguish itself as a trusted SOV.

  • hey, better than S.O.B.!

  • my 2 cents

20

never realized this, could you elaborate on this? how could primecoin be more secure and sustainable, it is pure proof of work, im interested in this, are you saying PoS is not more secure (and sustainable)? or for some other reason?