The Benefits And Best Practices Of Branding Your Own Cryptocurrency
In 2015, "Minecraft," one of the most popular online games now owned by Microsoft, announced that PlayMC, one of their servers, would be introducing their own cryptocurrency in order to teach children about the digital currency. It’s a pretty smart move since it sets up the potential future for the mass adoption of this new type of currency.
Although the game already has in-game currencies that mimic cryptocurrency,
this is the first of its kind where the players can take their money from the game and then use it in the real world for other things. There still will be the need for these players to convert their money through a bitcoin exchange, which must verify identity and approve transactions, but this is the first of its kind to be available to those under 18.
Other companies have also branded their own cryptocurrency as a move to set themselves apart from the competition, also believing in the ability of the digital currency to change transactions forever. To date, these branded digital currencies have yet to really catch on, but there is a lot to be said for this strategy, seeing that major companies like Microsoft and those behind "Minecraft" are aggressively working toward greater acceptance. Since it is too late to be the first mover in creating your own cryptocurrency, you can still jump on this opportunity as a business owner by creating a niche digital currency that offers features that are attractive to your audience or that illustrates the benefits of using it.
Benefits And Best Practice Of Becoming Your Own Digital Currency
While some refer to it as vanity money creation, it’s an idea that has marketing value — plus, it offers a way to reach an audience that may be looking for a new way to pay for goods or services. You’ll be able to offer significant benefits, including helping users avoid the risk of fraud, enjoying complete anonymity to purchase what they want and not having to worry their currency will be taken away by any government institution.
It’s also something that sets you apart from your competition and intrigues your target audience, which may be slowly catching on to the idea of digital currency. For example, as a CTO for an online payments platform, the development of our own digital currency can be of benefit to our small business customer base and set us apart from other payment processors. Plus, we’ll have control over the payment process because we will have built the actual currency in use and know everything about it rather than relying on any third-party provider.
However, before you jump right in, there is a certain skill level that is necessary to create your own cryptocurrency brand. You’ll definitely need some technical expertise on your team in the form of a developer that has some working knowledge of how digital currency works and the blockchain technology behind it. Although the code is open source with cryptocurrency, it’s not as simple as writing a few lines of code. More thought and technical know-how are needed to develop your best practices approach to branding a digital currency.
Here are some recommendations:
- Make sure you have a specific benefit for your end user. While it’s great to have a branded digital currency, if it’s just a “vanity” coin like a vanity plate on your vehicle, it’s not worth it. Instead, think about how you could create more value for your customer, such as convenience, more options, greater security, etc.
- Develop the code yourself or with the help of a team or outsourced developer who understands which programming language should be used and how it can work within the existing cryptocurrency environment. This includes its ability to be used with existing cryptocurrency exchanges. You can also use a coin creation service like CoinCreator.net or CryptoLife that takes care of the technical aspects if you don’t have the resources on hand within your own company.
- Weigh the option of creating your own blockchain or using an existing one. You’ll need this as part of constructing your own digital currency because it’s the technological framework. If you want to keep control over the code that makes up your branded currency, then you’ll need to build your own blockchain, which also helps you add any unique features you want to further differentiate you from the digital currency crowd.
- Determine what unique features you want to have, including setting the block reward for miners, how much data is allowed in each transaction, the block size and how much coin supply you want to have out there.
- Decide what services you want to use the coin for, including allowing your customers to check on their wallet balances and transactions as well as providing a way to help your customers accept your coin as payment in a way that integrates with their payment platform.
- Look for any vulnerabilities with your branded cryptocurrency, even employing a friendly hacker to see if they can break into it or find any weak points. This is critical that you have it as secure as possible before putting your name on it and offering it to your audience.
With more stability coming to the overall cryptocurrency environment and larger brands coming on board with offering and accepting digital currency as part of the global transaction environment, the option of branding your own digital coin is an exciting opportunity to stand out and serve your target audience with new options that help them become a part of this digital age.
Chuck Reynolds
Contributor
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