Nash Link has tremendous potential. Anyone can realize this half way through reading this blog post.
But it’s not there yet…
Right now, only paying from layer 1 (L1) - i.e paying directly from the blockchain - is enabled. In this state, Nash Link has basically no additional value compared to other existing solutions, apart maybe from the fact that it is nicely packaged in an easy-to-implement module for e-commerce site owners. When I say no additional value, I mean that BTC payments are still slow and costly. I’ve witnessed it first hand by making a purchase on the Nash Store: I paid over 10% of my purchase amount in network fees ($3+) and my payment didn’t arrive in time.
However, Nash has something no one else has: a functioning layer 2 implementation. When Nash enables L2 for Nash Link, anyone with a Nash account and funds in their “trading contract” - i.e on the L2 - will be able to pay instantly and with no network fee.
Of course, for Nash Link to become a success, it still requires to dramatically expand its merchants and Nash user base. That’s a big IF. What I want to tackle in this thread is how Nash can reach this Eldorado where the sheer size of the network for both merchants and users becomes enough of an incentive to attract more merchants and users.
Until then, how can Nash (Link) attract merchants and users?
A great example of a fintech company with similar goals which was very successful is PayPal. So how did PayPal get off the ground? They gave away money - $20, $10, $5. They had a signup and referral program that where costly but allowed them to reach critical mass very quickly.
The key word here is costly. I’m not sure Nash is in a position to give away millions as PayPal did. I have 2 ideas of how Nash could mitigate the financial loses of such a referral program:
Making sure the incentive money gets spent
When PayPal launched its referral program, you could literally just sign up, receive the incentive money, withdraw it and never use your PayPal account again. I’m sure there must have been a lot of abuse, so to circumvent this Nash could:
- require that users are at least Tier 1 to unlock the incentive money
- make the incentive money only spendable using Nash Link, which could serve as an argument to onboard new merchants (“our users have free money to spend”)
Making the referral program self-sustained
Nash has a strong and dedicated community. Nash also has a security token which generates dividends on a daily basis, which are credited onto our accounts in the form of token dust. Currently this dust is sitting in all our accounts. Many have asked for a feature to convert into one asset, but in the meantime, what if you could donate your dust to help Nash. It comes down to re-investing your earned dividends into the growth of Nash, to make sure you earn more dividends in the future! Donating your dust would go into a special fund which is used exclusively to finance the referral program.