Cash outs, frustrations and democracy

Hello everyone, a few words about:

1.  Record cash outs

2.  Frustration

3.  Democracy

1.  Record cash outs

A few days ago, empowr distributed the largest amount of AMCO (accelerated maturity) cash outs in its entire history, very nearly doubling the previous record (which occurred only last month).

In fact, for the first time, cash outs provided to citizens exceeded 100% of all cash coming into empowr the month before.

Wait. How is it even possible for empowr to provide more cash outs to citizens than the cash it brings in?  Here’s how:

Thanks to everyone’s hard work, the empowr marketplace is exploding with products for sale. As a result, many citizens are choosing to use some, or even all of the cash out amounts they have been provided, to shop in the marketplace, or to pay their ad platform fees or their power user subscriptions.

When they do that, their cash out doesn’t leave the empowr economy….

… which means empowr can then distribute even more cash outs to other citizens…

… pushing up the total amount provided to citizens (that they could cash out if they so desired) to above 100%.

OK, so record cash outs were provided, but some people were not happy. Why not?

Well, of course cash outs are not distributed evenly to citizens.

That’s because cash outs are based on many factors, including:

·      -- If product sales that were marked as “Item Received” by customers

·      -- How well distributed those sales were (all to a few people, or to different people)

·      -- Their number of daily goals hit

·      -- Their reputation score (how customers rate them)

·      -- Their legitimacy score (which is based on many – literally hundreds of different behavioral and usage patterns, such as whether a citizen has multiple accounts, had “fake” transactions, etc.

·      -- How often they associated with other citizens with low legitimacy scores

·      -- How much cash they had brought into empowr for any reason, such as to pay for marketplace purchases, power user subscriptions, ads or ad platform fees (this is new)

·      -- How many friends they had brought into empowr that were succeeding

And these are just some of the factors considered by the empowr algorithms, when deciding which and who's earnings maturity to accelerate.

Since these factors differ greatly with each citizen, each person’s cash out amount will differ greatly too, of course.

There are other factors that play a big part in determining cash outs, that are not based on the specific citizen’s performance, such as:

·      -- How much cash is available for distribution

·      -- How the mix between the above factors is changing from month to month.

For example, just a few months ago, most of the cash was distributed based on Daily Goals hit, with a smaller part based on sales, because sales volumes were low. Now, as sales volumes are growing rapidly, the system of course values sales (which are results) over goals hit (which are activities that lead to sales).

The frustration on the part of some citizens, as best I can understand it, is that some of them had higher expectations (for larger cash outs) than what they ended up receiving, because:

·      -- They received larger cash outs in prior months, for the same or greater level of activities or results

·      -- They had previously made certain assumptions or calculations about what amount would be “fair” and that didn’t materialize

·      -- They had certain personal expenses that they hoped the cash out amounts would exceed

·      -- They compared their cash out amount (and activities and results) to that of other citizens, and felt like their cash out amount was unfair

2.  Are YOU frustrated?

Are these or other things in empowr frustrating you?

Are there things that you would do differently with the platform?

If your answer to any of the above questions is YES, you’re not alone.

empowr is a complicated economy and platform, and there are many, many things and features, that need to be improved, added or fixed.

Since we can only work on a few items at a time, the question is…

    In what order, should we work on the issues and opportunities?

Ask ten different people what things they want worked on first, and we’ll get ten very different answers.

The right answer to that question doesn’t exist – in my opinion.

There is a right process, however, and that’s self-rule… also known as democracy.

Democracy works best locally

We believe that democracy is best if it happens at a local level.

We believe the right answer to the question of priorities, is for you to have the power at a local level…

… to elect your local leaders…

… to decide all the rules of the platform…

… to elect the local judges to arbitrate disputes…

… to launch billing partners…

… and decide how cash outs should be provided…

… to launch new features…

… and to tweak the existing features to your liking.  

What needs to happen for democracy to happen locally

Enabling the above to happen will take a lot of engineering work – so the platform can be modified and expanded on at a local level -- and we can’t wait to get to it.

So, what are we working on before we get to that?

As previously discussed, before democracy can thrive, we believe we first need to enable the empowr economy to thrive.

Towards that, we are currently working to relieve these pain points:

SELLING

The hassle of listing products 

Very soon, forget about listing a product to sell.

Instead, simply snap a photo of that shirt, your old mobile phone or necklace.

People can click on the item in the photo, to start the bidding.

The hassle of packaging and shipping

When you sell something, you need to find a box, and then make the time to go to the post office.

We’re working on a solution so you don’t have to do that anymore.

The cost of shipping

When you sell something, you have to go out-of-pocket to pay for shipping.

We’re working on a solution to eliminate that out-of-pocket cost for you.

Much more revenue for your products

Imagine being able to earn over and over again, using the same product.

We’re working on a solution for you to earn recurring revenue from the things you list, as opposed to sell each item once and it’s gone forever.

Don’t have products to sell?

We’re getting ready to unleash Services, so you don’t have to just sell products to earn AMCO cash outs.

The hassle of listing Services

As soon as you can earn cash outs from Services, you’ll want to eliminate the hassle of listing a service.

See a service that someone else is offering – that you think you can offer too?

With only one single click, now you’re offering it too.

BUYING

The variety of products available to you (as a buyer)

Imagine having ten, fifty or even one hundred times the variety of products for you to access, as a buyer, in the empowr marketplace.

We’ve got a solution in the works to make that happen.

The cost of products you want

At the same time, imagine the cost of accessing the products you want dropping by as much as 80, 90 or even 95%?

Believe it or not, a solution that will do just that is in the works for you.

EARNING

Hundreds of new ways for you to earn

Now imagine hundreds of new ways for you to earn.

With the launch of our app platform, developers will be able to dream up new ways, and compete with each other to bring you new ways to earn.

LEARNING

Making it easier to learn

Let’s face it, empowr is complicated. We’re working on solutions to make it easier for the newest citizens to learn and get going.

Making it easier to invite your friends

Simply take a photo of a friend, and let the community start bidding on her shirt, his bike, her old cell phone.

What better way for your friend to get introduced to empowr than to see its members wanting to help them earn, even before they’ve joined?

TEACHING

Making it more efficient to teach

A number of tools are in the works to make success coaches more efficient and capable of helping their students.

EMPOWERMENT

Less frustration with empowr’s decisions

Along with our president continuing to be elected by you, with think enabling you to elect your local leaders is the way to go.

Your local leaders need to be able to modify the platform in all the ways that matter to you.

And of course all the above is happening simultaneously to all the other issues, bugs and improvements you are reporting on a daily basis.

3.  Democracy now?

We feel and share your frustrations. We don’t think we have all the answers; not even close.

We don’t even feel like the answers that will satisfy some, will satisfy all.

There’s only one way forward, and that’s to empower you to make decisions and take actions at a local level.

Empowering you to do that is a massive project that takes a lot of engineering work, which we are 100% committed to doing.

Let us know if you feel like the list of things we’re working, above, before getting to that massive project, is optimal…

…or if you would rather we stop working on those things and get focused on bringing local democracy and empowerment to you sooner.

We look forward to your thoughts.