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Rethinking the "slogan" #146

Closed fluffypony closed 4 years ago

fluffypony commented 6 years ago

Many moons ago we created a slogan for Monero: Secure. Private. Untraceable. It was during a conversation with mnstrcck, the lead developer for Feathercoin (remember that?) who, as someone who had been involved in the altcoin world for a while, was kindly advising us on some of the lessons he had learned. The conversation is below.

[2014-05-29T20:31:08] <davidlatapie> mnstcck: I just thought about a catchphase, which
                                     could appeal to constantly disappointed users
[2014-05-29T20:31:20] <davidlatapie> Like the very recent XC scam
[2014-05-29T20:31:38] <davidlatapie> The catchphrase is: "We deliver"
[2014-05-29T20:31:52] <davidlatapie> Short, true, appeal to scammed people
[2014-05-29T20:32:08] <fluffypony> but we haven't delivered anything yet
[2014-05-29T20:32:10] <mnstcck> I like it - but the problem is you use "we" - Monero isn't
                                about anyone as much as everyone
[2014-05-29T20:32:11] <fluffypony> :)
[2014-05-29T20:32:13] <davidlatapie> I don't work in marketing, so that may be a stupid
                                     thing
[2014-05-29T20:32:25] <davidlatapie> mnstcck: right
[2014-05-29T20:32:26] <fluffypony> and the point is that the coin would continue even if
                                   we all died tomorrow
[2014-05-29T20:32:39] <mnstcck> Exactly - we should focus on the technology
[2014-05-29T20:32:45] <davidlatapie> fluffypony: we did with ring signatures, fair launch,
                                     optimised miner
[2014-05-29T20:32:49] <mnstcck> Fast. Secure. Anonymous.
[2014-05-29T20:33:10] <fluffypony> mnstcck: yep
[2014-05-29T20:33:22] <davidlatapie> "Fast. Secure. Anonymous" isn't something every coin
                                     and his dog is claiming?
[2014-05-29T20:33:27] <fluffypony> anonymous
[2014-05-29T20:33:28] <fluffypony> maybe
[2014-05-29T20:33:31] <fluffypony> untraceable?
[2014-05-29T20:33:31] <mnstcck> We need to tell people, clearly, why XMR is different to
                                bitcoin - darkcoin
[2014-05-29T20:33:33] <fluffypony> private?
[2014-05-29T20:33:35] <davidlatapie> mnstcck: yes, the "we" is problematic
[2014-05-29T20:33:50] <mnstcck> Then we tell them why they need it
[2014-05-29T20:34:27] <fluffypony> also I'm unsure about fast
[2014-05-29T20:34:31] <fluffypony> it fails the Starbucks test
[2014-05-29T20:34:36] <mnstcck> 60 sec block time is quick, no?
[2014-05-29T20:34:37] <davidlatapie> "Untraceable" and "fungible" could appeal to clever
                                     crypto user
[2014-05-29T20:34:53] <fluffypony> mnstcck: for a secure transaction you'd still have to
                                   wait 10-20 minutes
[2014-05-29T20:35:07] <mnstcck> Oh, sorry, the words I used are just the words I would
                                think of when designing the phrase - if we go that far
[2014-05-29T20:35:10] <fluffypony> plus we're debating moving to 120 seconds
[2014-05-29T20:35:15] <davidlatapie> But just them - for less educated crypto people, let
                                     alone non crypto, this would too complex
[2014-05-29T20:35:29] <fluffypony> Secure. Private. Untraceable.
[2014-05-29T20:35:54] <mnstcck> I'm saving those three fluffy and I'm going to sleep on it
[2014-05-29T20:36:31] <mnstcck> I want to put myself in my own shoes a year ago when I
                                finally figure crypto out.
[2014-05-29T20:36:47] <davidlatapie> I like your last one, fluffypony . I think the
                                     tagline will have to change when we'll target a
                                     wider audience

David is sadly no longer with us, but the points he raised are correct: Monero has always been a strongly technical project. With more and more non-technical people being attracted to Monero, and with the project branching beyond just the privacy focus, I've been thinking a great deal about a new slogan. I'd like to use this thread to discuss my suggestion, and also to make alternate suggestions / refinements.

My suggestion for a new slogan is:

Monero: good Internet money

Some variations on that are:

and so on. What we want to convey is not specific properties of Monero (untraceability, security), which are meaningless to most, but rather that Monero is good money to use on the Internet due to those properties.

cryptoizzy commented 6 years ago

How about: Monero : Truly Money. Or Monero: True Money

Some pros to this - Has a subtle but tacit implication that everything else is Not ‘truly money’ or true money. I like that. Of course, the precise conclusion here is not that other things aren’t money, but are just inferior money- but that’s something we could elaborate on.

It calls into question the ‘true’ness (what we know as soundness) of all other shitcoins and the ultimate shitcoin, fiat.

Who doesn’t want ‘true’ or truly money?

True translates into other languages, unlike sound.

It’s super short and simple.

My new fave.

zexanana commented 6 years ago

Monero: True Money I like it.

cryptoizzy commented 6 years ago

P.s. - I didn’t even notice that until now that it’s also simply a sentence defining the word monero in English from Esperanto.

I think it would be a beautiful legacy for Esperanto, and it’s goals of evolving together.

Monero: True Money.

CEACT101 commented 6 years ago

Monero The Color of Money

charlesgit99 commented 6 years ago

So many countries historically and money declaring they have fundamental freedom. Monero is truly what they try to pass themselves off as. Even Chase bank has a credit card called "freedom unlimited"

So I like the idea of freedom. True Freedom, or even freedom unlimited.

Definitely something with freedom in it. Sounds cheesy when its a country, but being that this is the the immutable real deal, its just matter of fact.

amoebatron commented 6 years ago

Monero: Strength in Numbers

gym7rjm commented 6 years ago

"good" is too inarticulate in my opinion. It's generic and boring.

"Safe" elicits the wrong message and doesn't fully capture what Monero is. It makes me think that Monero is being marketed towards crypto beginners that might be afraid to get started. I'd prefer using "secure" instead.

Lastly, I think it's a big mistake to remove the reference to privacy. The entire crypto market is in the process of being classified and segmented. Hedge funds investing in crypto are actively diversifying between different crypto asset classes; meanwhile, main stream media is also grouping coins as it figures out how to report on crypto. In my opinion "privacy" coins are an emerging sector of crypto and will be a big deal in 2018. Monero is the premier, best in class, privacy coin. It makes tremendous branding sense to keep that word.

Anonymous, untraceable, and to some extent cash all could be perceived to have negative connotations. "Privacy" does not and should be kept in the slogan!

tficharmers commented 6 years ago

Monero: Pure Cash

Monero: Real Money

gym7rjm commented 6 years ago

To add on to my last comment... How confused would people be if VPN's tried to rebrand without the P? What's a virtual good network?

And with regards to a naming scheme, inspired by VPN name, I sort of like this -- Monero: Private Virtual Money

ghost commented 6 years ago

Just a thought, even though Monero's is all about privacy I do not think the slogan should reference privacy. All digital currencies should inherently have default privacy as a fundamental property, without fungbility it is not cash. The slogan / marketing angle should take a similar angle to BTC / BCH and not be portrayed as a 'privacy coin.'

Privacy to digital cash is like an engine to a car - the selling point isn't the engine.

my 2 cents

Monero: peer-to-peer digital money (money is more general than cash).

LocalMonero commented 6 years ago

Electronic, Decentralized, Fungible.

Including the word "fungible" is important to draw the public's attention to this critical property. It's placed last for higher memorability. Using slogans like "electronic cash" or "internet cash" is, in our opinion, too overused, everyone is positioning themselves as that. Only Monero, however, offers fungibility, it's important to put emphasis on that, and at the same time it will lead people to investigate what fungibility is.

nycsmolko commented 6 years ago

Monero "Safe money for ordinary people"

qertoip commented 6 years ago

Slogans like "good Internet money" convey no meaning and provide no way to differentiate.

The present slogan, while not perfect, at least draws attention to specific area Monero excels.

qertoip commented 6 years ago

Monero: Uncensorable. Private. Secure.

Why? With so many centralized "cryptocurrencies" it is more critical than ever to highlight the practical implications of decentralization: with Monero, censorship is not enforceable.

e1c commented 6 years ago

Monero: Money, Encrypted, Robust, Open source. This makes the Monero sound as the acronym of its slogan. Secure Money in the Open World Era.

res11r commented 6 years ago

Monero: fungible digital money or the only fungible digital money Edit: I think true digital cash is now my favorite

stefromanski commented 6 years ago

Monero: Safe money

leonklingele commented 6 years ago

As @snirp already suggested

Monero keeps your private finances private.

However, I would drop the first private and adjust it slightly, making it Monero — Keep your finances private. or Monero, keeps your finances private. (Keeps instead of Keep)

A slogan needs to be catchy, precise, simple, and — most importantly — understood by everyone (that is, even by someone with only basic English knowledge). Most people (even native speakers it seems) don't know what fungible means and that word should therefore not be used in a slogan.

EDIT: Add a missing word.

omega369 commented 6 years ago

Should Have Used Monero

denk0815 commented 6 years ago

Keep it as simple as possible. Monero is easily associated with money. So you don't have to pick up that aspect in the slogan. Just bring privacy in the spotlight. Something like: Monero. Privacy matters.

amoebatron commented 6 years ago

IMO to try and explain exactly what Monero is in just a few words couldn't even begin to do it justice. Thus any slogan should be neurolingustically attractive in nature, rather than bland pragmatism that falls below the mark.

There are over 7.4 billion people on the planet, and the majority will never know anything of advanced cryptography, advanced economics, nor reasons for why privacy is important. In some places, people can barely read or write. Monero's primary mission should be the protection of everyone, even if they don't even realise it.

"Social proof" is a powerful force, and with Monero possessing such powerful community industry it makes sense for the slogan to draw attention to the fact that Monero is hugely popular.

Potential audiences (irrespective of tagline) will always ask the question "Is this a fringe project that no-one is interested in and thus a potential scam?..... or is it something that is attracting huge numbers of people and therefore genuinely attractive?".

Wikipedia and other resources serve to inform more accurately, providing curiosity is piqued from the first moment.

What I like about "Monero: Strength In Numbers" is that it is strongly neurolinguistic and a double entendre. It speaks of Monero's strength in cryptography (magic numbers) as well as highlighting Monero's oft-understated secret weapon: the power of our community - our literal strength in numbers.

The brilliance of this is that it is also open-ended. (The word strength is attractive enough just by itself). Strength in numbers can pertain to the politics of privacy (i.e We've got your back), strength in terms of dominance over our competitors, strength in technological security, and strength in regards to speculation and investment.

With slogans you have but just a few words to inspire the subconscious. Making ourselves attractive should be the objective - and playing our community strength card is the key to attraction.

Hence:-

Monero. Strength in Numbers.

kuldeeps48 commented 6 years ago

Monero: Secure. Private. Untraceable When I read these words, it actually makes me believe in this technology. It delivers on those words. (Even more when kovri's added)

Now, "good" "sound" "bank", these words sounds weak. They don't resonate. It feels like it's just one of those thousand of altcoins trying to do the same thing.

It has always been about the technology. Build something great, people will come. Let's not change our slogan for "marketing". Just my opinion :smile:

delta-9 commented 6 years ago

Monero: safe for wallet

skaht commented 6 years ago

Monero:The next generation for safe and sound Swiss money.

Palax commented 6 years ago

Monera: "Opressed's true gold" or "Libertarian's true gold" or "Orwell resistant gold" or "1984 resistant gold" or reverse: "Don't get this, it's pirate's money" or "Gold for the new anarchists" or "Gold for no taxes"

skaht commented 6 years ago

Fiat:GET OUT

amicrod commented 6 years ago

DON'T BUY MONERO: Cryptocurrencies harm the banking system and can weaken the government

(cause its nice if people know what they are getting into ;D)

cavapoo2 commented 6 years ago

copying the guy above but with private. True private money. "True pirate money" would be taking the mick.

cAP5L0CK commented 6 years ago

Monero: Value privacy.

  1. Privacy sums up the underlying strength and difference from others.
  2. Value is what cryptocurrencies carry.
  3. It is two words.
  4. It is an implicit imperative. We are asking the user to place their value in privacy.

The wide world is now waking up to bitcoin. And they are going through the same stages we all did. Amazement at the utility. Then the sovereignty it gives. Then they begin to see how this can change the world.

But what they have not experienced yet is that jolting realization that when they use bitcoin their finances are now part of an open, entirely visible public ledger.

That realization kicks in very very soon IMHO.

Monero: Value privacy.

AbdelhamidGamal commented 6 years ago

Monero : the Internet of money

AbdelhamidGamal commented 6 years ago

Monero : better than cash ( in fact even cash is traceable to certain degree through fingerprints and serial numbers, on the other hand Monero (after fixing all bugs if any new bug found (i hope none exist)) is truly untraceable

Galt76 commented 6 years ago

Monero: Your Money, Your Way

mutagenfork commented 6 years ago

Monero: Suck it, DEA! Monero: My money, my business. Monero: Cause you're the only one who needs to know about that Vegas trip. Monero: Molon labe, IRS! Monero: Internet cash. Monero: 'cause Russian gangsters probably shouldn't know how rich you are. Monero: Boner pills, adult diapers, and weed: 'cause your Mom doesn't need to know how you spend your Friday nights. Monero: A more elegant cash for a more civilized age.
Monero: Hookers prefer it! Monero: Money without surveillance Monero: Inflation, confiscation, and surveillance resistant Monero: Invisible wizard money. Monero: Esperanto for "coin". Monero: Buy stuff privately. Monero: World's best Bitcoin tumbler. Monero: Money with its clothes on. Monero: Makes the Amish question their religion. Monero: If both the IRS and DEA want to ban it, it's probably pretty good shit. Monero: Buy without fear. Monero: Actually works the way people think Bitcoin works. Monero: Bitcoin without surveillance.
Monero: If you don't use it, fluffypony will cry. Monero: Star Trek isn't real, you're gonna need money in the future, and Monero is better than most alternatives.
Monero: 'Cause fluffypony's super secret floating lair ain't gonna buy itself.
Monero: Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman would probably endorse this money, if he were still alive Monero: 'Cause if terrorists, child pornographers, and heroin dealers aren't using it, the privacy and security model is probably shit.

nasaWelder commented 6 years ago

Monero: The Bank of You Monero: After Banks

mutagenfork commented 6 years ago

My suggestions disappeared. Did someone delete them?

AbdelhamidGamal commented 6 years ago

@mutagenfork nope it's still there

mutagenfork commented 6 years ago

Thanks! Weird. Must be a github glitch/caching issue.

bhabba commented 6 years ago

Monero: Private Currency

Monero: Privacy Is Precious

Monero. Secure. Impartial. Currency.

Monero: Cryptography. Privacy. Freedom.

Monero. Keep it private.

Monero: Mature Money

Monero – Cash Done Right

Monero – No Freedom Without Privacy

Monero: Encrypted Cash

Monero: Hardened Cash

Monero: Hard Cash 2.0 😛

Monero. Hard. Crypto. Cash.

Monero: Invisible Cash 👻

ghost commented 6 years ago

Monero: a digital asset for the digital age. Monero: Digital Age Asset Monero: The Digital Asset Monero: Binary Fiscal Responsibility

aphexmunky commented 6 years ago

Monero: Your financial rights in a digital cash

ztnark commented 6 years ago

Monero: Straight Cash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07G23zMGa4g

CameronRuggles commented 6 years ago

Lots of good suggestions here, but why don't we actually go about this in a fairly scientific way? I don't see that we have really defined a philosophy on how we're going to decide what the slogan is. My thoughts: First, we should define the goal of what the slogan is supposed to achieve, and then we should do various A/B marketing tests to see which of the selected slogans work the best for the desired results.

We could setup many different add campaigns and see which ones get the most positive results, and have everything the same except for slogans.

The one that gets the most sign ups, clicks, or positive interaction could be the winner.

This would be a good FFS project, as it is both simultaneously marketing research, and marketing for Monero.

I would be happy to help run these tests. I wouldn't call myself an expert, and it may be better to hire a marketing firm for this, but I think I'd be reasonably capable of executing this task in a fairly scientific way.

cryptoizzy commented 6 years ago

@cameron great idea to formalize the process. Only caveat is that these things tend to be harder to get right than appears at first look. A good friend of mine does focus-groups and user testing (largely UX related) which while different, share some common themes. and when I suggested this to her she rattled off a laundry list of structural issues that I dare say even someone with a really high intelligence could easily miss and/or fall short on execution. Not meant as any negative reflection on you, but I think professional or semi-pro involvementt on this is pretty important.

paulshapiro commented 6 years ago

Sounds like "open money" is already taken by Bitcoin… though I'm not sure I'm sold on it anyway

emesik commented 6 years ago

Statements are powerful. And @bhabba 's Privacy Is Precious sounds great.

CameronRuggles commented 6 years ago

"Monero: because privacy is precious" has the most appeal to me so far. I wonder if there's some permutations of that that are even better? Monero: because when you need privacy, nothing is more valuable.

@Cryptotizzy, I agree. I am sure I wouldn't be the best person for it, but it seems like someone experienced could help to more objectively find a good performing slogan.

Tbh, I don't think slogans sell anyone on anything though. I didn't join Monero because of a slogan, but rather trusting the tech. If I didn't have so much free time, I'd spend it on something else, like trying to figure out how to make multisig really really easy.

On Jan 15, 2018 6:04 PM, "Michał Sałaban" notifications@github.com wrote:

Statements are powerful. And @bhabba https://github.com/bhabba 's Privacy Is Precious sounds great.

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/monero-project/meta/issues/146#issuecomment-357823969, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABTRGWQRTdG4dMLco6I3F-lDz7dA8rapks5tK_WTgaJpZM4Q02v3 .

bhabba commented 6 years ago

Statements are powerful. And @bhabba 's Privacy Is Precious sounds great.

"Monero: because privacy is precious" has the most appeal to me so far.

Nice to hear the reception. To add some of my thoughts:

Tbh, I don't think slogans sell anyone on anything though. I didn't join Monero because of a slogan, but rather trusting the tech.

I guess that's the whole point of changing the slogan: To be appealing to an audience outside people like you (the crypto cult and tech enthusiasm folks). To quote davidlatapie from the IRC log in the initial post:

(...) I think the tagline will have to change when we'll target a wider audience

😉

cryptoizzy commented 6 years ago

Is it safe to assume that we are all primarily focused ultimately on facilitating adoption (based upon the awareness of moneros merits)? (This might not be so!)

If it is though, I think it’s worth being cautious about being too specific in the tag line. Ultimately, I kind of want to be like a really good kids movie... appealing and graspable for the kids (general public who don’t understand or even know about Things like fungibility and the technical necessity of privacy for sound money) but also with a message for the ‘parents’ in the theatre with jokes that might be lost on kids, but speak to the adults (those interested in the details and drivers.) I love the idea of privacy being emphasized personally, but I can’t help like feeling that’s a second order level of detail and we’ll “lose some kids” who don’t get it. Plus there’s the insidious demonization of privacy. Of course not valid logically, but people’s immediate visceral reactions don’t care about logic.

wkvasnikoff commented 6 years ago

Monero: magic dinero Monero: private public ledger

Actually I like: Monero: Privacy Is Precious

miziel commented 6 years ago

"Monero: Privacy Is Precious" for me has one more connotation:
it reffers to Gollum's "my precioussss" - a ring, that makes person invisible! But seriously - I really like this one, it goes against the "telling what monero is" path (digital cash, true money etc.) and just makes a strong, valid statement. And a nice slogan.