Marketing Update on Verge #1
We have decided to make marketing updates similar to the Development updates which have consistently been published every two weeks for over 9 months. These articles aim to increase transparency and awareness of the core team activities within the larger community.
Apart from the development team, the marketing team is diligently working on various projects. We believe that we will be giving insight into these projects with these marketing updates. Nevertheless, we are not able to provide full transparency on some of the activities since ongoing negotiations with new exchanges, payment processor providers and vendors can only be disclosed once a successful integration or partnership deal is sealed.
In this article we will be focusing on the following topics:
1. Outreach Strategy
2. Outreach Activities and Recent Partnerships
3. Education & Awareness
4. The 2nd Verge Meetup
5. New Branding Guidelines
6. Social Media & Communication
1. Outreach Strategy
Reality Check
There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies are technological and social advancement, solving some of the largest issues within the existing monetary system; see more below:
- No need for banks or rule makers.
- Instant transactions without a need of a third party or government approval.
- A secure, decentralized network.
- Bringing secure financial services to the 2.5 billion people which are currently unbanked.
- Absolute financial freedom. No one can freeze your accounts.
- Low transaction costs. No ridiculously high transaction fees.
- A currency with a finite amount where no one can print money whenever they want.
The use cases within cryptocurrency are various, starting with electronic cash, insurance, identification and contracts without a need for intermediaries. This is the future.
The above listed advancements are mainly beneficial for the actual user. Only when they are all combined can real financial freedom be achieved. For this to happen, all companies & shops around the world would accept Cryptocurrency, causing employee salaries to be paid in cryptocurrency. At this stage, using cryptocurrency would be user-friendly and it would replace the need for the existing fiat system of today.
But mass adoption doesn’t happen at the flip of a switch, there is a transition period in which fiat and cryptocurrency are mixed. This transition period requires the right financial analysis to see the real pros and cons within today’s conditions, in order to convince companies and their end users to make the switch.
2. Outreach Activities and Recent Partnerships
We have a group of people within the core team that focuses solely on reaching out to companies, in order to integrate Verge either as a payment method or into their services.
These processes are normally long, as they require video-conferences, the negotiating of fair requirements from both sides, and agreeing on a joint roadmap. No-coiner companies (companies that aren’t yet involved, in crypto) require educational time, in which meetings are spent on teaching them the merits. These do not often turn into agreement, but we do it, as we believe it is useful to prepare them for further integration.
During the Second Verge Currency Meetup in Rotterdam, there was two key partnerships announced which furthers Mass Adoption for Verge. The first was with XcelTrip and XcelPay, This partnership allows payment in Verge Currency (XVG), in over 800,000 hotels and 300 airlines around the globe. With XcelPay, it allows merchants to accept XVG through their Point of Sales (PoS) systems.
The second key partnership is with Paycent. Paycent offers multiple cards from MarsterCard to UnionPay which will allow anyone around the world to use their Verge Currency and instantly pay for goods and services they purchase. Using the card, one can convert their Verge Currency to cash through ATMs across the world. They can instantly convert their virtual assets to fiat currency through the app. This easily allows people who aren’t using cryptocurrency to jump in and test it out.
After the two key partnerships, in terms of Outreach Activities, Alex (@XVG_Ninja) has been helping Chaincreators and The collective, to try and save Cryptopia, the New Zealand exchange that shut down recently. You can read more about the efforts of this here.
This has resulted in ETH-XVG (Ethereum- Verge) pairing on the ChainCreator exchange, and XVG-USDc (Verge, USD-stablecoin) on the TraderOne exchange. Stay tune for more!
3. Education & Awareness
Fueled By Verge
It is a movement that is aimed at spreading awareness of blockchain technology and Verge Currency by the #VergeFam. The community members that are part of this movement are not paid for their efforts, but they believe and support the Verge Currency project. In return, ask that the rest of the community follow and support them in their competitive journey.
Follow Fueled by Verge here.
Danny Robertson is the first athlete who has not only put the Verge name on his racing gear but also caused the “Fueled By Verge” movement to be born. Despite his young age, his success on his Motocross journey is spreading the word to the heart of younger generations. You can follow him here!
Gil Linster is a NASCAR driver who has been proudly carrying the Verge logo on his car, racing gear and wanted to join the #FBV movement right after it was announced. You can follow him on twitter here!
Upstate Racing League
URL is an eSports league in the video game iRacing. Its the worlds largest sim racing game, where people pay subscription costs to race in their world.
We started the season off as a 2 month pilot program with their Dirt racing season running Dirt cars. We began live streaming the races in March of 2019, had an opportunity to make and air commercials during the breaks in their races. We also decked out a car in Verge graphics, and by the end of the season we picked up 3 drivers. One after the other, racers liked what we were doing, and wanted to be a part of it. Our marketing team worked hard to make some cool and unique videos that would show to “no-coiners” what Verge Currency was first off — that it even existed — then we educated them through educational videos what it is capable of and what it can do for them. The Verge Cup race was held in April 2019 and that race was themed Verge Currency. We did a giveaway and our partner Zomongo came on board as well to assist. One lucky winner received a signed autograph poster of WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio and a signed Verge hat. We also awarded the first place racer the Verge Cup trophy, a 5 foot tall Verge poster customized to the winner’s name and in his cars livery. First place took away a custom made Fueled by Verge hoodie with his name on it and his car number.
We built a fan base from the URL project this season and come October, Fueled by Verge will have representation from not 1, but 3 drivers for the entire season. This season will run for 5 months and will be on asphalt this time with Road Racers and Prototype categories. We aim to continue spreading awareness of Verge Currency through outlets like these as we move forward.
If you are a gamer or streamer and enjoy having fun in competitive games, we are definitely interested in helping you get some traffic, in return for spreading awareness of Verge Currency and our project. Please get a hold of @NiteShadowXVG on Twitter if you are interested in doing this!
We do not pay people for these services as we are a volunteer project. Everything we do, including giveaways, licensing for video and music production, all of it, comes from our own pockets to make these things happen for the community.
Everything Verge does, is through the willingness of its volunteers. We are not paid.
Our goal is mass adoption and to get there — we need mass awareness — and education of Verge Currency to the world.
Verge University
We have said it before and we say it again, education is the key to mass adoption. As of now, blockchain may seem like what your computer is to your grandparents, interesting, but way too abstract. In order to help our community and a whole new generation of (future) blockchain fanatics, we have created the Verge University!
Although the project is still in an early stage, we decided to give you a sneak peek of what the project is all about. Verge University is a group of bright, forward thinking individuals who are looking ahead to the future of cutting edge blockchain technology and its growth as an economic foothold in our society. Most students have heard of cryptocurrency to some degree — but what is it exactly? Why does it matter? How can it benefit us as a society? How can it benefit me?
The main goal of Verge University is to answer all of these questions in a way that makes common sense and is easy to understand. Our community has a shared passion and vision for how blockchain technology can change the world, and a focus on why Verge Currency can help lead the forefront of this revolutionary changes for how we handle day to day transactions. The Verge University project is completely managed by Verge students-ambassadors, which share a similar passion when it comes to knowledge sharing and educating each other in the field of blockchain technology, and in particular, Verge currency!
For now the Verge University consists of the following departments:
- Development department: get hands on coding experience and be part of an open source project that has some of the brightest developers from all over the world.
- Outreach department: help establish future partnerships and reach out to real-life business which could integrate Verge.
- Legal department: learn more about regulations, user privacy and the legal challenges that are currently evolving in the crypto space.
- Crypto department: explore the latest developments regarding Verge and other cryptocurrencies.
- Fun & promotion: organize fun activities for Verge University members and help promote Verge Currency through informative articles and blogs.
Well, to be honest, I think we gave you more than a sneak peek. Hopefully, you are as excited as we are, stay tuned for more Verge University news! If you have any questions or would like to learn more about Verge University, reach out to @Jaybawz or stay for after school detention.
4. The 2nd Verge Meetup
This year, the second Verge meetup was held on 25th May in Rotterdam. Many community members, crypto influencers and core team members came together to meet in person.
For many of the core team members, it was the first time seeing each other in real life yet it felt we have been close friends for many years. This is the real spirit of working with individuals who want to serve a cause that will revolutionize the financial ecosystem and provide people with their financial freedom.
We had a chance to make two partnership announcements and provide further information to the community. Apart from that, Didi Taihuttu from the Bitcoin family ,and Crypto Michaël were our special guests during this event.
Also, huge thanks to our sponsors, and Kaspar who as a volunteer, brought the meetup to the rest of the world. You can give him a follow here!
5. New Branding Guidelines
On the 30th of May, we released a cosmetic change to the symbol of our logo. The change of the symbol had been in discussion for quite some time. The opacity/transparent layer was most of the time invisible on darker backgrounds, and it was also not easy to print a semi transparent layer. For that reason, our lead designer @waveon3 started working on a design that would still reflect the same characteristics of the previous symbol, but with a new look that would make it easier to adopt.
We hope our vendors and community will welcome the new logo, and adapt it to your platforms, stores and promotions.
6. Social Media & Communication
In all our social media platforms, we are aiming to remain transparent to our community. Many things have changed since early 2018. We have heard constructive feedback from our community in regards to social activities. Unlike psychological bear market effects felt in the cryptocurrency space, we have seen this time-frame as an opportunity to improve our social presence substantially in order to better serve the community
One of our telegram admin’s Roger, created a powerful bot that makes sure the channel isn’t cluttered by fake telegram users. As one of the largest cryptocurrency community, it’s important for us to support many languages, which is why we have the help of PoeEditor to translate our website, and apps in various languages. Be sure to join our international telegram channels, and if English isn’t your strong suit, ask your admin’s to translate it for you!
Here is a list of a few of our channels:
Verge Announcement
Verge Currency Main Telegram
Verge Currency NL (for our dutch users)
Verge Currency Espanol (for our Spanish users)
Verge Currency Deutsch (For our german users:
Verge Currency France (For our french users)
Verge Currency Turkey (For our Turkish users)
Verge Currency India (for our Indian Users)
and many more!
We have grown our presence on Facebook with the Verge Page, ensuring timely updates, and twitter polls are also measured there.
https://www.facebook.com/VERGEcurrency/
We have a subreddit that is also always updated with the newest Verge News. https://www.reddit.com/r/vergecurrency/
And last, we have our own forums, where you can find help with wallets, or discuss any Verge related topics.
https://vergefora.com/
