Today I had the misfortune of comming across the comment that follows regarding the Pitbull Wallet.
"Companies should take a risk and make a crypto startup, not expect us to fund them. We've already taken a risk having our funds in btc, I'm not going to pay them just to start a project on top of it. Startups WILL come that will offer these services, and they will charge for the end product, not for funding."
Without hesitation, it prompted me to reply in a style which is familiar to those who know me:
"From the comment you wrote, I don't quite see if you understand what a crowdfunding campaign is and what you get for contributing.
You are basically getting yourself in line to be one of the first to receive a unit of the product. You are pre-ordering it. You're not giving money away from the goodness of your heart - which, from the comment you wrote, I'm in doubt if you have one.
Besides, without any type of funding, how else are any products at all going to see the light of day? In this case, if we don't reach the $150000 goal, we'll not have enough money to manufacture the initial minimum batch of 6000 units imposed by the manufacturer. This means that no one will receive their units but they will receive their money back.
Putting your money in BTC was your risk to take, nobody actually forced you into it and is not really a reason why you shouldn't help. It's irrelevant to this matter. It only has to do with you.
Also, you are assuming we are crypto-backers and that it is our obligation somehow to do it without any of you contributing. It's not even our obligation at all. And we are not crypto-backers, we're not even involved. As an institution we are - and must remain - totally neutral. Our focus is on creating great projects. We just identified something that could be a necessity in a group - managing passwords easily - and tried to provide a solution and while doing so we discovered it could be applied to another necessity as well - the cold storage of digital wallets. Then we came up with an idea. Then a project. And then, after much work and a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer, a product. You are complaining about investing $10 to $25 when we've already put hundreds of work hours into it and even a lot of money researching and developing. We're not even asking funds for research, the research is done, we're going straight to manufacturing. Manufacturing of a product that will never see the light of day because of people like yourself. It's that kind of comments that make us rethink everything and think about giving up and not helping at all, not contributing to the world with our projects, because you make awful presumptions and make people feel bad just for comming up with an idea. Then, great projects and products like this one end up never coming forward and end up forgotten for all time. Sometimes, someone else thinks of them, sometimes they don't.
Yes startups will come "that will offer these services", but if they do, that means they will have the necessary money that we don't. Money doesn't grow on trees. Now tell me, without any money, how will anyone make a crypto startup? Would you rather have a lot of great projects never see the light of day because of lack of funding? Your comment doesn't make any sense. To build any startup at all it is always necessary to have money. To manufacture a product, you need money. Before you are able to buy a product on the stores, someone has already spent a lot of time and money developing it, manufacturing it, marketing it, money that many times was initially gathered by some rock-age version of crowdfunding from people who believed in whatever product and team that started that fortune.
Would you prefer us to go to sell our souls to the devil by going with a VC or Business Angel to put an inferior product on the street and take a lot longer than it would if we went the crowdfunding route? And most likely end up with a worse quality product by having our decisions constantly questioned and overriden by people who know nothing about the technology involved or the work required to build something like this?
Too bad that we're not in the mood to go to hell and would rather crowdfund a project openly than offering our asses for corporate sodomy.
And your comment shows one more thing, which is that you didn't pay enough attention to understand that this project is from an officially registered non-profit institute, so even if there was the will, it would be impossible to go with a VC or BS funding, pardon me, BA funding. And if you say you took a risk by going with crypto, that could mean that you must have really invested seriously - otherwise, how significant could be the risk be for you to be able to claim such? -, which also means you have deep pockets. Unfortunately, not everyone else in the world has them. The $10 or $25 you're not investing because "you took a risk" is nothing next to the hundreds of work hours and money we already spent developing it, and to the tens of unnerving hours spent discussing it and negotiating it with the manufacturer to drive the price down as much as possible. This is also something that people who make comments like yours usually forget. They think these things come out by magic and are readily available for production, and that the manufacturers gladly retool all their equipment to produce just a few units at a time until the product picks up steam.
So were we expecting people with deep pockets to invest $10 or $25 by pre-ordering something that is a great product? Yes, we were and it totally makes sense. And yes, the product is on pre-order and we are charging for the end product which, at the same time, is our funding. The only thing separating anyone from the end product, is us reaching the goal so we can order the initial batch and start sending the cards to those who backed us by pre-ordering.
If you don't like the product, if it doesn't fit your needs, very well, it's understandable. There is no solution that can fit everyone's needs and we totally understand that. But the arguments you used simply make no sense.
We have no obligation towards you or anyone to just make bitcoin or any crypto happen to you. Having an idea for a product doesn't magically make us responsible for helping your cryptos get stronger. It's not our job or something that we signed up for. We're simply offering something that might be helpful and useful. Our only obligation is to keep our promises and make sure that those who pre-order it, receive as fast as they can, a product as great as technically possible."
