
Ask HN: How to “soft” launch a public ledger idea? - jason_slack
I&#x27;ve been working on a public ledger idea. Its very unique. In a not so complete nutshell it helps charities gain public momentum though a special mining process.<p>I am struggling on how to do a &quot;soft launch&quot;. If I launch to soon and I&#x27;m not done my idea will probably be copied. If I wait to launch, what if I never feel it is finished enough to launch. A catch-22. Part of me feel I should start talking about it as it is really very different.<p>Any advice?
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DoreenMichele
I don't think you should worry about your idea being copied. First, there may
be other people who have had the same idea independently.

Second, the reason people say things like "ideas don't matter, execution is
everything" is because any idea you think you have will have myriad
assumptions baked in that will be unique to how your mind works. Other people
who nominally have "the same idea" won't really have the exact same idea.
(This is why there are, for example, so many Christian sects: because millions
of people who call themselves Christian have different ideas about what it
means to be Christian, as hopefully a relatable example.)

Just start by putting up a web page or creating a github repo or similar and
maybe tweet it or post it to HN or otherwise share it through whatever
channels are comfortable and familiar for you. Unless you already have well
developed channels where lots of people are very interested in everything you
say, it can be surprisingly hard to get any traction. You are probably
overestimating the attention your idea will receive.

~~~
jason_slack
I'm not so concerned about the attention but rather I am in love with my idea
and if someone with unlimited resources comes along, I don't want to feel like
I gave away something I loved before I really take it for a creative spin.
That being said I do want creative suggestions and creative help that a public
GitHub repo might attract.

~~~
DoreenMichele
I really love the presentation scenes in the movie _The Hudsucker Proxy_. One
is a circle on a crumpled up piece of paper and he says "You know, for kids!"
His idea is a hula hoop. Later, he has a circle on a larger display and says
the same thing: "For kids!" It's a frisbee.

Here's a clip of one of them:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn8rXglFMuQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn8rXglFMuQ)

The odds are very high that your first attempt to explain your idea will sound
equally silly and unintelligible to most other people. Things like elevator
speeches tend to take a lot of time to develop. Conveying anything succinctly
and well, especially anything new, is very challenging. Most people have no
idea how bad they are at until they start that communication process in
earnest.

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deft
People will copy you, especially if you release it as open source. I promise
you that. But they will most likely fail. Release it to a small audience
without much fanfare and build up customers/users that way. In the public
ledger world the only important part is attracting users. Copycats almost
always fail to do that.

Ubiq, Expanse and the other million ETH clones have never came close to
duplicating ethereum's success even as some of them have added innovative new
features.

~~~
jason_slack
Thanks for the reply. My goal isn't about being the next big thing in public
ledger options. It's about trying to help people realize they can help others
and help themselves without needing to understand all the technical
background.

I guess it stems from realizing that I spend $12 each day on coffee and I
could just spend $6 and make someone else happy with the other $6.

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ecesena
Yes, launch. Nobody has time to copy you, and if someone has, you still have a
time advantage.

