The Golden Horde — Ark’s Network Effect & Introducing The Cryptosphere To Ark

In July we announced our Ark Delegation and revealed a plan which has been in the making for the past several months, within the space of the past few days we have gone from proposal to forging and it’s thanks to the community for making that happen. The Golden Horde was born from the idea of, “What can we do to grow and diversify the options given to the Ark community, provide a service to the entire crypto sphere and grow Ark through this service?”. It’s this idea of reaching out to the general crypto audience which we want to address in this blog and thanks to the Ark DPOS system we believe we can craft a business which can reward those who vote by giving them in return something physical back and perform broad outreach that everyone can get behind.

The Potency Of A Delegate System
We scanned through all the delegates and noticed a trend that the majority perform outreach and community development through networking in the crypto space, having an outreach program and giving back to the community with software tools and helpful websites.

In Ethereum or Bitcoin the primary network effect is had through holders of ETH or BTC, they want to tell others about the wonders of the project they hold so dearly, so they do it on an individual level. The most vocal members of these crypto communities are the coin holders themselves, as not only do they have an economic incentive to inform others about the project, but they also usually have a drive and passion for the underlying technology and effect that this project can have on the running of systems, processes and lives in the future. The difference with Ark comes that not only does it have the exact same process on the individual level, but it also has a level on a democratic scale, where groups (or individuals) band together, rally the community and push forward their vision of what they can do to influence the network effect of the Ark project. If we go back to Ethereum or Bitcoin, the miners who secure the network don’t have to reason nor influence others under a common goal, at the end of the day their hardware doesn’t have sentience, and the protocol only cares about the power that the miner provides to securing the network through pure hardware performance. This is where Ark shines so bright, because anyone can secure the network by following guides and setting up a server but it takes passion and a drive to help the project in order to get the backing from individuals to be pushed into the top 51, effectively representing those who believe in you. The delegate system provides another network effect that has a serious presence in growing the community, providing resources for new members, creating services for everyone to enjoy and thriving the Ecosystem as a whole. It’s a fantastic way to engage everyone and have a protocol that works for the people as well as pushing towards the common goal of growing the project.

We’ve all seen how close knit the community is and how Delegates tie everything together, the DPOS system creates a diplomatic governance system where it’s each and every individual that can make a difference and influence the direction in which the community grows whilst also allowing delegates to have the capabilities to go above and beyond, crafting their own path for the project and giving back to the voters they represent.

Growing Ark & Our Network Effect
After being in the Ark community for over a year, we have learnt about the DPOS system and seen a variety of delegates contribute to the Ecosystem, we set out to add another option for Ark voters, one where they could get physical items delivered to their door as a reward for voting for us as their delegate. The idea was simply to take a system that works well — the forging/voting process and give the freedom to voters to change the output to what they desire. We allow our voters to acquire a balance of Ark & Loot at their choosing and then use those Loot points to get Ark/Crypto based merchandise. In doing so they not only get awesome stuff in their hands but they help us grow our business and provide even further tools and services to the community, creating a cycle that will hopefully result in further engagement for the Ark Ecosystem.

Through this business we get to reach many amazing people from all corners of the blockchain and cryptocurrency sphere and everyone can enjoy merch for their favourite projects and core values they believe in. As such The Golden Horde merch shop gives us the perfect opportunity to reach Ark’s target demographic, to which we can attempt to onboard into the community.

We’re designing several methods to attract new crypto members to the Ark project. Our comprehensive Ark brochure is being designed for ease of reading with stunning visuals and explanations that can show our customers about all the amazing benefits Ark has to offer. When coupled with our other on-boarding tools this can be a powerful way to attract more people to the ecosystem.

We will have incentives for crypto users to get the Ark wallet as purchases through our store will come packaged with QR codes loaded with a little bit of Ark, the instructions we provide will help them download and set up the Ark wallet, then the QR code can be scanned on our website and Ark sent from our system right to the customers newly created Ark address (hopefully they will admire the lightning fast 8 second block time!). By creating a system that helps new users learn about Ark, we truly believe that we can grow Ark further.

We will be revealing all our plans in full come September but this is just one of the ways we can introduce Ark to more people. With various design lines being created to appeal to the general crypto audience, we’re in a prime spot to do our part as Delegates and help Ark thrive.

Top Left: Vitalik The Preacher (Crypto Gangsters Design Line) / Top Right: Andreas & Vitalik (Blockchain Heroes Design Line) / Bottom Left: No More Ticket Sharks (GET Protocol Design Line) / Bottom Right: The Stand Off (Bear & Bull Design Line)

Working Together
We’re aware that being a delegate in Ark means adhering to an ethos set by all community members. The mere fact that you can communicate with people from all over the world, united under the common goal of seeing the Ark project succeed is important and shows it’s about unity not division. It’s evident that this ethos is one of the main attractions to joining the community.

The Golden Crates
The Golden Crates system will be launching in January and will be a way for us to truly work with others in the community and provide suspense and surprise to our voters. Each month we will send crates to those who have racked up enough Loot points, these crates will be full of Ark goodies but most importantly what’s inside won’t just be from us, we’re making it clear that we intend to partner with several community members and incorporate their products into these boxes, whether it be Quimby’s candles, Cam’s Ark metal work or Doubled1C3 Stickers we have come to know and love, you can rest easy knowing we’re on it!

Next week we will be releasing an article fully disclosing how our Loot System will work, exactly how you can use these in our store and how they will tie into the Golden Crates, so stay tuned for more awesomeness from The Golden Horde!