BitShares has revolutionized crowd funding of crypto currency research and development by introducing 101 paid delegate positions. At todays valuation that represents up to $3 million dollars per year that can be spent growing BitShares. There are already a dozen positions filled by individuals contributing everything from web design to marketing and software development. I am running a delegate, bm.payroll.riverhead, which is being used to help fund my work developing and promoting BitShares. As long as the delegates are producing more value for BitShares than the BTS holders are being diluted the BitShares network will be able to grow and expand. The key to producing more value than you consume is a Business Plan.

Bitcoin and Ripple, the two leading “competitors” are able to fund the development of dozens of wallets, multiple block explorers, and very nice websites without any support from their respective block chains. They can do this because the developers of the various wallets have business plans that can support them.

We should expect our delegates to start a business around the work they are doing for BitShares. This way they can earn real income outside the delegate pay they receive. The delegate pay should be viewed as startup capital and not depended upon for long-term sustainability. Delegates that are not thinking about how to free themselves from the need of delegate pay will bring far less value to BitShares than delegates who do.

An example of what should be done:

1. svk should monetize bitsharesblocks.com through Ads
2. Nathan should monetize the light wallet development with transaction fees / ads
3. Mobile wallets should monetize themselves with ads, paid downloads, and transaction fees.
4. Faucets should have a monetization plan
5. Referral programs should be self funding
6. Follow My Vote should have a plan to monetize polling
7. Max Wright is monetizing BitShares 101: A Guidebook on How To Profit From the Next Generation of Bitcoin, Crypto Currencies and Decentralized Businesses.
8. I am monetizing this blog with Amazon Affiliate links and eventually Google Adsense
9. Mixing Services should spring up and charge a transaction fee.
10. A dropship e-commerce site should be set up that takes BitUSD.

There are literally dozens of business models and monetization strategies that can be used. If you are looking to bootstrap your own business in the crypto-currency space there is no better platform to start from than BitShares.