Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency

Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by ccamrobertson on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @09:22PM (#21758998)

The "tiers" are just bundle names. We could have been super dry but decided to make it more like collectable cards packs; our expectation is that most people will buy Kong since it looks cool (that's totally fine with us). Our margin on Kong is typical of other startup hardware projects; not great. We're not raking in cash from a digital token sale.

We've made a physical product, we'll sell it to cover the costs of doing so.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by qwtel on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @10:44PM (#21759370)

I agree that they do look cool. They remind me of euro notes but turned up a notch or two.

But I'm wondering what made you decide to go with the generic greek bust heads? Missed opportunity to depict some cryptography and computer pioneers imo.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by paulgerhardt on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @01:51AM (#21760189)

Some of the design elements are skeuomorphic throwbacks to traditional currencies.

One design pattern among currencies is "person on front, place on back" - we didn't want Kong to be too geographically local so we picked the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Luna, etc) for the places and the associated Roman pantheon. Romans used currency while Greeks famously didn't. (Lydians aside.)

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by torgian on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @12:55AM (#21759955)

They’d probably get sued if some of those portraits were of people still alive today.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by elil17 on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @12:41AM (#21759900)

Yeah see “startup” is the problem word there. That implies you have a product. You have a cool hobby project, but there’s no use case.

I’m so curious why people think (and it’s certainly not just you, I see this attitude all over) that it is possible to run a business without providing value to customers.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by ccamrobertson on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @12:57AM (#21759958)

We've sold and are selling products to customers. That seems to constitute utility for someone as well as fit into the definition of a "business".

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by ixtli on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @02:00AM (#21760232)

This is a truly unbelievable answer to the question you were asked.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by Aeolun on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @05:53AM (#21761318)

You think? If someone is paying them money for the manufacturing of goods, then regardless of the value and utility of those goods, I’d say they have a business.

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Re:Show HN: Kong – Physical Cryptocurrency by ixtli on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:10PM (#21818872)

It's a dark world where the fact that someone will pay for something/someone is, alone, proof of utility.

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