VOTE HERE: https://wallet.bitshares.org/#/account/michaelx/voting

I am open to editing this proposal as needed, the reason for the amount being higher than 250k is due to BTS price fluctuations and some chance of unforseen costs of escrow and remitting funds.  All money spent will be presented to the BTS community for transparency.

Also, @stan asked me to post this proposal as he is out of the country and very under the weather at the moment.

![0_TGnzrKWTMHCrL3ru_.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPDjh51WFbiinEyHwvWHbY2NUGDV6jRUrMTrAxhuTJY1f/0_TGnzrKWTMHCrL3ru_.png)

We must secure the Bitshares.com domain for several reasons.  There are already offers by unknown parties (not us) on the table for purchase, however, we have secured a deal to purchase the domain.  They have offered a substantial amount to the owners of the domain.  What we know is this, they are not us nor do they represent the community, and that is a problem.

We have reached out previously in the years before - and they have always wanted a premium price for it.  The price they want has increased due to the surge in BTS value, and value of the brand.  If we continue to rise, the price will as well, if it is ever available to buy again that is.

I will state many reasons for purchasing Bitshares.com here:

Brand Security.
-- Potential to become a phishing site. Imagine what will happen to our brand and price if that were to happen.

-- We cannot allow a competitor to secure the domain name.

-- A bad actor could purchase and post content there to hurt our brand, etc.

-- Anyone could get this domain and damage Bitshares. Imagine our biggest detractors getting ahold of it and posting derogatory information or misinformation.

-- Have you seen what has happened because of Bitcoin.com and Bitcoin.org having different owners, etc? Bitcoin Cash lovers hating Bitcoin, using their leverage of brand to drive competition into the dirt, and more.

![Screenshot_44.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSviyvEEKfBLztY8dfjeW8ZP8Qzd3qnm1YdMLZrDc5N9q/Screenshot_44.png)

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-com-cto-sells-bitcoin/
https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoincom-cofounder-dumps-bitcoin-bitcoin-cash/
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/the-swedish-founder-of-bitcoin.com-one-of-the-largest-sites-in-the-industry-has-sold-all-his-bitcoins-because-its-as-good-as-useless--/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/74mn7i/bitcoinorg_to_denounce_segwit2x/
https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/76wngm/bitcoincom_bitcoin_cash_is_bitcoin/


THIS IS WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO US JUST LIKE BITCOIN.COM DID TO BITCOIN:

![photo_2018-01-09_14-10-51.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcY9wxd6sMxgh5A2fBQcEBnZXKxAzqjJAzeUPyAUdJUSX/photo_2018-01-09_14-10-51.jpg)

Consumer Awareness.
-- Most users type in .com for any brand.  And if they have no idea the .com is not owned by the brand, this could cause major problems.

-- Read about Peter Schiff and his comment below.  Imagine if we DID own Bitshares.com when he typed it into Google and he saw that we already built and perfected what he is trying to conceptually describe.

-- Consumers don't want to think.  They are trained to type in .com. They trust.com No matter how much we don't think it matters, it matters to them.

Common Sense.
-- We are currently worth approximately 2 Billion usd Marketcap.  We need to secure our name and brand on the most used domain extension in the world (.com)

-- If we become worth 20 billion or even 200 billion or more, this case is just that much more compelling.

-- Why on earth would we allow other entities or persons to control the most valuable .com in our brand?


MAJOR EXAMPLE ON WHY WE SHOULD ALREADY OWN THIS AND NEED IT RIGHT NOW:

Peter Schiff - Financial Analyst and Advisor mentioned exactly what Bitshares technology does and can do two weeks ago on his Youtube show.  He even calls Bitshares by name and says he looked up WHOIS on Bitshares.com and it is for sale.  He says that at 25.15 into his video found here:  https://youtu.be/uHQjma3fiZo?t=25m

Here we have a former advisor to Ron Paul talking about all the features that Bitshares CAN ALREADY DO, even by mentioning bitshares.com would be a good name for this sort of thing, and he's oblivious that not only is this already a reality, but that its decentralized AND built around the fundamentals of austrian economics.

"If you believe in blockchain, which is separate from bitcoin, I mentioned how other assets could be on a blockchain. Central banks could have their currencies in a blockchain, you could have assets, bonds, stocks, shares of stock to trade. I looked up online ‘Bitshares.com’ is actually for sale."

"Who would want that? Bitshares... maybe somebody who was providing a marketplace for crypto stock. 
IBM, General Motors, Apple could make their stock available on crypto form. Then you would find exchanges where you could trade shares of stock without a broker, low transaction costs...
Then if someone on a country was worried about their money and wanted it to move out the country, would they prefer apple stock or bitcoin?
Digital "something's" have more value than a digital nothing (bitcoin)"

"I was also thinking how companies could use it. What about airlines?
With air miles issued as digital currency. 
You could use it to buy miles or an upgrade for free ticket, or you could sell it to someone else. 
Airmiles are worth like $0.02 a mile, if someone owed me $100 I could accept 10,000 airline miles instead. Sounds a good deal. "

"Everybody could have an accountX and just own a cryptocurrency that was delta, or American Airlines."


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THE TERMS/HOW WE WILL SPEND FUNDS

Funds will be held in escrow by Stan. Stan will use the BTS to acquire the bitUSD needed and send to Cryptonomex account.  

Cryptonomex will use the funds created will be to pay up to $250,000 USD for the domain, and any fees associated with converting the bitUSD to a crypto the seller prefers payment.

Any surplus funds in BTS or bitUSD format will be returned/burned.

We will set referrer to the BTS fee pool account and pay back the Worker Proposal until paid in full.  This is more like a loan to acquire this valuable asset than a permanent expenditure.

The wallet will continue to be hosted on .org and a link to that wallet will be on .com

We have already secured the price and the domain will be transferred immediately upon sale and clearing escrow.

We will place the new site: http://www.is1.co/ that our community member @richcg created on the domain: https://steemit.com/bitshares/@richcg/bitshares-new-website-update

No milestones other than acceptance of the offer and escrow.

Cryptonomex will cover the cost of hosting and any other associated cost going forward.

Time is of the essense on this as they already have another offer on the table and they were going to accept until we contacted them.