Dash is starting to see rapid growth and adoption in Colombia since there are now a total of 96 merchants and they recently gained 54 merchants the last time George Donnelly, Coordinator of Dash Colombia, updated the count in DiscoverDash.
Dash Force News talked with George about Dash’s growth in Colombia and why Colombians love Dash so much and what is driving adoption.
“There are a few different things. People just appreciate the simplicity of having their money on their phone and paying instantaneously. Merchants like that we bring them new customers when we do a giveaway. They also like having an option outside the heavy-regulated and -taxed financial sector”
George further expanded on how Dash grants Colombians more financial and monetary freedom.
“Dash is enabling Colombians to transact value without speed bumps, anywhere, anytime, using the phones they already have, to earn new income, start new businesses and discover new business opportunities, outside the watchful, taxing eye of the government.”
George further explained how consumers enjoy the “convenience of having their money on their phone, as they don’t have to worry about being robbed, or about merchants not having change for large bills.” He also highlighted the ease of which it is to use Dash just amazes consumers and how Dash is providing Colombians with solution to their own problems.
Colombian Dash adoption has its own set of unique attributes
Dash has seen a lot of success in Venezuela, which at first might make Dash’s success in Colombia appear to be spillover, but is actually due to some unique strategy. George explained to Dash Force News how they “rapidly realized that the meetup/conference strategy was not going to work” in Colombia like it does in Venezuela. George elaborated that the meetup and conference strategy is “just too expensive and takes people out of their everyday commercial relationships (whereas [they have] weave[d] Dash into existing commercial relationships and commercial environments by having events at the places of business of [these] merchants)”. George emphasized that the “Venezuelan influence [in Colombia] is mostly inspiration”, but they might add some conferences down they road once they start getting wider adoption, but believe that it is too early for the conference system in Colombia.
Their expansion plans over the immediate next few months are to “continue working [their] street-level strategy because that is how [to] meet people where they are and position Dash into people’s everyday lives”. This allows them to leverage their main pitch to merchants.
“[Merchants] like the instant payments, the fact that it is on their cell phone and that we bring them new customers. Our main pitch is that we are going to bring them new customers – and we deliver. That’s a hard pitch to say no to, especially when we guarantee to buy their Dash back. And once we have an event where they even get just 10 or 20 new customers – faces they haven’t seen before – they are hooked.
They are also planning on “doing more Dash Fairs, which are promotions where [the team] give[s] away up to USD$7 in Dash to people who install a Dash wallet and give [the team] their contact information, and then [they] direct them to 5 or more merchants within walking distance where they can spend it”. George said that that they “did a Dash Fair at the end of last month where [they] opened 81 new wallets in 4 hours”. This has led them to explore “how to safely sell Dash, because people who receive Dash airdrops frequently ask how to buy more”. Their strategy has created “one neighborhood where there are nearly 20 Dash merchants in a 4-block radius” and “are focusing on replicating that success in the commercial areas of the surrounding neighborhoods”.
George is also currently “recruiting leaders to replicate [their] work in the other major Colombian cities so [they] can see simultaneous growth across the region”. George said that Medellín is currently the most popular city for Dash. They have a goal to reach around 1,000 merchants in 3-9 months, which they would then leverage into “working with larger merchants that have multiple locations and are more formalized, with more customers”.
Dash enables decentralized and customized growth
The growth that Dash is experiencing across the world demonstrates how Dash’s core offerings appeal to a wide selection of individuals. Its recent success in Colombia demonstrates how Dash’s decentralized structure allows independent groups to pitch Dash in the most relevant way for the local area to maximize adoption. This is facilitated by Dash being a decentralized digital peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, but still able to professionally fund development to maintain Dash’s competitive advantages as well as fund community outreach groups even if they are operating with different strategies and goals.
Dash’s rapid success in Colombia also demonstrates that Dash does not have to be limited to countries with terrible hyperinflation like Venezuela, where some predict inflation to reach one million percent by the end of the year, whereas Colombia’s inflation rate is in the single digits. This is further seen by Dash’s success in places like New Hampshire and Australia that are not suffering from massive inflation, but are nevertheless seeing significant Dash adoption. Additionally, organizations like Dash.red, a game-based sticky Dash faucet located in Medellín, Colombia, also helped to get small amounts of Dash into the hands of users and further drive adoption and usage, but is currently on sabbatical due to a lack of DAO Treasury funding. As Dash continues to demonstrate its success around the world, more people will realize the many problems that Dash solves whether it is hyperinflation, poor banking infrastructure, large banking fees, creating communities, granting financial/monetary independence, or one of the many other offerings of Dash.
Update: Previously, the article referred to Dash.red as merchant, but had since been updated to be more a accurate description.
