I'm excited to announce that our first apparel items are now listed on the website and are available for purchase! If you would prefer a decentralized marketplace solution, check us out on OpenBazaar: ob://QmdNj4hTfQ22vwPrMVMT9UXJTzg8EPf4Pcor1rsxxPWT8W/store. Make sure to select the BTC server.
The current line of apparel consists of GEN 1 products, meaning this was our first order to be produced. As such, we are still ironing out the manufacturing processes and operational details. During this phase, we will see what works and what doesn’t, interacting with the community and those that can provide better feedback.
Still, I’ve been loving walking around in prototype versions of the clothing, and I know you’re going to enjoy wearing the finalized versions.
Products
Our goal, first and foremost, is to provide an excellent product that is versatile and comfortable. Initially, our selection consists of shirts, polos, hoodies, and crew sweatshirts. Eventually, we will be adding socks and hats to the lineup, along with more color and fabric choices for the shirts. We seek to add graphic tees to our catalog in the near future, as well.
Revenue-Sharing Model
We are working to create a sustainable business model that includes revenue sharing among the employees and later, all those that have purchased clothing and hold our tokens. This will coincide with the token generation event and will be like dividends in the company. This will be an opt-in program, with the customer being able to “buy-in” through the marketplace or simply via purchase of apparel. There will not be a cap to the number of tokens any one Ethereum address can hold, meaning a person can obtain a large amount of our tokens and have a greater stake in the company’s token share. However, we will cap the number of tokens used for voting to keep it democratic.
As an example, Person A purchases $1000 worth of clothing from Astronaut Apparel, inputs his Ethereum address, and receives 100 tokens. Person B purchases $500 of apparel and receives 50 tokens. Person C buys socks for $20 and receives 2 tokens. The voting cap may be 50 tokens, to limit how much power any one person has over the others when it comes to governance. However, Person A, with 2x more tokens, will receive a larger portion of token dividends as per our revenue-sharing model. Person C will still be able to vote on any topic, and still receive a portion as well, but will have much less influence in the system. Anyone can navigate to an exchange and purchase hundreds or thousands of tokens but will only be able to vote with 50 tokens at a time.
Obviously, we will need to include identity management into this to prevent gaming the system or fraud, and we are currently looking into uPort as a potential solution.
Space Community
I have been involved with a portion of the space community since 2013 and I am looking for ways to give back with each sale. Thoughts on the topic can be found here. The blockchain will be used to show the donation amount, and an announcement will be made when we can make a significant gift. More details to come in the coming months.
Next year, I want to travel to more conferences and symposiums, both space and cryptocurrency specific. We will discuss pop-up shops at several locations and whether it’d be feasible. We missed out on this year’s Space Symposium and are pretty bummed about not attending! Next year, we’re definitely going to do a better job celebrating Yuri’s Night and Earth Day (24/7/365).
Appreciation
Thanks for all the help that we’ve received so far as we strive to make a self-sustaining company with a transparent, open, and honest business model. We’ve learned a lot about the process of starting a business in our spare time, and the key, I believe, is the people that you work with and the relationships that are formed.
We’re constantly looking to improve the business and appreciate any suggestions or feedback from the community. With your help, we will create a democratic, decentralized business model that provides clothing at a fair price, pays ALL its workers a fair wage, and operates in a fair manner.
Let us know your thoughts on our telegram, twitter, or email.