It would be very low cost minimally resource intensive for DNotes to maintain a Discord channel as most of the heavy lifting would be done by the community itself. Obviously one employee at minimum would need to update announcements, be around to answer occasional questions, tech support.. but that's no different than maintaining a presence on bitcointalk.

Yes, IRC/Teamspeak is a pretty accurate depiction. The biggest advantage is it allows the community to interact with each other very easily as well as provide an easily accessible centralized location for the most up-to-date information. Most discord channels are arranged as some variation of the following:

# announcements (official announcements and links)
# rules
# faqs
# general chat
# support (for wallet issues, etc)
# business development
# trading (for people to talk about price and not clog up other channels with more in depth discussion)
# alternative languages
# anything. I've seen a number of creative uses with these channels.

A strong community is key to growth and while the DNotes bitcointalk presence is a good one, a discord channel is really key to organically growing a community. I've noticed that telegram is starting to take a back seat to Discord as people realize it's just a much better platform.

I think the uses will be readily apparent if you look at some successful discords, a couple great examples of active and well run discords are (among many others):

Nano
https://discordapp.com/invite/JphbBas

Electra - which has really taken a community coin to the next level with creative uses of Discord
https://discordapp.com/invite/B8F7Jdv

I don't think it's necessarily a priority now, but as DNotes 2.0 get's closer to launch next month and interest starts picking up I wouldn't be overlooking a very cheap, cost effective way of attaining organic community growth. Electra in particular has been good at taking advantage of the community by quickly organizing the members to go and vote to get listed on exchanges (they almost always win community vote now).

Thank you, Dan. Going through that check list is a good remainder of how much our lean and agile team has accomplished in four years – that is the result of mostly volunteered time and financial contributions from a few individuals. We never asked the community for donation or used any ICOs for funding. Everything has been based on a personal commitment to do the right things for the benefits of everyone who supports our cause. DNotes will become a classic case that when common people get together with a common purpose and commitment to pursue a shared vision, uncommon result of the highest expectation can be achieved – the best in class.

Recently, I have the privilege of seeing a preview of DNotesEDU, funded and managed by volunteers who are also part of the DNotes team. It was inspirational. I am certainly anxious to see the reaction of our community when it is officially launched. And as I understand, it will be very soon.

The whole philosophy behind DNotes and our ecosystems is hard for most people to understand. It is especially difficult when one is only exposured to a segment of what we are about. DNotes is more than just another digital currency. It is a uniquely positioned digital currency being built with fully integrated ecosystems to the benefits of everyone. We are dedicated to educating and leading by example. We believe that for our industry to succeed, someone must contribute to those vital roles.

The launching of DNotes 2.0 will mark the completion of our first phase and the beginning of an exciting phase two – one of technology enhancement and rapid scaling globally.

Meanwhile, we are totally focused on two top priorities – launching DNotes 2.0 and two rounds of funding – Reg. D 506 (c) and A+ Mini-IPO in compliance with the SEC securities laws.

At the right time we will active many more PR efforts, social media, and participation in other discussion channels. In the meantime, it is best for our team to remain highly focused.

Thanks for your list of recommendations. Keep them coming.

Thank you for sharing, doctorlw1. Your support for DNotes is greatly appreciated. We will take your recommendation of a discord channel seriously, as we get closer to DNotes 2.0 launch. Voting support to get DNotes listed on larger exchanges will be quite valuable.

Welcome Geekxplore, thank you for the write up!

1 recommendation for your article:
I think "would include poker" is a typo or included by accident.

Otherwise great brief summary!

Very busy day for our team working on many different areas. We now have a book publicist to promote the book, and I just signed off with a new law firm to start drafting our Reg. D 506 (c) Private Placement Memorandum to be filed with the SEC. The funding could begin as early as this April. The Reg. A+ Mini-IPO Tier 2 will be launched at the later half of this year with a great deal of up front work.

Wishing all our friends, family, and supporters around the world a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous Chinese New Year!

That is great news, Alan! I'm really looking forward to the launching of DNotes 2.0!

Thanks, it has been a great day. Got a lot of important things accomplished. One major remaining task is finding a highly qualified PCAOB compliance auditor for our Reg. A+ funding. I can now appreciate why so few care to take this route and just limit the participation to accredited investors only. It has been a struggle finding qualified professionals who have a sufficient working knowledge of our industry - technical, financial, and legal.

We could take the easy route of launching a Reg. D 506 (c) available only to accredited investors without any upper limits to raise adequate funding for our foreseeable needs. But that will go against our basic mission to be inclusive of all interested participants, including non-accredited investors. I am relentlessly committed to this project and have no doubt that we are doing the right thing. It will be to our benefit over the longer-term. This will further differentiate DNotes from our industry peers.

New Release date for DNOTES2.0? Was supposed to be September 2017

It's good to know that the political leadership and regulators are taking the time to learn more about the technologies and our industry, "I think we're still absolutely studying and understanding what the good ideas and bad ideas in that space are. So, I don't think it's close."

If they could focus in getting rid of bad actors through enforcement of existing laws, followed by reasonable regulations with sensible regulatory guidance, I am all for that. It is looking like that is the route that they are taking.