Please check the post by @leoinker as one example of someone who has worked with the community almost every day for the last 3 years for evidence that the community has a problem with the brand name conventions. We are expecting more posts to come in the days ahead with other people who are also unhappy. So we will answer them as best we can, learn from the suggestions and find consensus. If anyone has any problems, come to me direct. I answer every question I’m asked. Just let me know what needs resolving, and I’ll act on your behalf. I have been working with Mikun and Etsuko for the last 5 months and receive regular reports on how the Japanese community are doing. I even tweet in Japanese sometimes. I have huge respect for Japanese culture and traditions. I actually believe that we should all follow the Japanese lead. You have the strongest developer base, the most active and knowledgeable community members, the best testers, you have NEMTus, who are incredible. The list goes on.
Excuse me, but who are you? At least I don’t know. Are you following me on Twitter?
Hello. My name is Oliver Muldoon and I work for NEM Group. My job is to work with the community to help get its questions answered. Here is a tweet that explains something more about me.
If you would like to see my references, please check my LinkedIn page here and scroll down to the references section:
You just followed me 
Please come and find out what I’ve been up to for NEM in Japan since 2016.
Thank you for your continued support.
Yes, I know who you are. I will not wait for a follow in return. Keep up the great work. If you have any problems from now on, you can come straight to me and I’ll get them raised immediately.
I think in that case we would also want to look at the identify and presentation - not necessarily a full rebrand - more an opportunity to refresh - interested to hear thoughts on the NEM look and feel at that point
I agree that it is important to make it clear that both blockchains are part of NEM and that NEM is the ecosystem/movement brand that includes Symbol and NIS
The former head of the NEM Foundation held a Twitter poll, and the majority of votes wanted the new chain to have a name that included the word NEM (or catapult). However, only the name Symbol was ultimately proposed. The community had no choice in logo design.
You know this because you’ve been involved in this.
We had no choice but to agree to the idea in exchange for a delayed launch. But then the launch was delayed for another year or more.
The name Symbol makes it hard to tell that it is a blockchain within the NEM brand. This is an unquestionable fact, in my opinion.
And that is Easily solved to just add NEM to the logo and to the name NEM symbol
100% agree
That’s a subject I wanted to have since day 1, happy to see there are people who think the same.
For the majority of people: XEM = NEM (Many people call the token “NEM Token”).
So, because of this shit name “symbol”, when people will see news about a NEM partnership, they will think about “XEM token”.
Even the LOGO of NEM is the logo of XEM: https://twitter.com/NEMofficial
Why ???
It makes people confuse like if XYM was just an airdrop of XEM Like the Spark token that has been distributed to XRP holders recently".
I just typed “Symbol launch” on google to see if there are mistake on Articles speaking about XYM, look at the first I clicked on: After painful birth, NEM’s tokenization blockchain ‘Symbol’ is live
1) They named the XEM chart: "NEM/USD, 90-day chart: CoinGecko"
So They say “NEM” instead of “XEM”
- Later in the article they say "XYM is currently trading for $0.4, a roughly 8% premium over NEM"
So now, there is “XYM” and there is “NEM / XEM”
The branding is VERY BAD. People think that XEM is NEM. So imagine NEM makes a great partnership, people will interest and buy XEM despite the new token is XYM cause they dont know.
Also, it is an error of NGL to spam that “We will work on both token”.
NO, XYM is the NEM 2.0, you had to announce that you will now DEV and WORK on promoting XYM ONLY. Meanwhile XEM is open source but you wont work on it. That is the truth.
People have to understand that XYM is the update of XEM or it will cause the end of XYM simply cause people will just think that “oh, this is the NEM airdrop” instead of “XYM is the main coin of NEM”.
You have to rework everything. First, the logo of NEM should not be the logo of XEM. You have to create a new one.
Then, you have to change the name or the logo of XEM or XYM so people understand that "NEM = XYM (or “NEM = XYM and XEM”) and not “NEM = XEM”
Please share to us what you are gonna do, I’m worried.
PS: Once again, all this sh*t comes from ALEX, the worst president ever. She just had to call it “XEM 2” , or calling it “XEM” and rebrand the old one into “XEM Classic” or rebrand the all “NEM brand” to make it easier to understand. BUT NO, she had to show off that she is doing great by creating something new.
ofc, for 99% of people: NEM = XEM. People also often say “I bought NEM coin” instead of “I bought XEM coin”.
It is a disaster of Symbol. Even if NGL make a partnership with Tesla, people will think about XEM. Will buy XEM token and speak about XEM. Cause for them “NEM = XEM”
Even the logo of NEM on twitter is the same as XEM logo.
And people NGL, dont say “we will carefully check that article will say that we made the partnership about the XYM blockchain dont worry”
People dont care, people dont read all the article, people just read “NEM and TESLA parternship” and they think “XEM”.
It is urgent to do something.
It’s a mess and hopefully NEM Group will listing their community.
If Symbol is superior tech then the whole group needs to be rebranded.
@DaveH where’s all the hype for XYM?
For most of the people it does not feel like an upgrade as XYM can’t be found from CMC and NEM is still the 1 priority and brand not Symbol.
We are middle of biggest crypto boom ever and zero gains from either of coins.
For me “classic” doesn’t sound like “obsolete, outdated, discarded”, but of course that is subjective and if many people read it like that, that should be taken seriously.
I agree 100% to what you write in 5. @leoinker. I think long term when it comes to such decisions - and what I see here is there is confusion and that should be resolved. Rebranding creates some work but it’s not like the whole team will have to care only about rebranding for 3 months and is not able to continue to work on all the other stuff that is currently worked on for Symbol.
I personally think we should either have 2 brands without “NEM” in it or 2 with “NEM” in it. That is why I liked the idea of NEMclassic and NEMsymbol. But of course “classic” could be something else like “original” or whatever.
Regarding the logo: It’s tricky. The thing is, so far there was no need to distinguish the Ecosystem from one of the chains (XEM or XYM). But now this changed. So question is: Should we have a new logo for XEM? Or for the Ecosystem? I actually tend to no new logo at all, but just create a mix of both for the Ecosystem (e.g. twitter account). Either really a mix, or use both alongside…
Personally, I would like to recommend “ZEM” as a candidate for the new name, based on the pronunciation of XEM.
A new name can also have a positive impact on the market.
This is the NIS1 & NEM Naming Convention.
I think that people who have XEM should especially participate in the discussion.
In fact, there are people here who have already sold all their XEM and are only interested in XYM.
It’s natural for them to want us to focus only on XYM.
Especially in the Japanese community, there are a lot of people who only want to see XYM.
Since XYM was established, the number of XEM nodes in Japan has decreased significantly.
If more and more candidates for new names were to come up here
I think a POI poll would be useful to reach out directly to people who have XEM.
However, if there are not enough candidates for a new name, or if there is not enough support for a new name, I don’t think we need to change the current name.
hey guys,
wanted to share my view on the topic, also because i was one of the critics about branding i wanted to give you my opinion from the perspective of an admin/mod on NEM telegram channels (english and german)
in the weeks after launch it became clear to me that many, especially newer, members were confused with the 2 chain approach. i think what adds most to the confusion is that our original XEM is still “NEM” in eyes of many and that it is marketed alongside Symbol. Making it hard for someone to understand what Symbol actually is and if its from same team. Since the official twitter, the team and the telegram groups still run under the name “NEM” it doesnt make it easier for someone to understand Symbol is NEM too.
you see, the reason i and others brought this up is Symbol, not NIS. We discussed it because people dont seem to understand the Symbol brand.
i think it would make things easier if we choose fitting names for both chains which shows that both are NEM products.
something like: NEMclassic / NEMoriginal / NEM 1.0 for NIS
and
something like: NEMsymbol / NEM 2.0 for Symbol
these names would show everyone that both chains are indeed NEM but also differentiate between our well established XEM and the new product Symbol (which, with the addition of NEM to the name is visible as NEM product on first sight).
I agree with alot of you guys here that there are more pressing things and no time should be wasted. Priority should be development around Symbol. However, i dont think a rebranding would influence the development on tech side since its done by different people.
maybe it is the best to just stay with the names we have and make sure communication/marketing gets more clear about the 2 chains though
I totally agree with you and that should be easy and fast to implement without major changes.
Before continuing this discussion, a few things should be clear.
First, Symbol is not an upgrade from NIS or NIS1. And that’s how it should be marketed - as its own blockchain under the NEM logo.
Second, the community should finally have a clear announcement of how the development of the two chains will continue. No snippets that are published every day will help, sorry. For this, the perception of the blockchain world via Symbol is not strong enough and the time we have is too short.
Unfortunately, news is mainly provided on channels used by the NEM community. That is too little.
If NIS is to have a chance, it must be made clear that with Symbol we have a new independent blockchain under the NEM label and that both are going their own way. Names such as Classic, Original or NEM 1.0 are not appropriate. It should remain with NIS.
In my opinion, one must finally market the label NEM properly. This is the real mistake. This means that in the future, this will be a name for an ecosystem under which more than just two blockchains can be found. There may be other developments released under “NEM” in the future.
The Japanese community is really important for NEM. One of the problems I see is that far too little of the Japanese projects are perceived outside the Japanese community. And if, then again only on channels that are used exclusively by the NEM community and so more or less drown.
Just to add my opinion.
- I would have preferred to market Symbol as the NEM 2.0 Catapult upgrade it was planned to be since ehhm… 2016 or 2017 if I recall correctly. And if not migrate all the legacy chain, call it “legacy” just to support previous applications built on it. However, people more clever than me had probably considered the various implications and then taken the other journey we’re finding ourselves on now.
- I strongly dislike the term “NIS1” and have voiced it out several times already. I guess my concern was heard, evaluated and then dismissed. Out there, not many of any audience (community, blockchain-industry, non-blockchain commercial industry, etc.) would get what that means? It’s an archaic term from the NCC-NIS world pre NanoWallet. When we NEM-OGs used to run Java containers and local NEM Infrastructure Servers on our desktop PCs just to interact with the NEM Blockchain.
In any case, if there was a way out of the “NIS1” mess now, I’d very much like that.
Perhaps do it like Uniswap, Aave and others who need to maintain their older systems running? V1, V2, V3?
- NEM V1
- NEM V2 Codename SYMBOL ?
Happy weekend,
Rene, LuxTag.io