Hello fellow Asgardians.
I have approached the administration and mentioned to others about a possible Citizenship package. I haven't heard from them about this and I know they are busy so I'll also put it out here as well.

When we gain our citizenship, we should be of the mind to have some Asgardia Paraphernalia around the house, right?

My idea is to have several citizenship packages available for purchase when ordering the ID card. Flags, Lapel pins, Shoulder Crests, Hats etc. All citizens would have the chance to gain a package when ordering our new citizenship cards. Every Citizen should strive to obtain a card at least. The rest is optional, but there ought to be a small fee for just the card as well, to cover production and shipping costs.

ID Card, Certificate & Mailing: $5 (Depending on costs)

Packages can look something like this: (All packages include the card and certificate)

Package 1:
1 Asgardian Desktop flag with pole and stand. Price $10 (or less depending on costs and included shipping)

Package 2 All of Package 1 plus: 1 medium sized Asgardian flag 1 Asgardian Lapel Pin Price: $20

Package 3 All of Package 2 plus: 2 Asgardian shoulder patches with insignia embroidered 1 Asgardian Cap Price: $50

And so on up the line. We could get into clothing and USB drives as well. USB's can be made to our specifications including shape.
These are just examples and prices are estimates.

I am throwing ideas out there so we can generate some cash so Igor doesn't have to fund this all on his own. I hope we get his blessing on this.

Every Asgardian will get the ID card. even if we have to use the available Bitcoin faucets to earn the small fee, we all ought to have one :-). Most will want some size of souvenir package as well. It's a perfect opportunity to fund our new nation. I also offer this:

Having been involved in the import/export business for the past 20 years, I have factory connections in 3 global locations for this type of promotional material and others. I would be willing to have all materials made and shipped at cost. i.e. ALL increases from citizenship package purchases would go toward Asgardia. Wouldn't be a tax, but would be covering the costs incurred (Materials are not free nor is labour for assembly nor postage and handling) and a bit of increase for "the cause" with very cool "stuff".

It would be an honour to be a supplier of such important pieces at the birth of our new nation.

My skills lie in sourcing both existing items and finding manufacturers for custom pieces. From Uniforms to LED Ice Cubes. Sailboats to electronics. All I need is a drawing, or an idea. Flag and insignia on a set of tumblers, maybe? Shower curtains :-). Laser engraved wood coasters?

Think about it - if there is a $5 increase on each package and every Asgardian purchased one - 570,000 x $5 = 2.85 million in Asgardia's bank account and a ton of people proudly displaying their newly acquired citizenship. Almost immediately. Never mind higher end things that many Asgardians would enjoy. All available on the 'net and shipped globally.

I am happy to offer the services to make this happen. As I said above - at my cost.
Thoughts and comments please.

Stone Age AKA John Willms

Awesome idea, it will get people interested for the new nation and the future.

How much thought you actually put into this?

It'd likely cost more than $5 for the card, even buying in bulk. Take into account UV inks, IR inks, holograms, and other physical security/anti-fraud features and if this is serving as an official ID card, then there should really be something like X.509 or PKCS11 embedded inside - the hardware for which will add to the cost. If this has RFID then that will require to be provided with shielding to protect it from being read from half way down the street etc. raising costs further.. and we've not even started the processing of the card, or posting it securely - this is just materials.

The ID card, really, is kind of useless. At minimal you'd want a passport, that can actually do something, potentially. First, however, you'd require passport processing facilities. If following published guidelines for this then there would require significantly outlay to establish, assuming we can't take some shortcuts by utilising existing resources.

Various forms of "merchandise" could potentially be used to generate minor income - I personally have no interest in the tat, but would likely purchase just for the supporting nature - but I sense a struggle to ensure value for money whilst still attributing funds in order to prevent treating Asgardians as a source of harvestable revenue. With regards to USB media, you really need to ensure it's not containing custom firmware that will deliver payloads on certian conditions - as producing such specifically for a nation would make it incredibly easy to target and leverage control over systems via such methods. Such mind must be taken with anything that is to interact digitally.

Certainly, Igor isn't going to be funding this on his own - there's enough of us to take care of everything with minor contributions on an individual level.

Looking at your itineray of goods, what about a full sized flag?

Ofc for things like flags, insignia, uniforms etc it's possibly quite prudent to hold off until descisions are final on what these are to be.

Thanks for the comments and yes, I believe it would foster a bit more interest and such. With regard to the costs - ID cards can be farmed out to places for printing. Maybe there would be more of a cost for them. - Putting it out there for idea's sake. Yes, it would be better to have passports printed over ID cards. Places like the Franklin Mint can take care of the printing needs (for both items) with no requirement to own any equipment. So those costs are alleviated.

Flags are very cheap - when you get into the hundreds of thousands - they are pennies - even for the big ones. I have been in the wholesale and jobber supply market for many years. To give an idea, a desktop flag sized about 3 x 5" with a pole - less than a penny a piece.

Yes, of course, we would ensure that all the designs and logo's were finalized before running to press with the "go" order.

Steps to set in motion would be - Determine the contents of the packages. Finalize logo, insignia and flag Tender out the manufacture of items to 3 factories - to get the best price. Have Asgardians pre pay for their package. Paypal accounts are easy. Order the materials to be sent to a centralized packaging and drop shipping house in North America - Most likely the US because of bulk postage rates and the relative assurance that you will receive something if sent by USPS. Courier deliveries would be available as well for an extra cost. Set up the packaging and shipping location to be ready for receipt. Likely a cost of a thousand or two a month. We'd need approx 2,000 Sq ft. in the cheapest west coastal place there is) OR we could farm out the packaging and shipping work. Might be cheaper still. Need to look into that.

There is much more to be thought out and worked on to make this a reality. I'd like to head it up if allowed. Like I mentioned. I would do it at my cost so Asgardians wouldn't be "milked" for any more than is necessary :-). I believe having a setup like this is a better method than just taxing. It could grow into something much more than a

As you may see, I HAVE put much thought into this and obviously more need to be considered. This is how these types of things get started :-).

Yes? cheers.

+1 to the idea , the price its for example its not the real since theres room to negotiation and etc.....

i want every type you have in stock please :v

Places like franklin mint are suitable for commemorative coins, toy cars and other "collectables" but thoroughly unsuitable to produce artifacts such as ID cards or passports. "Farming" these out to third parties instantly arises a situation where it's possible for these things to exist in places other than Asgardian posession. It enables random third parties to easily generate materials that will on casual inspection pass as valid - and distribute these to unauthorised entities and would directly violate published guidelines for passport production as being admistrated by third parties offsite it's impossible to ensure required procedures and polices are being adhered to at all times. The fact that some countries would elect to use them to produce their currency suggests they simply do not take security seriously, and I'm sure the examples of this you can find will also of demonstrated other capacity to make poor descisions and likely in large number.

Things like ID cards, passports etc should be produced in secured facilities. The requirement to own equipment reduces production costs overall in the long term, as it's liekly to be used more than once and at some point almost constantly and more importantly can make it easier to assure third party reproduction of physical or digital security features are as difficult as possible. If the materials required to reproduce the security features never leave Asgardian control then it becomes a lot easier to prevent reproduction.

Personally, I'd rather post you cash thorugh the conventional mail system, as opposed to using paypal - They've previously demonstrated to myself that they cannot be trusted, and as such will not be offered further opportunities to steal from me.

The more ways you can provide to accept payment, the better, as this would enable various users that have tied themselves into closed systems in order to generate the operator of that system more revenue through their use of it the opertunity to purchase.

That's a great idea, I think that all the Asgardians should have something to show people their new nationality, I think that this kind of things increase the loyalty or patriotism of being an Asgardian; however, I think that this should be touched or placed over the table once Asgardia is recognized as a country.

I have experience in Global Sourcing and Quality Compliance as I worked for an international company that has huge quality standards. I also can help in the e-Commerce project as I've been working on that for the past years.

Glad to help on anything related to this topic.

EyeR - Agreed - Franklin Mint is not a good example to have secure documents printed, but the Troy Group and Docusheild are two companies that to exactly that. Print MANY countries Passports and ID certificates. If they weren't reliable and secure, then they would be out of business because they wouldn't have any customers :-). perfect example of how the free market works :-). Truth be known - to start things off we don't really need counterfeit measures on an initial ID card. I have an ID producing software that would make any state ID printer jealous :-). An official stamp and signature - Laminate it and a "good enough for now" ID card to show your support for Asgardia. When we are recognized by the UN as a nation state, then passports would be needed. Until then, no need. Every citizen would be required to have one making the ID card obsolete. I imagine the UN endorsement will be a few years off. Until then we can work with a less secure setup. After all, we really are no more than just a club with a very large membership. :-). Keep it simple until we have to complicate it. Plan for it, but no need to spend money on that equipment right now.

As far as Paypal - Yeah - Another bad example, but one everyone knows. Just to get the idea out there. Bitcoin would be the first currency of choice IMHO - OR a crypto we would develop that is exchangeable for bitcoin. I really don't know of any regular financial institutions that are safe to send money in and out of. i think every bank on the planet has been hacked. Paypal - yeah - know a few people that have lost their money because of their supposed violation of t&c's. Whatever methods to be used would be the approved ones by Asgardia. I am sure there will be more than a few ways.

Artruro: Thanks for the offer to help. Certainly this size of a project would not be able to happen with only one :-). IF this goes forward and is accepted and I am put in charge of it - I will be in touch with you and many others. You are right - It's not something that will happen in the next week or two, but perhaps later this year, after the contests are finalized and we have definite proofs of our emblems, but I could see the need for it right after the elections in June. I don't think we will have to wait to be recognized as a country - except for producing passports.

That being the case we could be pressed to make it happen a bit quicker.

Let's keep this discussion going.

BohZao - Thanks for the endorsement. You bet and you are on the list of recipients of whatever is going to be included in it. :-).

Hey everyone!

Great topic! Please keep the discussion going and let us hear those ideas you may have about this. I have flagged it for Asgardia Official to keep an eye on. :) I know that they have a merchandising idea for things once the contests are completed so hearing about how you would like to have it done helps quite a bit!

Kind regards, Rebekah Berg, Lead Community Administrator, Asgardia

Sorry Rebekah for the question (and greeting by the way) , but when the flag/insignia contest we will end?

Edit: The reason its that we can have a base if we want to do this (what to put in the product haha) ,since theres alot of people here and i bet that if we make the merchandise and sell around the world (theres people that can do this with us here in the forum) , its gonna have a good image/impact to us ,and gain funds to the nation

Well yeah , i only think we need to wait at least the flag contest to end ,before we do something,since we will need the nem insígnia

Asgardia.com?

Is that official? Why would we require more than one domain? Isn't the .com TLD supposed to be for companies?

Well its a alpha , only a test

I really like this idea. The realm of possibilities is almost limitless here. I know I would buy some Asgardia gear.