The key is merchants and entrepreneurs demanding #Bitcoin for their services
I'm going to keep repeating that for myself to keep remembering as much as for others
I'm not the first one to say this, again just repeating for us all to think about
This is a reason why I'm rethinking if an optimized Bitcoin Merchant Directory actually helps drive any business to businesses that accept Bitcoin
I guess marginally it could but when I'm thinking about the purchases I've made w/ Bitcoin my flow did not take me through a directory and the times I've scrolled directories I haven't really seen anything I've needed or felt like I wanted to buy
Bitcoin business like all business starts w/ a personal relationship or with a well defined need or want
I would love to see a test of a small to medium sized restaurant or e commerce business just fully flip the switch and go to #Bitcoin only
Like re optimize their whole flow to just say we only take #btc now
You could have really nice pop ups telling customers the wallets you recommend to download or if its brick n mortar than run a table out on the sidewalk and say sorry due to the hard economic times we are #btc only now, please download this app in order to pay
I want to run this test for someone, I want to be on the team that runs this test
I want to actually see the numbers side by side of what the credit card fees used to be and what the rubber meets the road headaches or benefits were of switching
It's effectively the small to medium business equivalent of what Microstrategy did where they just flipped the switch one day and switched their reserves to Bitcoin
I want to see a cash flow business run this test of just flipping the switch
Have 3-6 months of cash to pay vendors and employees while you run the test fully on Bitcoin and as the early numbers come in start to have those conversations with the most willing ones to pay them in Bitcoin as a partial test too
I also want to talk about this concept of "accepting Bitcoin", I'm not sure that's going to be how it works for the small to medium businesses that embrace this
I think its going to be way closer to "preferring Bitcoin", like I'm sorry we are Bitcoin only, any other method of payment is going to result in a $10 surcharge, like a wine corkage fee
In that sense you're not giving a #bitcoin discount, you're charging a fiat fee the same way some places already charge you a fee to use a credit card
I also don't think its that weird to only accept one kind of payment and require customers change their habits with you or pick a different place to shop
Cash only businesses do this
Costco does this only accepting Visa after recently switching from Amex
Early in the pandemic I was scrolling small business for sale sites because just like alot of people I have that fantasy of just hanging up on the annoying knowledge work and just running a bar or running a laundromat or running a coffee shop
Getting the opportunity to take a small to medium sized business, any kind of business, and just switch it over to #bitcoin would be really cool and I think open eyes up for alot of people
Like maybe on a macro level its really hard to predict the future and think about hyper bitcoinization and whatever but honestly on a small level maybe it is as simple as just getting your ducks in a row and flipping the switch
If you have a good that people want/need and are offering it at a convenient price and location, getting them to download and app and scan a QR code instead of sticking a piece of plastic in a machine feels definitely doable to me
In the past 7 days I've managed the checkout flow of right around $2,000 of #btc online and in person and would love the opportunity to do more
The reason why I don’t think about a 6102 of #Bitcoin day to day is that I’m optimistic we will all be able to turn the ruling class back towards upholding the social contract that they continue breaking
If the ruling class decides to seize the #Bitcoin or decides to tax and regulate it over handedly then the poor choice is on them
I’m choosing optimism, I’m choosing hope, I’m using my influence to tell them it doesn’t have to be this way
And that’s the message to anyone. Anyone can become a Bitcoiner and any business can become a Bitcoin business
It’s a switch you flip in deciding which system your labor is going to add value to, the legacy unfair system or the new fair system
The genius of @BtcpayServer is that installing it turns any company into a “Bitcoin” company
There is so much pent up demand for being paid in #Bitcoin and if you can’t find a job in the “Bitcoin Industry” offer to set up BTC Pay for any random company and make yourself a job
The genius of the @ln_strike app is that it cuts through the hodl vs spend debate and allows you to pay lightning invoices from fiat
This is good for people looking to earn #Bitcoin and it’s good for hodlers that want to get into #lightning w/o touching their main stack
The genius of @LunaNode is that it’s the best way to get up and running on your own instance of BTC Pay w/o command line
The genius of @RTL_App is that it comes pre installed w/ BTC Pay and you can start managing lightning channels immediately
"At the heart of liberalism is a belief that the system can work, if it could just be architected well enough and administered competently and compassionately..."
The ruling class believes they are helping. They sincerely believe they are helping. Gavin Newsom sincerely believes telling us when and where to eat and how and when to get a haircut is helping us.
So when in some of my rhetoric I cast him as an evil character that is not helping people, that can come across as confusing because he seems like a nice guy and they hear me saying he is leading some secret conference call every morning w/ the motive of fucking up peoples lives.
And what sucks is that we've all been burned by both crowds:
We've been burned by the overly "helpful nice guy" politicians
We've been burned by the "they are messing it up, just give us power" side too