Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
I’d like to share a story about adoption with you. Lately, I haven’t been able to find time for meetups because of family and work, so I decided to focus on lunches instead. In a regular local pub, I asked the owner if he’d be willing to accept Bitcoin. He politely declined. I kept going there about once a week. After a few visits, I made an NFC card and loaded it with 1,000 sats as a tip. I also gave him a leaflet with instructions on how to access the Bitcoin. He’s an older gentleman, not very interested in technology, and doesn’t have much time for experiments while running the place. The following week, I tipped him another 1,000 sats. On the third week, he finally agreed to let me install a mobile wallet app for him. Suddenly, he had a bit of Bitcoin in his Wallet of Satoshi. I asked him if I could start paying that way — with the promise that if it didn’t work out, I’d exchange it back into cash for him. He wasn’t too keen at first, but since I was a regular, he wanted to make me happy. From that moment, I announced in the local Jednadvacet (our Czech version of Einundzwanzig) community that we’d meet for lunch every Thursday. A short meetup — a chance to exchange Bitcoin, learn something new, meet people, etc. The only condition: payment must be in Bitcoin. Two months have passed since then. The group has been growing. At first, there were just three of us. Last time, there were already seventeen. For the owner, it’s become a significant part of that day’s revenue. He’s started treating us better too — now he greets us from afar and even reserves the biggest table for us every Thursday, not letting anyone else sit there. Every time I ask him if everything’s okay, if he wants to cash out, or needs any help with it. And you know what he told me last time? That he doesn’t need to — it’s growing nicely in Bitcoin. He even recently bought a fridge with Bitcoin. He said he had to use Lightning because he ran into some issues with on-chain. I never even mentioned the word “Lightning” to him. He’s been learning on his own, and now he’s become quite the Bitcoiner. It looks like the pub might soon turn into a nice little vexl point — a place where people can exchange Bitcoin for dirty fiat and vice versa. I’m writing this because I think it’s a great blueprint. It’s short, takes me about an hour a week — time I’d spend on lunch anyway — I meet people, and it helps Bitcoin adoption in a very natural way. Hopefully, it’ll inspire more Bitcoiners to try something similar in their own area.

Replies (71)

Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Yes. This one is in Prague.
hiroswife's avatar
hiroswife 1 month ago
Bravo! I appreciate you sharing it. I like that you did it in a non-threatening, tangible and consistent way while presenting optionality and zero risk to the gentleman. It also shows that it takes time to build trust. An inspiring example of how you can integrate orange pilling into day to day. Love it.
hiroswife's avatar
hiroswife 1 month ago
A beautiful story about adoption and getting someone off zero. In the past I resorted to either bribing/forcing others by gifting them sats. I also tried to engage in a very long process of gentle probing, hinting and philosophical discussions to point them in the right direction. Occasionally, I lost patience and turned to more aggressive borderline toxic ‘have fun being poor’ type of tactics. Not good. This is one of the best ways: non-threatening, engaging and respectful. View quoted note →
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Thx, we are all Satoshi 🫡
It's just the lack of overall knowledge so thar I can confidently and accurately answer any questions. There's nothing worse than "selling" something and fumbling your lines. It doesn't breed confidence and the slow game always wins.
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
You never know everything. It is completely fine to not know if you are honest
That is true, and in general conversation I'd happily say what I know (even to a business owner), but when it's someone's business I'm not going in half baked. It's more a matter of time (as I learn).
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Brl4n² 1 month ago
Fantastic. Trying to get my hair cutter to do this. Maybe next time 🤞🏼
Nice story. I’ve tried getting local merchants to accept and none have been interested. Maybe just getting people in the door will convince Btw, I have some bitcoin merch. You may like one of my designs image
I remember seeing somewhere a link/website/place where city by city one could find a group to meet up with (lunch sounds great) to learn and educate and spread the BC word. Send it my way if you recall/have it. Thx.
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Interesting. Thx for the link. Seems like the market reacts really to anything. I got the feeling that the bitcoin adoption is more about existing bitcoiners. That we must first truly want to use it everywhere.
I've heard before that the best way to get people into Bitcoin is to give them a small amount. This story backs that up.
Now tell him that his wallet has zero privacy and that he is a target once it gets big enough. There is a reason why monero is the preferred option since many years.
Great work and indeed a good blue print that worked for me before as well. But without giving this man default privacy you just set him up for failure. Protecting new comers from their lack of knowledge and future mistakes is a very good reason to introduce people to privacycoins first.
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Right, it’s not perfect. However you can use it private way. 
And monero has other problems that are not that easy to resolve.
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Privacy coins have other downsides. There are many trade-offs. And I think it’s better to go with bitcoin from very first moment. There are private ways how to use bitcoin.
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
Yes… waiting is fine too. It’s just not my way — I’ve spent years trying to help people around me, and it’s paying off. I see many happy people whom I’ve even kind of pushed toward bitcoin, and I’ve even shared part of the risk with them.
MrWonderland's avatar
MrWonderland 1 month ago
While I love that story, I am also annoyed that once again a person got lured into a fully closed source and custodial system. This is not helping anyone really. And the most annoying thing is, there are fully open source and non/self-custodial alternatives. If you'd have onboarded that gentlemen to Cake Wallet and Monero, he had privacy from the start (without needing any further knowledge and pretty much no way to shoot himself into the foot). But also everyone had lower fees paying him. It just makes me sad when I hear Bitcoiners talk about centralization and not needing to trust third parties, but then in the same sentence recommend WoS...
Oh cool, so I embed the lnurlw onto the nfc. Then I can print the QR onto the back (just in case nfc doesn't work properly). Presumably then I'd have to host the wallet on my own node? Is there a way to do this so im entirely out of the mix using some custodial wallet or something?
Oh sorry just saw you also posted lnbits. I've tried that in the past but got rugged (was my risk to take and they warned me so not their fault) cause it was not a production product. Looks like they've made changes and its no longer beta?
Hynek's avatar
Hynek 1 month ago
You can run LNbits on your node. Purpose of nfc is that you can reuse it. Meaning top up again. But for one time action is ok to use just printed qr
You can also jump from an car while speeding, doesn't mean that it is a perfect way to get out from the car. Privacy in money isn't negotiable, it is necessary.
Sorry but if the vendor was rocking a iPhone, would you still recommend centralized services like the App Store? WoS also has a self-custody option now btw. I'm all with you, but you seem to be jumping the gun in expectations?
Cool story! With btcmaps expanding like crazy and square accepting Bitcoin... hopefully this type of thing spreads like wild-fire
MrWonderland's avatar
MrWonderland 3 weeks ago
Cake Wallet is also available on iOS, so yes I'd still recommend that. Though I also recommend against using an iPhone. The 'self-custody' option of WoS is not really self custodial (see for further information) So yeah, Cake Wallet + Monero offers low fees (about 1 cent TX fee regardless of how much money you send), fast tx (you see the money in a few seconds, and thanks to no RBF it's safe to accept smaller amounts without further confirmations), good privacy without any technical knowledge and it's fully open source and self-custodial. There is no equivalent for BTC, that offers the same features.
MerkleBranch's avatar
MerkleBranch 3 weeks ago
Very inspiring, we need more of those initiatives 🟠