Best methods for onboarding small town to parallel Lightning economy ?
302 sats \ 22 comments \ @weatherall 4 Dec 2022 bitcoin
In the spirit and service of this recent TU vid Flipping The US For Bitcoin (Danger Ahead) , how to lay down the pipe in a small town ? Less than 5000 people .
Legislative approaches ? How to leapfrog the heffers and masons ?
Straight to the businesses ?
Are there any examples of someone doing this ?
I mean if the Ithaca Hours and its spawn had traction then ...
Seems like everything is ready to go...
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1000 sats \ 0 replies \ @demitasse 5 Dec 2022
You should probably read the bitcoin beach whitepaper: https://github.com/bitcoinbeach/bubbles
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85 sats \ 13 replies \ @DarthCoin 4 Dec 2022
How to onboard a small town?
This is a very good question. Not easy to achieve. Why? Because even if is a small town (I live in a small town too), each family / individual have different needs and views. And there's a lot of envy between them. Is really hard to find a small town where everybody loves each others.
So I would go for an approach that makes them to compete between each others in this matter.
  1. Individual education or in small groups. Meetups. Not about the technicalities of Bitcoin, but about how to use it, even with small games or contests. Enough to make them comfortable to use it. Treat them as individual cases. Each one will see Bitcoin in its own way. So ask them first what are their real issues in life right now and how they deal with. Then find the right place for Bitcoin in those problems.
  2. Separate education for merchants. Yes, they are the engine of a Bitcoin adoption. If there's no merchant to accept BTC in that town, absolutely NOBODY will be interested into using it. I wrote several guides about how to help merchant to use Bitcoin (see my substack, now in many languages. In special the guides about LNbits and wallets. Businesses must consider Bitcoin as cash. There's no "asset", there's no "bitcoin tax". Bitcoin is just money. In all their accounting Bitcoin must treated as cash. No more no less.
  3. Once you have at least 10% of the people using BTC, go for public large groups education, with deeper knowledge and details. Now is time to show them the real power of Bitcoin. Why? Because these 10% of "new bitcoiners" will start spreading your word and teachings.
Legislative approaches ?
NO fucking way! Bitcoin IS PERMISSIONLESS! There's no need for any law or regulation to tell you "you must use Bitcoin". Bitcoin is for everybody and each individual must choose to use it.
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11 sats \ 11 replies \ @om 4 Dec 2022
Businesses must consider Bitcoin as cash. There's no "asset", there's no "bitcoin tax". Bitcoin is just money. In all their accounting Bitcoin must treated as cash. No more no less.
That's not how it works. Businesses must either do funny stuff or do accounting according to the law. If the law says it's an asset, then the accountants will treat it as such whether you think it's conceptually wrong or not. In countries where all farmers at a farmers' market have a cash register there's little choice.
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11 sats \ 10 replies \ @DarthCoin 4 Dec 2022
What is "law"? Who have any authority over my own money and my labor? Did I consent that authority over my money and my labor to somebody else, is there any evidence or document where I gave that authority to somebody else?
If I want to sell my products and services for pink shells, is my own damn business why I want to accept pink shells.
People today make the big confusion between money and legal tender, thinking that are the same thing. IT IS NOT!
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11 sats \ 2 replies \ @om 4 Dec 2022
If you want to sell your products and services for pink shells while ignoring pesky things such as laws and taxes, you might get away with it personally. But if you would convince every merchant in your town to do the same then your local tax office would notice. Then some unpleasant people might pop up demonstrating the evidence that they do in fact have some de facto authority over you without your consent.
But since every merchant in your town knows how this ends very well, you won't convince them in the first place, unless you live in US in 18th century.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @weatherall OP 6 Dec 2022
what about beta stage immediate fiat conversion for the merchants ? half-way is something isnt it ?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @om 6 Dec 2022
Again, the question of legality. The EU approach is that whoever is facilitating the conversion is a VASP and has to KYC the buyer. This is not acceptable. Paying with sats without conversion is actually better in this case.
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1 sat \ 5 replies \ @xekcc 4 Dec 2022
Ok. You sell your trinkets for pink shells, but then how are you going to buy the materials to create these trinkets if no one accepts pink shells?
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11 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 4 Dec 2022
Convince the supplier to accept the pink shells. If not, then go to another supplier that accept your pink shells. In the end the one that didn't accept, will think about and will come back to you to ask for your pink shells.
Somebody have to start this circular economy, otherwise you will be trapped endlessly into fiat world. Step out and be free, don't be complacent and just wait for others to do it for you.
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1 sat \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 4 Dec 2022
statism much? Please, govern me harder...
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @om 4 Dec 2022
I assume you wanted to reply to me.
I'm not saying here that the government is the force for good. Far from it. I'm just saying that if you defy it at the scale of a small town then it will come looking and you won't like it. Desire for liberty is noble but unfortunately doesn't make one bulletproof.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xekcc 4 Dec 2022
you're not making sense
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @xekcc 4 Dec 2022
Yes, that's the problem, the chicken and egg problem. You kind of need to start from scratch, for example, with food. Create small self sustaining circles and then expand.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @weatherall OP 6 Dec 2022
If problems arise though , would this not potentially be a legal matter for people involved ? After all , the residents and businesses are all wound up in the LOCAL (a distinction I think worth making here , in the US particularly) government's argument that the locals are in contract with them and partake of their "services"...
Theoretically(constitutionally), local governments should be able to declare it a legitimate local currency , no ?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @weatherall OP 6 Dec 2022
thanks man
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12 sats \ 0 replies \ @om 4 Dec 2022
Are there any examples of someone doing this?
Sure, El Zonte.
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32 sats \ 2 replies \ @xekcc 4 Dec 2022
My guess is to start with children, because they don't have bank accounts, they can't work legally, but many of them can and want to work. People in the west with relatively stable currencies have no reason to start using bitcoin, but children are disenfranchised and cut off from finances, like many people in poor nations. Bitcoin can empower these children, allow them to freely engage in the economy and just feel that they have a voice in this world.
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @brxyz 4 Dec 2022
This isn't bad advice. If you want to introduce a disruptive product, start with groups that aren't entrenched with the traditional solutions. The best way to introduce Bitcoin is start with the unbanked. Get them on Fountain, ZBD, etc. - platforms where they can stack sats with no fiscal investment. Find the local merchants that cater to them, especially those with low dollar items. Get them set up with Strike or what have you.
If this group ends up being kids, you have the added opportunity to get parents to start paying their kids' allowance via LN.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @ashdraked 5 Dec 2022
Great idea, bitcoin Ekasi, bitcoin praia (brasil) and bitcoin beach El Salvador all paid kids sats
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ashdraked 5 Dec 2022
I think Oshi pilling businesses will be great, it directly incentivizes people who don’t really understand bitcoin and then the orange pilling process will begin. Oshi.team/bitcoin if I can shill my link
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @weatherall OP 6 Dec 2022
awesome ... dl'd
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @01xCc 4 Dec 2022
нет такого закона что б запретить обменивать один товар на другой! просто начинай.
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