On Saturday, I decided to try a little experiment. I had several Uber rides to take, so I thought, "What if I take the opportunity to evangelize a little about Bitcoin?"
I have my credit/debit card anchored, which gives cashback in Bitcoin (I've mentioned several times how useful it is) but this time I selected the "pay in cash" option. The idea was simple: at the end of each ride, ask the driver if they accepted Bitcoin as a form of payment.
In total, there were 7 rides that day, with drivers of very different profiles:
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The first, a talkative young man. When I asked him if he accepted Bitcoin, he laughed and said he barely understood how the Uber app worked, much less something as "strange" as cryptocurrencies. He had heard something about Bitcoin before, and he knew that one Bitcoin was a lot of money, but that there were many scams, and how would he know I wasn't scamming him? But he didn't have time to learn about that now either.
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The second, an older man in his 60s, very friendly. He replied seriously that he had heard about Bitcoin on the news, but that he preferred not to get involved in "that stuff" because it seemed risky and a bit unsafe.
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The third, a quiet guy, barely spoke. When I asked him, he simply said "no, thank you" and changed the subject as if nothing had happened.
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The fourth, a young and curious driver. He asked me how it worked, how much it cost, and if it was legal to pay with it. Although he didn't accept the payment, he seemed interested and even asked me to send him some links or videos to watch later. In the end, he was curious, but I'd rather stick with what was safe.
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The fifth, a very serious woman, treated it as if I was joking. She laughed nervously and said, "Hey, young man, better give me the cash or take a pic."
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The sixth, a rather talkative driver, told me that he had a cousin who had told him about the subject. He was interested in receiving payments in Bitcoin, and how could he do that? I explained about LN. At the time, he couldn't download the WOS app because he already had another passenger waiting, but that he wasn't ruling out doing so for the future. I recommended a very good Brazilian YouTube channel, and we shook hands afterward.
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The last one, a middle-aged man who seemed a bit tired, listened patiently, but eventually replied that he wasn't familiar with anything digital other than Uber itself and Pix.
The bottom line: none of the seven accepted Bitcoin as payment that day. Well, one did, but the idea was to pay in Sats, not Pix, or cash.
But the interesting thing wasn't the outcome, but the conversations that ensued. Some laughed, others were suspicious, and a few were left with the urge to investigate further.
I think that on the sixth I could have kept his WhatsApp and made the payment, but he had to trust me a lot, who knows... maybe later I'll do the same experiment, this one was a bit on the fly to see what came out, the hardest part is breaking the ice...!!