Here's some characteristics of this person:
- technically not very savvy at all, but has a smartphone and can send texts, watch youtube videos, things like that
- No laptop
- Very skeptical of government, has had bank account garnished for non payment of taxes. Hippy, back to earth type
- Has previously gotten into alternative "local currencies" and has a huge stack of one of them. Not usable anymore, of course.
I'm thinking CoinOS for now.
What should I recommend as to videos to watch, etc? I think getting into mining and the cryptography would be a dead end, just too much and too hard to understand.
Just something to explain the bare minimum basics of Bitcoin, and how it could be actually useful.
https://lightsats.com/. This is a great option.
In order to receive the gift, the person needs to do some Proof of work.
If they don't do it, the SATs would go back to you. So, if they don't claim it, you don't loose anything.
This used to be my go to then I had trouble with redemption of unclaimed gifts. Haven’t used them since
For the basics, I'd recommend that they first study Bitcoin. Here's some of the useful resources: #1197737
No advice on wallets. Probably something easy, even custodial if need be to get started. With an offer to help when the person is ready to go the next step to hold their own keys.
Given this in particular, I'd recommend something from Andreas Antonopoulos.
Take a look through some of his introduction to bitcoin videos and pick one that is closest to the level of detail you'd think the person would enjoy. Like this, or this one.
If those are too dry/boring, then maybe a video going more into why it is useful if you're skeptical of government control of money. Like this one called Currency Wars II, one of my personal all-time favorites.
And finally, I'd give some advice on how and where to use it. Think btcmap, bitrefill, and whatever else is relevant and works in their location.
One thing I forgot - I think the main thing would be for this person to ACCEPT bitcoin. For getting paid, for handyman work. People could do that pretty easily (maybe with Strike, probably).
But in order to want to accept Bitcoin, he'd have to be convinced that bitcoin is valuable.
Something which I've found can be impactful: instead of setting them up with an empty wallet and sending Bitcoin to it, you recover a wallet on their hardware that already carries a balance. That is, to emphasize that the keys (the money) were held in your brain.
Coinos has a good and easy to use point of sales.
You can receive SATs via lightning, onchain or liquid.
I think the best starting point is to get them to download wallet of Satoshi wallet and send them like 1000 sats at first. Then take them shopping using btc instead of fiat. The best way to onboard is to show not tell.
https://OrangeTips.win
Maybe im way off but id try fountain because their wallet built in to the podcasting app is solid as a rock. Never had downtime, never been hacked (sorry Adam CoinOS) the ux is very easy for your friend, similar to Spotify, also he can use a burner nsec npub and burner email
Lightning sats, seed phrases on a paper (explain how it works) or The Bitcoin Standard. At least it’s what I offer to people
The best thing thing in my opinion is to take them shopping, whether offline or online, where they see upfront how easy it is to use BTC and how it's the best non-fiat option for money there is. After they have had a taste of that, only then can you send them a few sats to play (i recommend $20 worth as a start)
Ask for his permission to post some photos related to his handyman work here. Send the sats he probably will receive to a wallet. Let him know how his work is valued on the Bitcoin network
Show them coinos.io wallet they can create wallet and you send them sats.
Easy and great way for newbie to gain access to LN.
If they want to learn more about Bitcoin give them ebook or hard copy of The Bitcoin Standard.
The author himself endorses pirating his books if you are not rich enough to buy!
True BTC spirit.