I wrote down my argument why it's critical to not just hodl but spend bitcoin and build communities. Probably obvious to most folks here but would appreciate your feedback:
https://open.substack.com/pub/bitcoinpolis/p/until-you-spend-it-bitcoin-isnt-money
pull down to refresh
related posts
Would be cool if someone created an open-source manual for bootstrapping bitcoin circular economies (how to approach merchants, how to convince them, what POS and software to use etc.)
This way fledgling circular economies don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and the threshold for starting bitcoin circular economies diminishes.
A bit like what John James is referencing in the note below:
Love that idea. Some of this is already out there. @DarthCoin has great tutorials. There are stories from El Zonte and other places.
But we need more!
Yes. And to coordinate it so that the information is widely available and not scattered.
Are you aware of any practical information? If so, please share. I'm trying to do this with a local Bitcoin meetup so anything helps.
Maybe reaching out to some key figures who helped spawn the first circular economies (El Zonte, Bitcoin Ekasi in South Africa, Bitcoin Lake in Guatemala, Bitcoin Jungle in Costa Rica, Bitcoin Arnhem, Satsmarket in Alberta, Canada, Lugano) and other related communities (Paralelni Polis in Prague, Bitcoin Paraguay and others).
Now is maybe not the best time but once the dust settles a bit.
"Find someone local who sells something you already buy, and ask them to accept bitcoin.""Find someone local who sells something you already buy, and ask them to accept bitcoin."
This is darn good advice. I'm definitely going to act on it. But beyond that, I totally agree with your article and I like how you frame it:
I've been thinking about how this fixes many of the problems that seem to face bitcoin at the moment. For example, kyc is mostly an issue at the US dollar/fiat exchange level. I'm sure the gov't will try to enforce surveillance on p2p transactions eventually, but it will take them a while and hopefully always be difficult to enforce.
This is also a good point, although of feels further off to me. I might be able to get a bunch more merchants accepting Bitcoin, I'm doubtful they'll price in btc.
You mention that the article may be obvious to people here. I think it is still worth saying.
You should ask @DarthCoin about that. He's been doing it for a long time, and he's mentioned it here repeatedly.
Thank you!
Yes, avoiding dollar-bitcoin volatility will take a while because it requires full closed loop and people thinking in sats, not converting.
Keep us posted when you try to convince people to accept bitcoin in your community. These stories are super valuable because it motivates more people.
Spending bitcoin just makes someone else hodl it :)
Without spending, nobody but miners could hodl. Without hodl, nobody would have value to spend.
Show me a great deal that I can buy with sats and you wont have to write a blog post to convince me to spend sats!
Maybe instead of convincing the people you buy from to accept BTC, You can make something that people buy and accept BTC yourself! The loop starts with YOU! No sales pitch needed.
My point is that we need to put energy into creating those opportunities and convincing people to accept Bitcoin, not just wait until everyone accepts it. Sounds like you are a late adopter (once others create something big enough then you join), and that's totally ok.
Yes. And I do that everyday and plan to do more and will write about that too because I think it motivates other people. Whenever I hear stories from other people it motivates me to try harder.
Start one loop. What a great line!
Thank you
Good