I want to onboard merchants. But it's a mess out there right now, and I need some advice.

I setup BTC Pay Server on my own Start9 node. I love it. But setting up a node is an expensive sell for merchants who are new to Bitcoin. Not to mention, the learning curve involved. Explaining inbound/outbound liquidity always causes their eyes to glaze over.

But once BTC Pay Server is set up, there's simply nothing better. You can input your unique products into your online store, and your servers/bartenders simply tap the correct product on the screen... up pops a LN invoice. It's perfect for a POS at a store or restaurant.... minimal training involved.... the fiat conversion rate is instantly calculated.... the Sats go straight into your self-custody node.

The merchants I'm talking to seem to be okay spending some money on a POS system, and a node... eventually. But most would like a way to do it cheaply and simply, at first. It's the same reason many Bitcoin newbs turn to WoS at first. And I'm in the camp that WoS is great for onboarding newbs.... hopefully they learn and eventually move to a non-custodial solution. I want the same thing for merchants. How can I get a cheap solution for them when they're just starting out? I want a user experience exactly like BTC Pay Server, but on a cheap/easy (even-if-custodial) solution.

Voltage node hosting looks good, if you're willing to pay the monthly fee. I see this as a good middle ground option.

Fedimint sounds best. I can imagine creating a federation for local merchants. Once it grows, we can increase the number of Guardians. This is the best way to get merchants onboarded in a way that's cheap for them, but also mostly trustless and decentralized. But where is it? Is anyone actually using it? It's a project on Github that tech savvy people are probly using.... but is it ready for mainstream, yet? Is there an app for merchants, similar to BTC Pay Server, but which implements the Fedimint protocol? If not, should I create one?

I talked to Lee in Bitcoin Jungle about how he does merchant adoption. He said he uses a fork of the Bitcoin Beach code. So the merchants are essentially using his node (sounds like something like Lightning Node Connect) and he personally sends them on-chain Bitcoin or fiat when they request it. This could work for small communities... but it's not a good long-term, scalable solution (is it?).

Right now, I'm considering recommending CashApp as a simple, cheap PoS. When the merchant's balance on CashApp gets high enough, send the funds to a cold storage wallet. This might just be the simplest way at first. What do you think?