0 sats \ 6 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 4 Nov \ on: A Week of Failing to Pay with Bitcoin in El Salvador | Hacker News bitcoin
Yes, I have met them.
It looks like the problems with using BTC are not so easily overcome.
Even when the government is pushing BTC the small folks find it difficult.
What way can we iron out the difficulties and make the experience as easy as using a credit or debit card?
Any ideas?
I don’t know if merchants in El Salvador give cashbacks or discounts to customers paying in bitcoin.
As a newbie pre-coiner, I would be happy to try out bitcoin if I got a 20% discount for buying a product or service.
And if the merchants really understood the nature of Bitcoin, they would be happy to scoop it up from customers at these prices (it will outpace 20% quite fast and you can build all kinds of creative promotions around Bitcoin, BTC Map visibility etc.).
Cashbacks and rewards made the credit card system grow too.
reply
Sure, people would try it out with deep discounts on the goods, however, most retailers would be somewhat reluctant to give those discounts. Retailers typically have very slim margins on their sales, so any discounts would only be slight.
reply
Could be only used for selected products or services, so that they can still fill the margins on aggregate while using Bitcoin as a promotional tool.
reply
Ok, a promotional loss leader may work. But the problem with that is that not all promotional goods are desired by everybody. If your objective is to get people on BTC for retail, you have to make it really easy and convenient to do so,
reply
What made them change their minds? It's hard for humans to admit they've been wrong. I know it would be very hard for me to admit in 5-10 years that I've been all wrong about Bitcoin.
reply
Admitting a mistake may be the source of a lot of problems. People too easily get their egos invested in what they are doing and believing.
Who knows the future? Everybody could be wrong, couldn’t they?
reply