Merchant onboarding update...
While I don't drink, I do like good coffee and I do like good chocolate. It would be better to have zero vices, but I think all in all those are two decent ones.
I went by one of my favorite coffee shop's sister location and asked if I could pay with Bitcoin. I got two responses.
"I don't think so. Nobody's ever asked" said the barista getting me a cup of coffee to go.
Then the other person chimes in, "Square is owned by Jack Dorsey, who rips people off with his fees."
This person went into this story about how they took out a loan with Square for their business and how they were charged 20%.
I just listened and realized that this was not the store front that was going to accept it. The main location is one I can go to later in the day that has the roaster and where the owner is.
My take-home is pretty simple: The person who is all fired up about the fact that Jack Dorsey is some sort of criminal who believes in Bitcoin isn't the owner and doesn't understand the fact that for the owner/their boss is accustomed to paying the 2.6% plus the 15 cent transaction. This barista has no skin in the game, spouting off about how unfair it is that these companies provide a service to the merchant which allows them to process the credit card transaction.
And the other thing worth noting, because I feel like it's dishonest if I don't give you the full picture, is this is a store that's deeply connected to the LGBTQ community. I'm solidly a LGBTQ ally, and I'm open to people being gender fluid, which is how I would categorize this person over the years that I've seen them behind the counter.
My guess is when this person started talking to me they see a middle-aged white man who looks pretty damn square asking to pay with Bitcoin at a Square terminal - they don't see an ally, they see an adversary. I'm likely a surrogate for Jack Dorsey, who they hate. Jack = bitcoin = crook, in their mind.
In the area I'm in, I think the brewery owners are ones we should be talking to more than coffee shop owners.
I don't drink, so there's really no reason for me to go there.
I do think a combination of having Bitcoin meetups at a brewery coupled with the fact that, as I laid out in this document, the brewery owner can get a significant amount of Bitcoin over the next five years if they simply accept Bitcoin payments and then are identified on the
@BTC Map and the
@Cash App map as a place that accepts bitcoin.
All of that is laid out in the article below.
That's the update for today. Work has calmed down, and I'm going to find some time the rest of the month to try and talk to some merchants.
I'd love to hear other people's stories of successfully onboarding people. I wonder if there's almost a simple script. Mine is simply ordering the coffee and saying, "Hey, do you know if I'm able to pay with Bitcoin?" And they say something roughly that they've never had anybody ask. Then I tell them they can do it with Square.
Anyway I have a dataset of two right now, and obviously that's too small. So I just need to put in the legwork and interact with a lot more people, and perhaps go to a brewery with somebody I know in the Bitcoin community and let them do the talking and see how they do it.
#bitcoin #merchantadoption #circulareconomy
View Article → https://blossom.primal.net/ed81d42f692dc0ea3465f10da2492d395fa44a3904d38953c49fcc8e2f556e28
