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How do you define a successful orange pill?

mike 11mo ago

To expand on my descriptions above:

Full - they have all of their fungible assets into Bitcoin and study it daily

Partial - They've taken a punt, bought and small amount and are seeing what happens

Help - Somebody asked me to buy Bitcoin for them as they didn't know how and I transferred it to a hardware wallet I helped them set up.

Uncle Jim - Close friends and family I am holding Bitcoin for, who would like it, but don't have the time or inclination to do the work

F&F Kids - Friends and Family who's kids I've setup with a phone wallet or kept a spreadsheet with amounts on and sent them a small amount of Sats

Businesses - this has happened in the last couple of days and is work in progress, but I have been posting about it on NOSTR.

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Discussion

Beneath The Ink 11mo ago

Interested in how you help businesses. I run a small reseller business aside from my writing. I've gotten to the point where bitcoin is my primary reserve asset. All retained earnings get converted to bitcoin.

Issues I'm running into:

1. My inventory supplier only accepts cash. Rather than sell my reserve bitcoin only to get it back after I make profits I take a loan against the bitcoin to get kore inventory. Then pay back as Cost of goods sold accumulates. This means I'm always tied to cash somehow. Not sure what can be done there besides finding a bitcoin supplier. Time will fix that hurddle

2. NO ONE spends their bitcoin. The people who want it don't want to sell it and the people who don't give a damn don't want to deal with the hassle of buying it to sell it right away, even with a discount.

Ultimately I'm running a btc standard business only in that I have a btc reserve. What have you seen or advise other businesses do?

mike 11mo ago

This is absolutely NOT my area of expertise, both businesses are run by friends that I have discussing Bitcoin with almost daily for over a year.

This happened 3 days ago:

https://x.com/EaterWriter/status/1886855356535456195

And because of this another friend has been convinced to add nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7cnjvghxjme0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqyzjnd2cl0u7qzva64k7lgu4343adfdm5a4pjcxvf9pqex4e83z72qngxhfg to their website after a brunch meeting today.

There are companies that assist in setting up businesses on to Bitcoin and as both of these businesses evolve, I will probably hand them on to one or more of them.

I have personally met and know the guys from nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7cnjvghxjme0qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqpqnqt6hg6k78la4uj0c0yc44s28t8nkgaaee7rdnrr0vszlul4wwdsxfu4ej I can recommend using their services if relevant.

nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qqsd7gqv4s60d743gfv8x4z09krv6zmn6x02sswcfsrt0ymshw3pfqcap2vcl setup the celebrity bartender who is now posting about adopting Bitcoin on Xitter and prompted my friend to ask for my help.

As for your assessment about peoples willingness to spend Bitcoin, from what little I know, I would probably agree, but the hope is you will attract Bitcoiners to your firm ahead of your competition and it may provide a marketing edge in some circumstances.

I think we might just might, be entering the suddenly phase of Bitcoin adoption by business in the UK as the economy fails and people start to understand the strategic reserve advantages of it.

MUSQET 10mo ago

Thanks for the mention! And we can help your friends! We are a Bitcoin-first business but have feet in the old world as well as the new - enabling businesses to accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Google Pay, Apple Pay + Bitcoin payments via a single, integrated payment terminal and online gateway. Card present, EPOS + ecommerce is our thing - please reach out to us if we can assist!

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

This is awesome! Do you ever suggest Testnet as a tool for learning how to self-custody? or do you simply direct your subjects to just plunge right into Mainnet from the start?

I've been aware of Testnet but just recently started playing with Testnet4. I love it! In hindsight, I now realize my Bitcoin learning curve would have involved a lot less heartburn if I had started practicing with Testnet first. (though, it was likely not as widely supported as it is now - and frankly, still needs to be more widely supported).

mike 11mo ago

No, they are generally buying from Exchanges and sending to wallets.

Ironically, switching to Testnet is only available on advanced wallets and requires advanced features to use. So no, Testnet for a newbie would be even worse than playing with tiny amounts of Lightning or a few dollars or on chain Bitcoin.

Testnet is great for advanced users wishing to test advanced features or developers, but I don't think it is suitable for newbies.

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

It may have once been only available with advanced features, but that appears to be changing. It's available on Nunchuk's most basic 'guest' wallet, for example: you just have to change the network setting from Mainnet to Testnet: done. Similar for Sparrow wallet. In both cases, it's no more or less advanced than just using regular Bitcoin.... the only difference is the coins are worthless, so no risk of any real value loss.

I you want to get a little more advance, you can, of course. Like, set up an 'offline' wallet on Sparrow and import the public descritor into Nunchuk - so that it operates as watch-only - then you can practice initiating transactions in Nunchuk and use Sparrow to sign them - which is a pretty good approximation of the process to eventually use for a hardware wallet... but even this is freely available with the basic functionality of each wallet.

mike 11mo ago

You can’t imagine how complex you’ve just made a newbies life 😂

Again, the complexity exists already doing other things increases that complexity.

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

... perhaps. But, it sure seems like the 'complexity' of changing one simple wallet setting from Mainnet to Testnet is worth it for the attractiveness of risk free learning... not to mention not having to learn how to make use of an exchange first.

I'm not trying to argue. Really. You obviously get the orange-pilling results you're looking for.

mike 11mo ago

Newbie Instructions:

Download nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcpz9mhxue69uhk6mnv9emrqmpwd9hj7qpqhcwcj72tlyk7thtyc8nq763vwrq5p2avnyeyrrlwxrzuvdl7j3use4zreu

Press Receive

You now have $1 of Bitcoin

For other regions, nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnrda5kummn9e5k7tcqyzagpxgxvmhskm6t55zex3a7kyey9ys723nfu6qqvn9825jk5836v8xsdxk

No discussion of seed phrases, Satoshis, Blockchain, fees etc....

Nothing,

Those come later. Once they see they have $1 of Bitcoin which may go up or down in the short term, but always goes up in the long term, they're hooked.

The rest comes later.

Beneath The Ink 11mo ago

You hit the nail on the head man. There is entirely toooooo much to delve into with bitcoin and if someone is not interested diving into rabbit holes there's ways to guide them into tripping into it.

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

Fair enough. That does indeed sound like a great strategy. So, to answer my original question: You neither suggest Testnet as a tool, nor do you plunge them into Mainnet at the start. Presumably, they stay reliant on custodial services until later when they are hooked to the point of making the choice themselves to learn more... or maybe even getting hooked on the custodial services.

mike 11mo ago

The above is one method, I haven't used it each time, it depends who you're talking to.

It isn't the only option, if you're talking to a highly technical coder, then you might want to start with testnets.

Personally I have never used any of the testnets

If you want to get into the nuance of testnets, then two of them have been destroyed by testing itself. I believe ODELL broke one of them 😂

I see the testnets as sandboxes for playing with new BIPs or if you indeed want to experiment with moving UTXOs.

Personally I haven't found it necessary, but I'm not against testnets at all, just not for newbies (i.e. day 1 newbies).

My general process is:

WoS

1 year goes by

Mike, why have I got $40 (I normally send $10).

Explain NGU

Explain how the world actually works

Try to stop them selling their wife and kids to buy Bitcoin 😂

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

If you run out of things to do one day, I think it would be worth your while to give Testnet4 a try. You may very well find this to be another useful tool to have in your orange-pill toolbox. You may not. Either way, this process is so quick and painless, you may as well gain the 1st-hand experience rather than instinctively dismissing it. I used to dismiss testnet as a tool for devs and very advanced users, too, until I bothered to find out for myself how easy it actually can be (provided, obviously, that the software you're using supports it). Getting a whole family of Bitcoin skeptics trading Testnet coin with each other might end up just as addicting as NGU (okay, maybe not quite as addicting as NGU 😜):

Install Nunchuk on a phone (my experience is with iPhone, but I believe it's available on android, too).

On startup, you don't have to provide your email address, just "Continue as Guest" (you only have to choose this the first time).

On the Profile tab, change the Network settings from Mainnet to Testnet. When you save the setting, Nunchuck will restart and be on Testnet4 (again, you only have to make this change the one time).

Create a new wallet and send it some Testnet4 coin. Here is an easy completely non-KYC 'faucet' I've used: https://faucet.testnet4.dev/ - you just need to tell it where to send coin and do the typical prove you're not a bot thing. (or you can just give me a Testnet4 address. I'd be happy to send you some).

mike 11mo ago

I'm a heavy sparrow user, my preference would be to use that, but yes, you're right, I should experiment with Testnet to add it to my arsenal.

🫡

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

For Sparrow, just in case you haven't noticed it, switching to Testnet4 is as easy as selecting Testnet4 from the menu: Tools > Restart In >. You will have to make this selection each time you want to switch to Testnet4 - unless you add the "-n Testnet4" parameter on startup... Consequently, I have 2 Sparrow shortcuts on my desktop: 1 with the "-n Testnet4" parameter added; the other without. (*this is for Linux; but I'd bet the others are pretty much the same).

mike 11mo ago

Thanks 🫡

mike 11mo ago

It tested me on the keywords for a frickin testnet 😂 😂 😂

mike 11mo ago

500K Sats, is that all I get from

https://faucet.testnet4.dev/

? 😂

mike 11mo ago

If you'd like to send some test Sats,

tb1q3rtnj6u7ep6dc3dxdy3ug28elrw5rzpdzaf5dx

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

incoming

mike 11mo ago

250K

Thanks bro 😀

mike 11mo ago

I went to the horses in Dubai once.

You're not allowed to gamble in Dubai.

Holding testnet BTC is like Horse racing in Dubai 😂

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

FWIW, Sparrow (and Nunchuk) displays the would-be fiat conversion as well. A noob could still experience seeing a fake $10 grow to a fake $40 in a year; then think to themself: "I sure wish this was real BTC".

mike 11mo ago

Yes, I got 500K Sats from the testnet mempool faucet:

I have 1.25M Sats 🎉

I have $1,219 of fake money 😂

https://mempool.space/testnet4/faucet

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

I think you're now ready to establish a fake Bitcoin Treasury Company, fake Michael Saylor. 😆

mike 11mo ago

Hey, Saylor is the fake Michael, don't you forget it 😂

There's only room for one real "mike" on NOSTR

Judge Hardcase 11mo ago

Yeah... I think you can do that once every 24 hours.... How many worthless widgets do you really need for testing, though? 😄

mike 11mo ago

Never enough 😂