A colleague has been asking me a lot about bitcoin lately and tonight we went out for dinner so I could answer some of his questions. He was insistent that bitcoin would never work for a number of reasons and became increasingly frustrated that I had an answer for everything. He did not want to download any apps or to give any details to anyone. Eventually I was able to convince him to download AlbyGo after assuring him he did not need to sign up for anything. Within 30 seconds he had the app, was connected to my nostr:npub1getal6ykt05fsz5nqu4uld09nfj3y3qxmv8crys4aeut53unfvlqr80nfm Hub and I sent him his first sats.

That’s when I watched his eyes light up.

He was amazed at how easy it was. Shocked that it did not take an hour for the transaction to confirm and that there was not a $10 transaction fee. It completely shattered his belief that it could be stopped because I explained this was open source software running on a node in my closet. It finally became real for him.

I explained the custody trade off to him and have set him up with enough sats that he can buy some inbound liquidity to set up his own lightning node if he does not want me holding his sats.

Pretty awesome how smooth the onboarding experience was.

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That's the spirit! Forward some sats to welcome him to bitcoin.

I will thank you.

I tried explaining nostr to him as well and the magic of zapping but I don’t think he was quite ready for that yet!

Each when ready, don't force it on him. Maybe send him a meme or two. At some point he'll about the source.

Good idea.

With the current Iran conflict, I can envision Trump removing the USD out of circulation and introducing USDT as general market currency. This will significantly stop terrorism financing and force everyone who wants to have access to money to have a digital ID or a device.

> This will significantly stop terrorism financing

Did Iran buy their missiles with USD.

I don't want to talk about the war, let's focus on Bitcoin.

You brought up the war.

I'm not buying it.

Lol

> we went out for dinner

How did you pay for dinner.

With dollars.

But I do not think this is the gotcha moment I suspect you think it is.

If you do not think it is amazing that I can run software from my home that allows me to transact value instantly with a global network of users without a trusted third party then I don’t know what to tell you.

What's the value that you're transacting if you can't buy dinner.

To be specific we paid for dinner with the Australian Dollar but a restaurant located somewhere else in the world would not have accepted that currency. If I can’t buy dinner with AUD some place that does not mean the currency is not used transact value.

If you were to drop me in a random country with the goal of buying dinner I would rather have a bitcoin wallet than a wallet full of Australian dollars.

I use Albygo which of course is connected to my node. How was your buddy able to open a wallet on his phone via albygo that was connected to your node?

I created an isolated connected and connected his AlbyGo to my node by scanning the Connection Secret QR code displayed on my hub with his AlbyGo.

I also connected nostr:npub1xnf02f60r9v0e5kty33a404dm79zr7z2eepyrk5gsq3m7pwvsz2sazlpr5 wallet to the same isolated connection to show him how you can use different apps that all operate together.

Like that! Well done.

Congrats! Zap sent.

Shows also that many of our beliefs can be mental (and often prejudiced) constructs without a check in reality.

Did you leave him with some of the bitcoin adages to reinforce his learning?

Stay humble, stack sats

Not your keys, not your keys

Ha he hates all of that stuff. Says bitcoiners all sound like sleazy marketers or used car salesmen with their catchphrases and confidence. He said he would be more convinced about bitcoin if he met someone who only liked it a little bit but did not think it would fix the world.

This would be great as a step by step video tutorial. I have Alby Go and Alby Hub on my Umbrel Home. Maybe there already is one made?

Well done!