Yesterday I was at a jewelry store buying my sister a graduation present. The store owner only wanted to accept cash, no Venmo or Zelle. I didn't have enough cash on me at the time, so I offered to pay him in Bitcoin.
His response was all too familiar, a little chuckle and then an explanation that he doesn't want any Bitcoin because he can't hold it in his hands.
Is there any way to get the concept of digital money through to boomers or is it not worth the effort?
Not worth it
People have to ‘snap’, it’s really hard to make them snap..
I asked my butcher the other day if they accepted or wanted to accept bitcoin. His response was, ‘then what do I do with it’? Save it, sell it whatever you want I said!!…
Barrier to entry is very high for a single transaction. If every second customer was coming in asking the same thing maybe he'd look into it some more.
I waited at a greenhouse for the guy with the Jon Galt license plate and liberty based bumper stickers to come out so that I could invite him to a meetup. The old fella nearly ran away in fear as he spouted he had friends “who were big investors in bitcoin but he doesn’t understand the math.”
I didn’t know what to say to someone so scared of an invitation to find like minded folks in his community. 🤷🏻♂️
You don't have to convince or orangepill these people, but imho it's important and helpful to bring it up and offer the possibility of payment with bitcoin. They might not get it immediately, but there's a good chance that conversation and topic will linger in their mind. I see these as touching points people experience in real life and the more there are, the less likely they'll be to ignore them. Keep it up 👍
When you have cash, it's difficult to stop you from spending it as long as someone is willing to accept it as payment. You have direct access to your cash and how it's spent.
When you have money in a bank account or the layers that live above it like PayPal or Venmo, you can spend your money only with the permission of the bank, PayPal or Venmo. Your payments and access to your money can be stopped.
When you have bitcoin, you get back to a cash-like system where no one can stop you from accessing or spending YOUR money.
The other thing about cash is the privacy.
The reason why he likes cash is because it is base money. When he holds the cash, it's not a liability of anyone else, nobody will default on a promise, he can do with it what he wants, and nobody can take it away from him, and
This is why he doesn't like venmo or zelle or bank transfers, what he gets is not base money, but a claim on base money, a digital credit that he can later redeem for cash at the atm, but the bank can always go bust and his cash is gone.
Bitcoin is the very first time that we have base money in cyberspace. It's not a bank credit or IOU or some token that can be redeemed for an underlying asset. Bitcoin is the thing itself, just like gold atoms or fiat cash.
So don't onboard him to a bitcoin money warehouse like wallet of satoshi, recommend him a self custodial wallet and explain him what the 12 word private key does.
I just onboarded my metals guy. Gonna try get him to set up btc metals site. mainly for my own convenience mind you but hey, may work out.
Cash is still somebody else’s liability. Ask people from India who got specific denominations demonetized overnight a few years ago.
True, I guess this goes for any man made basemoney
Cash is also a claim that ultimately the FED or a central bank has to honor. And they can devalue that claim at will. Bitcoin is not fiat cash, it’s better.
That's not really accurate.
The commercial banks can have accounts at the central bank, and fiat value there is basically "a promise to print physical cash later", but it is "as good as cash", as the issuer of the claim is the same person that creates the physical base money. Thus these central bank reserves are included in calculations of total base money, it has a physical and a digital component.
Creating more base money units does not equal a default on a claim, the fiat cash cannot be redeamed for anything else, it is not a claim, so there cannot be a default.
Sure, printing more base money leads to all types of nasty consequences, it's just economically different from a default on a claim.
The promise is only "as good as cash" if 1) the bank has the reserves to cover it, and 2) you've provided adequate proof that said money is not tied to any real or imagined crime.
I'm not talking about private banks, but central banks, which by definition cannot go bankrupt because they can just print base money.
People have to be in the right mindset to want to learn about #bitcoin
Always offer, but it takes an open mind on the other side. Have thought provoking questions ready.
THE QUALITY OF YOUR ORANGE-PILLING, IS DETERMINED BY THE QUALITY OF YOUR QUESTIONS.
The best way to convince someone is for them to convince themselves.
🫂🤙
Pay him in cash, chuckle, and tell him cash is great because it's completely private and cannot be censored - just like bitcoin.
I’d just ask a few questions why and politely move on. As others said it requires an open mind. In that moment the best you can do is likely to start the process of opening their mind.
Perhaps point out that it’s the same with CashApp and Venmo - digital dollars that you can’t touch
“And just like digital dollars, bitcoin can be exchanged/withdrawn as dollars .. but really, the problem that Bitcoin is solving is to protect your purchasing power
Noticed how your dollars are buying a while lot less the last few years? That’s because they just create/print more of them; but with bitcoin the total supply is fixed so it’s the opposite- your purchasing power improves with bitcoin
Worth learning a bit about if you’re wanting to retire comfortably “
With some it's a very slow process. Measured in years. With others, a bridge too far.. never.
My son got through to me. It can be done. We boomers have been jaded by years of lies, but the truth can still shine through. Don't give up.
For in-person small transactions, cash is still faster, easier, cheaper, and more secure than Bitcoin. I wish it were not so but the boomer sense is right in this situation. Bitcoin wins for online, long-distance, or large transactions.
Suppose we present Bitcoin as a complement to gold and silver coin rather than as a replacement for all the money. Suppose we acknowledge its deficits. I think that would go further with the boomers.
