My hypothesis would be that #Bitcoin would have to become the standard money of society and people would be more apt to part with it. Viewing it as regular spending as opposed to parting with something set aside for savings. Again, I’m not saying this is fact. Just posturing the concept.
Discussion
So Nostr is fucked because that’s not happening any time soon 🤣 I’ve actually thought quite a bit about the issue you described in your original post above. Monetizing content on Nostr is especially tricky because, first of all the user base is just small, but on top of that the portion of that small user base that has and is willing to spend meaningful amounts of bitcoin is even smaller. I think one potential solution could be more services like Strike that allow you to spend directly from a fiat balance, but the recipient can receive it as sats. It is still incumbent on those creating content or services to create something people actually want to buy, but with something like Strike, people could easily spend disposable cash they would like normal, while the creators/builders can receive payment in bitcoin.
Maybe nostr:npub13ljnkd633c7maxatymv3y2fqq8vt3qk7j3tt0vytv90eztwgha9qmfcfhw ‘s Stablesats feature will play a part in there. It’s just sats that fixed in USD exchange rate by taking short positions. People will continue to spend freedom money which a desired amount of dolars/cents can buy.
It still requires adoption. That’s the issue I see. Unless I misunderstand how that works. Everyone already has fiat. Everyone. You don’t have to get people to adopt it. You just have to make it so they can spend it via bitcoin rails.
You still run into the issue of hoarding the good money and spending the bad.
The difference is that if you were to zap me from your Strike account, you could spend your bad money and I could receive good money. Strike is just the best example I know of as a real world example of it working. Not saying it’s the silver bullet to the problem. But a service like that lessens the friction of needing Bitcoin adoption before Nostr can adequately monetize content.
I think even the ability to convert fiat to sats (especially something as easy as strike) would hamper the economic calculation. I would proffer that it will require a full Bitcoin standard, with fiat gone, to truly get there.
Well, there is this thing… In Turkey, we don’t have Strike. Bc of our shitty government, we don’t even have f’n PayPal. If it wasn’t for Btc adoption, you wouldn’t receive any value from me, and I wouldn’t receive from anyone in here.
I see your points but rellying on other than Btc would make things complicated for people like me.
Idk how we can give/recieve values in the network better than Bitcoin. I know that waiting people to adopt isn’t the ideal scenario but if wasn’t for nostr, I’d never be a bitcoiner. I thought that Bitcoin is just a Ponzi scheme like shitcoins. Talking from experience, purple pill helps people to understand why they should take the orange pill.
I completely agree with you on the purple pill —> orange pill connection. But even existing bitcoiners are reluctant to spend their sats like they would fiat. And I don’t blame anyone for saving sats. But it severely limits the viability of nostr as place where real economic activity can occur.
Yep. Spot on.
Ofc everyone should stack sats. I also have not against it, and tbh I don’t have the right to judge anyone with that. But, you know, if we want to make Bitcoin the money of future, we have to spend some sats to create a circular economy. People from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Uganda, Argentina and Turkey (hopefully 🤞) got this necessity more quickly than rest of the world. I got messages to Turkish Blink channels from Nigeria to participate in Blink circles challenges. I don’t get if these people get it, why plebs from 1st world countries wouldn’t.
I agree that people should do it to grow the circular economy, but human nature cannot be forced into it. We are just going to have to be patient.
The small user base is definitely an issue, and I agree, we aren’t getting a Bitcoin standard anytime soon. Although, fiat is exponentially exploding. It may be sooner than we think. The problem with something like Strike is that any fiat you have in there is likely just pre-BTC waiting to be DCA’d or dry powder for a dip. Until you can pay your mortgage, utilities, car insurance, etc from there, it just won’t be utilized as a checking account. Unfortunately I don’t have a great answer, and that is actually part of my floated hypothesis; that nothing will matter until it’s accepted at a large majority of places as the only money they will take.