The discount should be proportional to visa/MasterCard fees.
Here are some things I'd like to see from the Square/CashApp team for making this stick. I'd hate to see merchant adoption stall again, especially when we have to tools to make it an every day thing:
- Onboarding resources for "local guides". I am enthusiastic enough to actually go talk to the businesses in my area about accepting bitcoin, but a really crisp value proposition for businesses would be helpful (fees? UX? treasury?)
- A referral program for people doing the boots-on-the ground work of onboarding merchants *and* onboarding customers. Both sides of the market have to be developed at the same time, local "guides" are indispensable for stuff like this.
- A clear articulation of the value prop for customers. You don't pay card fees when you pay, and you have to pay fees to get bitcoin. What is going to make customers want to pay to convert fiat into bitcoin, only to give it away to merchants? There has to be a clear story here — maybe a 1% discount merchants can offer?
I think this is a huge opportunity to move bitcoin into "medium of exchange territory" that we should be sure to avoid wasting. If Square/CashApp can leverage the enthusiasm of local bitcoiners to help nurture the network effect, that would be a huge success. nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaejuum0vd5kzmp0qythwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnswf5k6ctv9ehx2ap0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3vamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwd4hhxarj9ec82c30qyehwumn8ghj7mnhvvh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7ctewe4xcetfd3khsvrpdsmk5vnsw96rydr3v4jrz73hvyu8xqpqsg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q3gljvd nostr:nprofile1qyfhwumn8ghj7mmxve3ksctfdch8qatz9uq3vamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwd4hhxarj9ec82c30qyghwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcpzemhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejz7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcqyzvrz5fj664celjqfuagq34cxdk4ghc5jjck8dhwdf3er3dwcfyvjunv3pq nostr:npub1ds3hmzemzgp9rsuvyvxqdk0y3uxnq9m903dktjxrvyfwk9w99t4sc2hzcn
Discussion
Agreed, I picked 1% so that both sides get something out of it
What always goes through my mind when I pay with BTC (Lightning or whatever) is that I am paying with a superior currency, and if I have fiat available (credit card), I’ll pay with that instead, because: the price is exactly the same, I don’t have to settle for 30 days, I get reward points, and when I finally settle, the fiat payment has further devalued against my BTC.
The key thing that would motivate me to pay in BTC is if they offer me a discount up front, say 5%-10% like many merchants do for ‘members’.
As for the merchants, ‘Cash is King’ - they need to be able to deposit BTC immediately as cash in their account, first, then think about stacking sats after. Merchants care about cash to run their business.
Just like most coffee shops offer free wifi, merchants will have to think about discounts for paying using a superior money, BTC, otherwise users, including myself, won’t care.
Yeah, unfortunately I think this is a reasonable position, which means the incentives really aren't there for making payments happen