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Thanks to a generous person who will remain anonymous for the time being, We have been given a building that we hope to convert into a  " Bitcoin Embassy ". With three floors to do with as we please, we hope to organize the space to make it easy and fun for people from all over the province to come and learn about bitcoin, as well provide an office space for bitcoiners to come do in order to start bitcoin related projects, so they can work closely with other bitcoin entrepreneurs, to develop exciting projects that will utilize bitcoin in new ways! We are still in the early stages of development, but we hope to open our doors ASAP! With that said there is much work to be done in a short time, we welcome any and all ideas from the community at large, if you had to build turn a building into a " Bitcoin Embassy " how would you do it?


Many questions that need to be answered:

Is the title " Bitcoin Embassy " appropriate?
How should be organizes the street floor and the 2 other floors?
What will be our main mission?
What kind of services do we want to offer? ( BTC / CAD exchange ? )
Building policy?
(There is at least 21 million other questions, but this is a start )

Would love to do it here in NZ, would require substantial funds though.

I feel so fortunate that its happening in montreal, since I live nearby.  :)

Wow, that's pretty awesome! Not to mention Montreal is only an hour and a half away, so visiting isn't really a big deal :D

There are certainly a number of things you could do with 3 floors worth of space...hmm...

How should be organizes the street floor and the 2 other floors?


IMO, Jake's vision is the way to go,

The street floor we have a "bitcoin help desk" ( a place anyone can walk into and ask questions to a professional behind the desk )
  maybe we want to allow customers to buy and sell bitcoin here?
  maybe we want to sell bitcoin related products here?

The second floor is a lounge that is open to all bitcoiners, this is where we kick back and have a few drinks as we talk about the endless possibilities bitcoin offers.
  maybe we want to have some events happen here open to the general public?


The third floor is the office space where bitcoiners come to work!
   I work from home and its a bitch sometimes having the kids constantly distract me, maybe I could be allowed to work 9 to 5, 5 days a week in the building ???  :D

We will have a big meetup sometime soon when we have a good plan and something worth showing off

i'll add you to the bitcoin montreal meetup mailing list to keep you updated

Hey guys.

I'm looking for physical Bitcoin-related products that could be sold in a store. For example, Casascius coin or something similar, but also everything related. It could be t-shirts, beer glasses, cars, I don't know.

Also, do anyone have a source of physical Bitcoin information? Like pamphlet, posters, anything that can be distributed?


We can't use that. With the law 101, we need a french name or something in french to describe it. If not, we're going to be stuck with something like "Les ambassades Bitcoin Embassy".
But don't worry, I have something for this and I believe this problem is solved. I'll talk about it next time we meet.

law 101 I forgot about that.

I will make a list of Bitcoin-related products we might want to showcase in the store.

Great! That would be helpful. Are you going to post the list here?

As for the name, I'm making a document right now to describe the "trademark". If you want, PM your email and I can send you the document. It's in french, but I think you can read it.  ;)

Otherwise, well, I can make a translated version later.

Send it to me either! I'm curious about it

PM me your email.

It might be interesting to offer courses on setting up wallet and other basics of Bitcoins especially in two streams, English and French, would be good.

Re: Is the title " Bitcoin Embassy " appropriate?

Sounds a little political.

What about Bitcoin Institute or Bitcoin Bureau?  ???

Absolutely you must offer offshore mining.

Be cool to Bitcoin crowdfund some of these places!  I can see where people open up Bitcoin embassies all over the world. Very cool idea indeed!

Yeah, that's a good point. We will probably be the first place people come complain if they get their BTC stolen. No worries about the French part, I'm one of those "racist nazi" quebecers that abide by our "language police".  ;D


Just to specify a point that may be uncommon to people around here. The only official language in Québec province is French and we have laws in place to protect our french heritage, mainly to prevent english assimilation. The most famous law is named the law 101 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language). To put it simply, the name of the place MUST be in French. There is some exceptions in the law, "Bitcoin" could fall under those exceptions easily, but not general terms like "embassy" or "institute". "Bureau" could work though, we have the same in french.

All this to say, I know how that law works and I currently have a name I'm working on right now. I'm pretty confident in it and I think it's a really elegant solution to all this. I'll keep you informed.


That's something really interesting to consider. Didn't taught of it, thanks!

+1 Bureau de la Bitcoin - Embassies are for states and a lot of us bitcoin anarchists are frankly offended. ;)

Ideas for usage:

1. Musee de la bitcoin! Any physical objects of historical significance to buy up and display here? First caus coin? First hardware wallet? etc...

2. Daily "bitcoin for noobs" class. Make a room into a presentation that runs several times a day teaching new coiners everything they need to know... Not just a movie though, have workstations and some activities like downloading a wallet to their own phone and so forth...

3. A Bitcoin ATM, of course! Preferably facing the street like a bank would do it.

4. More startup space than just the top floor... I'd say half the 2nd floor too, as long as the 2nd floor is big enough for a solid-sized meetup group.

5. A cybercafe/starbucks that ONLY takes bitcoin.


Bon chance!
 

thank you for your input  :)

our focus right now should be to, get a good plan all squared away , and get more people from montreal involved
if we have a good plan, it will be easy to organize people to help out in whatever way they can


I wait to hear from Jake about the legal status of buying and selling bitcoin in the province of quebec.

To be a proper supernode, you must have ceilings that are at least 4m tall.

Awesome idea!

You definitely should have mining equipment on display - examples of CPU miners, GPU, FPGA and a cheap ASIC, along with maybe some of the mining pools shown on screens?

The other thing I always thought would be so cool would be to have a set of monitors on the wall with live price tickers, showing the different currencies.

And of course be ready to handle the media inquiries!

there should be and adamstgBit  virtual currency booth, just in case any newbie isn't confused enough....on the third level as the final boss

Hello!

I am very excited about developing the Building into our center.  Thank you for the ideas.  Keep them coming! We should try to meet-up soon again to sort through the suggested activities, choose those we should focus on at the launch of the Center, go through the design of the layout in some measure of details this time, and discuss some anticipated challenges we are certain to face in promoting the use of Bitcoin in Quebec & Canada.



 

Perhaps look at the successful model of other "hackerspace" buildings that have recently been set up.

Hacker Dojo, in Mountain View, CA

http://www.hackerdojo.com/

Noisebridge, in San Francisco, CA

https://noisebridge.net/

The theme of Bitcoin certainly fits in well here, and the building becomes a community center for all interested in Bitcoin and similar projects.  I don't know if an entire three floor building dedicated to *only* Bitcoin would be a good use of space, unless you had a great deal on electricity and filled it floor to ceiling with mining rigs :)

A more general tech project/hacker/learning center, featuring Bitcoin as one of many rather cool projects, might be great to have.  And they're a lot of fun!

Josh

You read in my mind ;D I'm dreaming of seeing that wall!

Mining equipment will definitely be considered. Good point for the medias though, didn't taught of that. This project could become the "face" of Bitcoin around here, and we need to be prepared.



Thanks for the links, they are a interesting model to consider. The first floor of the building has to be a sort of information center/bitcoin shop. It has direct access to the street with big windows and doors. The two other floors have a separate access from the first and that's where we could be more "creative" on their activities.


Next Saturday for another meet-up?

this is amazing keep it up! I want to get something like this setup in the US also in my city

It should be fairly easy to get something like this done in NY, maybe something that can be discussed at the upcoming conference.

This is why I need more time during the day so I can help setup these things LOL


If anyone in NY and needs help setting this up, I have funds and a little bit of time hit me up!

I guess would could keep only one of these products for display purposes, and we would simply order products as we sell them. I think the idea of the store downstairs is not to be a bitcoin gift shop, but more of an info center where anyone can come to learn about bitcoin and talk to someone that knows all about bitcoin, at the same time we can display cool bitcoin related products, and make it easy for people to order these products.


also the store could also act as a bitcoin exchange, where people can come exchange their bitcoins for cash, or buy bitcoins with cash.

sure buying and selling bitcoin can be done online with relative ease, but being able to exchange them for cold hard cash in person  would go a long way to help spread the bitcoin cheer!

I think i could make it.

You could call it 'The Bitcoin Reserve'    :P

What do you guys think about inviting the ZEITGEIST movement montreal  people to come to our hackerspace
I think these people are very much in tune with the " bitcoin philosophy ", they might not even know about bitcoin.


should i contact their group?

Unfortunatly I can't be there next Saturday. I'll be there next time for sure.


Yeah why not?

It's a great idea. But the idea of embassy seems contradictory to the essence of bitcoin: decentralized.

the name will change, there is a law in quebec which requires us to have a french name

i will try to contact their group.

Don't worry, like any other embassies, our goal is to steal and spy for the greater good of our tribe.  ;D

But seriously, see this project as a bridge between Bitcoin and the physical world.

How about "la maison du bitcoin" ("the bitcoin house"). That's what it kinda reminds me of, and has a very open and public ring to it.

I can design a logo for the "embassy," PM me if you need one!  :)

we are not sure about the name
it must be french according to the law in quebec
but we would love help with this kind of stuff.

So you cannot make up new words, etc.?

1st floor == Museum + Shop*
2nd floor == Free Hackerspace / Entrepreneur space
3rd floor == Office Space**

* The shop would consist of a place to buy and sell bitcoin related goods and services.
** Office space would be for embassy employees, interns and volunteers.

I guess made up new words are a gray area...
The government is scared that the quebecer culture will be lost if its citizens start speaking english.

I spoke with Jake, the name has been decided. I'm not sharing it publicly for now because, you know, legal stuff and all. My offer still exist though, PM your email and I'll send you the document about it. I don't want to keep you in the dark.


You can make up new words, it's not a problem (I did it with a previous business project). International trademarks like Wal-Mart or Best Buy are also protected. Name related to culture can also be used (like chinese restaurant). The law is mostly to make french as the default language for any business in Québec, especially for generic terminology, like "embassy".

But like I said, we have a name. We are still interested for your input on other subjects!

http://img0.encyclopedie-incomplete.com/local/cache-vignettes/L256xH247/village_asterix-262df.jpg

This law is our magic potion  ;D

I go to mtl once in a while, pm me if you need some help or something.

Just come to meetup when you're in town.
watch the meetup thread.

Rent the top floor as office space to pay for the cost of maintaining the building.

This is a great idea if it comes into fruition

I think local trading here would be awesome, too. It's much better in person

Initially it was a joke, but the more I think about it maybe 'la Bitcoin réserve'  ( or is is 'le' ? ) pretty much bilingual and nicely symbolises a safe preservational environment and then there's the pun on the Fed.  :P

I looked around but couldn't find it (was probably right in my face too)... could someone link it?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=98862.0

Hi everyone! 

I just want to say two quick things about the project:
1) Wow!
2) Whoa, slow down, hold your horses, first things first!

You don't know me because I was in the throes of caffeine withdrawal and missed the meetup.  Still feeling kinda slow, really, hope it goes away...  ??? 
So I missed the first, most important, most basic element of the project: what kind of organization are we talking about?
Is this supposed to be a startup, a charity, a co-op?  This has an impact on everything, from who owns what to who is responsible for accidents/thievery right down to producing tax reports at the end of the fiscal year.  I haven't seen anyone mention this at all, all I know is that Jake.Hobson is donating (probably in fact loaning :) ) his building... But since apparently Brunic says Jake.Hobson 'accepted' a name, it means he's actually more of a CEO.
So which is it, a startup, a co-op, an educational institution?  This is very important since it dictates the goals of the enterprise, who participates, and why! How many people really want to remain volunteers when the subject is MONEY?
It must be explicitly stated RIGHT AWAY to avoid any trouble down the road... which might be as soon as next weekend if someone gets hurt cleaning up the place, or even if someone's feelings get hurt because their name wasn't accepted...  You really can't mess with things as evanescent as Intellectual Property in this field of work. Also since cryptocoins are in a legal grey area, and the obvious goal of this organization is to make them more acceptable, we cannot operate in a grey area ourselves.
So... spill the beans please. :)  If you can't do it publicly, at least in pm's.

Speaking of the name, may I suggest "La petite bite coin"?  (Pardon my French :) ) No?  Awww... I was hoping for something clever that also ties back to Quebec's heritage, something along the lines of 'The Hudson's Bitcoin Company'.  Trading posts (comptoirs) were the financial lifeblood of Canada's development, much like Bitcoin is the early system for a new economy... Oh well. I'll just have to wait and see.

Projects/endeavours:
1) No matter what shape the organization takes, it seems clear to me that the first project to work on in the hackerspace is an ATM.  First because if you want to exchange money it means you need a full time employee that isn't bothered with having thousands in cash.  And cash exchanges are well-known to have unsavory characters hanging about them, while an ATM feels much safer and anonymous. I've actually started looking around for an old ATM to strip and reuse but it's probably not a one-man job considering how heavy they are. :) This is also an essential element to get BTC/LTC accepted and bypass some of the potential legal hurdles of BTC/CAD exchanges. Whilst currently the Can. Gov. seems happy to allow these trades as long as you declare your capital gains, banks are being overly cautious (like BMO shutting down accounts). We need to bypass banks completely.

2) The second (and more fundamental, grass-roots project) should be to get local shops to accept LTC as forms of payments. Can you buy Ex Centris tickets in BTC? Why not?!?  What about fries or coffee at the snack bar next door?  Let's make it easy for them, teach them how, loan/sell hardware if necessary, even sell local wi-fi for BTC...
This means that yes, a shop on the first floor is interesting, but it should AVOID COMPETING IN ALL WAYS with local stores.  Therefore not a straightforward coffee shop or whatever.
The museum/school approach might seem interesting at first glance but really, who is going to be so bored in Montreal as to decide to walk into a museum of things on the internet and have to learn stuff? :D  That's going to be a very minor thing, imho.
BUT THERE IS A VERY INTERESTING APPROACH (imho again :) ) WE MIGHT TAKE that would make it all KICK ASS:
Bitcoin is the first truly international, border-free, currency.  Make the place not just a store, but an international center.   THE International Center for CryptoStudies.
Sell stuff you can only buy with bitcoins/LTC... Help people invest in BTC/LTC markets! Import that weird hat made by a woman who lives on a pile of refuse in Bangladesh and who lives on a microloan from a Goodwill foundation!  You can think of this 'store' as the first branch in an international bitcoin market. Sell local maple syrup for Bitcoins to Japan's BTC store!
Because honestly who is going to buy a Bitcoin t-shirt except a miner? Who can already buy that t-shirt himself because he knows all about the Internet?
Also sell physical copies of digital media... For example sure, you can download a lot of music for free from the Net, but what if you have a fave Glitch-style or circuit-bending artist, and there's autographed CD's in the store? (see also 2nd floor uses, maybe we can attract digital divas or personalities for private shows, say, I dunno, Felicia Day or get Kevin Rose drunk to talk about BTC :) )

It would be pretty cool to be able to walk into a store, select a startup from a list of approved project (with possible local representative from the 3rd floor), crowdfund it right away with BTC and come back to the store later for the 'reward' when the project launches (like for example you financed Ouya and can come pick up the console at the store, maybe get some support there too)

In other words, the twisted idea is not to try to get Bitcoins on the map, it's to get Montréal on the map with Bitcoins!

3) This International approach creates a sensible and useful need for the 2nd floor: The 'International' part of the center.
This floor could be a hub for information on hot international issues where Cryptocoins could and may make an impact, such as the Taksim square in Turkey, Cyprus, alternative technologies, conspiracies et al.  Live Skype video of protests anyone? 
A good place for the media to get information and sound bytes, it should be kept stocked with fresh data of all sorts and one or two few politics/economics students of course.
There should be a giant screen TV (garbage dived for, of course) on at all time with politics/international/financial news. In fact a very cool twist would be to get a "Junk Raiders"-type TV show to build the place.
Now, unfortunately with the free coffee and doughnuts this would probably attract a lot of 99%-ers (may I say 'carrés rouges'? :) ) who, traditionally, don't have money of their own so they would be loss-leaders of sorts and hard to throw out in the evening but they probably make excellent vectors for the Bitcoin creed... Also, some of them might be women. :) Get some wallets on these poor peoples' iPhone, guys!
Make it cool enough and this could become a mecca of the tech space in MTL.
(Don't know how local Google feels about Kevin Rose showing up though, just ranting here. Might be trouble if Google starts their own coin clone :) )

It would also function as a local EFF/legal info center.  I don't know that there's a very active EFF-style organization in Montreal but I believe it is a necessity. Get some IP lawyers to do some pro-bono work? See how the open source side lives? :)  I'm sure I could get some of my peeps from open source involved...

The difficulty is, of course, to remain neutral, but if we have a clear charter (our stated goal being to make BTC/LTC easier to use and support justified legal claims from our government) we should be able to manage...

Oh yes and it's not just limited to politics/economics, when I say things like alternative technologies there's a need to make some of the odder ideas from the Net more easily available. Cryptocoins is a good example, but there's things like 3D printing which could be shared, studying the impact of that on Quebec's society, educate people about Buckminster Fuller's other ideas, help people with solar/hydro/power independence, explain the scams, conspiracies and quack technologies out there (hm, might get a grant for that)...

4) Third floor is the hackerspace.  Off limits to mortals.  Now, there's already a hackerspace in Montreal and I don't know that it's very viable (never been there). It's certain that Bitcoiners are a much smaller subgroup of hackers so that means it's not self-sustaining. But the suggested rate is 50$ a month... So this all goes back to what type of organisation it is.  Who pays for electricity?  I had in mind the idea of making the hackerspace a co-op (till launches) where you can be a member if you contribute any sort of hashrate to the hackerspace's pool (or equivalent in $).  Simple and easy - and no stupid hot giant farm in the middle of the hackerspace itself!
Although if there's a few miners around for demonstration purposes they could be turned into a kick-ass arcade at will. :)

I'm sure you can come up with great project ideas in the hackerspace but if you need help I've been leading tech startups for a decade and I have a lot of free time on my hands for the moment. :)

Anyway just a few random thoughts... If I could implement just a few of them I'd feel so enriched! :)
Hope this helps!

PS: I'm curious, how many in this thread are english-only speakers?
_{PPS: I'm probably going to edit and repost this to my own blog. :)
--PLC}

 ::)

we need you! how about coming to a meetup?

Not in Montreal!  Argh!
Could you PM me the name and what you are looking for in the logo?
I'll try to design one as best as I can according to specs.  :)

Bitcoin is really missing in store/ in person trading the same way you would buy gift cards. It would be a great service!

This.

Hullabaloo, that's why we are going to meet again multiple times before we open the building. There is a LOT of things to clear up before, this thread is simply to "test the waters" about the idea, take suggestions and keep news of the project development. Right now, we are brainstorming about this and that's why there is nothing official. It's also part of the reason that the name is not public for now.

If you can come to the next meetup, it will be great. Don't take it personally if I don't answer every of your questions, there's a lot to be decided in the next couple of weeks and I can't really answer them.


Think of the childrens!!!111!!!11! ;D

This is really exciting. Hope to meet you soon guys. Unfortunately I'm 5h drive from Montreal but thinking about moving there this winter.

awesome, I'll come by as soon as I can. I have some ideas that we can talk about :)

Make a "Miner's Mancave" Tavern in some room for travelers like me to quench my thirst and pay with BTC :)

I want this to be the name! it the word  "Encrypted" in french, and its got a nice ring to it :P

3rd Floor - Meeting spaces to collaborate and start new projects
2nd Floor - Info center where people can learn and see a timeline of bitcoin's history
1st Floor - Revolving merchant space.  Crafts, foods, and goods sold for bitcoins.  Great to have a cafe at this level and schedule meetups here.

I'm glad you have this opportunity!

Any update?

I would say the project is now in a non-exciting phase where we have to structure it. Having ideas is nice and all, but which ideas? with who? how? when?

Don't worry, it's alive, there's just a mountain of dull work to do for the moment.  :)

I've been giving the store quite a bit of thought , next meetup we are deciding on the best course of action and then doing it!  
I hope to have the store open ( at least part time ) in 2 -3 weeks
Its going to be a very cool tiny store,
we have to make that window look REAL good
and we need some startup funds...

Well said. +1 million points for putting in an ATM. That would be awesome. I travel to Montreal on business infrequently and would love to stop by!

I think the location of the Embassy is terrific for promoting Bitcoin with real use possibility.
St. Laurent is a pretty trendy area, near both English and French universities, with lots of independently owned businesses.
As part of your mission I would try to encourage those local businesses to accept bitcoins (initially stressing it as a payment system rather than a currency  ie. use Bitpay to remove volatility risk).
Ideally, multiple bitcoin ATMs would be easily accessible to the public along the street.
Basically, try to recreate what they are doing in Germany (I think it's Berlin).

Oh yeah, one more thing...make sure Schwartz's and Wilensky's are among the first on your list.  ;D

If you're looking for an example of a great shared office space and incubator, look no further than the one we have in Ottawa http://www.thecodefactory.ca/ (http://www.thecodefactory.ca/)

Hi ! Just came to say : if you sell bitcoin-related products, I think Trezor (and/or future concurrents) will be a must-have (as soon as they start shipping)
http://www.bitcointrezor.com/ (http://www.bitcointrezor.com/)

You going to do any sort of renovation on the place? I sell floors in West Island, in case you wanted to redo your floors.

the bitcoin embassy project is well underway!

I am now locking this thread; Watch for the official announcement for the bitcoin embassy's opening soon on bitcointalk.org!

Official thread  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260881.msg2783686#msg2783686)