Most of the vendors initially converted it to 100% btc, but couple of weeks ago I was approached by a few that asked how to save for themselves. I provided them with paper wallets if they wanted to save some themselves.

I'd say all the vendors do not wait for any confirmation due to the fact that they don't fully understand the system. This is a security concern, but this is why a 3rd party MUST be there to mediate any issues. Bitpay has a booth there, so that helps alot on any trouble they run into. What i suggested to them was eat the cost if any vendors run into problems with transactions. this would increase vendor adoption and confidence in bitcoin knowing that there is a 3rd party to help cover any small losses.

As I noticed quite a number of times. a user would end up paying with a non-typical wallet and they didn't include the .0001 transaction fee and bitpay's POS system would hang as its missing .0001 to complete the transaction. This is a major concern for vendor adoption. I mentioned it to them, but i'm not sure if they are doing anything about it.

It's only an issue if its a large valuable item. Small item transactions like drinks/food shouldn't be much of a concern, but it would definitely hinder adoption if vendors get ripped off and leave the btc ecosystem. solution to this is have processors foot the bill if this happens up to a certain amount of course. this can greatly help adoption if vendors feel safe with a 3rd party coming in to remedy situations.

I helped kickstart the initial launch of the Bitcoin Fair in NYC and I would like to give an analysis of my findings regarding adoption in a physical marketplace.

As it stands right now Bitcoin is still quite new in the minds of the general public as most people don't take it seriously or still have a negative conitation about it from media headlines. It's obvious that it will take some time before the general public comes on board and get used to using cryptocurrency like how it took some time for credit cards. It's just that we don't have a marketing department like Visa.

The kickoff day for the Bitcoin Fair was a great success as much of the community came out to help support vendors that accepted btc.

First things first is that we have to understand that this fair has over 80+ rotating vendors each week that are not tech savvy at all as they are your general small business owner concentrating on their business and less worrying about crypto. 90% of the vendors take cash only and there's a reason for that as there are no fees and it just makes it easier without uncle sam taking a chunk from a tiny mom and pop stand.

The Vendor Problem:

Out of the 80+ vendors, only 20-30 or so signed up for accepting Bitcoin, the rest didn't bother nor cared for it. Reason why these 20-30 accepted btc was due to the fact they had a relationship with the fair owner advocating it. And for the potential publicity it could bring them. These people are still not our tech savvy business owners, but they are esstential to increasing adoption as they provide products/services that we seldom find in the BTC arena mainly food / artisanal products.

Now the question to the problem is, how do we increase vendor adoption?

** Envy **
From what I noticed so far is that any vendor that took BTC received more than normal sales during the Bitcoin Fair day as BTC users came out to help support those vendors. Any vendor that did not accept BTC technically lost a sale as most of the users I interviewed would approach a vendor to ask if they took BTC and if they didn't they would just walk away to their neighbor that did. This was an interesting effect as this happened enough times, the vendors noticed they were losing sales to their competition. From there I noticed that vendors that completely ignored it initially, ended up asking more info about Bitcoin and took it a bit more seriously eventually signing up for bitpay.


** Education **
Another major hurdle I noticed after vendors chose to accept BTC, was understanding how to use it. QR scanning to pay for something is quite foreign to most people. I had to educate a majority of these new vendors from the ground up without going much into the technical details. But once these vendors get the concept, they were pretty much sold on it. This required a face to face interation with them as they will 'always' have questions. Asking vendors to 'read' or 'watch' a video isn't really going to fly when educating newcomers.


** Support **
Currently Bitpay has a booth every Sunday at the fair now to help support vendors that run into problems with the platform. This is necessary as I noticed quite a few times a transaction would get stuck or someone sent an amount less than what was required due to the .0001 btc fee deducted from the users wallet. Now this just completely frustrates vendors as they end up wondering if they received the money or not. Sure they can look at the blockchain confirmations, but good luck on explaining that to non-technical folks on the spot. This is why its ncessary to have a 'support booth' at these types of events. If this happens enough times to a vendor, they will eventually drop the platform completely. Another idea is to get processors to negate these small amounts when they occur, with a threshold of course.


** Experimental **
Initially I came up with the idea of a vendor + user rebate system for the fair. Any vendor that received X amount of BTC for that day would get an addtional 5-10% extra BTC. And any user that spent BTC that day at a 'verified' vendor's address would also get a 5-10% rebate. This is only possible with crypto since we can see transactions on the blockchain, as doing it any other way wouldn't be easy. We weren't able to excute this approach as we had an extremely small budget to work with. So hopefully anyone that holds another similar event would try this approach if they have the funding for it. It definitely would increase adotoption, imo.


---------------


Currently the Bitcoin Fair is still running every Sunday until October and I can see bitcoin accepting vendors dwindling if we don't keep the momentum going. The fair owner is willing to waive initial booth fees for Bitcoin companies or cryptocoin communities that would like to have a booth at the fair. This is to draw more community members out and to introduce newcomers to the space. So if anyone is interested in getting a free booth or want to throw a meetup at a booth, PM me.

A big thanks to Hester Street Fair / xCubicle / Bitpay / Bitcoin Center / APIcoin / yBitcoin in making this possible. This data and experience was definitely useful for launching another future event.

http://youtu.be/5puAY0Ptyt0 -- for those that want to watch live.

Just got filmed a couple of weeks ago for the CNN 1hr episode about BTC.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2bcnff/yay_o_got_filmed_for_an_1_hour_cnn_episode_about/

Would be pretty awesome to see how that turns out! Seems that the episode will be pretty positive as its being done by Morgan Spurlock, the guy that did Super Size Me.  I'm also wearing a NXT shirt too and helping them out.. really love what they are doing in the crypto space so far.

Lets see how that turns out... be on the look out for the show.

thanks gweedo, for sponsoring! it really did help us out with what we had..

here are the pics for that day: https://plus.google.com/photos/104327012982934083491/albums/6025607404232751873



i'll do a follow up post on what happen that day and what future opportunities we might have.

fyi, for those that couldn't make it during the kick off day. it is still running every sunday if you want to come out and support vendors and increase adoption. and also its a great way to meet other bitcoiners.

thanks for everyone that came out that day!

Hi,

I want to show Bitcoin to a few family members that are interested, but they can't read english. And I can't explain it in cantonese properly as I'm limited in vocabulary.. =(

Are there any good explanations in chinese without mentioning any technical lingo?

thanks!

help spread the word... thanks~! --- going to be an awesome sunday.. the weather is clear too! lets hope its not tooo hot...

■■ NYC Bitcoin Fair + Meetup + After Party ■■

For those that dont know already we're doing the Fair this coming sunday. During the day its going to be a fair with vendors taking Bitcoin. Would be awesome if everyone in the nyc bitcoin community comes out to support these vendors.

Some interesting activities we have confirmed for is a bitcoin info booth, bitcoin stand selling bitcoin related items by xcubicle, and a satoshi square trading booth by the nyc bitcoin center guys.

We're giving away Custom made Paper Bitcoin wallets and bitcoin bags. We also have the latest yBitcoin magazine that just got printed this Wednesday:

this is why I'm working toward bringing a free event for the community. powered by volunteers and sponsors.

www.nycbitcoinfair.com

we need help spreading the word out. it's next week. the after party is sponsored free food and discounted drinks if paid in btc.

Planning changed a bit, but regardless the fair will go on! We also booked an after party at a local bar exclusively just for the bitcoin community as they are usually closed for that night.

June 15, 2014 - Sunday...

Read more here: http://www.nycbitcoinfair.com

Sign up Here: http://uv.rs/1g3TpzO

Since this is a free fair, its just a few of us volunteers to get this up and running and it really relies on the help of sponsors and the support of the community to get this up and running. Currently all funds are going toward vendor training & support, desigining, printing, and organization of the event. Our success is everyone else's success as this would surely increase adoption rates as we are on the forefront of figuring out how to get a regular small business owner on board.

If you like to support this fair, you can donate to: 1AQ9td38YTi21Joqmr46DuSpqhNhWCc9Kp

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Please help spread the word.

Thanks!

Hi Everyone!

http://www.nycbitcoinfair.com

So we're having the very first NYC Bitcoin Fair in the city with over 30+ food/arts vendors with bitcoin booths and scheduled Bitcoin presentatioins/talks at the fair. We're looking to reach out to the community to those that are willing to support this endeavor. Much of the fair is bootstrapped and its only a few of us volunteering to make all of this happen with what time we can spare.

This fair is modeled after how the open source CMS Drupal community runs their events in NYC (http://www.nyccamp.org/about-nyc-camp). They fund their all day events using help from the community and sponsors that want to help foster the space. They never charge a fee to the public too. I've been to a few Bitcoin conferences and the prohibitive ticket prices turns many away. Also if you noticed at every Bitcoin conference, rarely do you find someone selling food/drinks for bitcoin!

Anyone that would like to be a community sponsor please pm me. Your name and logo would be listed on our event guide and website.

Thanks,
NYC Bitcoin Fair

how are you paying dividends when you sell your items in USD? do you convert them righ away and how so?

do you have a trading record to show your previous trade data?

Video Link: https://vimeo.com/94886100

We want to be able to provide a free Bitcoin event for the masses without the prohibitive ticket prices which most similar conferences/events entail. A typical event usually have to charge high ticket prices due to the rental of the venue, but we're taking a different approach as the space already exists and open to the public. Many Bitcoin events around the world currently hosts Bitcoin companies and most of the time you can only spend your Bitcoins on mining hardware, but rarely do you see any local vendors selling food or local products for BTC. So, we are aiming for the following:

• Create The First Community Driven Weekly Bitcoin Fair That Appeals To Large Audiences Across Demographics.
• Encourage Vendors To Use Bitcoin As A Form Of Payment And Give The Bitcoin Community A Physical Place To Spend Their Bitcoins.
• Brand Bitcoin In The Media As A Tangible Form Of Payment That Can Be Used Easily And Safely In Person.
• Use sponsorship funds to grow the Bitcoin community by educating newcomers/vendors and organizing social events to spur innovation.

More Info and Sponsorship opportunities here: http://nycbitcoinfair.com

======================

Currently we have 2 ticket options. A Free Ticket is just to RSVP for the event without receiving a Goodie Bag. The other option is to receive the Goodie Bag with the RSVP:

- Nicely Designed Bitcoin Tote Bag
- A well crafted Bitcoin brochure for newbies
- Designed Bitcoin / Altcoin - Tshirt / Mug / Pens / Etc. (The usual stuff at conferences)
- Bitcoin / Dogecoin Inspired Pixel Art
- Bitcoin / Dogecoin Macaroon (made by the Macaroon Parlor)
- Designed Bitcoin Paper Wallets
- Bitcoin / Altcoin - Stickers
- This depends on the amount of funding we get to make this happen...

Goodie Bag Tickets are essentially free as in you would just have to share on facebook/twitter to reduce the price to $0. Limited quantity on the goodie bags! If you like to support us, you can just pay for the goodie bag ticket.

Why can't I pay in Bitcoin?
Yes I know! Blame Uniiverse for that. You can email them here: https://www.uniiverse.com/contact-us

Can I donate to support this fair?
Sure, send it here: 1AQ9td38YTi21Joqmr46DuSpqhNhWCc9Kp -- https://i.imgur.com/ec1GreG.png  Thanks!

=======================

Events at the Fair:

**Artisan Market** - Interactive Element / Vendors Accepting Bitcoins For Goods And Services

**Bitcoin Info Booth** - Interactive Element / Informational Booth, Large Lcd Monitor, Give-a-ways, Service Sign Ups (i.e. Wallets)

**Bitcoin Faucet** - Interactive Element /live Bitcoin “dripping” From “faucet”, Crowd Funded

**Meetups/socials** - Interactive Element / Round Table Discussions, Speakers From Bitcoin Community, Satoshi Square

**Bitcoin Bootcamp** - Interactive Element / Free Starter Courses For Vendors, Wallet And Software Setup

**The mBits Store** - Sell items for a fraction of a Bitcoin to spur the usage of Bitcoins. The cost of items will be subsidized by sponsorship funds.

**Bitcoin Bar** - Local bars in the area will accept Bitcoin. Bitcoin Bar Hoping in one area.

**Bitcoin Afterparty** - We'll throw an afterparty at a local Bar after the fair to celebrate.

what is your idea? maybe you can just give us a brief explanation of it without revealing all of it completely.

yeah hopefully we can get it ready for opening day. but it seems like a more realistic time frame would be sometime in May.

Hi Everyone!

**Update 5/27/2014 -- Official Launch here: www.nycbitcoinfair.com -- June 15, 2014**


----------------------------------


I've been helping out the NYC Bitcoin community host meetups since 2012 and seen it grow from 5 people showing up at the first meetup to what it is today. (https://www.google.com/search?q=xcubicle+bitcoin) I'm currently working on the next phase to increase Bitcoin adoption by merchants targeting the less tech savvy merchants with physical locations.

For those that have been to a Bitcoin event/conference/satoshi square, you'll notice that there arent many merchants selling anything besides mining hardware. You can't even buy food/drinks with your Bitcoins as most food vendors  wont take it. I hope to help change this and push this idea forward as we have a test bed here in NYC which we can replicate around the world if we can figure this out. I'm currently working with the hester street fair (www.hesterstreetfair.com) here in NYC to convert every sunday for the next 5 months into a Bitcoin fair event. Below is my proposed solution to making this work by utilizing the public blockchain for data tracking. I guess it's the first color coin type of implementation in a physical space.

---

What is the Hester Street Fair?
The Hester Street Fair is the only outdoor community market located on the Lower East Side of NYC, specializing in handmade goods, creative products and artisanal food. HSF is a launching pad for small, independent businesses and artists. Hundreds of vendors rotate over 60 spots every Sunday to create one of the most dynamic outdoor events in New York City.

How is Bitcoin involved?
We would be the first Bitcoin fair in NYC to have a group of merchants and food vendors accepting Bitcoin in one spot. We also have teamed up with Xcubicle who has helped incubate the Bitcoin community in NYC since 2012. They will help to organize Bitcoin related events that involve speaker sessions, community meetups, and public education in this space.

What makes this unique?
We plan to merge a typical local vendor fair with a feel of a Bitcoin social community gathering. We’re taking a grassroots approach on increasing Bitcoin adoption by integrating a new technology into something that currently exists.

How are you going to increase adoption rates?
Adoption rates increase as the general public understands how the technology works and gets a test bed to try it out at a fair like this. Our approach is targeting the vendors that has products/services that do not take Bitcoin yet. Those vendors that choose to accept Bitcoin will receive an additional % revenue from every Bitcoin transaction tracked via the blockchain public ledger. This creates an incentive for vendors to learn the technology and adopt it as it would provide an additional revenue. Now as for consumers that use Bitcoin, we would implement a similar strategy where users would receive a % rebate discount when spending their bitcoins as at a verified vendor at the fair. Due to the mass numbers of consumers at a fair, we would limit the number of sign ups each day and have those that wish to participate register their bitcoin address with us to track their spending.

Where are the funds coming from?
Typically at large Bitcoin conferences/events sponsorship money is used to pay for the expensive venue. In this scenario since the space already exists we would use sponsorship funds and community cowdfunding in creating this market discount/rebate structure. In a sense its funneling sponsorship money back to users and vendors of the Bitcoin ecosystem.


WHAT EVENTS WOULD BE AT THE FAIR?

Satoshi Square 2.0 - A section of the space will be dedicated for those that wish to barter for Bitcoin. We plan to enhance this trading setup by implementing the Mycellium App’s Local Trading feature (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=462235.0) where users can offer buy/sell prices via their in app interface. For those that are new to the platform or those that don’t have the application installed, we will have a trading booth where buy orders can be placed through an intermediary. Sellers within the vicinity will be alerted via the app when a buyer meets their requirements. This is different from the typical setup as users would involve having to stay around the same area when a buy/sell order is made and wait for a matching sale. The in app mycellium local trader feature creates a new dynamic to this event.

Xcubicle Bitcoin Meetup - In addition to the fair, we will coincide an afternoon Bitcoin meetup at Xcubicle’s space in a socratic circle discussion (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=xcubicle+bitcoin+). Prepared topics will be lead by a moderator that can vary from the basics to advanced depending on the level of the audience.

Bitcoin Social Networking - For those that wish to participate in the social networking event which will happen near the satoshi square booth, we would coincide it with or after the meetup. In order to make it a friendly environment for networking, we would require guests to RSVP ahead of time or sign up on the spot to receive a networking tag indicating they are there to network.

Physical Bitcoin Faucets - There will be Bitcoin faucet kiosks or a person at the fair where users can receive free bitcoins/litecoins/dogecoins. These physical faucets will be crowdfunded by the community. (More details soon)

Bitcoin + Altcoin Info Booths - There will be bitcoin/altcoin info materials for new users looking to learn more about cryptocurrency. Each booth will have an attendee helping new users setting up their wallets to be used at the faucets or at the trading square.

Product/Food Vendors - Vendors will be from around the city that range from selling food and products for bitcoin. Xcubicle will be educating vendors on how to accept Bitcoins in a fast paced environment.


HOW ARE DISCOUNTS/REBATES DISTRIBUTED?

Vendors - Vendors that choose to adopt bitcoin will submit their public address for us to track  and receive an additional % revenue based on the total Bitcoins collected from the start to the end of the fair. There will be a maximum earnings cap for each vendor to prevent abuse of the system. Since all transactions are tracked on the public blockchain ledger, we can distribute the % bonuses accordingly.

Users - Rebates for users that purchase services/products in bitcoin from a verified bitcoin vendor at the fair will be reimbursed a % of what they spent. Due to the fact there are more consumers than vendors at a fair, there will be a limit cap for those that wish to participate in this rebate program. The limit cap will be enforced via a registration process at one of the booths. Users will have to submit their public bitcoin address for tracking. Name and email is optional for those that wish to stay anonymous as the only thing needed is their Bitcoin address to provide the rebate.

---

EXAMPLE TRANSACTION AT THE FAIR

• 7AM - Vendor "Luke's Lobsters" logs into Bitpay and generates a Bitpay receiving address so he can convert incoming BTC into USD.
• 8AM - Vendor "Luke's Lobsters" submits his Bitcoin Public Address used to receive Bitcoin payments at the fair to participate for the rebate.
• 9AM - User "John Doe" arrives at the fair and heads to the registration booth and register's his Bitcoin Public Address that he will be using at the fair for cashback.
• 1PM - John purchases a lobster roll sandwich from "Luke's Lobsters" table. He opens up his app and sends payment from his registered address with the fair.
• 9PM - End of Day -- We look at "Luke's Lobsters" public address via the blockchain to see how much money he received through out the day and send an additional 3-10% to that address
• 9PM - End of Day -- We look at "John Doe" public address for the day to see how much he spent at a verified merchant address and issue a 3%-10% cashback

---

I believe what I have here solves the two big issues with Bitcoin adoption and usage:

1. Vendor adoption - As a business owner myself, we want our fiat dollars at the end of the day to pay our suppliers. Sure there is Bitpay that solves the issues of converting it, but not every physical shop owner wants to give out there TAXID information to make that happen. I'm talking about mom/pop shops that are just cash only. Now the way I believe this issue can be solved is by reversing the fees, instead of charging a 3% fee like how credit cards do it, we give the vendors a 3-10% back in what they collect in btc. This makes vendors choose now: Do I collect cash and not get extra revenue? Or do I collect these Bitcoins and get an additional 3-10% on top of what I charge? Combine this feature with Bitpay we now have a huge incentive for vendors to sign up. Once vendors are used to the Bitcoin system, we can scale back on the btc kickbacks and everyone wins!

2. Bitcoin Users - Let's be frank here. Majority of Bitcoiners are hoarders. To solve this issue there has to be some sort of discount to pry those bitcoins out of users hands. By implementing a cashback type of feature like how credit cards do it, we would make users decide on a choice of either paying in cash at regular price or paying in BTC with a discount. Now for those that bought on the high $1000+ price point, we can't expect them spending as it would seem like they are spending 2x-3x that amount. To solve that users would just have to buy some btc off of someone at the satoshi square before they use it. The physical Bitcoin ecosystem is now complete once we combine the satoshi square with a merchant fair together.


Hopefully I didnt miss anything and it all makes sense. If this works out, it can be replicated around the world at other merchant fairs. We actually have a meeting with Bitpay to discuss how to get this to work smoothly with their system. As for sponsorship opportunities, we're writing up a package currently. It's going to be awesome! =)

We hope to get this up and running in the coming weeks once we iron out all the logistics and funding issues.

Feedback would be great as this isn't fully perfected yet and looking for community feedback or possible bugs we didn't account for.

what ever happen to this project? is there a newer VM image out there for this kind of setup?

Hi, for those looking to join in on the live nyc meetup: http://youtu.be/F_CtK5LmMhI