People become believers when they see you pay IRL

[thejaytiesto]

So my friend was in Canada and it was really cold, none of his friends had change, he had some Bitcoin in his phone. Happened to find a place where they would accept BTC. He bought some coffees and warm chocolate and invited all of his friends with it. A quick payment into the guy's Bitcoin address which was printed in a piece of paper, delivered a nice breakfast for him and all his friends. Then they understood how Bitcoin is money no matter what others might say. They stopped seeing it as some geek weird thing. I think using Bitcoin in real life in return of some useful service in front of clueless guys that still think it's not real money, is a great way to teach them how Bitcoin is very real and the real party hasn't even begun yet. Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

[DooMAD]

Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

Careful, you might prompt some nutjobs to lecture us all on the evils of permanently storing cups of coffee in the holy ledger.   

They'd have you believe adoption in this manner is irrelevant because Bitcoin is just going to be a settlement network for the wealthy.  They'll tell you Bitcoin can't scale to allow everyone to transact in such a fashion, so there's no point in trying and we should concede defeat now.  They honestly believe it doesn't matter if the developing world, or even the average user, is priced off-chain, because the only important aspect of Bitcoin is how cheaply you can run a full node. 

Personally, I think great things will happen if more people use Bitcoin for everyday purchases without relying on banksters or card providers.  I agree that small transactions like that will be vital for future success. 

[yunuzov]

Actually this is nothing comparing to btc becoming real money above all other. I mean they still see btc as fraud or something like pseudo-money. It is not. It is all real money.

[Betwrong]

So my friend was in Canada and it was really cold, none of his friends had change, he had some Bitcoin in his phone. Happened to find a place where they would accept BTC. He bought some coffees and warm chocolate and invited all of his friends with it. A quick payment into the guy's Bitcoin address which was printed in a piece of paper, delivered a nice breakfast for him and all his friends. Then they understood how Bitcoin is money no matter what others might say. They stopped seeing it as some geek weird thing. I think using Bitcoin in real life in return of some useful service in front of clueless guys that still think it's not real money, is a great way to teach them how Bitcoin is very real and the real party hasn't even begun yet. Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

That is such a nice story! I wish I was in your friend's place 

And cheers to Canada! They hardly accept Bitcoin anywere in my country. They do actually but in very few places.

[Kprawn]

I had the same experience on a lunch appointment with some clients. I took them out for lunch and I paid with Bitcoin. They were very amazed and intrigued and we extended the

lunch to talk about Bitcoin. I helped them to setup a wallet and transferred some coins to them and to thank me, they paid with Bitcoin for some desert.

Out of the three of them, two still use their wallet regularly. { I still have their Bitcoin addresses, because I transferred coins to their wallets, so I can check up on them } 

[Nobitcoin]

Shame I don't particularly like coffee but if the story was about burgers or pizza I would definetly keep my Bitcoins instead of giving them to the casinos.

[jt byte]

The story is interesting, and glad that there are places like that,
who accepts bitcoin as a payment method, personally near me there is not any place like that.
And i only exchange bitcoin to fiat money when i urgently need them.

[Snorek]

So my friend was in Canada and it was really cold, none of his friends had change, he had some Bitcoin in his phone. Happened to find a place where they would accept BTC. He bought some coffees and warm chocolate and invited all of his friends with it. A quick payment into the guy's Bitcoin address which was printed in a piece of paper, delivered a nice breakfast for him and all his friends. Then they understood how Bitcoin is money no matter what others might say. They stopped seeing it as some geek weird thing. I think using Bitcoin in real life in return of some useful service in front of clueless guys that still think it's not real money, is a great way to teach them how Bitcoin is very real and the real party hasn't even begun yet. Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

Nice story, but without adoption of bitcoin by merchants it would be impossible to achieve. In some countries you can't actually buy anything directly for bitcoin yet.
In addition it seems that people are forgetting that money on their banks accounts are purely digital too when they using Debit and Credit cards.

[harizen]

So my friend was in Canada and it was really cold, none of his friends had change, he had some Bitcoin in his phone. Happened to find a place where they would accept BTC. He bought some coffees and warm chocolate and invited all of his friends with it. A quick payment into the guy's Bitcoin address which was printed in a piece of paper, delivered a nice breakfast for him and all his friends. Then they understood how Bitcoin is money no matter what others might say. They stopped seeing it as some geek weird thing. I think using Bitcoin in real life in return of some useful service in front of clueless guys that still think it's not real money, is a great way to teach them how Bitcoin is very real and the real party hasn't even begun yet. Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

I had the same experience on a lunch appointment with some clients. I took them out for lunch and I paid with Bitcoin. They were very amazed and intrigued and we extended the

lunch to talk about Bitcoin. I helped them to setup a wallet and transferred some coins to them and to thank me, they paid with Bitcoin for some desert.

Out of the three of them, two still use their wallet regularly. { I still have their Bitcoin addresses, because I transferred coins to their wallets, so I can check up on them } 

Im really amazed with both of your story. What a nice place there. Directly accepting bitcoin in some of your physical stores there just like how fiat is moving. Hope someday my country will have that too. Even bitcoin debit card are not accepted here afaik. The only good thing here there are lots of online merchants here accepting bitcoin and converting our btc's to fiat is just one click away. Hope physical store here are will adopt bitcoin payment too.

[franky1]

Shame I don't particularly like coffee but if the story was about burgers or pizza I would definetly keep my Bitcoins instead of giving them to the casinos.

guess you missed the "bitcoin pizza" story that happened years ago which was the first big story of using bitcoin. which ignited the flames of thousands of peoples imaginations

[brg444]

so did they end up buying bitcoins?

[Laketear]

Shame I don't particularly like coffee but if the story was about burgers or pizza I would definetly keep my Bitcoins instead of giving them to the casinos.

Are you an early user of bitcoin? How many bitcoins did you give to casinos? Wish not a lot.

[7788bitcoin]

Great story! Hopefully more people will start using their coins than just sitting on them waiting for miracle to happen to the price...

[pereira4]

Thats why we must never forget about the importance of small transactions like those. Buying some coffee in exchange of Bitcoin impressed them more than any of the revolutionary protocol tech stuff you could explain them.

Careful, you might prompt some nutjobs to lecture us all on the evils of permanently storing cups of coffee in the holy ledger.  

They'd have you believe adoption in this manner is irrelevant because Bitcoin is just going to be a settlement network for the wealthy.  They'll tell you Bitcoin can't scale to allow everyone to transact in such a fashion, so there's no point in trying and we should concede defeat now.  They honestly believe it doesn't matter if the developing world, or even the average user, is priced off-chain, because the only important aspect of Bitcoin is how cheaply you can run a full node.  

Personally, I think great things will happen if more people use Bitcoin for everyday purchases without relying on banksters or card providers.  I agree that small transactions like that will be vital for future success.  

You have a point, but that doesn't disprove the fact Bitcoin as we know it would be dead if the nodes become centralized, which is what would happen if absolutely everything went on the blockchain. Can you guys please consider a scenario where both mining and nodes centralized? Might as well use fiat then ffs. Lightning network will allow for small transactions. Yes it sucks that we can have all of it on the blockchain, but it's better than having a monopoly of centralized nodes. Until anyone comes up with a better solution, we'll have to deal with it.

[ashour]

When people see you use bitcoin in real life they get more interested in bitcoin and try to learn more about it.

[NorrisK]

This only works if the shop that accepts the bitcoin knows how to actually set a transaction up..

Last time I tried paying with bitcoin, I had to explain what they needed to do with their own system.

[unamis76]

It is indeed unfortunate that people don't see Bitcoin as money after these kinds of episodes, and even when they see these things happening some end up not regarding Bitcoin as money.

I remember when I first exchanged Bitcoins for fiat and people around me realized, for the first time, that Bitcoin was money. We have to find a way to make people believe straight out of the box that Bitcoin is money. I think that's only achievable with wider merchant adoption... One day

[intristin]

Would be cool if a company like BitPay could sign on a major retailer like Walgreens or Target or something like that. I think that would cause adoption to increase dramatically. Even amazon would be a game changer. Until the avrage person can walk into a store anywhere and buy milk, eggs, bread, and toilet paper, bitcoin will always remain a nerdy thing. 

[countryfree]

Nice, but more is needed. You've got to explain, otherwise people would just see BTC as a payment method, like paypal or a credit card. I admit it's a good start for a conversation, though. Many teachers do that in school, they show the students what something can do, before explaining how it actually works.

[visual111]

This is true. Now, bitcoiners just need more places to be able to pay with BTC