How can we encourage local businesses to accept BTC?

[jawed]

It basically starts with the administration in accepting and legalizing the use of BTC in the respective state. In many countries, the administration is still sceptical about the nature and properties of digital currency. It may be mainly because BTC is decentralized and not under the control of the state. Until the administration starts to accept the concept of cryptocurrencies, the local businesses would also steer clear. Nobody wants to upset the big brother 

I think by administration you mean the states which I think will take a longer time or no one can say that when will the state legalize bitcoin as Japan now has legalized for which no one expected.
The better way is that we the users of bitcoin ourselves need to work for it to make it acceptable in the local market and to regulate it without any issue to the merchants.

I fully agree that it is up to the long standing bitcoin community to introduce it to the mainstream.
I don't think this will happen through any big push, although it would be great if the whole community could use their combined influence all at once.

I believe the solution is gradual introduction. This can be done buy each member making small changes, like when buying a product activley looking to see f they can buy that same product with bitcoin instead of fiat.

What i think is the biggest barrier to mainstream introduction is volatility of price.
Half the community view bitcoin is a speculative asset that will be worth a lot more in the future, and therefore buy and sell all the time.
The other half want to see bitcoin replace fiat as an everyday currency, but for that to happen the price will have to stabilize.

I agree with your assessment about the volatility of the price of bitcoin. Personally even I look at bitcoin as an asset. I never like to spend my bitcoins. Always trying to increase my total stock. And I am sure there are many like me out there 

[Fatanut]

information dessimination using advertisements to radio or television that is the fastest way to introduce bitcoin.

we are also seeing that now mate some tv series already mentioning about this system bitcoin can be mainstream in a short while
as many investors and traders are already engage placing their investment here and from some other alts coin local businesses will
follow after seeing this system being well establish.

Those tv series are probably all related to tech like Mr. Robot, and Silicon Valley. The non tech savvy people would think that the term "bitcoin" is just a made-up term for that tv series and probably wouldn't bother to search about it. I wouldn't take tv series mentioning bitcoin as an advertisement at all since first of all, the people that are watching those probably already know about bitcoins. Otherwise, they would understand very few of the story.

Investors, traders, and merchants aren't the same people. They might not be related at all. There's a spectrum of investors and traders. I've once saw a seaman trading XEM on our chat room, there are also some single moms. None of them are a merchant or run a business on their own.

[tabas]

That's why we need to do something in able to encourage them and put their interest into bitcoin.

People are discussing that "Something" which you have mentioned. If we let them know that BTC price will increase in the future and show them the graph how it has raised to 1900$+. They should understand that BTC will not be just a payment gateway, it will also be savings for future, then only we have a chance of getting them on board.

It is a sure thing that if those local businesses start to know what bitcoin is. They are the ones to adopt it voluntarily, when they will see that the potential is really great and big. And they will be helping the price to increase because if they get interested to our explanation about bitcoin it will result to the price increase.

[Kamran09]

It is ok. Using bitcoin payments more secure and comfortable than anything else, but the impact of this on the usage will now be bad for Government. Just be careful with government!

[passwordnow]

It is ok. Using bitcoin payments more secure and comfortable than anything else, but the impact of this on the usage will now be bad for Government. Just be careful with government!

They will for sure feel uncomfortable when they are going to know that there are a lot of unconfirmed transactions everyday. It will be bad for the government because many are going to evade taxes but it's also good for them because they are going to be forced to accept bitcoin and regulate transactions from time to time.

[omonuyak]

Media propaganda about the benefits of accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment will go in a long way in improving bitcoin images to the local and those that see it as scams'  another way to promote bitcoin as a mode of payment is to give discount for any items bought and pay through bitcoin or others crypto currencies.

[Astargath]

Right now it's probably impossible to convince them but because most of the people that are using bitcoin right now are young, very young (60% of users are between 10-34 years old) meaning that in the near future those people will likely use bitcoin for their business if bitcoin continues its development so we really don't have to convince anyone, it's a matter of time.

[Kevin77]

Media propaganda about the benefits of accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment will go in a long way in improving bitcoin images to the local and those that see it as scams'

But who will do it ? Merchants may advertise that they are the accepting bitcoin payment but how customers will go for advertising about emphasizing the benefits of accepting  bitcoin payments to merchants. Only possible way might be talking personally to the merchants about the benefits of accepting bitcoin payments.

When merchants listening to multiple requests about bitcoin payment acceptance, they might come to some positive conclusions. I believe in near future we are going to have Amazon to be accepting bitcoin payments similar to this.

[Astargath]

Media propaganda about the benefits of accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment will go in a long way in improving bitcoin images to the local and those that see it as scams'

But who will do it ? Merchants may advertise that they are the accepting bitcoin payment but how customers will go for advertising about emphasizing the benefits of accepting  bitcoin payments to merchants. Only possible way might be talking personally to the merchants about the benefits of accepting bitcoin payments.

When merchants listening to multiple requests about bitcoin payment acceptance, they might come to some positive conclusions. I believe in near future we are going to have Amazon to be accepting bitcoin payments similar to this.

But right now there is truly no real benefit on accepting bitcoins, most people that are into bitcoin are not even using it as a type of payment, most people are using bitcoin as an investment, until a lot of people start using bitcoin often there is really no benefit at all and it's more of an inconvenience than anything

[Bagaji]

Well media propaganda will go a long way in informing the public on why is good for them to transact there business with the use of Bitcoin and the benefits for them to store their money in bitcoin as compared to their local currency. But note that if you want to visit  their individuals shop to educate them on the important of Bitcoin it may look as if you are doing a marketing job with your personal interest which may be unknown to them. So you need to be careful of your words when trying to educate them one on one , on the important of Bitcoin.

[maxpowerzz92]

Unfortunately I don't see this happening until a major financial crisis happens.  Most people don't understand or care about the current financial system, and how it works so long as the party keeps going.  I see inflation everywhere I look nowadays, and people accept it as the norm since that's all they've known their whole lives.

When the lights go out, that's when all holders right now in bitcoin end up becoming the new 1% afterwards.

[tomwalsh]

Unfortunately I don't see this happening until a major financial crisis happens.  Most people don't understand or care about the current financial system, and how it works so long as the party keeps going.  I see inflation everywhere I look nowadays, and people accept it as the norm since that's all they've known their whole lives.

When the lights go out, that's when all holders right now in bitcoin end up becoming the new 1% afterwards.

How is bitcoin going to solve inflation?
inflation is the gradual loss in value of a currency.

The price of bitcoin has been rising drastically over time. This has the same effect as deflation.
And deflation is far worse for an economy than inflation.

The price of bitcoin will have to stabalise before it is widely accepted as currency.

[jossiel]

It is ok. Using bitcoin payments more secure and comfortable than anything else, but the impact of this on the usage will now be bad for Government. Just be careful with government!

Only this impact that will make the businesses to step back is only if they are going to rely always with the government's rule about crypto currency.

But most of the government's now still doesn't have an insight about bitcoin or crypto currency.

And there's no need to worry regarding this matter if the government will try to get into controlling of bitcoin transactions.

[Astargath]

Unfortunately I don't see this happening until a major financial crisis happens.  Most people don't understand or care about the current financial system, and how it works so long as the party keeps going.  I see inflation everywhere I look nowadays, and people accept it as the norm since that's all they've known their whole lives.

When the lights go out, that's when all holders right now in bitcoin end up becoming the new 1% afterwards.

How is bitcoin going to solve inflation?
inflation is the gradual loss in value of a currency.

The price of bitcoin has been rising drastically over time. This has the same effect as deflation.
And deflation is far worse for an economy than inflation.

The price of bitcoin will have to stabalise before it is widely accepted as currency.

Yes, right now using bitcoins for your business can be a pretty crazy idea, you can easily lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars in a matter of days or even hours with the volatility that bitcoin has right now, no one would want that and there is always the possibility of a big crash making you lose way too much money.

[noone000]

That's why we need to do something in able to encourage them and put their interest into bitcoin.

People are discussing that "Something" which you have mentioned. If we let them know that BTC price will increase in the future and show them the graph how it has raised to 1900$+. They should understand that BTC will not be just a payment gateway, it will also be savings for future, then only we have a chance of getting them on board.

While that may be true at the moment, the value of the bitcoin could easily fluctuate up or down, increasing the risk for any local businesses wishing to accept bitcoins. This is potentially harmful for companies wishing to accept bitcoins because of the potential for its value to plummet, and thus entail huge losses for them. If we want to promote BTC, we must first instil confidence of bitcoins for local businesses.

[myhung76393]

encouraging local businesses to accept not only bitcoin but some other worthy cryptocurrency seems not to be so hard nowadays, it is due to the innovations and the influence of the information technology and the help it will bring to everyday's life.
for someone who can show the advantage of the information technology, he or she can easily encourage the business owner to accept or use bitcoin into his or her business.

[senyorito123]

encouraging local businesses to accept not only bitcoin but some other worthy cryptocurrency seems not to be so hard nowadays, it is due to the innovations and the influence of the information technology and the help it will bring to everyday's life.
for someone who can show the advantage of the information technology, he or she can easily encourage the business owner to accept or use bitcoin into his or her business.

But those technology you've mentioned has not been approved by major business establishment and bitcoin would get a big struggle to reach that far since business minded people would surely goes to the payment processor who's been tied up with banks so that they can have assurance that it would be safe and stable so that they will not lose some money for this matter.

[iqlimasyadiqa]

I am looking to help move BTC forward into our economy more and would like to get some suggestions on how we can get more retailers to accept BTC as a payment.  The best part about accepting BTC is that they do not have any threat of charge-back from the customer.  I am just looking for some more input before I start approaching some of these local retailers.

Promotions and also price promos will be a very big thing. We can give a special discount for bitcoin users, now many services that do such a way. Banks give discounts for every shopping done. And this is one way that bitcoin can emulate and apply. We must start from the simplest.

[MFahad]

I am looking to help move BTC forward into our economy more and would like to get some suggestions on how we can get more retailers to accept BTC as a payment.  The best part about accepting BTC is that they do not have any threat of charge-back from the customer.  I am just looking for some more input before I start approaching some of these local retailers.

Promotions and also price promos will be a very big thing. We can give a special discount for bitcoin users, now many services that do such a way. Banks give discounts for every shopping done. And this is one way that bitcoin can emulate and apply. We must start from the simplest.

Yes, very well, If we follow these rules and apply them.
Than it is a way to promote the bitcoin and in this way, people can use bitcoin in their regular life, and in local businessman feel encouragement to use it, also everyone know about bitcoin, who don't know before it, and in my country, a huge people don't know about bitcoin.

[kpcian]

If we are capable of pursing themselves​ and convince themselves then they could be interested to use Bitcoin as a transaction tools. If we can convince them and also make them understand the importance of Bitcoin then they will use it willingly. Day by day many local people are being engaged in Bitcoin.