Massages for Bitcoin

[cy_b0rg]

So firstly this is a pretty serious post despite the attention grabbing name it is nothing to do with being seedy.   

A friend of mine is a therapist in Denmark and she wants to get into BTCcrypto. She doesn't have the money to invest at the moment, though she is paid well for her work.
We were talking and she was thinking about offering massages in exchange for bitcoin. However I explained to her that with the volatility, I would consider it rather unlikely that people would part with their bitcoin for a massage, unless there was a strong price incentive. So we came up with the idea to offer discounts if people are willing to pay in BTC.

We are currently working on a little experiment together and wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how to best go about this. It could be an interesting learning for the community. At the moment the main issues are the high relative cost of transferring BTC (around 0.001 on most exchanges) which works out to about $4. Her massages usually cost around 600kr for an hour which is about $75 today.

What kind of price would make it attractive for you to pay in Bitcoin for a massage (remembering again that this is a normal, legit, theraputic massage and not a seedy operation). Please bear in mind that $4 transaction fee as well - or even better if anyone knows some good ways around that to lower the transaction fee, the experiment could become a lot more interesting!

Cheers

[TheCoinGrabber]

Hmm, this sounds interesting. Wouldn't there be problems with the long transaction time though?

As for the pricing, I live in the 3rd world so am unfamiliar with the expenses there but I think she shouldn't give more than 10%. With that $4 tx fee, plus the discount, she'd be left with just around $60 or less if she also have declare that income.

I also had a massage license but people here would not pay for more than $5 so I decided to scrap the idea.

[cy_b0rg]

Hmm interesting that you bring up the transaction time. how long would it typically take?

Do you think 10% compensates for the fact that the price of Bitcoin could double (or halve) from one month to the next?

And wow, $5 for a massage is incredibly cheap compared to life in Denmark. Here you would really struggle to find a coffee for that price!

[danherbias07]

But you could only get customers from Denmark and have you seen the number of people in Denmark that are using bitcoin. You should maybe start with that.
Different people are here from different countries so this will be like nothing to do with them.
But her price is really expensive. I didnt think that could go way up that high for a massage. Well, just good luck to your business. I hope you could find some way to grow it.

[cy_b0rg]

Thanks, I guess my questions are more BTC related than Denmark related per se. The point about transaction times is really interesting, I've paid for a beer in Denmark with Bitcoin so I guess it is possible to have instant transactions, I just don't fully know how that was possible. 

[carlisle1]

Thanks, I guess my questions are more BTC related than Denmark related per se. The point about transaction times is really interesting, I've paid for a beer in Denmark with Bitcoin so I guess it is possible to have instant transactions, I just don't fully know how that was possible. 

maybe paying more transaction fee will make it quick and that's needed to also be considered about you and your friends plan, but the idea of
accepting this system might be a good one hope you succeed with your plan and someone can make a good inputs for you to have a better idea on how
to start it from your country, good luck.

[LeGaulois]

It's difficult to give a price as we don't live in the same country.  In some place for 75$, you get the massage + the girl and the neighbours. People are not so much enthusiast to pay with Bitcoin if the fees are about 0.001BTC I am sure the nasty minds won't care to pay it but maybe not the others. So what about accepting some other cryptos as well with a low fee such as Litecoin, Ripple, etc?
I wouldn't expect to have a discount if I want a massage and want to pay using Bitcoin, I would consider myself lucky to see a service I want that accept Bitcoin. But I understand that the purpose is to attract people, so I would say a 10% discount is decent for both party

[Iranus]

This is certainly a potential application for the Lightning Network.  When good LN wallets become used regularly on mainnet, it's certainly something you should consider implementing.

Until then, you could try offering a discount equal to the fees that your credit card charges you for receiving funds in exchange for a service, plus the rough fees and effort that it would take for you to buy BTC with fiat.  If you want to lose money from your transactions you can make it higher, but this is the basic value of you receiving BTC transactions.  In some scenarios this can be quite significant.

The transaction time is not a problem if you ensure that your clients pay an appropriate fee, because by the time the massage is done the transaction should be confirmed.

[eternalgloom]

I think that I would personally pay around 60 - 65 dollars for a massage of around an hour.
Being able to pay with Bitcoin would really be a big plus though
 
Perhaps if people paid in advance, you wouldn't have an issue with confirmation times?
Or is that sort of thing not done?

[sasaki111]

What kind of massage you hire? Dirty or Clean?  . By the way, cash is the best way to pay for massage. Not with Bitcoin haha, please bring some cash when you meet the massager

[swogerino]

I would not buy massages with Bitcoin. I can do this very well in cash which has a fixed rate like you said 75 dollars for an hour. Bitcoin is a precious asset, we are collecting it not so easily so it would be a very bad move if someone offers to pay Bitcoin for massages.

Or if she really is passionate about bitcoin I think that cutting in half or more her price and make it 35 dollars for an hour then maybe she would find interested persons who may pay in Bitcoin.

[Hamphser]

Hmm, this sounds interesting. Wouldn't there be problems with the long transaction time though?

As for the pricing, I live in the 3rd world so am unfamiliar with the expenses there but I think she shouldn't give more than 10%. With that $4 tx fee, plus the discount, she'd be left with just around $60 or less if she also have declare that income.

I also had a massage license but people here would not pay for more than $5 so I decided to scrap the idea.

$75 for a massage is too expensive for those people who do live on developing countries since its her job and do recieve that pay normally on their place then it should be fine. This kind of service would only be available on her place if there are lots of bitcoiners out there on the place then shes on luck because she do accept bitcoin as a payment for her service.Get used to it on those high fees and deduct in on the actual amount that you do normally receive $60 would be enough.