Bootstrapping a local economy

[bitjet]

I think there needs to be a printable flyer put out, a youtube video made that shows the practicality of bitcoin, and other things to directly engage consumers and merchants.

[jesmurf]

Hey guys, I guess we all think a lot a like. I might have a solution for "set up a website devoted to local exchange only". I launched it earlier today.

http://tradebitcoin.com/

It's a site dedicated to facilitating local Bitcoin commerce. I think it's something we need as a community. It would help finding other local Bitcoin users.

I've thought about changing the engine so it accepted different kinds of accounts. Right now it assumes everyone wants to be a local Bitcoin exchanger. I could make a few changes and voila we'd have listings of local Bitcoin businesses. It may be a cog in our bigger plan for local Bitcoin.

[Anonymous]

Im having a garage sale soon and it would be cool to sell some stuff for bitcoins. When I put the ad in the paper I should mention bitcoin is accepted.

People will probably go wtf is bitcoin ?

 

sadly we dont have any other bitcoin users in my local area...they are all a couple of hours away.

[abstraction]

I think there needs to be a printable flyer put out, a youtube video made that shows the practicality of bitcoin, and other things to directly engage consumers and merchants.

I'm working on making a flyer. I think it would be a good idea to set up a common area where we can edit the flyer, add permutations, and do A/B testing to find the best configuration of information. We could also set up a database in the common area to log the type of business we approach, success/failure of bitcoin adoption, and which permutation of the form was used. That should provide enough information for now to do statistical analysis.

Also, I think if there was enough interest in this project, we could form a company. As a company, we develop the tools (flyers, video, etc.) to distribute information in our respective local communities. Then, we find Bitcoin enthusiasts in other communities and hire them to deliver the flyers since they have a local rapport.

[abstraction]

I'm working on making a flyer. I think it would be a good idea to set up a common area where we can edit the flyer, add permutations, and do A/B testing to find the best configuration of information. We could also set up a database in the common area to log the type of business we approach, success/failure of bitcoin adoption, and which permutation of the form was used. That should provide enough information for now to do statistical analysis.

Also, I think if there was enough interest in this project, we could form a company. As a company, we develop the tools (flyers, video, etc.) to distribute information in our respective local communities. Then, we find Bitcoin enthusiasts in other communities and hire them to deliver the flyers since they have a local rapport.

Okay, so I'm not that great at making flyers.

Here is my attempt at a mission statement: to develop a local community of people who (1) discover what they are most creative at, (2) share the knowledge of how to do their craft for free, and (3) receive enough in gratitude tips to live as materially comfortably as they choose.

I think a properly configured WordPress could be a very useful tool. People can use it to create a post teaching others how they do what they love to do. It would also (probably) have some sort of wallet management system so that each post automatically comes with a tip jar bitcoin address.

There are 2 other structures that needs to be built into it, if they don't exist already. One structure is geographical. There needs to be an easy way to associate with others through a wordpress system. Suppose I live in Calabasas, CA, US. I would belong to the "Calabasas" group. To me, it would just show up as "Calabasas". In the system, "Calabasas" would be a subset of "San Fernando Valley", which would be a subset of "Greater Los Angeles", subset of "Southern California", subset of "California", a subset of "West Coast", subset of "America", subset of "North America", subset of "Western Hemisphere", subset of "The World". The geographical relationships would be defined naturally by the users, not needing to be formal political boundaries. This would be very useful so that when I want to search for something based on tags, I could limit the scope of it by geography. "I'm only willing to look for a {sandwich} in {Calabasas}, but I'm willing to look for a {used car} anywhere in {Greater Los Angeles}."

The other structure is organizational. Suppose I belong to a Gardening Club. There is a president, vice president, secretary, etc. Then, there is a North American chapter with its own president. After a few steps down in the hierarchy, we get to the Calabasas chapter. Joining a chapter is a voluntary action so the whole organization is run voluntarily and survives against competition based on good management. I think this would facilitate trade between different cultures, too, since the "company" is run truly by peers of like mind rather than peers of location by necessity.

[abstraction]

I had an idea about creating posters for local businesses. The poster will have the business name/logo on it. Also, it will have pictures of everyone who works there and each person will have their bitcoin QR code underneath. I believe I can build a rapport with them and they would accept it once they understand what I'm giving them, but I have 0 graphic design skills. I was thinking maybe I could find a caricaturist to draw the faces to give it a human touch. Does anybody have any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

I had an idea about creating posters for local businesses. The poster will have the business name/logo on it. Also, it will have pictures of everyone who works there and each person will have their bitcoin QR code underneath. I believe I can build a rapport with them and they would accept it once they understand what I'm giving them, but I have 0 graphic design skills. I was thinking maybe I could find a caricaturist to draw the faces to give it a human touch. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thats not a bad idea actually.  You could tip them personally for good service and know the boss wasnt going to take the cash.  

Unless the boss owned all the bitcoin addresses.....


We have witcoin.com for posting stuff on which lets people tip you .

[abstraction]

This business makes good food and the owner is fairly open minded. http://www.highstdeli.com/ Take a look at their website. What would be the easiest way to integrate Bitcoin into their business? There seems to be some way to order online, but I haven't tried it out yet.

I'll make the pitch to them, but I've never made a business pitch before. Does anybody have advice?

[Garrett Burgwardt]

This business makes good food and the owner is fairly open minded. http://www.highstdeli.com/ Take a look at their website. What would be the easiest way to integrate Bitcoin into their business? There seems to be some way to order online, but I haven't tried it out yet.

I'll make the pitch to them, but I've never made a business pitch before. Does anybody have advice?

Practice what you're going to say ahead of time, to friends or family or whatever.

Past that, just try and explain why bitcoins are convenient for a business owner, and answer questions as they come up, and if you don't know something don't try and guess, point them here or ask yourself, and we can help explain things.

Mining should not be brought up, unless it is asked as a question, otherwise people tend to get the idea that it's free money, which it isn't.

[benjamindees]

Im having a garage sale soon and it would be cool to sell some stuff for bitcoins. When I put the ad in the paper I should mention bitcoin is accepted.

Fantastic idea.  You should print up some physical Bitcoins and exchange them.

This business makes good food and the owner is fairly open minded. http://www.highstdeli.com/

A deli is a perfect business to pitch Bitcoin to.  That's a great idea.

[fetokun]

I was thinking maybe we could build free websites to business like this Deli that are willing to accept bitcoin.

We could have something like bitbusiness.com/yourBusiness (just made up this name) where we could host these websites.
In the same "bitbusiness" (or whatever name we choose) we could help people tracking these places.

I would go to a pretty far place only because it accepts bitcoin! All we have to do is convince business owners of this.

[fetokun]

I could set up the websites for the shops at the rate of a couple per weekend  (initially with wordpress, of course) and the main website where we would track this places and accept applications from local shops willing to participate.

I would just need a place to host and someone to talk to local shops to convince them

[abstraction]

I could set up the websites for the shops at the rate of a couple per weekend  (initially with wordpress, of course) and the main website where we would track this places and accept applications from local shops willing to participate.

I would just need a place to host and someone to talk to local shops to convince them

This is great! I was also thinking of people, too, as well as shops. Since I've started talking to more strangers recently, I've noticed that a lot of them have their own hobbies and dreams they would like to do or achieve. They don't follow them because they don't see how it can be done practically, so they work "normal" jobs.

I was thinking that if I had a website like the one you could set up, I can teach them how to take their craft and show it off online. Everybody gains from the free knowledge and it builds up a good name for the "hobbyist". I think eventually, this type of system will create demand for the "hobbyist's" real services and they can actually earn a good living doing what they love. Positive reinforcement is the most powerful kind.

[fetokun]

I could set up the websites for the shops at the rate of a couple per weekend  (initially with wordpress, of course) and the main website where we would track this places and accept applications from local shops willing to participate.

I would just need a place to host and someone to talk to local shops to convince them

This is great! I was also thinking of people, too, as well as shops. Since I've started talking to more strangers recently, I've noticed that a lot of them have their own hobbies and dreams they would like to do or achieve. They don't follow them because they don't see how it can be done practically, so they work "normal" jobs.

I was thinking that if I had a website like the one you could set up, I can teach them how to take their craft and show it off online. Everybody gains from the free knowledge and it builds up a good name for the "hobbyist". I think eventually, this type of system will create demand for the "hobbyist's" real services and they can actually earn a good living doing what they love. Positive reinforcement is the most powerful kind.

Was this a joke? I really didn't get it

[abstraction]

I could set up the websites for the shops at the rate of a couple per weekend  (initially with wordpress, of course) and the main website where we would track this places and accept applications from local shops willing to participate.

I would just need a place to host and someone to talk to local shops to convince them

This is great! I was also thinking of people, too, as well as shops. Since I've started talking to more strangers recently, I've noticed that a lot of them have their own hobbies and dreams they would like to do or achieve. They don't follow them because they don't see how it can be done practically, so they work "normal" jobs.

I was thinking that if I had a website like the one you could set up, I can teach them how to take their craft and show it off online. Everybody gains from the free knowledge and it builds up a good name for the "hobbyist". I think eventually, this type of system will create demand for the "hobbyist's" real services and they can actually earn a good living doing what they love. Positive reinforcement is the most powerful kind.

Was this a joke? I really didn't get it

Not a joke at all. Most people I talk to in person hate their day job and feel stuck in its structure because they see it as the only way to pay their bills. I talk to them, get them to open up about what they really want to do with their lives, then design practical plans/solutions to help them achieve what they want to do.

[fetokun]

If they are willing to sell a service or product for bitcoins we can include them for sure!

[abstraction]

If they are willing to sell a service or product for bitcoins we can include them for sure!

This is how we understand it online, but the way they understand it is translated to "we are willing to pursue our hobbies, hopes, dreams, whatever and if we get congratulations, high fives, words of recognition or praise, tips in bitcoins for it, great!".

Help people figure out a practical way to do what they want to do and they will naturally see bitcoin as an informal (and then formal?) way to keep track of the "congratulations, high fives, words of recognition or praise".

[abstraction]

I was thinking maybe we could build free websites to business like this Deli that are willing to accept bitcoin.

We could have something like bitbusiness.com/yourBusiness (just made up this name) where we could host these websites.
In the same "bitbusiness" (or whatever name we choose) we could help people tracking these places.

I would go to a pretty far place only because it accepts bitcoin! All we have to do is convince business owners of this.

fetokun,

i'd like to take u up on that one.  i have an existing out of date website that needs a severe facelift.  if you'd be willing to help me email me at idoc@lazer.pro using pgp. my key is at hkp://keys.gnupg.net.  look for Cydoc.

All we have to do is convince business owners of this.

If you (take the risk to) build it (and build it right), they will come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHTsQ9qePrQ
(But who are the businesses that come?)

[AaronM]

I think spreading out flyers redeemable for a small amount of BTC is the way to go. For the best impact, they should be spread in a tight-knit group of tech-savvy people -- a college, say.  A flyer might look like this:


Redeem this for 1 BitCoin, a new kind of money at:

http://yourdomain.com/HXV13   <--- different path for each flyer printed

Learn more about bitcoin at: http://www.bitcoin.org/


If you and many or most of your real-life contacts have BitCoins, then using it as a medium of exchange seems like the natural next step...

[FreeMoney]

I think spreading out flyers redeemable for a small amount of BTC is the way to go. For the best impact, they should be spread in a tight-knit group of tech-savvy people -- a college, say.  A flyer might look like this:


Redeem this for 1 BitCoin, a new kind of money at:

http://yourdomain.com/HXV13   <--- different path for each flyer printed

Learn more about bitcoin at: http://www.bitcoin.org/


If you and many or most of your real-life contacts have BitCoins, then using it as a medium of exchange seems like the natural next step...

Simpler to point them to the faucet. And I think you get a steeply decreasing marginal promotional benefit from an extra .95BTC.