You might have seen some of my videos where I visit shops that accept bitcoin and I pay with Keychain + v4vapp. The business generates a Lightning QR, I do some magic and they receive their BTC, end of story. In the backend, I'm using $HBD stored in my HIVE wallet, I use v4vapp to convert it to Bitcoin over Lightning and sign the transaction with my Keychain mobile app. The reason I do this is because our neighboring nation, El Salvador, implemented bitcoin as legal tender in 2021. The news not only made shockwaves all over the world, it made bitcoiners want to go to El Salvador and use their bitcoin to buy pupusas! Non-coiners all of a sudden wanted to have bitcoin and were asking everybody how they could get their hands on some.
There were at least two companies in Guatemala that made it easy for businesses to accept bitcoin, convert it to local currency in the backend, have it sent to the business's bank account the same day and file their taxes for them. These two businesses are called IBEX, with their solution IBEX Pay
And the second one is Osmo
As you can see, their apps and payment terminals are super user-friendly and their advertising is beautiful, eye-catching and professional. They have every legal aspect on point, allowing newbies to explore with confidence and they're present at pretty much every bitcoin meetup in the region.
So they've done a very good job at orange pilling many businesses in Latin America, from Mexico to Costa Rica, so it's a great opportunity for content creators like me to make videos showing people how easy it is to use bitcoin. It's also an amazing opportunity to use my favorite freedom tools of all: Hive-based dapps! Yessir! I'm referring at the very least to the amazing Keychain+v4v Combo, which allows me to spend a non-custodial, non-KYC stable coin I've earned from upvotes and tips from other users who've found my content valuable in one form or another. I make these videos once every week or so to pay for beer, food and even clothes! and it's only a small percentage of my stake. Most of what I earn I stake in a process known as Powering Up. My cryptocurrency never leaves my wallet, it's just placed in a savings account. The amount of Hive Power, as it's called, gives me more voting power to use to vote for block producers (known as witnesses), content creators, DAO proposals, and even create HIVE accounts for others.
Yesterday I was in the mood for some delicious ramen, so Pam and I went down to a delicious place called Umai Ramen where I've made videos using Keychain before:
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=alex-rourke/xhnhspef
Well, here we were. Happy as kids in a candy store.
This time, however, when I asked for the check and said I'd like to pay in Bitcoin, the waiter apologized and said their bitcoin system was temporarily disabled. Mind you, this is a free, bitcoin Lightning QR generator. It's not "a system" where the business has to pay a subscription or anything. They just didn't want to bother with using a different technology than what they're already used to, which brings me to the main topic of this post: resistance to change.
Driving adoption of freedom mentality and showing folks how to use freedom tools is a bit like pushing a huge bolder uphill, isn't it?
It can be frustrating trying to show people the light and they just don't seem to want to see. We spend an awful lot of energy making very little progress, and when you stop, things will just go back to the way they used to be.
This was one such case.
I wasn't going to give up my ramen though, it was delicious! But it did get me thinking about how difficult it is getting people to change, even if it's good for them!
Could it be that learning how to use a new payment terminal app is more than a minor inconvenience? Could it mean a major disruption to their routine?
Could it be that the whole concept of blockchain technology is too complicated and they're just embarrassed to ask?
I don't have the answer to that, but I do know this:
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