James Dewar, the founding partner of Bridge2Bitcoin, and MSW, a business developer for CoinCorner, kicked off a marathon mission of merchant adoption on the streets of Reading. They spoke to 63 shops, cafes, and restaurants in just six hours.
The Bitcoiners deployed flyers, which detailed the data and experiences, sales experience, and oodles of enthusiasm. Around 50% of merchants rejected straight out. The campaigners did a follow-up with 10 of the 30 merchants.
Dewar revealed that three businesses were onboarded on the spot, or quickly afterward. He said it’s a 3% hit rate within two weeks. Dewar, in terms of the adoption curve, described the mission as pretty good. He outlined that Bitcoin awareness is currently low as they are at the lower end of the Bitcoin adoption threshold. Dewar believes it’s worth giving a shot and asking the local merchant if they take Bitcoin. The Bridge2Bitcoin founding partner joked that even if he were to give out £10 notes on the streets, people would still be reluctant to accept it as it’s like sales in general. But Dewar sees literally no downside to doing it. He said one has to be fairly thick-skinned to under that people don’t get it.
MSW said accepting Bitcoin makes commercial sense for many merchants, with one of the benefits being that a user can just accept pounds. He sees it as a cheaper version of Slump with Bonus marketing. MSW believes Lightning Network is the best way to send value, for low fees and instantly. He says no other network comes close. MSW also regards Bitcoin as a store of value.
