Topic: How do you educate petty traders in adopting Bitcoin? - page 3. (Read 560 times)

Yes the OP isn’t very much specific about his thoughts or agenda.
If he is targeting altcoins trader then, let me say that there is no harm in altcoins trading.
I mean it’s people’s own choice what they want to do or what they should not do.
What we can do is that just show them examples.
I do also agree that Bitcoins with a larger sum of investment for a longer period of time will really be fruitful, but that doesn’t mean that other trading options are trash.
Willing to hear other people’s opinion on this.

It's potential value in the future is what stopping many people to spend their bitcoin. Even me is also guilty of hoarding bitcoin rather than spend it. I only use it sometimes as form of payment to showoff to people. But on a daily basis, as long as I have other option I would not use my bitcoin to buy something. I would have 1 whole bitcoin by now if I was just frugal when I started to know about it way back 2016. Even if small merchants adopts bitcoin on their business, they would still need to convert it into fiat as bitcoin is not widely accepted yet so they won't bother to learn it in the first place.

Some vendors that you see in the street may look like they are poor but they are actually rich. They have a better house, have cars and their family live comfortably and they all achieved this because of their business so they are also part of the top class citizens in the society.

I believe that they already know bitcoin and maybe some of them are willing to accept btc if that is what is demanded by their customers but for those who are uneducated, they are the ones that we should be concerned of because they may not heard of btc before. We can educate them by simply telling them what is btc and what is its use and maybe do some actual demonstration.

Well, first of all....

Is there enough people in your local area that will make it profitable for them to shift to Bitcoin payments? The small informal traders  with food stalls and such, will not accept Bitcoin as a payment option, if there are nobody paying with bitcoins.

We had a similar problem in our area, but we discussed this at one of our local Bitcoin meetups and we decided that we will support these guys, if they support us. Now a lot of people are buying lunch and even a cup of coffee with Bitcoin and some even use the Lightning Network to pay for it.

A lot of people just want to "hoard" bitcoins, but they forget that it should have utility for it to be a currency. Hoard 80% of the coins you buy, but try to spend 20% at small merchants like this. 

I think it makes sense to steer them into long-term investors. At least they won't panic if the market goes down so they're still calm because we've been told that the market can move anywhere. But if they decide to buy and sell for a profit, we suggest always be careful and don't panic if you see the price drop a little. In addition, deciding to become a day trader will carry a greater risk than being a long-term investor because we have to face the ups and downs of the market that can make us panic.

I don't think it is suitable for them to use bitcoin. They are small sellers and do transactions frequently. Unless both the seller and the buyer uses the same centralized wallet/service (which then destroys the purpose of using bitcoin), it is not worth waiting for the confirmation time. Again, the fees might sometimes be half of what they purchasing.

Bitcoin is good, but not suitable for everything.

To be honest, these people don't have bank-related stress because they don't have bank accounts. But it's probably not because they are deprived by the banks of such opportunity but because they don't need it. They earn on a daily basis and also spend on a daily basis. Although they also have long-term savings, it is mostly spent down to the last penny after a year, or when that occasion they're saving for arrives. This is only my observation. I'm surrounded with this kind of people.

I'm not saying Bitcoin isn't for them, but if they intent to spend their savings after only a year, I'd rather encourage them to stay away from Bitcoin. But if they plan to keep their savings for many years, it is easy to tell them that Bitcoin is the choice. Not only will their savings most probably grow, they are also resistant to inflation and bank fees and all kinds of hassles involved with opening a bank account. You just need to show them the rise of Bitcoin's price through the years and they'll probably agree.

Petty traders? That's not a term I have heard used before. Perhaps you mean retailers? That is a bit interesting.

Either way the essentials of getting anyone to adopt Bitcoin is to get them to develop an interest in integrating it into their business model.

I assume since most of their customers do not care about Bitcoin and would rather pay small purchases in fiat cash, then the vendors also would not care about Bitcoin.

Mostly it's within the day and they have to roll all of their profits today for their capital tomorrow. That's usually how their capital works and they're just rolling any profit they make from selling.

That's the hustle they know how to do because it's easy and they're used to it. I think the easier approach is to ask them if they want to know and learn bitcoin and if they answer yes, that's where you'll explain to them what it is as an asset, investment and cryptocurrency.

This is the reason why those vendors in the streets or markets won't bite about bitcoin investment. They used to see profits after a day or two so if you are going to educate them about bitcoin as a long term investment, probably they will become skeptical to invest in it. Yes, they can expect huge profits in bitcoin but the problem is when. I suggest if you try to educate their big bosses or those who are big time businessmen, probably it will work for them.

I see some people confused about what Op meant as petty traders in this context. But if you read Op carefully, the meaning of petty traders is explained in Op.
Petty traders in the context are the street marker retailers who sell directly to end producers. They gather in local markets and streets.

Well, if you wish to educate the petty traders about Bitcoin, you can go do it individually or organise a market public lecture to educate them.
But I will strongly advice that you shouldn't teach them to adopt it in their business. Many of them don't even balance their accounts and they are always confused with finance, especially the aged ones. Don't bother to increase their problems. You can teach them about Bitcoin and they will decide whether or not to involve it in their business when they must have gotten the full understanding of bitcoin.

It will be very difficult to draw their attention into bitcoin investments especially if they are not particular with bitcoin and they don't have the spare money to invest in it. Remember that the profits they produced out from selling in the streets with their small stalls are certainly low compared to those big business owners so financing for bitcoin investment is one thing that they can't hardly afford. Instead, if they earn extra money, i believe they will chose to add it on their business capital so they can expect for increase profits.

tl:dr; version:
bitcoin has no central body that will fly on a plane to YOUR town to train YOUR vendor in your town... emphasis YOU need to help your vendor if YOU want them to accept bitcoin in YOUR town.

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wall of text version:

street vendors (tourist gift stalls, food carts, novelty merchandise stalls) accept whatever is most common to their customers.

in tourist area's they will accept multiple currencies EG euro stalls accepting american dollars
in smaller towns catering only to local population they only accept the local currency.

i know these small businesses dont have the volume power to beg credit card companies for convenient fee rates. but if the only method of payment a CUSTOMER has to offer the stall owner is a credit card. then thats what the stall owner has to accept.

in natural adoption without intervention/pressure, its less about trying to convince the market stall owner to accept a currency. its more about having the local population owning the currency and wanting to spend it. locally, to then help make the market stall owner realise he needs to accept it as a preferred method of payment via locals asking vendors if they accept currency X.

i know some will say its a chicken and egg. for instance. if local people cant find anywhere locally to buy things with crypto then local people wont get crypto to then ask vendors.
but the opposite can be said. if local vendors are not asked if they will accept crypto enough times by customers they wont see the point of accepting it,

this chicken and egg problem is what holds up natural un-intervened, unpressured adoption at the small local business level.
this issue circles clockwise and anticlockwise where by its needs to be educated how easy it is to set up a bitcoin address to watch for payments incoming. (very very easy 2 click process) and how cheap it is to set up a method to exchange the currency to local/native fiat(many options)

it requires educating vendors. not waiting for vendors to miraculously start using it.
bitcoin does not have some company/central lobby/education group to educate vendors. instead any and all people on this forum can do their part of speaking to vendors in their local area about accepting bitcoin

again bitcoin has no central body that will fly on a plane to YOUR town to train YOUR vendor in your town... emphasis YOU need to help your vendor if YOU want them to accept bitcoin in YOUR town.

I believe their income may only cater to their daily needs so if they still need to invest, then i guess they will be force to take loans for those who are eager to try crypto investments. That may create another trouble in the future. For OP, you can chose to educate them about bitcoin but don't expect that they will try to leave what they have been used to do. People like them are more practical and so it would be hard though to convince them in an investment that there is no sure profits, they will chose to stay selling as it assures guaranteed income.

People like them will never leave their businesses easily as they are making a daily income from it for survival. And it would be hard to convince them to enter into crypto and invest knowing it also needs capital which i don't think they can easily provide for it. And the fact that crypto investments never guarantee profits at all times, i guess that will be a red flag for them and would not even care to take the risks. Better leave them in things they are comfortable to do with.

Actually there are some things we are expected to put into consideration before taking further steps on the introduction of bitcoin to the remote areas that are premitive in development, such calibre of people will find bitcoin difficult to use because of the conditions around them which sone are: lack of access to mobile phones, good internet connection, basic foundational knowledge onbthe use of bitcoin and language barriers as many of them in local regions don't understand English, but nevertheless we must encourage bitcoin adoption and the only reason these set of people can get along with the usr of bitcoin is on investment, they may find it challenging enough for their daily transactions.


Since their main motive is to make profit in their daily businesses, we can encourage them to start with an investment on bitcoin as an asset using a reliable exchange with good reputation, they need to find trust in all element of bitcoin they come across with including everyone that is liable in teaching them on how to go about it, since most of them are road side entrepreneurs which make use of fiat for their runnings and bitcoin could only be used for an investment as a start till when they got established to be making it for their payments.

I think there must be some benefits or bonuses for their everyday life or budget without trading crypto or investing for a long time. Quickly convert to btc - quickly spend - get bonus, for example 

It is possible to come closer to them, into their world and show crypto on their "platform". I was also wonder. I think that wide range of sites with cruptoprices can be the first step into unknown cryptoworld )))

What an awful way to look at and describe people in this weird class system that you define people by. Why not just accept the fact that many people are content with their current way of conducting business and bitcoin just brings them extra hassle. Technology will catch up with these traders and bitcoin is probably already integrated with many mobile phone based solutions, but you also ignore their customer base who likely have no interest in paying in such a volatile currency. Maybe you could educate yourself to have more respect for others.

It is not easy to educate small traders except for their own awareness because they have to really understand it well which in my opinion really requires a long process so that they can understand well because of fluctuations.
Small traders or wholesalers live off fairly thin margins. Today, small fluctuations in bitcoin can become a big problem even for small merchants who profit from the shopping carts they care about.
but sooner or later they will adapt to technological advances, depending on the future progress of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and actually there are already small shops that do that but it depends where you live because what they are afraid of is the government.