Topic: My roadmap to bitcoins success. (Read 2489 times)

Iv been thinking about this recently actually. They sell all kinds of prepaid cards at 7/11 etc. (gift cards, pre paid credit cards, points for games like that stupid Conquer game), so why not bitcoin? Cant be that hard, just generate a ton of private keys and load up like 1 BTC each, then find a manufacturer to print of a bunch of cards, with a area you have to scratch off to see the private key, and instructions on how to sweep the 1 BTC into your actual wallet. Hardest part would be actually getting the stores to distribute them

I still wish everyday that i can walk into wallmart, 711 , safeway , ect. and buy a prepaid card with bitcoins loaded on it.

I dont care how they do it, or what needs to be done.

I do a few things,

1. I mine for people using their peoples gear (they buy the gear, I host it for them, provide the expertise, electricity, rack space etc...).  It seems that there are a few people out their that would like to mine bitcoin, they just cannot be bothered doing it them selves (or just don't know how).

2. I write what I hope are interesting, timely and informative articles for anyone else that is interested (see my footer).

There is one other thing that I can recommend you do, use your social networking sites!  Tweet or retweet things, like them on facebook, google +1 things go to www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin and submit stuff, and vote other stuff up so it gets onto the front page.

Every new person that you expose to bitcoin is a good thing, even the troll or misinformation threads on reddit (if marked high enough) are a good place for a lively debate.

I try to do pretty much the same.

1) A teeny-tiny amount of mining for just for the giggles.

2) Offer a service only available in BTC (see my sig).

3) Buy some BTC with USD and then spend most of THAT on on goods/services.

4) Talk up BTC whenever possible. As I hang out with mostly normal people they really do have a hard time seeing anything but scams when I talk about BTC. They assume anything I buy with BTC was stolen some how   

The one thing I don't do is actively speculate and day trade.  I find that pointless.

And what would that be?

EDIT: Ah, the trinkets. Didn't see that.

Both the posts above are brilliant.. I especially love the landlord approach.

I had my landlord set up a coinbase account and a payment page so that I can use bitcoins to pay my rent.

Those are laudable!

I've been experimenting with handing out various amounts of bitcoins on paper bitcoins that I carry with me in my wallet.  I do the sending right there from my mobile (usually blockchain.info/wallet, but I also like BitcoinSpinner app) to show how easy it is to pay using bitcoins.

I have explained that I made these paper bitcoins "expirable" and that they need to transfer the funds to their own wallet (usually I give it like a two months before redeeming any unclaimed wallets).  I've been disappointed in how many actually get redeemed.   In many of the scenarios the person I talked to didn't have a smartphone or way to scan the QR code.  I know they can be redeemed by the base58 private key that is printed as well, but that's not a workable solution so I don't put that out there as an option.

I think if there were a store with a QR reader (e.g., that will get you coffee or tea at this shop)  that I could direct these people to they woud be redeemed at a much higher rate.

Also, if I put more than a token amount these probably would get redeemed more often as well.  I do explain that even small amounts can be cashed out to a bank account via ACH (BitMe.com) but I doubt many are going though that effort for fifty cents worth.

These simple steps are basicly what Im doing with bitcoin, I'd love to hear suggestions on what the next ones should be and what you guys are doing differently.

1. I mine, currently representing a "whopping" 0,0002% of the netwoks hashrate. I hope to maintain that slice, with no plans atleast for now to go bigger.

2. I produce and sell goods that are only available for bitcoins. The simplified buisness plan here is to re-invest 50% of any income of the venture back in to new products and/or restocking sold out ones.

3. I consume with bitcoin, roughly a thrid of my bitcoin income gets traded for goods and services, sometimes more when I can use bitcoin for example to purchase web hosting, site desing or graphic design to further advance said venture in step 2.

4. I speculate, buy low, sell high. good for the economy as it stabilizes the price.

5. I sell bitcoins again roughly a third of what I make gets sold in exchanges.

6. I hoard coins, yet again roughly a third of my bitcoin income goes in to "cold storage".

7. I promote bitcoin in my everyday life wherever I find it approprate, mainly just by talking about it.

It took me about 9 months from discovering bitcoin to gear up to the point where I am today, it's been an interesting ride and I do hope it continues as such. At the time of writing this my first bitcoin address is a year and a couple of days old. I sure am glad that I left the blockchain to download even tough it seemd to take forever

Should I be doing more ?

If so what ?

Are you doing your part ?