Topic: The bolt driver experience: promoting bitcoin in my business (Read 520 times)

This is a good creative idea, I also take the bolt, and like your passenger said you will be the first I have seen to come up with such an idea of promoting bitcoin and creating more awareness for bitcoin, even with the sticker itself many curious customers will like to ask to know more about it, way to go.

If you just stay at home or just in your location you won't find any bitcoin related stuff which I find very familiar and I also found some bitcoin pictures in a few places taped to car parts. And after I investigated it turned out that the owner of the car was a bitcoin user and I discovered it a few months ago and I didn't think to explain it here, because lately there have been lots of bitcoin posters with different purposes.
and there are also bitcoin lovers who take the initiative to make bitcoin stickers to stick on the items they have because of their love for bitcoin maybe because it has benefited them, and in my opinion something like that is very cool and one way to introduce bitcoin when someone asks about it .

I apologize, it's my fault, i was just trying to be a detective, i am very bad detective.

It's a pity you wasted your time displaying your stupidity to the world. I didn't want to reply you but I just had to.... Too bad for you I took this snapshot of the 2 stickers the night I got them from the printing press, so this is to prove to you that the pics are not some random pictures from the internet as you claimed. Also, I don't own bolt I owned a car that I use for bolt services, so if you have comprehension problem you need to work on that.

My advice... Instead of hating other people's success you should actually wish them well, work hard and your time will come. Peace✌️

Lol if you are trying to become a detective then you should try it right.

This one is on the back part of the car


While this one is on the top right part of the front of the car


If you look closely you can see the mark of the sticker inside the square mark  part that I draw on the car



doesn't he say it in the title? "The bolt driver experience: promoting bitcoin in my business". His business is being a bolt driver and that's it.  



It is obvious that @OP is posting his experience to get merit just like most of the topics created with the same theme as intended.  So I do not think there is a need to emphasize the merit farm thing, almost every member is well aware of it but some member feel that this thread deserve some merit so some member throws some.

Don't get me wrong here, just trying to become a detective,
are you not trying to become smart, to get merits OP? (may, i trying to become smart)
you said i have a car, in which you sticked the stickers , but in images you shared 3 different cars with different stickers.

here your sticker says: "pay your ride in bitcoin"
IMG: https://ibb.co/0cF3Ks3

here your sticker says : "make your payments in bitcoin"
IMG: https://ibb.co/Dkn2LRr

here your sticker says : "      "
IMG: https://ibb.co/k8bLTP5

and the OP is driver of bolt not owner of bolt so he have only one car, just the pictures are taken from other areas or downloaded from internet.
nice trick some members of forum are using, no?
Op is surely talking about only one car ,

Maybe i am a newbie detective.(forgive me if this is mistake)

OP has well tried to become the smartest.

 

There are many ways to promote Bitcoin. In this case, both openly and secretly because it is related to the legality of Bitcoin in that country. Not only that, people's views on Bitcoin may also have an effect. I applaud the OP for boldly introducing Bitcoin in the way he can and it may very well be effective. He could have at least introduced her to his passengers or whoever he was parking somewhere. Maybe there are some of them who don't care or don't focus on seeing it, but of course there are also those who get distracted and start asking what it is about. And indeed we can do it in everyday life in ways that we can, according to our environment and activities.

Op you have done well for making things easy for passengers. But from my last sale of bitcoin on p2p, I discovered that the period ( seconds, minutes and hours) of the transaction was up to 1 hour and now if you passenger want to drop in a short distance driving and the person send bitcoin within 30 minutes and the person is to drop with for 10 minutes driving, what will you do? Because you don't know what fee rate the person will select to do the transfer and if it is 1.4 fee rate then it will be 25 blocks and these block will take about 30+ minutes to verify the transaction to the receiver's address. So I don't know which parameter you are using to calculate your transaction with the time frame.

Great work and congratulations on your first BTC payment.
I truely believe that these tiny steps are ultimately what will bring real / mass adoption to Bitcoin. It's something that is still spreading slowly, but there will be some waves of wider adoption, depending on situations like describe in your post (in this case getting hold of the new fiat notes). So great work and well earned merit from my side.

Nigerians have not welcomed the e-Naira with open arms, the acceptance has been really poor.
https://cryptoslate.com/nigerias-cbdc-program-called-a-very-dark-experiment/

On the contrary, bolt drivers accept the fees and pay commission to bolt.

Payment is made at the end of every trip.

I take Bolt and Uber rides all the time I wonder why this option hasn't been added this as a payment option for riders who are strong supporters of bitcoin. I guess it may be a hassle for the drivers who may not be knowledgeable about bitcoin.
Still, this is a good bitcoin promotion. Hey OP, what are some questions that your riders have asked and what other ideas do you have of promoting bitcoin while on a ride?

I think these "small" steps are the reason why bitcoin will grow a lot in the future. This allows each and every person that takes that taxi to see it, now imagine if there were 10 more like this tomorrow, and they all started to get paid in bitcoin here and there, others will want a piece of that and another 10 will come out and then hundreds there, then in other nations, and this all started with just one guy putting some stickers on their car.

And this is just one business, imagine doing it for all the companies that owned by people who are interested in crypto, anyone who invests in crypto should also accept crypto payments to increase the adoption if possible.

I thought I will invest some money in bitcoin every week. And besides bitcoin I want to waste some money in gambling. I don't know if the money I invest in bitcoin now will be good for me. And I don't know if I bet that week.  Losing money will cause me a lot of trouble in the future.  So I thought I'd invest in Bitcoin without wasting my money.

I was always under the impression that these taxi services worked through an intermediary third party service that accept the payment on the drivers behalf and then they take a fee and pay over the rest to the taxi driver.  

In any way, I am happy that this worked out for you.... so can you tell us, how long did it take for the confirmation of the transaction on the Blockchain? Do you ask for payment in advance or after you driven the customer to his or her destination?

Naira redesign? Governments are not supposed to withdraw the old notes until almost everybody is using the new ones. And whatever happened to their CDBC? Does nobody really want to use it (as I had anticipated in another post)?

OP has taken a very nice step. Your steps will make Bitcoin more popular to the world, to the nation. Not everyone can take such steps. At first you don't get any call from people but gradually you are going to get call. Your thoughts will really change you a day. I would personally suggest you to keep the bitcoins earned from here as investments. Since this is your retirement income, you can keep it as an investment. Second, is Bitcoin legal in your country, if not, be careful. If not, you may get into administrative trouble.

It will be a good option so there will be no more questions about why only bitcoin is chosen for crypto payments.
DOGE is also Papa Elon's favorite coin which continues to be showcased on his Twitter and just like Bitcoin which still uses the POW network so it is truly decentralized.

Your car looks good dude, i hope you are not going to run into any trouble with your local authorities because you now accept BTC, if you are not sure, make sure to confirm before you continue, so you won't be arrested or charged for doing this. Your idea is a very good one, though like you said, you may not have too many customers that will want to pay you with BTC, but it doesn't affect your advertisement or what you are doing in any way though. Crypto payment may become popular in your local area in the long run, and then you would be happy to be one of the pioneers, so don't stop with your idea.

Nice one Op, I have been using bolt for quite sometime now and I must say this is just top of the notch. I'm simply mesmerized by your initiative. There's this feeling I get whenever I see people promoting Bitcoin trying to get others to be aware of it. Out of the hundreds of people you're going to drive to their destination one or more of them are going to pick interest and further learn more about Bitcoin and also you should try as much as possible to start a conversation that will lead to you all discussing about Bitcoin that way you'll get a chance to tell more about what Bitcoin is and if possible tell them to register an account here on bitcointalk if they want a forum that can provide them with solutions Incase they face any during their journey in learning more about Bitcoin.
Btw, that's a cool car you've got there.

When it comes to promoting bitcoin, I simply can't keep doing it. Every time I go on air while working, I always talk about bitcoin and am always telling people to hold and don't sell, I make it look very interesting, before starting the program for the day. This is very strategic way of promotion, because the issue that is currently facing Nigeria is a challenge for everyone, good job op.

I like this idea. BUT I would offer 3 coin choice.

BTC
LTC
DOGE


They are the top three coins for mining which I favor over POS coins.
You could engage in mining conversations about the coins if they ask why just those coins.

It is a more rounded point of payment than just BTC

This, I must confess is a good strategy and I am happy for OP, The current situation in Nigeria have left many shattered, some businesses are winding down due to lack of customers to patronize them.
Now is just the perfect time for people in Nigeria to make a switch to cryptocurrency, and bitcoin being the main currency, if at least, 20 percent of businesses in Nigeria start accepting bitcoin payment for their goods and services, that would be a really great score for bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency community in Nigeria, as well as africa at large.
Kudos to you @op, I hope more businesses in Nigeria follow your footstep and start accepting bitcoin as payment for goods and services.

I'm not surprised and very happy to hear it's taking place in Nigeria. Honestly, I've seen lots of topics showcasing small Nigerian businesses promoting Bitcoin and accepting Bitcoin as payment, despite the hesitation of the authorities to make Nigeria officially Bitcoin-friendly. It's lovely that you've found the right moment to start accepting Bitcoin, and I hope you'll have many more Bitcoin-paying customers. Can you tell us how the payment process went in practice, though? Was it done via some payment method or transferring the payment to a Bitcoin address? If it's the latter, did you both wait for the first confirmation together? If so, was the customer okay waiting for up to 10 minutes for that?

Very beautiful story. That would be a really exciting experience from you, when you don't expect and out of nowhere someone comes and keeps an attention on what you always wanted to noticable.
When I am in eastern Europe, I usually use Bolt & Free Now because their drivers behave well toward foreigners and their cars are clean. I usually talk with Taxi drivers and sometimes ask them about Bitcoin. Long story short, one driver told me that he was wearing Bitcoin payment accepted banner on his tax in airport and one of his passenger didn't like Bitcoin banner. shared his journey in app and told Bolt's customer support that driver was wearing Bitcoin payment banner and she was afraid that driver was criminal, etc. For this reason, Bolt just banned him and since that day, he hasn't put Bitcoin Accepted banner on his car.

I'm just saying that sometimes one silly person can ruin the party and be careful.
Wish you best rides with Bolt!

That is a pretty good effort to start promoting bitcoin in the business that you do. It's quite interesting to see the sticker about accepting bitcoin payments. If your country doesn't ban bitcoin, that's an excellent opportunity to continue using it. You need to add a sticker on the inside of the car dashboard to make it clearer that you accept bitcoin payments. You also need to provide a brief tutorial on bitcoin payments using a barcode so that transactions can be carried out quickly.
You need to learn how to accept bitcoin payments more efficiently and faster. If your goal is to hold bitcoin then use your special wallet. But if you need a gateway and accept fiat then you need to find a third-party platform that can convert bitcoin to fiat.
Not only about accepting payments using bitcoin, but you also need to provide education to every passenger who doesn't understand what bitcoin is and how to use it. If you do that, then your goal to introduce bitcoin will be successful.

Congrats mate for accepting bitcoin as an alternative means of payments in your side hustle. It is a good initiative and you will not regret your actions but benefit more than other bolt drivers who don't accept bitcoin payment. You did this at the right time,due to the cashless policy stress Nigerians are passing through presently. Do as adviced by Frank1 so that when you drive pass anywhere, bitcoin awareness is given to the people when it is clearly seen.
You should learn how to reduce your image size to soothe the eyes using this  

The intention is there already. But what makes me curious is the overall sustainability of a business or a job perhaps, if payment will be in form of a digital currency which has a volatile market value. In terms of transaction speed and fees, no doubt this would be advantageous. But, the money you'd recieve in form of Bitcoin will be surely needed for maintenance and daily expenses. During a market price downfall, holding indeed is an option but problem is how long? In order to sustain a business you should have a continuous flow of money and if there will be times wherein hesitaion would be present, I think it would be a problem.

Thank you guys for the overwhelming support, appreciation and suggestions. I want you to know that I really do appreciate your comments. I'm still finding my feet in this business and I believe I would get better in time.

Every business has its downsides. Sadly, this is something I have to deal with. But I can tell you that it's not as bad as the centralized bank transfer where it might take 2-5mins or even more in some cases for the transaction to go through. There are instances where bank transfers can take about 24hrs for the funds to drop in your account.

I clearly stated that I do accept fiat currency and bank transfer. As a matter of fact most of my payment comes from there, so I can always remit back to bolt their percentage and also have something to fend on.

Consider placing "accept bitcoin" sticker on front windows (if it is allowed), as it will help to recognize such payment option better. Your sticker on back window will be visible only for potential customers that you have already passed. It will take them a second to read, second to understand info, second to make a decision to pay, but in few second you will be already far away. Whole idea of such promotion is great, but it require few revisions. Also consider placing same stickers inside the car, so while you ride, customer can make a decision how he is going to pay.

So far you have said only one customer paid you in Bitcoin. Was he really the one and only that kind experience you have had? If yes, then this is a proof that your sticker isnt working for 100%, and you should add more of them.

Really cool idea to promote bitcoin in your local area, but I am curious to know if the local authorities in your country allow such advertising? Or pay with bitcoin?

In any case, you can develop your business if you like by making monthly subscriptions. For example, if you have customers who ride with you permanently and are interested in paying by bitcoin, you can make a monthly subscription for them where they pay you a specific amount of bitcoin every month instead of They pay every time, which will help them reduce fees significantly.

That would be a huge success for you, and for sure a lot of people will pay you bitcoin in the future. I think it is just others who are scared of this as crypto is banned in your country but are you safe accepting crypto? I have a coworker who leaves for Nigeria, and they said that it is really difficult in your place, which is why he is transitioning to crypto. I hope that you'll have more customers to hire you and pay you in bitcoin, but what are your plans for it? you hold it or sell it immediately?

Congratulations for the good decision you made to accept Bitcoin as a payment in your service, just to spread more information about Bitcoin and how safe and fast it's to humanity. I believe, many bitcoiners will like to enter your tax to encourage you not to quit for the tax work for the few customers you are getting now, because with time it will make you a better person that will make people in your areas to celebrate you for the help you have brought to their community by accepting Bitcoin as a payment. I will advise you to also make the stickers available to give some drivers to past it in their cars so that many passengers will know that you accept Bitcoin as payment in the environment.

This is a good initiative on your part. You've done something for Bitcoin to get more and more adopted in your country. Actually not just in your country because by posting it here you are actually spreading the idea to other parts of the world. Some here might also be involved in the kind of side hustle that you are into and will also try accepting Bitcoin.

Regardless if there are no riders paying in Bitcoin, it is enough that the sticker is making them curious and discussions on Bitcoin is started.

I want to know how the transaction went, like where the rider or customer paid. Like his/her Bitcoin from a personal wallet or from an exchange, and for OP, are you using some payment processor to process the Bitcoin payments? Or just using a personal wallet or exchange account to receive the Bitcoin payments?
Overall, congratulations, OP! Keep it up.

More and more good things are happening through our forum members. In recent months we were able to see good number of forum members spreading the word about bitcoin as well as accepting bitcoin into the business. This is another big move and no one have tried it. This is the first time I've come across someone who had accepted bitcoin for the ride locally and direct to the wallet. Hope these small level of acceptance here and there will help with more people adding cryptocurrency acceptance to their businesses.

Great job! This is the most unique and effective way of promoting bitcoin throw your business. I have seen many photos and threads about integrating bitcoin into their business, but non of them excite me like yours. I have tried to give you some merit but unfortunately I have none

By roaming around with that sticker on your car many people can see and get curious about bitcoin if they don't know about it and knows a little about it. I hope you will not face any legal issues by doing this.

I understand that your car is registered for use under the bolt company, and bolt company usually have a percentage for every ride you make on their app, so this means to me that you cannot always accept bitcoins for payments except you have another source of income that gives you normal cash that you need survive daily and you can use to settle the percentage deal. Secondly this is not really creating awareness about bitcoin, thus just really shows that you accept bitcoin payments because people who know how to make payments with bitcoins already have bitcoins and are already bitcoin users and not new to it. Because people you carry are people in transit, they may just be interested in paying quickly with money or normal bank transfer.

This is a cool initiative, mate. In my school days, one day in an economics lecture, we were taught about the characteristics of a good entrepreneur, and I remember vividly that a good entrepreneur is a solution finder. It is true that the redesign of the naira note is affecting the people, and as a result, there is not enough cash for citizens to see and spend. But the idea of accepting Bitcoin would be a solution for your customers who would prefer to pay in Bitcoin, and with your sticker on the windscreen, it will also make your new customers curious, and if they are not yet exposed to Bitcoin, they might want to get themselves involved. So, bro, also get ready to teach 😉🥂, because some people may ask you a lot of questions about Bitcoin and others may want you to completely educate them. I am in a position where some of my customers who are not into Bitcoin get to ask me. One thing that surprises me is that some people still think that Bitcoin is only used by fraudsters, popularly known as "yahoo boys," in some countries. While some of my customers would also ask me if there really is any market for Bitcoin (the main thing is that most people are not really aware of the digital currency, decentralized exchange, and centralized exchange), they don't know a thing about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency.

Even if you don't often get customers paying with Bitcoin, the sticker on your windscreen is a good advertisement for Bitcoin, and as Franky suggested, you should also put another sticker in the passenger area. Given Bitcoin's volatility, I usually convert to fiat currency after accepting Bitcoin payment and only keep my profit in bitcoin, so that even if Bitcoin prices fall, I don't have to worry about it because I've already converted my capital to fiat. You could also consider taking that step unless you only want to hold your bitcoin payment without spending any.

Unfortunately the fee is something global just like bitcoin and it doesn't take into account that $0.5 can be worth something.

In developed countries you can't buy anything for that much. In Germany 1 EUR, which is more than twice the fee, won't even make the driver turn his meter on. A cheapest coffee costs you more than 1 EUR and 0.4 EUR is the price of a salad dressing at McDonalds.

If you can get somewhere for $0.4 or buy a meal, that's great for you, but it's not a problem of bitcoin, just your country is cheap compared to the rest of the world.

Well, as you mention, these stories are more frecuently often in that region.

Very good, I think that somehow the enthusiasm of the users from that part of the world who login here in the forum is contagious.

El Salvador, taxi drivers even have monitors to see the price and related things, look for those stories, they can guide you in more precise ideas.

that is a good one my guy but the problem is that bitcoin transaction is not familiar to so many people so still tell them more about bitcoin and how to go about the transaction in your locality create more awareness on crypto currency it will be of your benefit in the future.

Good to know that there are people now in your area of field/side hustle that are bent on making bitcoin their chief medium of exchange.

Well I am looking at the reason for the delay to why your customers weren’t patronizing you in crypto-currency, it may be due to their cautionary measures probably you are in a country with crypto-currency laws.
Regardless you doing well in your part for bitcoin adoption.

Nice one OP. I can see how this will work. Bolt drivers usually accept bank transfers and bitcoin payments will be an upgrade imo. Congratulations on getting your first bitcoin paid ride, many of the people here who have shared their story are yet to have a customer pay in bitcoin. You’re far ahead of them, maybe because of the nature of your work.
Good question Mr Right. I wonder how OP will handle such situations considering the time frame for the blockchain network to reach three confirmations. Do you just let them go with the transaction pending because bitcoin transaction is “irreversible”.

I see. I was curious how you dealt with transaction fees and small amounts of transactions. By any chance, have you taken a look and considered Lightning Network for dealing with micro or small transactions? Would that be applicable and helps you? Or maybe that is out of option due to some reason.

Anyway, It seems that your kind of activity is truly an example the ways of how to helps increasing cryptocurrency, especially bitcoins, adoption within some countries and communities. If there is an available bitcoin payment option, people whether directly or indirectly would be able to conceive of bitcoin's potency and benefit.

Congratulations on your first bitcoin payment. I know a lot of businesses will be interested in accepting bitcoin payment if the regulatory framework is favorable. Unfortunately, a lot of countries have not yet made clear bitcoin regulations which is effectively discouraging the merchants from accepting bitcoin payment.

Here's another success story of bitcoin payment from my country,

https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/social-relevance/bengaluru-tea-seller-accepts-crypto-as-payment-586578.html

Slowly but surely we will reach there!

As sweet savory your story might be to my taste and before my eyes, I don't see how that would work so well in this regard.
A leasta no stranger to both, using the bolt services and bitcoin as well. They've got some short comings to being very applicable.

In one instance, bolt generally generates speculates how long and how many kilometres a ride might last and use that to speculate the price of the ride which is always visible to the passenger. Now, its know that many times, its always about that and on few occasions, traffic and other diversions can alter the price. Hence, its not something you pay as a go but upon arrival and its usually based on the price generated by the driver.

Given the fact that, bitcoin transactions don't come with immediate confirmation timing and has got fees attached to its processing, how do you mediate between these. Increased fee surely ensures faster transactions and that might just be well over 30-50% of your ride fee.
It just doesn't fill convenient and having to wait on transaction to get broadcasted and at least go through some confirmation.

There's no fixed price, bolt charges are based on the destination of the rider. There situations where you might be charged N1000 naira for a ride which is equivalent to $1.31 at N740 exchange rate. In this case no one would want to pay you in BTC because of the transaction fee. There are also situations were you might be charged N2000, N5000 which are equivalent to $2.7 and $6.7 respectively. If the rider is going interstate, then expect the cost to be higher than this, it might cost up to N15000 (20$) or more. This particular ride was an intra state destination, although I made 2 stops and he wasn't charged any transaction fee because he asked me for my Binance pay ID.


Thanks mate for the suggestions. I'm actually thinking of putting two stickers at the back so that my riders can easily see it from there. Concerning the local bitcoin meeting, I don't know of any such gathering/event in my locality for now but I will do well to find out, I might meet my next big customer from there.

maybe also put a sticker on the inside of back seat passenger area so passengers inside your car during your ride can read it from their side window or on the backside head rest of your drivers seat.

by being on the windscreen facing out. its probably more a a conversation of "whats that sticker on your window say" as the conversation starter, because while riding in your car its not so clear what it says from the back seat

other things:
know the times, dates and locations of local bitcoin meetings, events in your area. and be positioned nearby when those events are meant to finish so you can be pinged as the closest vehicle available to give bitcoiners a ride after their event. then seeing they can pay you in bitcoin. they are more likely to get paid in bitcoin

just riding around randomly. is pot luck of finding some random person that wants a ride, also being a bitcoiner.
so increase the chances. by being near known bitcoin events at the time period of the end of the session of a bitcoin event to get paid

and then the rest of the day/week month. the sticker is there to be a conversation starter for those that dont know about bitcoin. where you can also tell them about bitcoin events in your area if they want to learn more/get involved

Nice one OP, this is a good way to promote Bitcoin even if no customers are paying in Bitcoin, but I do have some doubts about this business, to send Bitcoin from a wallet to another costs me 0.40$ and that's more than enough for moving from one locality to another using a cab or taxi, so customers that will find this a worthy trial are those going a long distance, if I could remember, Bolt drivers don't travel long distance, they always do cabbing within a city or two,  F*ck it, this is still a good promotion for Bitcoin so keep doing you.

Hello guys! I felt I should share my little success with you in receiving my first bitcoin payment in my business. Well... I have a car which I used for Bolt (Taxify) as my side hustle whenever am free from my work. I've stumbled on a couple of topics of some members on this forum promoting mass adoption of bitcoin by accepting it in their businesses. Since then I've been nursing this idea and at the same time I've been having cold feet. I accept payment for my services in fiat currency or bank transfer, but with the naira redesign in my country, the new notes have really not circulated everywhere and it's been making life a living hell for a lot persons. So I said to myself this is the right time to add another means of payment to my business.

I got some bitcoin stickers and for my car and It's been about two weeks since I displayed it and no one has patronize me in bitcoin. Though, some of my passengers see it and engage me in one or two conversation. Today, I carried a passenger and when he saw the stickers and was like do you accept bitcoin and I said yes and he said do you know you are the first bolt driver I have actually seen accepting bitcoin and I smiled. He asked me if I have actually received any payment in bitcoin and I answered not yet, and he said I will be your first customer to pay you in bitcoin. We talked a lot during the trip and our discussion was mainly centered on cryptocurrency, mass adoption, crypto ban in the country. At the end of the trip, he paid me in bitcoin with additional tip and I felt really happy about it. I know this is little but I hope it would help to promote mass adoption of bitcoin in my locality, the nation and passes a message to people out there that bitcoin is here to stay and all we can do is to embrace it and be part of history.