Today is all about Merchant outreach
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Friends,
As a lot of you may know from the [url=http://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?topic=3770.0]Weekly News[/url] our main focus is to reach out to small independent businesses. This morning I had a great meeting with [url=http://therealasset.co.uk/]The Real Asset Company[/url] who make exchange software in the bullion market.
I gave them the pitch over some coffee and they liked what they heard. Along with the [url=https://bittylicious.com/]Bittylicious[/url] guy the other day I think this could be a good relationship to have as these guys are seriously switched on.
This afternoon UKMark is going to finish upgrading all the [url=http://smswallet.net]SMSWallet[/url] and I am going to go visit some local shops in Shoreditch London to see if anyone is interested in taking Feathercoin payments like the pub.
Do you know any independent businesses in your local area who might be interested in taking Feathrcoin?
Indeed are you an small business yourself? We have the resources and the time to help you start accepting Feathercoin right away. Please post here or PM me.
If you want some ideas on how to pitch crypto currencies see my thread on Bitcointalk:
[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292847.msg3196769#msg3196769]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292847.msg3196769#msg3196769[/url]Thank-you kindly.
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[quote name=“fendlestick” post=“29228” timestamp=“1380200629”]
The easiest way for any merchant to accept FTC would be to have a working market place for them to list stuff and get used to the currency before taking in on for an entire shop or whatever…They get feel out how exchanges work, how to handle price variations, can list small items and reduce their risk, get a better understanding of how the wallets and transactions work.
[/quote]Yeah you’re right. I believe Bush and Maria are working on the market place right now. I will get an ETA on that today and put down a road map.
How is your business going, are you seeing much volume in other alts aside BTC?
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[quote name=“fendlestick” post=“29228” timestamp=“1380200629”]
The easiest way for any merchant to accept FTC would be to have a working market place for them to list stuff and get used to the currency before taking in on for an entire shop or whatever…They get feel out how exchanges work, how to handle price variations, can list small items and reduce their risk, get a better understanding of how the wallets and transactions work.
Taking the coin is only a small step in using FTC, they will need use exchanges, convert it to Bitcoin find trusted buyers to cash out, just putting FTC on a site is not all there is to the story and takes practice, which using the marketplace for would be ideal.
[/quote]If this is the case, Bush and Maria should make an alternate layout to the “eBay” market that’s sort of like Etsy which is full of small owner/seller types. Maybe we can even get something worked out with one of the FTC/USD exchanges and Dwolla, so that merchants can withdraw their FTC from the market wallets directly to Dwolla as USD, if they so please.
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[quote name=“aysyr” post=“29233” timestamp=“1380204305”]
[quote author=fendlestick link=topic=3789.msg29228#msg29228 date=1380200629]
The easiest way for any merchant to accept FTC would be to have a working market place for them to list stuff and get used to the currency before taking in on for an entire shop or whatever…They get feel out how exchanges work, how to handle price variations, can list small items and reduce their risk, get a better understanding of how the wallets and transactions work.
Taking the coin is only a small step in using FTC, they will need use exchanges, convert it to Bitcoin find trusted buyers to cash out, just putting FTC on a site is not all there is to the story and takes practice, which using the marketplace for would be ideal.
[/quote]If this is the case, Bush and Maria should make an alternate layout to the “eBay” market that’s sort of like Etsy which is full of small owner/seller types. Maybe we can even get something worked out with one of the FTC/USD exchanges and Dwolla, so that merchants can withdraw their FTC from the market wallets directly to Dwolla as USD, if they so please.
[/quote]Yes that’s a good idea and was what we spoke to the [url=http://therealasset.co.uk/]Real Asset Company[/url] about today, as you can see from their site they run exchanges. So it would be good to get some liquidity pools setup so that Merchants can get an instant conversion peer to peer using their software.
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[quote name=“fendlestick” post=“29228” timestamp=“1380200629”]
The easiest way for any merchant to accept FTC would be to have a working market place for them to list stuff and get used to the currency before taking in on for an entire shop or whatever…They get feel out how exchanges work, how to handle price variations, can list small items and reduce their risk, get a better understanding of how the wallets and transactions work.
Taking the coin is only a small step in using FTC, they will need use exchanges, convert it to Bitcoin find trusted buyers to cash out, just putting FTC on a site is not all there is to the story and takes practice, which using the marketplace for would be ideal.
[/quote]That’s good feedback, has been logged to my evernote as has the comment from @aysyr
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Success! I have a meeting with the [url=http://www.coindesk.com/old-shoreditch-station-coffee-bar-in-londons-silicon-roundabout-now-accepts-bitcoin/]Old Shoreditch Station[/url] about accepting Feathercoin and being part in the SMS Wallet Homeless pilot UKMark and I want to do.
I bought a latte and tried to pay with Bitcoin but their internet connection wasn’t working so that was a fail, had to pay in crappy old fiat instead :-[ But I told them that Feathercoin works over the SMS network the guy was really chuffed and he said I should come in tomorrow midmorning to see the manager.
[center][img]http://www.feathercoin.com/image/Shoreditch_Cafe.jpg[/img]
[i][url=https://plus.google.com/117109214174668329645/about?gl=uk&hl=en]Popular Cafe in Shoreditch[/url] where we plan to try out our Feathercoin for Homeless trial using UKMark’s SMS Wallet[/center]This will all be subject to getting the service up and running smoothly which is why we have been testing it out over the last few weeks. We don’t want to disappoint anyone so we are going to be slow in making commitments and aim for under promise over deliver. For example we have notice that people on cheaper phone tariffs can’t text landline numbers which is what SMS Wallet uses so this might put a spanner in the works but that won’t stop us trying.
I also approached this place, a nice old school cafe and art gallery off of
[url=https://plus.google.com/108571669326751151335/about?gl=uk&hl=en]Kingsland Road[/url]. I don’t think they are right for us just yet because they are pretty old school just using an old fashioned till and cash only. But I did leave my name and said I would come back in once they had had a chance to google Bitcoin and Feathercoin.
[center][img]http://www.feathercoin.com/image/Hundred_Years_Cafe.jpg[/img]
[i]These guys were interested but don’t even own smart phones so had no idea what I was talking about.[/center]A lot of their customers are tech savvy so might setup one of my UX Labs in there one day as an excuse to talk to their customers ;)
I also approached a workers Cafe next door but I faced a bit of a language barrier as they are Turkish, so I thought I thought I would leave that for now and move on to the low hanging fruit.
Would it help if I put this on the Feathercoin map under its own layer and we can all collaborate on merchants in our area to compare feedback?
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Ace job Chris! Really it boils down to us all getting on with Feathercoin and taking it to the world step by step. There is some amazing solidarity here and it is all paying off. I’m proud to be part of all this.
Again, thanks for all the hard work boss!
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[quote name=“chrisj” post=“29244” timestamp=“1380208846”]
Would it help if I put this on the Feathercoin map under its own layer and we can all collaborate on merchants in our area to compare feedback?
[/quote]First, love the job you’re doing Chris and it’s great to see all the progress you’ve been doing, so kudos to that! And yea, I think that definitely help putting them along our user map, but with a different pointer, probably a blue one or so we can distinguish the stores from users :)
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[quote name=“fendlestick” post=“29230” timestamp=“1380200998”]
In truth Litecoin is 2nd most popular, even PPC and CAP is beating FTC in my stores. But! a big but, is my products may not be what the community wants but the others do, also I am on a few spend LTC and spend BTC sites, can’t find a spend FTC site to get listed on.Oh also when a community is mostly miners getting them to spend and not exchange is a battle not worth fighting, BTC and LTC seems to have more people with coins who don’t mine, perhaps, but my insights are limited.
[/quote]Lol your saying LTC people are more “dirty” than others ;D
Will have a look and see if i find anything for the misses with my ftc ;)EDIT:
Sent the adress to the misses with my “ftc” visa card ;D -
[quote name=“svennand” post=“29251” timestamp=“1380218315”]
[quote author=fendlestick link=topic=3789.msg29230#msg29230 date=1380200998]
In truth Litecoin is 2nd most popular, even PPC and CAP is beating FTC in my stores. But! a big but, is my products may not be what the community wants but the others do, also I am on a few spend LTC and spend BTC sites, can’t find a spend FTC site to get listed on.Oh also when a community is mostly miners getting them to spend and not exchange is a battle not worth fighting, BTC and LTC seems to have more people with coins who don’t mine, perhaps, but my insights are limited.
[/quote]Lol your saying LTC people are more “dirty” than others ;D
Will have a look and see if i find anything for the misses with my ftc ;)EDIT:
Sent the adress to the misses with my “ftc” visa card ;D
[/quote]Your missus just made a purchase…
[url=http://www.cryptosextoys.com/gents/pumps?product_id=155]Svenn’s B’day pressie[/url]
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[quote name=“Nutnut” post=“29252” timestamp=“1380219147”]
[quote author=svennand link=topic=3789.msg29251#msg29251 date=1380218315]
[quote author=fendlestick link=topic=3789.msg29230#msg29230 date=1380200998]
In truth Litecoin is 2nd most popular, even PPC and CAP is beating FTC in my stores. But! a big but, is my products may not be what the community wants but the others do, also I am on a few spend LTC and spend BTC sites, can’t find a spend FTC site to get listed on.Oh also when a community is mostly miners getting them to spend and not exchange is a battle not worth fighting, BTC and LTC seems to have more people with coins who don’t mine, perhaps, but my insights are limited.
[/quote]Lol your saying LTC people are more “dirty” than others ;D
Will have a look and see if i find anything for the misses with my ftc ;)EDIT:
Sent the adress to the misses with my “ftc” visa card ;D
[/quote]Your missus just made a purchase…
[url=http://www.cryptosextoys.com/gents/pumps?product_id=155]Svenn’s B’day pressie[/url]
[/quote]Haha you had to go there ;D lets keep it ON topic ;)
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I’ll get my coat. :-[
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[quote name=“fendlestick” post=“29230” timestamp=“1380200998”]
In truth Litecoin is 2nd most popular, even PPC and CAP is beating FTC in my stores. But! a big but, is my products may not be what the community wants but the others do, also I am on a few spend LTC and spend BTC sites, can’t find a spend FTC site to get listed on.Oh also when a community is mostly miners getting them to spend and not exchange is a battle not worth fighting, BTC and LTC seems to have more people with coins who don’t mine, perhaps, but my insights are limited.
[/quote]Just blasted away 2500ftc in your store =) Hope more people will reach out and support merchants like this that supports crypto :D
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[quote name=“svennand” post=“29258” timestamp=“1380221109”]
[quote author=fendlestick link=topic=3789.msg29230#msg29230 date=1380200998]
In truth Litecoin is 2nd most popular, even PPC and CAP is beating FTC in my stores. But! a big but, is my products may not be what the community wants but the others do, also I am on a few spend LTC and spend BTC sites, can’t find a spend FTC site to get listed on.Oh also when a community is mostly miners getting them to spend and not exchange is a battle not worth fighting, BTC and LTC seems to have more people with coins who don’t mine, perhaps, but my insights are limited.
[/quote]Just blasted away 2500ftc in your store =) Hope more people will reach out and support merchants like this that supports crypto :D
[/quote]Anyone gonna ask what he bought?
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See 4 posts back… :P
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Lol,
if the package in my local post office is labeled cybersextoys.com im gonna be pissed :P
and send the misses to get it ;D -
[quote name=“Nutnut” post=“29260” timestamp=“1380222770”]
See 4 posts back… :P
[/quote]Your just spreading FUD ;D
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So as today draws to a close I have some good news, my Mobile Crypto Exchange saw some trading tonight as I got about 4 new Feathercoin adopters at one of the events I run in East London.
[center][img]http://www.feathercoin.com/image/BVHhobXCQAA5pWl.jpg[/img]
[i]Sev on the left (already in to FTC) and Gavin on the right were 2 people who bought FTC today
[url=https://twitter.com/Feathercoin/status/383335528092811264/photo/1]Link to Tweet[/url][/i][/center]The plan is to get a good number of people with Feathercoin SMS Wallets such that any merchant or homeless person would encounter at least one payment per week. We may need to incentivise people but actually people are pretty impressed when they hear me talk about Feathercoin and they like the site and always come back to me with positive vibes after they have gone off and Googled us :)
Right bed then more campaigning tomorrow. Let me know if you want me to shut up or change what I am doing.
Thanks.
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Good going Chris :)
I’m planning to walk Oxford in the next week :) - Monday so long as all is well, just get the word out there.
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Ok. Meeting with Coffee shop is postponed until Monday because I think we can prepare a proper demo over the weekend to that could really clinch the deal. Going to get some more users of the SMS Wallet today.