LL⚡️1 - The beginning of something great with Lightning
Long form thoughts after 1 year living in El Salvador with Bitcoin as legal tender.
The greatest vote we have is our time and money.
One year in El Salvador, the first Bitcoin country in the world. What are my thoughts?
Lightning and its adoption are important for the success of Bitcoin. How would I define success? I don’t want to live in a world where CBDC’s are normal and the main option.
Everyone is going to have a different definition of success. And personally I see different levels that might happen.
Ultimately, I would like to see Bitcoin as a true global currency.
But the game theories and competition behind it will also encourage a lot of people to run a secondary debt based currency that allows the more powerful to hoard and take control.
I guess that helps with me wanting to see people prefer or even demand they are paid in bitcoin.
If everyone has a free and open source Lightning wallet, demanding bitcoin as the money they want, they need. That is how we win.
The greatest vote we have is our time and money, yes, I know I wrote it again. Because it’s a truth like, “I know I need to exercise.” or “I should eat healthy, but…” and many of us let these truths slide.
Being here with the mental and legal freedom to use Bitcoin and pursue usage and adoption has been a game changer.
The experience of using Lightning vs on-chain is a huge contrast, sometimes we go into stores, ask to pay with bitcoin, see the Point of Sales (PoS) only has an on-chain option and if we are in a rush, turn it down.
We don’t like to turn it down, we would rather spend the time to give the staff member a positive experience. We will do the transaction, explain it is slow, and then work to have a personal Lightning experience with the staff, by downloading the Bitcoin Beach Wallet and tipping them.
This education time empowering staff helps show that the manager or owner might be able to improve the experience and they now have a personal experience they can share to show the difference.
This brings me to highlight some of the subversive tactics adoption is up against. There are possibly merchants here that have deliberately implemented poor experiences for the purpose to prove a political point. And that is why we must not give up and continue to push for education, adoption and improvement.
We don't want Bitcoin to lose because Bitcoiners were lazy. That goes against the whole ethos of being a Bitcoiner.
Adoption methods will evolve, such as, don’t target the store as such, but approach the PoS provider and let them know which stores appear to need system upgrades or staff education.
Focus on the smaller businesses that would really benefit from adoption long term. Share the economic love.
This is the time preference we speak of in Bitcoin. And the irony is that it feels as if now is a time to push. Push for adoption. Adjust your time preference now, to educate and build the future you want to see.
Bitcoin has legal tender status at a country level. As an early adopter, I dreamed and joked of this day. It is here. I am here.
But adoption can actually happen anywhere in the world, the boundaries are few with Bitcoin.
El Salvador is an excellent opportunity.
Peace and Bitcoin