Often, when I talk to everyday Bitcoiners – Plebs, if you want – they share with me that they are torn between continuing with their “fiat job” and getting more involved in the Bitcoin room at a professional level.
I usually tell them that they can start by incorporating Bitcoin into what they are currently doing for a living, but I haven’t had a good example of anyone doing this as I can point them – until this morning.
When it’s time for clients at Osteopath Rob Shaw, based in Essex, UK (just outside London), to pay him for his services, he presents them with the opportunity to pay with British Pounds or Bitcoin via a Musqet POS -unit.
First Bitcoin -Payment Accepted with @Musqet_bitcoin Pos terminal.
This unit reduces traditional payment fees and also enables Bitcoin transactions.
Learn more by listening to this @Princey21m Podcast. #Bitcoin 👇🏻 https://t.co/8ac9vgoopl pic.twitter.com/vhba4mmerm
– Chelmford osteopathic practice (@seSEXOSTEOPATH) 29 May 2024
(Note that he is not going into a lesson about Bitcoin’s underlying technology or the principles of Austrian economy as he does this.)
Rob shared that here and there, a client will act surprised when presented with the opportunity to pay with Bitcoin, but that they most simply choose their choices between the two and continue to make their payment.
Rob’s efforts have led two of his clients now to pay regularly in Bitcoin, and he also gives a touch point for those who have not yet started paying with it.
In this way, Rob is a Bitcoin Bridge.
(And ironically, it was an organization called Bridge 2 Bitcoin that introduced Rob to Bitcoin as a payment technology for his business.)
He subtly introduces people to Bitcoin, giving them the opportunity to cross into Bitcoin land in the process.
Some may call this “orange-pouring” (an expression that I don’t like much because it feels too compulsory), but I would argue that this is a more refined way of presenting Bitcoin to humans. When offering it as an official payment method for professional services, it legitimizes Bitcoin and asks those who do not know it to start seeing it in a new light.
If professionals all over the world used such an approach, Bitcoin adoption would accelerate remarkably.
So instead of feeling that you have to drop what you do to work to join the Bitcoin industry full-time, consider being a bridge to Bitcoin and bringing the Bitcoin industry to what you already make.
Be like Rob, Be a Bitcoin Bridge!