Here is a thread from social media i that took place last year. For some reason I typed up this thing and never published it. Jack is a new guy asking questions, Daniel is me, and Tony is a festival veteran who fancies himself some sort of bitcoin-guru.
Jack Wahlquist: How are people using Bitcoin if the festival is out in the boondocks with bad reception/wifi? I don’t even have a smartphone and am wondering if anyone has experience at PF with the hardware wallets:
https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/3-ledger-hw-1 ii
Daniel: They aren’t really. iii A smart phone isn’t how you use bitcoin anyway. The most widely accepted money at PorcFest is the USD 20 note. iv If all you’ve got is bitcoin and you need some cash, I could probably hook you up for the week, but I defo wouldn’t accept one of those key-escrow smart-cards. Signed transactions on confirmed blocks only please.
Jack Wahlquist: I just don’t understand the complex and foreign tech behind Bitcoin, even though I’ve been using it successfully for a while. I have plenty of copper, silver and USD. I think Bitcoin’s reliance on internet/data/computer storage is its biggest setback- making us directly reliant on corporations in an abusive relationship with the state. Although, you can use a smartphone with a BTC wallet or app to make payments, and most people would not take their computers with them, so this is why I mentioned the smartphone facet.
Tony Rosano: Ill do the bitcoin intro talks on Monday and thurs. Its used a lot at Porcfest. I usually did 20%-30% sales from my booth as bitcoin. v Gold and silver is usually accepted, however vendors have seen a very notable decline in use. vi In years past there has been a bitcoin only wifi for phone wallets to settle on the Blockchain. Verizon has best coverage. If you want to rely on cell.
Jack Wahlquist: That’s interesting, silver has been by far the most useful and accessible alt currency in my experience. vii Bitcoin is okay for online use… I’m sure it will smooth out over time. It’s not worth it if people aren’t using hard wallets like Ledger. I’m not going to carry my laptop everywhere, I probably won’t even have it with me.
Daniel: Yeah I leave all my actual computers at home. viii Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself to be the most pro-bitcoin person in attendance at PorcFest; ix it’s just not well suited as a money for little deals in the woods, unless used among friends who keep track of credits to be settled afterwards.
Tony Rosano: There was a while discussion thread about the decline of silver spending in the vendor forum. Btc is pretty much more superior in all the right ways for commerce. Silver seems to be good at long term x store of value and more universal. Its the utility of btc that’s excelling. Disclosure I hoard both silver and btc. Love them both. Most people load up a few bucks on their cellphone. Insanity would be to carry $100k xi on their phone. $100 xii is more realistic. Each type of wallet has its place. Hardware wallets are best for savings not petty cash.
- Doesn’t matter which one really. All the same. I don’t use them any more. ^
- Some barfalicious usb card that’s described to sound like it’s a Cardano with the technical specifications displaced by buzzwords. ^
- Really. There has not been nor will there likely ever be a bitcoin node at PorcFest. ^
- Again really. Most of the actual commerce taking place is at the food vendors who prefer to receive USD in the first place, or else they wouldn’t be converting it as soon as possible. Same goes for the poker tables. The chips are denominated in USD because most players worth playing against are smart enough to bring a wad of 20s to festival in the woods. One host tried to accept a silver bar for a buy-in and ended up getting burned at cash-out on some exchange snafu. ^
- Waddaya know the guy doing the bitcoin talks does a bunch of novelty bitcoin deals. What’s 30% of 200 bucks? ^
- Wanna be hip? Silver is out. Bitcoin is in. ^
- I’ll give him that. One of the best ways to pretend like you’re in an alt-economy is by trading silver bars. They are cheap and easy to use. None of that pesky learning-how-to-use-a-computer. ^
- Maybe this year I’ll set up a TRB demo and sell FGs. Still thinking about it. ^
- Two years ago, there were four WoT members including myself and Birdman. Of course, since then, Rassah lost his key, and Julia is all over social media pushing her baby daddy’s segwit nonsense. Birdman’s still around though!
From left to right: JuliaTourianski_, danielpbarron, Birdman, Rassah. ^ - Prolly has to say this to justify how much the price went down since dumb libertarians started collecting the stuff in the aftermath of Ron Paul’s bid for the white house. Lower price means you can buy more for the same dollar! More savings! ^
- as if. ^
- I guess this is how much Tony thinks your average community-dazed bitcoin noob is willing to spend on the novelty of having used bitcoin in person over the course of a week. ^