The Problem:
Firearm ownership is routinely under threat from the policy makers in DC. The US Dollar is being weaponized against legitimate businesses such as those that deal in firearms mostly due to political point scoring. Using the traditional credit card processing companies comes with a myriad of issues including chargeback risk and reduction in privacy. Due to this, firearm businesses across the US are offering discounts for cash purchases on firearms, accessories, and merchandise. The risk of having someone purchase a firearm with a credit card and then later report the transaction is fraudulent is rampant in the industry. Cash is the obvious alternative to incentivize customers, but cash has many problems as well.
Cash helps because it requires no payment processing and has no chargeback risk. However, cash can easily be stolen, lost, or counterfeited, and would eventually have to be deposited into a bank account which may not want to do business with the gun shop due to any reason whatsoever. Furthermore, cash and fiat currency generally devalues over time, causing a risk to holding cash in the long-term. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently called on banks and credit card companies to flag and prohibit purchases of firearms, as well.
In the early months of 2022, there were protests in Canada that culminated in the Canadian government using their power to shut down bank accounts of known protesters. This can happen in the US as well to anyone individual or business that those in power do not like for any reason. These constant threats warrant a new innovation in payments; an innovation that not only has the properties of final settlement, but one that cannot be censored or frozen.
The Solution:
Bitcoin offers the solution for gun shops that enhance the benefits of cash without any of the downside.
- Like cash, bitcoin has no chargebacks. Once you receive the funds, the sender cannot force a refund from your account. Bitcoin has additional benefits though.
- No one can counterfeit bitcoin. A bitcoin transaction cannot be spoofed or tricked.
- No one can censor a bitcoin transaction. Once a transaction is broadcasted, it cannot be reversed.
- Bitcoin is finite. While cash is routinely debased and inflated due to the whims of the federal reserve and treasury, the bitcoin supply schedule cannot be changed.
- Easily accessible. You can have a bitcoin point-of-sale system set up quickly and securely where the funds go directly to your custody with no middle man.
- Business savings. You can choose to keep the bitcoin you are paid or convert some or all of it to dollars if you need to. The choice is yours.
The Why:
Bitcoin is simply the better money for businesses. There is no object or tool with better monetary properties. For example, the supply is fixed.There will only be 21,000,000 bitcoin. But like a dollar can be broken down into 100 pennies, a bitcoin can be broken down into 100,000,000 satoshis, allowing for payments of all values. Over 90% of the supply of bitcoin is already in circulation.
In addition, bitcoin is recognizable and verifiable by anyone, anywhere, any time. Bitcoin is easily transferable and does not recognize geographical borders. Bitcoin is easily transportable. Unlike having to transport suitcases or bags of cash, bitcoin has no weight and can be taken anywhere on the planet if needed. There will never be a risk of your bitcoin being frozen or seized unless you voluntarily agree to do so.
The adoption curve of bitcoin is just beginning. Every day more people around the world learn about it and begin to use it. By learning about it now, you set yourself up to be a leader in the future. There has never been a better time to start accepting bitcoin as part of your business, and holding some (if not all) of the bitcoin as a treasury asset for your business could be a wise move.
The How:
There are a few ways to accept bitcoin. The best way is to use BTCPayServer and connect a bitcoin wallet to it. The best way to access BTCPayServer is through a hosting platform such as Voltage or BTCJungle. Voltage has support available and charges only $8/month with no additional fees. All payments go directly to your custody and there is no requirement to provide any information about yourself or your business.
You may be asking now how do you turn the bitcoin you receive into USD if you want. You can once a day, or once a week, or any interval you like easily transfer your bitcoin to an exchange. We recommend using river.com, as it is a bitcoin-only exchange with a focus on quality and speed. Simply log in to your river.com account and click deposit. Then send the bitcoin from your point of sale device to your river account, where you can convert to USD and have the funds deposited into your bank account if desired.
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The following are some ways you can accept bitcoin into a brick and mortar point of sale system. All that is needed is a device connected to the internet. There are bitcoin payment options that require personal information. These options include services such as opennode. This guide will focus on solutions that do not require a third party acquisition of personal information.
Easiest: Breez
To get set up very quickly, the Breez app includes a Point of Sale system built into the app that you can start in minutes. https://breez.technology.
Best: BTCPayServer
Not only does BTCPayServer have a point of sale terminal built in, you can also use it to accept web payments for ecommerce, and even connect it to existing ecommerce platforms such as shopify and woocommerce, making it a very robust option. BTCPayServer is a free and open source software, meaning anyone can use it anywhere at no cost. However, installing it is fairly complicated for non-technical users. Thankfully, services such as Voltage offer BTCPayServer for just $8/mo with no additional fees regardless of volume or size.
Here is a step by step on how to go from zero to a BTCPayServer Point-of-sale terminal where payments go directly to your own custody with no middleman:
- Go to https://voltage.cloud and create an account (username/password).
- Click Nodes and then BTCPayServer
- Click Create
- Name your Store (this can be changed) and click Create (note: uncheck use a voltage node for now)
- Make note of the given URL, username, and password. These will be your BTCPayServer login credentials. Click Login to Account.
- Enter the credentials provided in previous step into the BTCPayServer login. Then click Sign in.
- We must now connect our Bitcoin wallet to our BTCPayServer. To do this, click Bitcoin on the left side.
- Now click “Connect an existing wallet”
- Click Enter extended public key
- Enter the public key of your bitcoin wallet. If you do not yet have a bitcoin wallet, you can get started with Blue Wallet, which you can copy the public key from. The public key is what generates bitcoin addresses for your store. We only have to do this step once. If this is overwhelming, please email support@voltage.cloud or book a free 1 on 1 call and we will help walk you through the process at https://calendly.com/natevoltage.
- For Blue wallet, click the 3 dots in the upper right corner and then scroll down to see your public key. Copy this and email it to yourself and then paste it in the box and click continue.
- You will then be shown a list of addresses. Click Confirm.
Congratulations! You have now successfully linked your Bitcoin wallet to your BTCPayServer.
The next part is easy. On the left side click”+ New App” Select Point of Sale and name your App. Then click Create.
You can now customize your point of sale. An app can be a web store or a simple point of sale terminal. For this guide, we will be doing the point of sale terminal. The Tea Shop you see is a demo, so feel free to click the red trash can icon next to the items to remove them. Under appearance, click Keypad only.
Go through the settings on this page and toggle anything you think makes sense.
Click save in the upper right corner. And then click View.
You will be greeted with your Point of sale terminal. At this point it is important that you save the URL that you see. This is a unique URL that you can use any time to quickly access your point of sale terminal on multiple devices if needed.
Test out your point of sale by entering an amount in USD then clicking Pay. An invoice screen will appear.
This invoice screen should be presented to the customer to pay. After payment, the QR code will become a green checkmark, and your funds will be displayed in the external wallet that you generated the public key from steps 10 and 11. To see a complete list of transactions, you can click “Invoices” on the BTCPayServer page. You can export the invoice list into a CSV file for bookkeeping.
And that’s it for BTCPayServer. For more information check out https://voltage.cloud and https://docs.voltage.cloud.
Complimentary service: Oshi (https://oshiapp.com). This app allows you to put your business on the map of other bitcoin accepted businesses and also advertise coupons, discounts, and more for this in proximity to your business.
How to incentivize customers to pay in bitcoin:
Be sure to advertise that your business accepts bitcoin on the front counter. You may also have a bitcoin pamphlet available that will teach your customers how to pay in bitcoin. You can get pre-made pamphlets from https://bitcoinforlocalbusiness.com/. Many people don’t know that you can buy and send bitcoin from cash-app, which most have on their phones already. Further, customers can pay bitcoin addresses with dollars with a cash-app-like app known as Strike. Strike allows a user to deposit USD and pay bitcoin invoices with that USD. More information: https://strike.me. You can also use https://oshiapp.com to help incentivize through rewards.
Important:
Do not fall into the trap that bitcoin is the same thing as “crypto” or “cryptocurrency.” There are many scams and frauds out there that claim to be “just as good or better than bitcoin.” This is false, and unfortunately many people lose money getting invested with these scams. Focus on bitcoin and bitcoin only or you are taking an extreme risk that no one educated on the topic would recommend.
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Thank you very much for considering using bitcoin at your business. As always, please feel free to contact us at support@voltage.cloud or book a 1-on-1 call for no charge for a walkthrough of the process or to answer any questions at https://calendly.com/natevoltage.
Resources for further information:
