Bring your BCH home(BCHを家に連れて帰ろう)キャンペーン＋コンテスト開催中!
Bitcoin Out Loud による「Bring your BCH home」キャンペーン＋コンテスト開催!
ビットコインキャッシュ（BCH）のトランザクションは低い手数料で瞬時に行われるので、BCHを所有することは簡単です。このホリデーシーズンに、カストディアン（自分でBCHを保有し、管理する）としてのスーパーパワーを一緒に祝いましょう！
要は、**取引所に置きっぱなしのBCHを出してあげてね**、と言う内容。
**12月30日までにカストディアル・プラットフォーム（取引所など）で保有しているBCHを自分のウォレット等に出金してください。**
**ミームを作ったり、このトピックについての投稿をしてください。BCHをプレゼントします！**
Bring Home Your BCH（「BCHを家に連れて帰る」）ことをテーマにしたツイッターへのミームやその他のクリエイティブな投稿は、ビットコインキャッシュ賞金の対象となり、キャンペーン期間中に@chaintipでプレゼントされます。「いいね！」がより多い投稿には、より多くのチップがプレゼントされます。
ツイートには必ず#BringYourBchHomeのタグを付け、@ BitcoinOutLoudをタグしてください。このキャンペーンについて他の人に教えてあげてくださいね。
英語のツイートが好ましいですが、日本語で書きたい場合は、@YokooAkane をタグしてください。
(※私は主催者であり、このアイデアや、この記事の2つの画像のオリジナルの作者ではありません)
How BCH/BSV Fork Affected Adoption
I am a fan of crypto that functions well as cash and I'd like to see it being used all over the world. Adoption does not happen overnight, though.
Recently I had an opportunity to be on a podcast with a non-specific coin supporter host and he asked me why I am supporting Bitcoin Cash instead of the other coins that are also useful as cash. The reason why I like to support BCH is of course it's functionality with the great development team behind it, but importantly, what I think makes BCH different from some other coins with similar functionality, is its sharp focus on adoption. I think the BCH community has the strongest passion and focus on adoption, and I've always felt that a coin with good functionality does not have much point if nobody uses it.
After the BTC/BCH split, I started helping onboarding some merchants in Tokyo for BCH, and I could really imagine the pain of early adopters onboarding a number of merchants for BTC then loosing the momentum (and merchants stopped accepting BTC) due to the high fees etc, then starting all over again with BCH. We also have to go through an extra step of explaining to merchants when we onboard them why there is BTC and BCH, and why we think BCH is more suitable for daily transactions, while dealing with haters. They say the fork delayed the adoption of Bitcoin by many years and I really believe that.
Then soon after, BCH/BSV fork happened and I unexpectedly got to experience a similar situation myself. Though I am sure it must have been less impactful than the BTC fork, it did affect us.
**Meetups**
First, there were things to deal with for our Tokyo BCH Meetup- which coin do we support, and do we welcome the members who support a different coin? Do we keep the same name "BCH Meetup"? We released an announcement stating we welcome both supporters at our meetups. Despite this, one of the co-organizers ended up leaving (we still keep in touch though) and a few members stopped coming to the meetup. We lost one out of 3 meetups in Japan. Many members were left very confused about the split. I am sure other meetups experienced something similar or probably worse.
We hosted a workshop to explain to the meetup members what happened and teach them how to split their coins. Only a fraction of the meetup group was able to attend the workshop so I am sure many were left confused for a long time (we were something like 1300 members then, but our weekly average attendance was about 40-50 people).
Globally speaking, we saw tens of meetups disappear due to this fork. Some meetups changed the name to support the other coin (whether or not the organizers internally agreed), and we had to start the BCH meetups newly in some cities from zero members. I think some of these organizers stopped having meetups because they got confused or lost faith or both. Some enthusiastic BCH supporters who were actively pushing the adoption left for the other coin, or disappeared from the space completely. The only organization that was financially supporting the meetups consistently closed down a few months later, and meetups lost a big chunk of support, though we kept on.
**Merchants**
As for merchants, some got confused by people telling them different opinions and they lost interest and stopped accepting BCH. Even though we managed to get most of the merchants in Tokyo to continue accepting BCH, we had some extra things we had to do for them. There was a problem with the mixed coins due to having no replay protection, and once the payments were mixed in the merchant's wallet with the other coins, an extra process was needed to split the coins, and I say the process was not easy. We went around the merchants physically to sort this out for them. We had to explain that the coin had forked and why, and told them they can choose to keep both coins or not etc. We encouraged the merchants to keep accepting BCH despite the severe price crash that followed the fork.
We are still in the early stage and many people are still working on the grassroot merchant adoption all over the world (including Japan), and many merchants are accepting BCH directly from customers using BCH wallet or BCH Register App, which means another fork will likely affect these merchants the same way. Thankfully more and more people are joining this movement, and I hope that these people can keep doing what they do with ease and without confusion and or loosing motivation.
Two Dogs Taproomクラウドファンディング：暗号通貨での参加方法
六本木にある、窯焼きピザとクラフトビールの美味しいレストラン＆バー**Two Dogs Taproom**は、暗号通貨決済のロングサポーターであり、2013年からビットコイン（BTC）、2017年からはビットコインキャッシュ（BCH）決済を導入しています。数々のビットコインミートアップも開催させてもらったレストランです。2018年には「ビットコインキャッシュ IPA」というオリジナルビールもコラボでリリースし、ベストセラーになりました（ **CoinSpice**スポンサー）。 https://www.twodogs-tokyo.com/ https://coinspice.io/
今回Covid-19の影響により、Two Dogs Taproomは深刻な経営困難に陥っており、クラウドファンディングを開始しました。 https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/296048
**＜暗号通貨でのクラウドファンディングの参加＞**
メインのクラウドファンディングサイトだと暗号通貨での寄付が出来ないのですが、Two Dogs Taproomでは暗号通貨での寄付も受け付けています。方法を説明します。
<備考>
-5000円以上の寄付でお願いします
-プレゼントは日本国内の住所のみ配送可能です
-プレゼントなしでの参加ももちろん歓迎です！金額はいくらでも。
-クラウドファンディングは2020年8月17日まで。尚、商品の発送はプロジェクト終了以降になります。
**1. 下記のアドレスに暗号通貨を送る:**
ビットコインキャッシュ (BCH)での寄付の場合
qrzsnmn6ch90k3ez3q3azx33gssy9wens5pmdx0vz2
ビットコイン (BTC)での寄付の場合
3PZxftY1CTXEhuU5hg6kES3msejE5Z9F7D
**2. 直接お店での申し込み、プレゼントの受け取り（受け取りは８月１５日以降の予定）が可能です。直接ご来店にて申し込みしない場合は、ビットコイン送付後、２４時間以内に、お店のメールアドレスまで下記情報をお送りください**(To: Miyazaki@**twodogs-tokyo.com****)**
（万が一、同一のトランザクションに対して１人以上の申し出があった場合は、更なる情報の提供を持って、どちらが真正の参加者か判断します）
Eメール送信先: Miyazaki@**twodogs-tokyo.com**
(1) 氏名（フルネーム）
(2) ビットコイン（トランザクション）の送信日時
(3) トランザクション ID:
例)**https://explorer.bitcoin.com/bch/tx/84acd25f355cbda68d69cd8ed9269978763ead77cbdafb0e400012ed72ffbcad**
(4) 希望のプレゼント（リターン）例：「10000円のリターン（12100円分のお食事券）を希望」
(5) 日本国内の住所
(6)電話番号
Thank you!
Read this article in English（英語でこの記事を読む）:
https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/how-to-donate-to-two-dogs-taprooms-crowdfunding-in-crypto-d55e4634
How to Participate in Two Dogs Taproom's Crowdfunding in Crypto
Two Dogs Taproom in Tokyo has been a long time supporter of crypto payments. They have been accepting Bitcoin (BTC) since 2013, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) since 2017, and we have hosted a number of crypto meetups there.
They have also collaborated with us to make the famous Bitcoin Cash IPA (sponsored by CoinSpice) and have been very supportive of cryptocurrency's adoption. https://www.twodogs-tokyo.com/ https://coinspice.io/
Two Dogs Taproom has been a very popular restaurant/bar, but it is now struggling badly to survive due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They have started a crowdfunding campaign (available in both English and Japanese). https://t.co/kxoFPO8YSK?amp=1
**<How to Donate in Crypto>**
The site does not allow crypto donations, and if you are interested in donating in crypto and still receiving the perks, here is an instruction of how to do that:
<Please note>
-Donations in crypto with perks are available from 5,000 yen and up
-Perks can be shipped to Japanese addresses only
-You're welcome to just send any amount of donations to below addresses without receiving the perks!
-The crowdfunding will end on August 17th 2020. The returns will be mailed after the ending date.
**1. Send crypto to one of below addresses:**
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
qrzsnmn6ch90k3ez3q3azx33gssy9wens5pmdx0vz2
Bitcoin (BTC):
3PZxftY1CTXEhuU5hg6kES3msejE5Z9F7D
**2.** ****Within 24 hours**** **after sending a transaction, please email Two Dogs Taproom** (To: Miyazaki@twodogs-tokyo.com**) and send them below info** (If Two Dogs finds more than one conflicting claims for the same transaction, they will require further proof of the transaction, such as signing the transaction)
Email to: Miyazaki@twodogs-tokyo.com
(1) Your full name
(2) Date and time of transaction
(3) Transaction ID:
Ex)https://explorer.bitcoin.com/bch/tx/84acd25f355cbda68d69cd8ed9269978763ead77cbdafb0e400012ed72ffbcad
(4) Perk that you want:ex "I'd like the 10,000 yen Perk: ￥12,100 worth of Food & Beverage at Two Dogs Taproom"
(5) Shipping address in Japan: Postal code, prefecture, street address
(6) Phone number
Thank you!
Read this article in Japanese(日本語でこの記事を読む)：
https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/two-dogs-taproom-62a8ef06
How to Convince Big Chains like Burger King to Accept Crypto (And How GoCrypto Did It)
**Intro**
At the virtual Bitcoin Cash meetup we hosted on April 29th, GoCrypto (Eligma Ltd.) CEO Dejan Roljic shared some tips for onboarding merchants. The tips he shared were interesting and I’d like to share them in this article.
GoCrypto(gocrypto.com) is a global payment service for both physical and online merchants. They are around 40 staff and based in Slovenia. They currently enable payments in BTC, BCH, ETH, and their own token GoC with fiat settlement. They have onboarded more than 1300 merchants in 13 countries and have been ever expanding. I had a chance to meet the GoCrypto team before in Tokyo, and I was impressed with their passion, knowledge, and razor-sharp focus on merchant adoption.
How GoCrypto Started
We first asked how they generally onboarded merchants. We often hear how individuals onboard merchants, but I was interested to hear how companies like GoCrypto did this. Half way through the meetup, I was surprised to find out that the tips he shared with us were very similar to what we as individuals have been doing.
Dejan explained that **GoCrypto first started onboarding smaller merchants.** They started with places such as a tattoo shop, bars and restaurants that they were going to often. Then they started building more merchants around these early use cases.
**Be a Good Customer**
I noticed that GoCrypto was doing something that I strongly believe is important, which is to **be good customers** for the merchants by using their service showing them the potential support they will get more once they start accepting crypto. GoCrypto team proactively had meetings at some of the restaurants with 10-15 people, and occasionally had meetups.
**Be Transparent and Honest**
Dejan emphasized that being fully transparent and honest to the merchants is essential. I agree with this too. The reality is that we are still at an early stage of adoption and we do not have many users and it is not like the merchants suddenly will get a lot of customers after deciding to accept crypto. GoCrypto makes this point clear to the merchants, but they would pitch other benefits. For example, they offer additional exposure on social media, explain to them that crypto is a borderless money, which means loyal users from all over the world will notice and support if the merchants start accepting.
How They Onboarded the Burger King Chain
This is how they onboarded Burger King, according to Dejan:
**One guy from his enthusiastic sales team was a regular customer at BK and he told the clerk that he will keep buying things as long as they will accept crypto.** He was also being **a good customer**, and bought a lot of items at Burger King. **The CEO of the Burger King chain happens to be there and he got interested in what this crypto-enthusiastic GoCrypto employee had to say**, and the CEO decided to hear him out. Then he decided to start accepting crypto for his Burger King chain in Slovenia! What a fun and encouraging story.
I think it is usually harder for us individuals or small groups to onboard big merchants like chains of popular fast-food restaurants or supermarkets because it is usually rare for you to be able to meet the people who have the decision-making powers such as owners, CEOs or the managers, and also because of the large corporate size, it will be much harder for decisions like starting accepting new currency to go through.
This case of meeting the CEO of Burger King I do think is rare and fortunate, but that is actually just one of the steps and I do believe the **enthusiasm** of GoCrypto staff made this whole thing happen. To share my own experience too, I have helped onboard a medium size chain with 14 shops across Japan, and we were fortunate to be able to meet the owner because of Roger Ver’s connection, but we also worked hard to follow up to make sure they will actually start accepting crypto (though they were cooperative), so I know that being able to meet the owner was not everything.
Anyway, next time you run across a CEO of Starbucks chain in your country, maybe it may not be such a bad idea to take courage and ask them to accept crypto;)
**Other Ways to Onboard Big Businesses**
GoCrypto also onboarded some big chains of supermarket which have more than 30 locations, without meeting the CEO first. This is how they made this happen for one chain: They first noticed that some of their users were sending emails to this particular supermarket chain, recommending GoCrypto service and saying they should start accepting crypto. GoCrypto quickly noticed what was happening, and they started asking more people to do the same. **After many people sent emails to the chain, the marketing team of this supermarket asked GoCrypto to come and explain about their service.** They decided to accept crypto after a successful pitch by GoCrypto! I think this is something we can all learn from and it’s what all of us can do.
**Lastly...**
I hope you found these tips helpful and fun. I think in this early crypto adoption stage, onboarding any size merchants are important to lead our way to bigger adoption. Like GoCrypto and probably many other successful ‘BCH Cities’, adoption usually starts small. So go talk to that restaurant you often go to, or the cafe that your friend owns. And let’s also have hope and keep asking bigger companies to accept crypto! Someday maybe they will.
Thoughts on Virtual BCH Meetup Plan
More and more BCH meetups are being cancelled around the world due to the COVID-19 situation, and the organizers are frustrated because they want to keep providing their members a place to talk about BCH, but at the same time they don't want to encourage anything that can put their members at risk.
Japan meetups had the same struggle the past few weeks and both Tokyo and Osaka had suspended the meetups temporarily. We have just **announced** that Tokyo and Osaka BCH Meetup will start weekly virtual meetups from this coming Wednesday as a temporary safe solution. https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/tokyo-osaka-bch-virtual-meetup-plan-announcement-94959ae9
The idea of virtual meetups have been floating around even before COVID-19, but I think the reason it has not become mainstream is because people felt the benefits of physical meetups (such as being able to talk to different people freely and supporting the merchants) are mostly lost if we did it online, but the recent situation forced us to move forward and implement the plan so that we can keep having the BCH meetups asap.
One of the things we were concerned that we won't be able to do with online meetups is it is hard to create an environment where people can talk to whoever they like, with the language they choose if the tool only allows certain people to talk at a time such as a zoom call. We can not probably have this ideal environment from the beginning, so in the meantime we may try to patch this by creating different rooms for different languages and topics in discord or zoom so people can choose to join certain chats.
VR (Virtual Reality) should be able to solve these issues all together but it will be expensive to make this happen soon. We do hope to eventually offer the VR options, while allowing people without it to be able to join too. (We are looking for sponsors for our VR meetups. Please let us know if you are interested!)
Not being able to support merchants by doing physical meetups was one of my top concerns. To solve this problem, we plan to provide the BCH address of one of our venues at each meetup, so members can feel free to tip BCH to support the venue remotely. It might be fun to have a drink at home and pretend that you purchase that drink at the actual venue! I think it is a great way to show support to merchants if you don’t want to risk your health by going out to a physical meetup.
We can easily show new members how to use BCH by using text, voice, or video. We can practice sending and receiving BCH just like in real life. Members will probably realize how easy it must be to also send BCH to family and friends living abroad on Skype etc too if we can do this.
Filtering members may be one of the challenges. We do not want people who try to harm our meetup and it is much easier for people to join the online meetups than physical meetups because you can join from anywhere, and of course we don't want to do KYC for each member.
We also do not want people randomly recording the meetups so our members can comfortably voice their opinions or show their faces. For now people who want to participate in our virtual meetups need to sign up to Tokyo or Osaka BCH groups on Meetup.com first, and then RSVP for each meetup in order to have access or virtual meetups. https://www.meetup.com/Tokyo-Bitcoin-Cash-Meetup-Group/ https://www.meetup.com/Osaka-Bitcoin-Cash-Meet-Up/
We realize there are also many benefits of virtual meetups that we can not achieve with the physical meetups.
Members who live too far from the venues or those who are traveling abroad can join. Members who have to stay home because they have family obligations might be able to join the meetup for an hour or two. We can easily invite guest speakers from abroad. We are able to collaborate with Osaka BCH Meetup because the location doesn’t matter.
Of course we will miss actually seeing the members in real life for now, but until the situation improves, we are excited to explore the new possibilities with the virtual meetups, so we can continue spreading awareness about the power of p2p electronic cash!
東京＆大阪 BCH ヴァーチャルミートアップの計画についての発表
最近、Covid-19発生のリスクを軽減するために、私たち自身のコミュニティとより広いコミュニティのために、東京BCHミートアップの開催を一時停止する計画をお伝えしました。日本の状況は楽観的であり、症例数は実質増加していませんが、大流行のリスクは依然として高まっており、私達はメンバーの安全を願っています。
東京BCHミートアップでは、しばらく状況の様子を見ながら、バーチャルMeetupsを開催することに決定しました。大阪BCHミートアップと共同で主催します。
色々なツールを試して、私たちのミートアップのニーズに最適なものを見つけたいと思っています。私たちの目的は、ミートアップをできるだけ参加しやすく、できる限り豊富な体験にすることです。どのツールが最も有用であるかについて、是非メンバーの皆さんのご意見も聞かせてください。
ミートアップごとに、普段会場としてまわっているBCH決済が可能なお店を毎回１店舗ずつ選び、そのお店のBCHアドレスを提示しますので、是非BCHでチップを送って、遠隔でお店をサポートしましょう。
ヴァーチャルミートアップは3/18（水）19：30より現地開催のミートアップと同時に開始します。毎回水曜日の同じ時間に開催予定です。ヴァーチャルミートアップに参加するには、東京BCHミートアップもしくは大阪BCHミートアップのMeetup.comのグループより、各ミートアップに参加してください。後ほど、参加方法とリンクをお送りします。店舗情報を含む、各ミートアップの詳細については通常通りMeeetup.comに更新して行きます。 https://www.meetup.com/Tokyo-Bitcoin-Cash-Meetup-Group/ https://www.meetup.com/Osaka-Bitcoin-Cash-Meet-Up/
状況がどう展開するにしても、私たちはビットコインキャッシュによって可能になる独立した金融システムの追求に引き続き全力を尽くします。このような困難な時期に、皆さんの変らぬ熱意とサポートに感謝します。
英語での発表：
https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/tokyo-osaka-bch-virtual-meetup-plan-announcement-94959ae9
Tokyo & Osaka BCH VIRTUAL Meetup Plan Announcement
In a previous announcement we communicated our plan to suspend the Tokyo BCH meetup with the intention of doing our part for our own and broader community to reduce the risk of Covid-19 outbreak. The situation in Japan is tenuously optimistic as case numbers have not been increasing substantially. However, the risk of outbreak is still heightened, and we hope for all of our members to be safe.
To that end, we are going to offer an option to join our Virtual Meetups for the near term as we see how events unfold. We will be trying out various collaboration tools to find out what best meets our needs. We are also excited to work with the Osaka BCH Meetup organizers with the plan. Our objective is to make the meetup as accessible as possible, with as rich an experience as we can curate. We welcome feedback from members on which tools they find most useful.
We will provide the BCH address of one of our venues for each meetup, so members can feel free to tip BCH to to support the venue.
Our virtual meetups will start this coming Wednesday March 18th from 7:30pm and we plan to host every Wednesday at the same time when our physical meetups happen. To join, please join Tokyo BCH Meetup or Osaka BCH Meetup group and RSVP for each meetup and we will send you instructions and links to join the meetup. We will also update details for each meetup on Meetup.com including the venues. https://www.meetup.com/Tokyo-Bitcoin-Cash-Meetup-Group/ https://www.meetup.com/Osaka-Bitcoin-Cash-Meet-Up/
Regardless of how events unfold, we remain fully committed to the pursuit of an independent financial system enabled by Bitcoin Cash. Thanks to everyone for their continued enthusiasm and support during these challenging times.
Announcement in Japanese:
https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/bch-42d7b18c
Bitcoin Cash Meetup Organizer's Guide Summary
I'm keeping my posts with the same theme in one place, so it is easier for you and myself to find.
<New Organizers>
**How To Organize a Bitcoin Meetup in 20 mins -** **Read** **here**
This article explains how to organize or plan a meetup, including booking a venue, posting your meetup on meetup.com, and announcing it. https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/organizers-guide-how-to-organize-a-bitcoin-meetup-in-20-mins-096f5d63 https://honest.cash/v2/akane/how-to-organize-a-bitcoin-meetup-in-20-mins-4670 https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/how-to-organize-a-bitcoin-meetup-in-20-mins-096f5d63
**Organizer’s Guide: Organizer’s Job During A Meetup -** **Read here**
This is recommended for new organizers who don't have a clue what they are supposed to at a meetup. Although there are no right or wrong ways to do meetups, hope this helps by giving you a general idea of what a typical meetup looks like so you can be confident at your first meetup.
<Advanced Organizers>
**How to Airdrop BCH Using SLP Tokens and Dividend Tool at Your Meetup -** **Read** **Here**
If you are looking for something fun and educational to do for your meetup, airdropping BCH using SLP tokens is a great way to get both old and new members some BCH, and show them how useful and fun SLP tokens can be. This will require some preparation and organizing prior to the meetup, but thanks to some new tools and functions it should be easier than when I first wrote this post a few weeks ago. https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/organizers-guide-organizers-job-during-a-meetup-3027d824 https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/organizers-advanced-guide-how-to-airdrop-bch-using-slp-tokens-and-dividend-tool-at-your-meetup-dcc27790 https://read.cash/@AkaneYokoo/organizers-advanced-guide-how-to-airdrop-bch-using-slp-tokens-and-dividend-tool-at-your-meetup-cc292c4e
<My Presentation at Bitcoin Cash City Conference about Meetups and Merchant Adoption>
https://youtu.be/98m4FDoR7y0
<Coming soon...>
I also hope to write on below topics soon:
- How to write a good Meetup writeup for each event
- How to get sponsorship for your meetup
- How to boost attendance for your meetup
- How to organize special events for your meetup including special guests, talks, and give-away
- Meetups and merchants (How to onboard merchants using your meetup)
If you are interested in other topics I appreciate it if you can leave in the comment below:)
My 3-Day Tokyo Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Survival Challenge!
Here is the original post on Tokyo Survival Channel. Their website is not about cryptocurrency and covers a variety of genre, but they told me this article caught a lot of attention among their readers:)
https://en.woshiru.com/shopping/3-day-japan-bitcoin-survival-challenge/
Organizer's Guide: How To Organize a Bitcoin Meetup in 20 mins
(This was originally posted on Honest.cash on July 17, 2019. Just moving it to read.cash so it's easier to find)
I like keeping things simple and sustainable, so I can be active, productive, and stress-free while enjoying what I do and life.
I am an organizer of Tokyo Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Weekly Meetup, which started in December 2017, which people say is one of the most active and successful BCH meetups around the world. https://www.meetup.com/Tokyo-Bitcoin-Cash-Meetup-Group/
Some people seem to think I am working hard everyday organizing the meetups. But the truth is, I do not usually spend more than 15-20 mins to organize and promote a weekly meetup.
I'd like to show you how I do this, and hope this will help you realize organizing meetups does not have to be time-consuming or stressful, and anybody can do it with their spare time and enjoying doing it.
<4 Steps for Organizing a Weekly or Monthly Meetup>
1. Book a venue 5 mins (If you are organizing a monthly meetup at the same venue, this process can be eliminated. )
It usually takes a few messages to a merchant that has hosted your meetup before. I communicate with the merchants (owners/managers) on telegram or LINE (or whatever app they prefer). Here is how usually conversation goes: Me: "Hi. Can we use your venue for the meetup on (date/time) ? Attendance will probably be around (how many) but if there is a big change we will let you know". Merchant: "Yes, we are available that night" or "No, sorry we are not available. Can we do one on (another date/time) instead?" If a merchant is not available, message another venue and keep doing so until you find one that is available. This is how the conversation went with Alex, the manager of Wall Street House, when I booked the venue for July 17 meetup:
Tips: -Booking a few next venues in advance will save even more time. -If your meetup is on weekends it is ideal to book as early as possible, as restaurants are usually much busier on weekends. You may end up spending more time finding a venue if your usual venue is not available. I have made this mistake before too.
2. Create and Announce Event(Meetup) on Meetup.com 2-3 mins http://meetup.com/
If we have used the same venue before, I usually copy and paste the past meetup info on meetup.com , make sure the info is up to date, and make some necessary changes. http://meetup.com/
Notes: When we use a new venue, it usually takes me 15-20 mins to make a write up in English and Japanese, but this can be used again in the future, so it is worth it.
3. Promote the Meetup on Twitter 5 mins
I usually tweet that there is a meetup, when, where, and what is special or fun about the meetup, with some welcoming message at the end. I tweet in English and Japanese as those are the main languages our members speak. You can save more time by copying and paste your past tweet and update necessary info.
4. Other 3-4 mins (Or more if you like)
Sometimes you may want to answer members who message you directly asking about the meetups. I personally enjoy and feel it is important to engage with members on direct messages, but you can adjust the time you spend on this if you are too busy. Also, if a member asks where the meetup is repeatedly, kindly let them know they should check Meetup.com so that they do not have to ask every time;)
<Conclusion> I hope I was able to show you how easy and fast organizing meetups can be. Of course, there are many more things you can do to improve the quality, attendance etc of the meetups and I hope to improve myself as well. Also, it may be more effective if you announced the meetup on other social media and event sites such as Facebook, or groups like Telegram, LINE, etc., especially if you are running a new meetup and need more exposure.
I also hope to share with you what I do at the actual meetups as an organizer in another post sometime. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment here, or send messages on Twitter (@YokooAkane) or telegram (@akaneyokoo). Thank you for reading!
Original Post:
https://honest.cash/v2/akane/how-to-organize-a-bitcoin-meetup-in-20-mins-4670
CoinSpice's Article About This Post:
https://coinspice.io/news/organizing-a-bitcoin-meetup-is-easier-than-you-think/
Organizers' Advanced Guide: How to Airdrop BCH Using SLP Tokens and Dividend Tool at Your Meetup
On December 16th, 2019 at the first Saigon Bitcoin Cash Meetup, Roger Ver demonstrated airdropping Bitcoin Cash for all the attendees, using SLP tokens and Bitcoin.com Dividend tool. Some organizers wanted to know how to do it, so I'd like to show you how. https://www.meetup.com/Vietnam-Bitcoin-Cash-Meetup/events/xfxhlryzqbvb/
You basically need to create SLP tokens for your meetup, distribute the tokens to the members, then airdrop BCH using the SLP Dividend tool. For not-so-technical people like myself, here is a step-by-step guide of how to do it. I also included tips from our experience of doing this at the actual meetup so hope that helps.
**Step 1: Create Original SLP Tokens for Your Meetup**
* Bitcoin.com's SLP minting tool became live on Jan 16, 2020. It is much easier to use this to create tokens: https://mint.bitcoin.com/
<In case you'd like to use Memo.cash>
First, create a unique SLP token for your meetup on https://memo.cash/.
Sign up for Memo.cash, and make sure you have a little bit of BCH there, which is needed to create SLP token. Click the "B" icon on the top right to send some BCH. 10 cents should be enough.
To create tokens, go to "Tokens" on the top bar, click "Create", and enter necessary information to create tokens. Select "Normal" for your token type.
For Saigon Meetup, we made tokens called FSGM (stands for "First Saigon Meetup").
I chose "0" for "Decimals" because we did not feel like we needed to give people less than 1 token (such as 0.5 FSGM). Make sure you make enough for your expected number of participants but not too many.
After you've entered the necessary info, hit the "Create" button.
Now you have successfully created original tokens for your meetup!
Here is a video of Roger explaining how to create SLP tokens on memo.cash, if you prefer a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_wOFeBEHRM
**Step 2: Move the Tokens to Your SLP Wallet**
After you created SLP tokens, you need to move them to your wallet.
To do this, click the account icon on far top right and choose "Send". Put your SLP token address (such as from Badger wallet) as the "Recipient", and hit "Send". Now you should see these tokens in your SLP token wallet!
**Step 3: Distribute the Tokens To the Members During a Meetup**
At the meetup, you need to give these tokens to each attendee manually from your wallet to the attendees's wallet. This can be a bit time-consuming if you have many attendees, but it is surely a great way to engage with your members so take advantage of it!
If your meetup is larger than 20-30 people, I recommend that you strategize this well before the meetup. We had 50 people at our meetup, and so we decided to share this task among three organizers to make the process smooth for everyone.
We first divided the 100 tokens among three organizers (for example, 30-30-40).
This way we were able to distribute the tokens to members in a short period of time while giving us plenty of time to enjoy interacting with the attendees. To do this, simply send tokens to the co-organizers' SLP wallet.
More tips: It is a good idea to ask members to download Badger wallet before the meetup (such as through messages or on meetup.com), and announce again during the meetup to remind them, so that your members have the wallet ready and the process is smoother.
**Step 4: Airdrop Using SLP Dividend Tool**
Go to Bitcoin.com's Dividend Calculator and click "I want to send BCH dividends to token holders". If you want to airdrop another SLP tokens instead of BCH, you click the other option, which is for SLP tokens. https://tools.bitcoin.com/slp-dividend-calculator/
Go to Bitcoin.com's Explorer to find the token you have created. Copy the token ID of your token from the list.
(If I were the organizer, I would have this ID ready beforehand so you don't stress out trying to find it during the actual meetup.)
Now, go back to the SLP Dividend Calculator and enter your SLP Token ID. https://explorer.bitcoin.com/bch/token https://tools.bitcoin.com/slp-dividend-calculator/
Type in the total amount in BCH that you'd like to sent. Note that this amount will be split among ALL token holders. For example, if you send 1 BCH, it will be split among all token holders, including yourself.
If you are doing this at the meetup, you need to think about how many tokens you have distributed to the members already and how many you still have. The chances are you probably have more tokens on your wallet than your members. Maybe you originally created 100 tokens, and distributed only 50 tokens to the members, and you have the rest (50 tokens). In this case, if you send 1 BCH total, 0.5 BCH (50% of 1 BCH) will be distributed to 50 members (each member getting 0.01 BCH), and 0.5 BCH will go to your wallet because you have 50 tokens.
Before you send BCH, select "Latest mempool state". This means BCH will also be sent to people you had just distributed tokens to recently. We don't want to leave anyone out;)
Now go ahead and hit "Build tx". You can see how many people (addresses) the tokens were already sent to and these are the ones you are airdropping the BCH to.
Go ahead and send the BCH amount to the QR code generated on the screen.
Boom! Your members should receive the BCH right away.
That's it! We'd love to hear about your experience of airdropping at your meetups!
I have just created a telegram group for this (on Jan 8th 2020) so you can ask if you have any questions about this. I will try to keep the channel open at least for 3 months. Please feel free to join the group from below link:
https://t.me/joinchat/IJcMHBMesIzl5MLxaIrJoA
Special thanks to:
- Mickey (Roger's assistant) for walking me through this process when I needed to prepare it for Saigon Meetup. She is a smart, efficient and also kind and thoughtful person, who always goes way beyond her responsibilities to help others.
-Corbin for being so kind to answer some additional questions we had.
-Joey King and Bitcoin.com team for making this cool SLP Dividend tool!
Not Being Afraid of Making Mistakes (And Some Thoughts on Listing of HEX)
I feel like I have not expressed enough appreciation for Bitcoin.com chairman Roger Ver, CEO Stefan Rust, and many other individuals at Bitcoin.com, so I'd like to do so today.
The last few days Bitcoin.com has been meeting criticism for listing the controversial cryptocurrency, HEX. I too was surprised that we listed HEX despite the general recognition of it as a scam, and I wondered what the company's intention behind it was. On the same day of the listing, Stefan told us at a small company division meeting that the company's intention was to give people more freedom of choice and our intention was coming from a good place though we did not get a good reaction from the community.
At Bitcoin.com, we are encouraged not to be afraid to make mistakes and instead take action and get things done while doing our best. If we make mistakes, we should learn from them and try not to make the same mistake again.
I learned over the years that in my case, taking immediate action than waiting for things to become perfect has done much more good, and I am very happy that I work for a company with this attitude.
When I started helping with Tokyo BCH meetups in Tokyo, I was far from perfect. I thought I'd never be a good meetup organizer because I did not have deep technical knowledge or deep understanding about Bitcoin etc, and I was also actually shy.
I also never thought people will see me as someone who is good at onboarding merchants because I obviously had no experience about it or any sales skills or know about payment services in general.
Yet, I just kept doing the best on what I could do, because I really wanted to help these great people trying to make a huge difference in the world.
I never liked social media before BCH, but I took courage and joined Twitter, and now I am enjoying tweeting about BCH and I don't get discouraged so easily when I receive criticism or attacks anymore.
Bitcoin.com has done so much for BCH or the p2p electronic cash and I have been so happy and grateful to see the Bitcoin.com employees helping initiate more and more meetups around the world, especially the last few months.
Last Saturday alone, I was contacted by two Bitcoin.com employees separately, telling me that they had found potential organizers for BCH meetups in new cities/countries and they want me to help get it started.
Several Bitcoin.com employees had even volunteered to start meetups in their cities, which I assume is outside their work hours. You see many of them including the executive team like Roger, Stefan, Mate Tokay attending meetups and events around the world wherever and whenever they can.
We sometimes make choices that may not be the best for everybody.
Roger has made a lot of great contributions as we all know, but he probably has made some not-so-great choices in his life too. But the thing is, he also does millions of other great things and it's just a small part of all the wonderful things he has done, with full passion to make a difference in people's lives with p2p digital money.
Hope we can move on with the best intended decision, and keep on doing more great things!
As for HEX listing, I do realize that the part of the reason BCH community is very vocal is because they care about Bitcoin.com too. Thanks for reading.
Organizer’s Guide: Organizer’s Job During A Meetup
(This is a simplified version of the article I wrote on Medium on Nov 5, 2019) https://medium.com/@akaneyokoo/organizers-guide-organizer-s-job-during-a-meetup-92fdf8a99375
New organizers often ask me what they are supposed to do during a meetup.
Every organizer runs a meetup their own way and there is probably no right answer, but this is usually my answer:
*Welcome members, answer any questions they might have, explain basics of BCH (fast, cheap, reliable etc), give a small amount of BCH to new members, teach them how to use BCH.*
That's basically it, but below is the step-by-step points of what I actually do as an organizer during our weekly meetups.
**1. (Optional) Five-Mins Preparation at Your Arrival- Swag and BCH Flag**
If you have a BCH flag and other swag, come 5–10 mins before the starting time of the meetup if you can, put some swag (such as stickers) on the table and ask the venue if you can put a BCH flag on their window or a wall during the meetup (make sure to use a tape that doesn’t damage the wall etc).
Also, make sure the venue is ready to receive BCH payments.
I usually put a few kinds of stickers etc on the middle of the table so the members can take freely.
If you are a new organizer and do not have any swag yet, I recommend just going ahead and start meetups without waiting for swag to arrive, as swag is just something extra and not an essential for meetups.
If you'd like some swag to be sent, you can contact the Meetup Support Team (Email: meetup@bitcoincashers.org) or reach us on Telegram etc and we will see if we can send some free swag for you. (Bitcoin.com provides stickers, camera covers,, T-shirts etc and Satoshi’s Angels can provide a BCH flag) https://www.bitcoin.com/ https://www.satoshisangels.com/
**2. Welcome Members**
I personally feel this is one of the most important things an organizer can do during a meetup. Giving a warm welcome to new members is especially important.
If you see an unfamiliar face at the meetup, go talk to them and introduce yourself as an organizer, and start a conversation by saying something like “Are you here for the Bitcoin Cash Meetup?” or “Welcome to the meetup. Thank you for coming. Is this your first time?” “What brings you here?”or “What are you interested in learning about BCH?”. Introduce them to the other members so they can get acquainted. You will be able to match members with similar interests or background as you get to know your members better.
3. Give Some BCH to New Members
The fastest way for new members to learn about BCH is to actually use BCH.
If you see a member who has never owned BCH, ask them to download a BCH wallet on their phone, and send them a small amount of BCH. The amount can be something like 10 cents. Fortunately 10 cents should be enough to practice sending BCH back and forth a few times. (If you are concerned about the budget for this, please contact me and we will try to find some support for you)
(For a new member, I usually recommend downloading Bitcoin.com wallet as the first wallet, as it is easy and quick, and there is no registration required.
After, I’d ask if they would like to try a different wallet with different features such as Edge wallet or Badger wallet) https://edge.app/ https://badger.bitcoin.com/
**4. Enjoy the Meetup!**
As long as you got those basics covered, you can sit back and enjoy the meetup! Meetup is a great place to meet a lot of interesting people and to make friends, so get to know the members and have fun yourself!
**Need Assistance?**
If you are thinking about starting a new meetup in your area and need assistance, myself and others are here to help. Please don't hesitate to contact Meetup Support Team at email: meetup@bitcoincashers.org for any questions or assistance!
**Related Video and Articles:**
- Jonathan Silverblood wrote a good article about the types of meetups you can host
- I wrote about "How To Organize a Bitcoin Meetup in 20 Mins" in this Article
- I gave a presentation about meetups and merchant adoption at BCH City Conference 2019 https://read.cash/@JonathanSilverblood/how-to-host-a-successful-meetup-c8a25ae4 https://honest.cash/v2/akane/how-to-organize-a-bitcoin-meetup-in-20-mins-4670 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98m4FDoR7y0&feature=youtu.be
FAQ for Merchants about Accepting Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
**What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and how does accepting BCH benefit my business?**
BCH is useful borderless digital money (fast, cheap, and reliable), and there is no charge back risk for the merchants. It is much cheaper to accept BCH for merchants than accepting credit cards. Just like cash, merchants can get paid immediately.
**How do I start accepting BCH?**
It's very easy. It takes only 1–5 mins to set up an app(s) to get started.
You can use your own device such as a mobile phone or tablet. Learn more here. https://medium.com/@akaneyokoo/how-to-accept-bitcoin-cash-bch-payments-at-a-physical-store-and-cash-out-in-local-currency-7fe4371cc09c
**What are the fees?**
It is free to accept BCH.
If you choose to use a payment processor in order to convert BCH to your local currency, fees are still much cheaper (around 1%+) than credit card fees (3-5%+). Merchants with small profit margin such as restaurants should benefit greatly from the low fees.
**How do I convert Bitcoin Cash into local currency?**
There are a few ways to do this depending on where you live. Learn more here.
https://medium.com/@akaneyokoo/how-to-accept-bitcoin-cash-bch-payments-at-a-physical-store-and-cash-out-in-local-currency-7fe4371cc09c
**Since BCH price is volatile, is there a risk?**
If you convert the BCH to your local currency right away, there should not be any risk from the volatility.
There are also benefits to keep BCH without converting. You may make profit if the price of BCH goes up, you can use your BCH at other merchants, or you can save 20-30% on any shopping on amazon.com using a website called Purse.io etc.
However, I usually recommend new merchants to not take risks and convert BCH to a local currency right away, unless they are fully aware of all the risks and still want to keep BCH as investment. You can always decide to keep it later too.
**Would it bring good business?**
Currently there are not that many people using cryptocurrencies to pay for daily goods, so it is unlikely that a bunch of BCH users will be rushing to your store right away if you decided to accept BCH. You will have some local BCH supporters and BCH fans around the world may come to your shop every once in a while (it's borderless money, so great for travelers).
Also your business will be well-prepared when cryptocurrencies become more common and more people start using it.
If you are wondering how accepting BCH is better than other cryptocurrencies though, I can say that Bitcoin Cash is used more often at retail shops than any other cryptocurrencies. It is more used than even Bitcoin (BTC) at retail stores now because BCH is faster, cheaper and simply more useful as money. BCH has a very strong community with people who are enthusiastic about merchant adoption too.
There are websites and apps that will list your shop for free if you accept BCH.
https://www.bitcoin.com/merchant-solutions/brick-mortar/
**Is it legal to accept cryptocurrencies as payments?**
It depends on where you live, but it seems to be allowed in many countries. I recommend doing your own research first or ask a local BCH supporter. If there is no law saying you can not accept it, I likely means there is no regulation about it yet.
**How do I report sales in crypto for tax?**
It is normally treated the same as normal sales if you convert your BCH to local currency right away (so you are not making extra profit by holding and later selling BCH when the price goes up). In this case you pay sales tax just like you do for sales made in other methods.
This probably depends on where you live, so please follow your local regulations.
How to Start Accepting BCH: Learn more here
Spanish translation of this article:
https://read.cash/@elrikpiro/preguntas-frecuentes-faq-de-los-comerciantes-sobre-la-aceptacion-de-bitcoin-cash-bch-e6ca711c https://medium.com/@akaneyokoo/how-to-accept-bitcoin-cash-bch-payments-at-a-physical-store-and-cash-out-in-local-currency-7fe4371cc09c
@AkaneYokoo
