Effective recruiting with chaintip

Getting more users is what we want. You have probably worked over all your friends and colleges by now, mostly unsuccessful i guess. Sometimes it is difficult to get them nudged over the egde of statism, it is really a cult! Anyway, I have had some success introducing to strangers on reddit, and here I want to tell my experience.

The ideas of cryptomoney are really strange for most people. They are used to their national money, it is everywhere, used in pricing of stuff, and calculations, and it is also about national pride, support of their own flock and stuff like that. Many people know about inflation, that is why they are desperate to protect themselves owning a house, but not why, or they think it has to be so. Then there is the 10 or so standard arguments against cryptomoney, you know them well. So therefore, the first reaction is a «not interested», and further talk only cements that stance.

Also, when it comes to money transfers, it is hard to grasp that bitcoin is a distinct money type, when they are used to sending local fiat, even if that means one or more exchanges in the background.

Finding people who might be interested

So, my strategy has been to find people in situations where they are frustrated, and the money is the root cause, whether they are aware of it or not. Typical cases

New restrictions on use of cash

Increasing consumer prices

The hopelessness with saving to enter the house market

International money transfer restrictions (Lebanon)

Bank withdrawal restrictions

Problems with paypal, cost of western union, slowness with normal bank transfers

Monthly bank account fee, resulting in debt if you forget about it (india)

Bank unwilling to cancel a credit card, continue to charge a monthly fee (Pakistan)

Cash over borders, restrictions

Dollar tax for consumers buying on foreign websites (Argentina, 30%)

The tip and the first comment

Then, I use the stealth tipping feature of chaintip. Don’t know why it works better, maybe there is a shame to showing interest. Money is personal. I make the attached message very short, for instance on complaining about inflation I say «counter inflation with sound money, try!». Or if it is about saving to an apartment, which is impossible, I say «It is the bad money, try this!»

My standard selling points

I just list them here as I have them ready in a text file, and I use one of them per message, depending on the reaction, as explained below

1:

Bitcoin Cash BCH (for everybody), sound money which is good for saving, borderless, no questions asked, easily protected and hidden, quick, cheap and reliable transactions, non custodial, teleportable, unstoppable, cash.

2:

Grab a wallet app, I suggest "Bitcoin Wallet from Bitcoin.com". It's a dual cointype app. Find your receiving Bitcoin Cash address, and send it in a private message to /u/chaintip. Then the small amount comes to you. Make sure the receiving address is from the right wallet: "My BCH Wallet". The address should look somewhat like this: qr8afktfpsf4zscq8zur06xhhzzcxy9xpg928e7g2u

3:

Bitcoin Cash BCH. It is one of the two relevant bitcoins, same roots from 2009, but the chain split in 2017 over the transactional capacity discussion, leaving us with Bitcoin BTC (constrained) and Bitcoin Cash BCH (unconstrained)

4:

BCH, a money type distinct from AUD and USD. To exchange, you have to sell or buy. The same as for the different national fiat money types, but when you for example spend from a credit card in a foreign country, the exchange trade is hidden behind the card service.

5:

Get more BCH on https://local.bitcoin.com/ . Pay or receive payment via bank (the bank won't know what the bank transfer is for), mobile money, or fiat cash in face to face meeting. There is escrow, so it is fairly safe. Consider putting up an offer to buy or to sell, if your local market is thin.

I also have ready pointers to sound money, more on BCH/BTC, remittance using local.bitcoin.com, backup, the value appreciation expectation, and a few more.

The nag

After the tip with the first message, I either get a «thanks for the tip», a question «what is this», «are you a bot», «isn’t it illegal» «Is this a scam», «why to you tip me, it was just a stupid comment», «Yeah I have heard about it, looking into it now». All of these are promising reactions.

I get some negative «go away», «no way stupid», «bcash btrash». In these cases my effort stops with these users. (sometimes I am tempted to say «you choose every day to continue to be a slave», but that is futile, never works).

Some people go ahead right away, claim the tip, and I get an «I have thought of this for some time,and now I am a user». That is success, and I am done, but maybe I emboss it with one extra talking point, or just a smiley.

With those who responds, I reply with one of my standard texts, normally number 1 if they have claimed, else number 2, here I often add an «Ask me anything».

Some people do not respond, with those I wait a day or two, and I nag them with one of the standard texts, adding «it is easy» or «it is for everybody». This very often spurs a reply, which gives me an opportunity to add another sales point, and pointing them to the next step.

This nagging has got me many responses, I think it has been crucial for my relative success.

Finalizing, or rubbing it in

Some of these results in a series of questions, and I try to answer them and pointing to other resources, and I mix in the standard points.

Keeping track

A fire and forget tipping can work, and the bot will remind people after 6 days, and I have seen people react on that. But it is not very personal. Therefore I follow up each one. To help me, I make a compact, somewhat unstructured list, and I rely on the «messages» funcion on reddit, where both my incoming and outgoing messages are listed, partly threaded. A list entry can be like this

bigdick12inch australia, cash, funded, 1, response, 2, claimed, 3

zulu13 pakistan, border, funded, 2, nagged, 1, response, 3, claimed, 5

The number reminds me of which standard text or theme I have already used. After a few messages, the list becomes irrelevant, but I keep it a few days to avoid tipping the same person inadvertently.

General

I try to make each message personal, based on their original comment, or the post they commented on. If they reply, I try to sense their fears, and formulate the answer accordingly. I sometimes even tell personal stuff like my age and how many children I have. One very reserved person, after some assurance and help, thawed up and we had an exchange of 20-ish messages, ending with total success.

The tip size

I started out with an amount of BCH corresponding to 10 cent us, because it is enough to make many transactions. But since paying these small amounts seems nonsensical to most people, I upped it to about 3 dollars, and I think that cought some peoples interest. Maybe I go to 5. (You can offend people with going too high). You might think it will be too costly, but, even with success of this method, most tips come right back in my wallet, which is a great function of chaintip. The actual work is the larger strain.

The results

I don’t have any statistics, but I can say that I get a few new users every day, and some of them become enthusiasts too.

Closing

I hope this can be an inspiration, going after reddit users in fora where you wander, and with your own ideas of which are the greatest selling points