Often, when I speak with everyday Bitcoiners — plebs, if you will — they share with me that they’re torn between carrying on with their “fiat job” and getting more involved in the Bitcoin space on a professional level.
I usually tell them that they can start by incorporating Bitcoin into what they currently do for a living, though, I haven’t had a great example of someone doing this that I can point them to — until this morning.
When it’s time for the clients of osteopath Rob Shaw, based in Essex, UK (just outside of London), to pay him for his services, he presents them with the option to pay with British pounds or bitcoin via a Musqet PoS device.
First Bitcoin payment accepted with @Musqet_Bitcoin POS terminal.
— Chelmsford Osteopathic Practice (@essexosteopath) May 29, 2024
This device 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
(Please note he doesn’t go into a lesson on Bitcoin’s underlying technology or the principles of Austrian economics as he does this.)
Rob shared that here and there a client will act surprised when presented with the option to pay with bitcoin but that most simply make their choice between the two and proceed with making their payment.
Rob’s efforts have led to two of his clients now regularly paying in bitcoin, and he also provides a touchpoint for those who have yet to begin paying with it.
In this way, Rob is a Bitcoin bridge.
(And, ironically enough, it was an organization called Bridge 2 Bitcoin that introduced Rob to Bitcoin as a payment technology for his business.)
He’s subtly introducing people to Bitcoin, giving them the option to cross over into Bitcoin land in the process.
Some might call this “orange-pilling” (a term I don’t like much because it feels too coercive), but I’d argue that this is a more refined way to present bitcoin to people. In offering it as an official payment method for professional services, it legitimizes Bitcoin and prompts those unfamiliar with it to begin viewing it in a new light.
If professionals around the world employed such an approach, Bitcoin adoption would accelerate notably.
So, instead of feeling that you have to drop whatever you’re doing for work to join the Bitcoin industry full-time, consider being a bridge to Bitcoin and bringing the Bitcoin industry to what you’re already doing.
Be like Rob, be a Bitcoin bridge!
