Introducing CEOs Dedicated to Driving Bitcoin Adoption Through Education

This is an opinion editorial from Tim Niemeyer, co-host of the Lincolnland Bitcoin Meetup and member of the Chief Lightning Officers.

On 4 January 2023 (block 770402For those of you keeping score at home, the Chief Electricity Officer (CLO) was created.

What started as a small group of volunteers has grown to about 50 bitcoiners engaging in bi-weekly calls with the intent of equipping each other with all the necessary tools and skills to advance Lightning locally. has changed into The people who make up the group have a wide range of skill sets across a range of industries, such as education, finance and information technology, in addition to holding blue-collar jobs. The goals of this grassroots movement are lofty. As early member Mark Maria said in an interview for this article, CLO embarked on a mission to help “rail the lightning that rules the Earth.”

diagnosing before prescribing

While Maria and several others in the group have sales experience, the goal isn’t to “close the deal”: the self-appointed members of CLOs, who call themselves “Chief Lightning Officers,” are local, potential Lightning point-of- Meet the Sale (POS) merchants have a fact-finding mindset: they build relationships with these local merchants and uncover their pain points. While it’s easy for bitcoiners to say “Bitcoin fixes it,” CLOs strive to, as Maria puts it, “diagnose before you prescribe.”

The biggest pitfalls discussed by the group are high fees, delayed settlement, safety of in-house funds, friction during international business transactions and flouting government regulations. But, as anyone who has studied the Lightning Network enough to realize, it has the potential to reduce fees, “lightning” instant final settlement, enhanced security and privacy, not to mention its ability to be borderless and permissionless, unlimited There is potential.

The goal of the first few CLO meetings was to determine which industries were ready to adopt Lightning. Initial suggestions were cannabis dispensaries, coffee shops (oh, the irony – paying for coffee with bitcoin), food trucks and non-chain restaurants, local sports teams and craft brewers, to name a few. During each meeting, the group discusses other industries that would benefit from the use of the Lightning Payments Network (LPN). The group agreed that local bitcoin meetups should work toward allowing merchants to accept Lightning payments at their meetup venue. Some are already boulder bitcoinWhich created an LNURL/QR code that funds Meetup event items like drinks and pizza. Lincolnland Bitcoin in the process of receiving World’s Smallest Bitcoin (Lightning) Hobby ATM So that the local people can convert their extra money into bitcoin.

Member Achievements

a CLO member, holly youngshared their experience recently hosting a Lightning workshop in Portugal for merchants and local small business owners. Aside from being called a “spammer” and accused of “promoting or profiteering a Ponzi scheme”, Young had a productive experience. Thanks to the help of a tech-savvy family member, his workshop attendees were able to successfully create CoinOS accounts. In an article for Bitcoin Magazine, Young described his inspiration, “For me personally, the prospect of connecting vendors with the bitcoin community and the bitcoin community with people producing goods of real value is a great opportunity for events like this.” Organizing is a key driver.”

Since that workshop, Young has received many requests for similar one-on-one support. “Because more and more of us are devoting time and energy to helping it on its natural path to success,” she told me, she is becoming more and more convinced of Lightning’s potential.

Another CLO member, Ryan BriscoeRecent success has included a local restaurant accepting bitcoin via the Lightning Payments Network. Brish, who recently launched a business called “Lightning Network Solutions” that helps merchants set up the ability to accept Lightning payments, explained the process in his own words for this article.

“Thanks to my local bitcoin group, I learned about New restaurant called Bitcoin Grill, but they are not yet ready to accept bitcoin payments on chain or via Lightning,” he said. “After my discussion with a few business owners, including a restaurant owner, I decided to call the restaurant and ask to speak to one of the owners. From there I scheduled a meeting. The first attempt failed, the owner figured something out and left me hanging.

As any bitcoin user knows, this is a common problem; Multiple touchpoints are required before most people can receive bitcoin/lightning.

Briscoe continued, “After learning about his bitcoin journey, I showed him the IBEX solution. He was stunned by how easy it was to use and asked if he could sign up for it on the spot! So, we went through the sign-up process and built up some BPTs (Bitcoin Payment Terminals) on some of their iPads.

From there, Briscoe took the time to train the servers. As stated earlier, the goal is not to close deals but to build relationships with local merchants. Brisk anticipates more follow-up training to ensure a smooth transition.

Another tool in CLO members’ toolbelt is inviting and interviewing businesses built on Lightning. CLO members realize that each trader has specific needs tailored to their own situations. Therefore, they do not suggest any one solution; Rather, they remain platform agnostic. The group has so far sought the expertise of the following: analysis falchuk Of ibxpay, Michael Atwood Of oshi And adam salties Of koinos, Furthermore, a large portion of the meeting discussed the pros and cons of the various Lightning infrastructures. And it’s not like only a few are left to sort out (see image below). Of the many options, satoshi’s wallet, wonder, mun, lightsat And blixtas well as payment processors such as btcpay server And many others have been analyzed.

Maria believes that Lightning adoption will accelerate in 2023. His reasoning is as follows:

“(There are) a huge number of companies that are innovating like crazy. Lightning companies are like Lego. People will be using the Lightning Payments Network without knowing it. The Lightning Payments Network is a Trojan horse (for bitcoin adoption). (We) are building a community of payment troubleshooters. Electricity can go many places and do things that Fiat can’t.”

If you run a Lightning business or would like to help grow Lightning in your area, consider contacting CLO Telegram Group, Seems like bitcoin meetup in your area. To find out Merchants Accepting Bitcoin and Lightning in your area. Adoption will not happen by itself. For this individuals like you and me have to be ready to put in extra effort.

Like nodes on a network, we are spreading the unlimited benefits of these revolutionary technologies in a peer-to-peer payment system that will soon spread around the world. Memorization… electric trains rule the earth,

This is a guest post by Tim Niemeyer. The opinions expressed are solely his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.