Over the past few years I keep coming up with bitcoin project ideas, but I never follow through for one reason or another. I finally have found one that I am determined to try, however dumb and impractical it may be. Of course I have decided to mention it here on Stacker News first.
I have brought up the idea of creating an online store before, and I have received some push back from people whose opinions I respect. Still, I think it is worth it to try this experiment. I see it as a sort of playground to try stuff out. A hobby. I am investing more time than money so far. Unlike younger stackers who might be trying this to help support themselves and their families, I am not looking to make a profit any time soon. It is more my way of converting my retirement fiat streams into bitcoin, while trying to help bitcoin adoption.
I have done the annoying work that gives me the ability to purchase goods wholesale. This opens doors to a universe of suppliers who can give me low pricing. I won’t be doing that at first, since I would need to stock inventory. I will play around with drop shipping and print on demand to get everything working smoothly and learning the business.
I know it is way too early for a site like this, but I am not in a rush. This is my small way of contributing to bitcoin’s future.
I had a false start with Shopify. I didn’t want to re-invent the wheel at every turn. After an embarrassing amount of time I gave up trying to set up nostr and LNURL log ins. I finally quit. I feel more comfortable with the open source wordpress/woo commerce set up anyway. The learning curve is higher, and there is less automation, but I think this is the better choice in the long run.
I will hold the bitcoin the business receives. I will be buying goods with fiat and selling them for bitcoin. I like that trade. Eventually I hope that bitcoin denominated wholesalers emerge.
I think there are some benefits for potential customers beyond being able to spend your bitcoin. I think that goods shipped from the US are more competitively priced under the new tariff regime, which may benefit people overseas. Also, there may be some US products that are not readily available in foreign markets, so this could be a way to obtain them at a reasonable price.
Bitcoin is the only payment method. I am using open node to start, but I will be exploring other methods. Next up – BTCPay Server.
You can order without creating an account. You can also log in with LNURL auth and nostr NIP-07. I struggled with NIP-46 for mobile, but I can’t figure it out yet. I’ll keep trying.
I have a name for the site: satwize.com. I will probably begin posting on the blog to promote the site. It might be a mix of general bitcoin/nostr news and writing about the store. It’s obvious by looking at the site that I’m not a web site designer. I will work on that over time. I can’t see traffic being substantial any time soon.
I do have plans, but I’ll address those in future posts. For now there is one more site where people can buy stuff with bitcoin.
nostr𓅦: https://nostr.com/note1gfxwvxlhpku88rs0zzja2r98p5jt2fsta2d7f2v4wyx24hqzqj7sqvn5ps