A true Bitcoin adoption story
This is not bullshit, this is not made up. I kept this story for long time and not talk about it publicly. But today are 10 years from when I started this onboarding process of a small company. It was hard and a quite a long process.
I hope that this post will inspire more and also give some more answers to those asking "but how we can get onboard companies?"
The TLDR answer to that question is: YOU MUST HAVE BALLS, BIG BALLS.
Unfortunately, I cannot give all the details of the company. I asked them, if I can publish their name and they declined. What I can say that all this happened somewhere in EU and at that time was quite known online company, in the rentals business.
But first of all, let me start from the beginning... because this company also changed my life somehow.
How it started
As you may know, I started with bitcoin in 2012 and I worked in IT (consulting, infrastructures, servers etc).
One day, in 2014, a friend of mine told me (a nice dutch guy) that he have some other friends that are starting a new company and they need some help with computers and stuff and if I can help them build the office and be their IT consultant. OK, agreed and went to meet them. 2 funny dutch guys too but from the beginning talking with them I notice that they are very intelligent and visionary.
I didn't mention at all about Bitcoin, but came to my mind. So I STFU, keeping that for later. Bitcoin was the perfect answer for their business.
But somehow I said to myself:
nah is too early, let's see what they will do, Bitcoin is not so ready for them too
After few months, the office was ready, servers in place, they already had 10 employees. In 1 year they already were well known and being a name in their market branch. All was doing really good.
In 2015 also I didn't want to bring their attention to Bitcoin, but having some drinks with them (we use to have fun & drinks each friday evening), one day, wearing a tshirt with a BTC logo, they asked me "hey are you into Bitcoin?" I answer simply: "yes, for quite some time". Then we moved on talking something else, but I saw in their eyes, the interest to ask more. But I wanted to let them come to me and not pushing.
In early 2016, were already 40 employees, 2 IT guys, 2 software developers dealing with their backend and the business was booming.
I was already on my path to de-peg from fiat and I was preparing the rails. One thing was missing for me: a stable income directly in BTC. I was still buying those times, but still keeping nothing in the banks. All in BTC.
So in a meeting with core directory I bring up the subject of Bitcoin.... remember that in 2015-2016 the BTC price was really low, almost touching 150€.
How was going the onboarding process
My proposal was simple, providing a plan in steps:
- company should start slowly accumulate BTC, buying from P2P or CEX, using all their cash reserves, money that were not destined for expanding and fixed expenses, money that are just sitting in a bank and do nothing.
- I will provide for free Bitcoin courses, to all company members interested. On my extra time, not during my work hours.
- I've explained to the accountant that Bitcoin is practically cash and there's nobody that can rule over your own cash. They had a very smart accountant, a real accountant that was always looking how to save money for the company, not how to oblige the regulations... So he immediately understand "my game".
- once they have accumulated a certain amount of BTC, they could start using it if the price is in their favor and / or when their cash reserves are low and they need an infusion of funds. The best example was to... pay me in BTC directly from that "savings wallet". The accountant also understand this "game of volatility" that could be a simple way to protect yourself from inflation and bad market conditions.
- each director (were 3) agreed that they will start first with their personal wallets, dedicating a % from their monthly income to be converted into BTC. So I helped them first to setup their own wallets. By the books.
- possibility to pay more employees from that "savings BTC fund". The accountant did some spreadsheets with me, calculating a way of "buying low BTC and pay (in BTC) when the price goes high". It was fun. Is not easy, but with a good accountant you can do it. so they start also paying some other 2-3 people, not only me.
Slowly adding the "Bitcoin accepted here" sign on their website. That was hard for those times. Weren't so many tools and good software for that back in pre-fork /pre-LN era. So was more like a marketing experiment for them, meanwhile still accumulating in private large quantities of BTC.
I could say that in 1 year they were accumulating a good amount of BTC going from 1% allocation to more than 50% allocation of funds in BTC. They had also to keep a balance between fix expenses, 10% emergency reserves and other stuff. So they decided that 50% is enough.
It was more than enough ! In 2017 once the fork was settled, I've told them that now they can DOUBLE their stash just by redeeming the new BCH and dump it on the exchanges. So they did it! That was a game changer for them. When they saw practically doubled the stash, their strategy changed. Bitcoin changed them totally. And me too.
How it ended
After the fork, me and the 3 of them, realized that life can be different now.
I know for a fact that each of them continued to buy BTC for themselves, but the company unfortunately grow to fast, too big and also with some changes in their personal life, they weren't able to keep it alive and in the end they sold it to a bigger fish. But they remained with a big stash of BTC.
From that year, I started also a new life, closing all my bank accounts and working only for BTC. I stopped working with clients that do not want to pay me in BTC. Yes, I lost a lot of clients, but I remained with my BTC.
This year, I called one of them to see how's going. He told me that one of them is retired with his family somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, on an island. Another one is still running a small business for fun, with a winery and he's just retired now, in a nice mountain house in the Alps, enjoying life. He told me also that will never forget what I did for them...
THE END - Conclusion
The punch line from this whole story will be: NEVER GIVE UP. Bitcoin will change your life. If you wait for a government, regulation, accountant or any other bullshit to tell you what to do, you are a fucking loser.
You are the only one that can decide what you do with your money (BTC), nobody else's business. And if you do not have big balls to do this step and find all the ways to do it, then you are just a bullshit company.
