Bushy

Stacking sats for the little guys

Founder -

[Bushy @Bushell53]

I built a global bitcoin-only shop to answer one question: will people actually pay with bitcoin?

Everyone says bitcoin needs to be used for payments. @jack's said it for years, @spiral_xyz and @blocks are building for it, and even @Revolut seem to be coming round (thanks, @davidmarcus). I agree. If it's going to fix money, people have to spend it.

The tools keep getting better. @TheBlueMatt on Lightning, @callebtc on ecash, @ArkLabsHQ on Ark, @evankaloudis at @ZeusLN. And @MartyBent, @saylor and @Breedlove22 have spent years telling the world why it matters.

But there are very few places that show why paying in bitcoin is better, and even fewer that won't take anything else. So I built one.

hats and stuff sells embroidered hats and stuff, made near you in the US, EU or UK. It's bitcoin only. No cards, no PayPal, no buy now, pay later. No debt.

I put everything in the open. Every price is what it costs us plus a fixed 12,500 sats, and today a hat from us costs about the same as ordering direct from our maker. Our sales are public too: five orders so far, all from me and friends.

It turns out it's better for me as well. Sats convert to pounds instantly for 1%, where cards would have cost me 1.5% and five days of waiting. Any profit goes back into bitcoin.

I'm one bloke with a full-time job. I won't get rich at these margins, and that isn't the point.

The point is the mission: to find out whether people will pay with bitcoin when it's the only option. Every order is an answer.

Let's find out. 🧢⚡ https://t.co/rgVoYTOwHr

[CoinCorner @CoinCorner]

Merchant Spotlight: @hats_and_stuff

🧢 Embroidered #bitcoin hats (& stuff)
🧡 Pay with bitcoin over Lightning
🧵 Stitched to order
📖 Open-book pricing
🌍 Shipped worldwide

Support merchants building the #Bitcoin circular economy!

Find out more: https://t.co/lx0bhdruUb

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@leemurdock @jack @spiral_xyz @blocks @Revolut @MannaBitcoin @lindeymagee @sesi_the_man @SeedSigner @MWBTCSummit Yeah I've got Manna it's great, thanks!

[Bushy @Bushell53]

I built a global bitcoin-only shop to answer one question: will people actually pay with bitcoin?

Everyone says bitcoin needs to be used for payments. @jack's said it for years, @spiral_xyz and @blocks are building for it, and even @Revolut seem to be coming round (thanks, @davidmarcus). I agree. If it's going to fix money, people have to spend it.

The tools keep getting better. @TheBlueMatt on Lightning, @callebtc on ecash, @ArkLabsHQ on Ark, @evankaloudis at @ZeusLN. And @MartyBent, @saylor and @Breedlove22 have spent years telling the world why it matters.

But there are very few places that show why paying in bitcoin is better, and even fewer that won't take anything else. So I built one.

hats and stuff sells embroidered hats and stuff, made near you in the US, EU or UK. It's bitcoin only. No cards, no PayPal, no buy now, pay later. No debt.

I put everything in the open. Every price is what it costs us plus a fixed 12,500 sats, and today a hat from us costs about the same as ordering direct from our maker. Our sales are public too: five orders so far, all from me and friends.

It turns out it's better for me as well. Sats convert to pounds instantly for 1%, where cards would have cost me 1.5% and five days of waiting. Any profit goes back into bitcoin.

I'm one bloke with a full-time job. I won't get rich at these margins, and that isn't the point.

The point is the mission: to find out whether people will pay with bitcoin when it's the only option. Every order is an answer.

Let's find out. 🧢⚡ https://t.co/rgVoYTOwHr

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@callebtc I launched something too, 3 of the product images have hidden ecash tokens inside them, which we did using https://t.co/sQOkTi9jOi

https://t.co/VPrmWBYDca

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@BitcoinNewsCom every bitcoin payment is a win, even if it's dollars by the time it lands.

first you witness the magic internet money. then NGU technology does its thing (if it plays out) and one day you keep a few sats 🧙⚡

https://t.co/TNZj2j4PD8

[Hats & Stuff ⚡ @hats_and_stuff]

honest question. do you like our site? 🧢⚡ https://t.co/phqaKVLoyt

we'd love to know why you picked what you picked. let us know in the comments.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@BitcoinNewsCom lightning at square checkouts across the US from today. the card terminal finally says INSERT COIN and means it ⚡

as a one-man bitcoin-only hat shop, it's nice to have company 🧢

[Bushy @Bushell53]

Genuine question: does this mean a small business on Revolut could switch on Lightning receive and get paid in the currency of their choice? If so, that's a big deal for adoption. Fiat merchants could take bitcoin without touching it, and still get instant settlement and lower fees than card.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@altradits Nice work getting shops live. Paying in sats and settling the merchant in M-Pesa is a clever on-ramp. The interesting follow-on, if it happens, is whether any of those merchants later choose to keep some of the sats.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@notgrubles Can confirm, you don't need to run a node. I have a day job and a small shop; a processor handles the invoices and I sleep at night. Running one half-heartedly would have been a worse idea.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@PantiesBitcoin The rails getting easier is the good news. In my experience the harder part is still the second half of that: getting people to actually ask and pay, not just knowing the button exists.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@TXMCtrades This is the bit I'm trying to test. A rising price gives people a reason to hold it, which is healthy, but it doesn't automatically create spenders. That only happens if there are places they'll actually part with sats, and enough people willing to do it. Neither half is a given.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@MikesTakeCHI @cluborange That's the easy way out, and I get why people do it. For me it would just be a dollar payment with extra steps. We only take sats, on purpose. The point of the shop is to see if people will actually spend bitcoin, not a stand-in for it.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

Agree on the order. Merchants are the other half though. If nobody takes it, nobody can spend it by choice even when they want to. It's a big part of why I built a bitcoin-only online shop, to see if people will actually part with their sats. Fully transparent too, the sales numbers are on our stats page.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

Too early to call properly, week one was 5 orders and 3 of those were me testing. Paying hasn't been the issue though. One mate, who only has bitcoin because I gave him some, said it felt off grid: no billing address, no card details, one Lightning invoice and done. Parting with sats might be a barrier, but more likely we just need to get in front of the right people.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@cluborange @MikesTakeCHI Cheers for the invite! We're online-only though, made to order and shipped worldwide, so no shopfront to stick a pin on. Can online bitcoin-only shops list with you, or is it in-person only?

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@MikesTakeCHI @cluborange Merchant here, one week into a bitcoin-only shop. Honest answer: taking sats is the easy bit, getting people to spend them is the hard bit. What we focus on is making it painless: one Lightning invoice, no account, price locked for 10 minutes, every cost shown.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

@Carburated @parman_the Do it. Running a bitcoin-only shop is great fun, can confirm. Fair warning, week one was mostly me and my mates buying things, but every sale is someone choosing sats over a card.

[Bushy @Bushell53]

If you're one of those people who likes bitcoin and also likes hats, and also celebrates Christmas then I have very good news for you.

https://t.co/T4D9d80MzE