With the intent of selling a bit of my Bitcoin stash for cash, I recently dropped by one of the very few brick & mortar Bitcoin stores in Canada - conveniently walking distance from my new neighborhood - to see about making a deal.
Above: Vancouver Bitcoin (now Bitreo). Extra note: Subway does not accept Bitcoin.
I was hoping they'd offer a friendly introductory rate (ie- no fee and zero margin) but alas, the best they could offer was 10% off their standard margin of 6%. Bah.
Typically in this situation I would have simply moved on and posted to LocalBitcoins.com - effectively flipping the table and allowing me to ask for a premium (plus a small fee to Localbitcoins for handling escrow & the reputation system that helps us vet one another) if I was so inclined.
Unfortunately & ironically however, LocalBitcoins recently dropped the 'local' part of their business; no longer allowing/accommodating for local in person exchanges due to pressure from big brother.
Back to the wild west then! But that's why Bitcoin is great. Despite companies consolidating and conforming to monopolist rules and regulations at the end of the day this is an open protocol and so people can use it however they like. The inconveniences & setbacks imposed on users simply help drive further decentralization.
So that's when it occurred to me: why not just share the offer here on the blog!
If everyone can just make a blog post when they want to sell their coin when the need arises we wouldn't necessarily need to rely on central exchanges.
The offer:
0.0375 BTC available
For cash in-person in Vancouver area, at latest market rate: approx $500 CAD at time of this writing.
Offer valid from September 11th, 2019 and until sold ie- until this post is updated indicating the Bitcoin was sold.
To take up the offer, send an email to admin@nerdbusiness.com to get me to hold the coin for you and so that I may suggest for us a time & local cafe meetup location
If you're in the Vancouver area, shoot me an email so we meetup to exchange your cash for my Bitcoin (at which point, you will provide the cash and an address for me to deposit into ie: from your wallet app such as Copay which can generate a scannable QR code for said address)
Note that since I have no way to vet you up front, please include a link to your own blog or social profile ie- Github or Twitter so that I may reliably confirm you as an upstanding citizen who won't jump me after our deal concludes :)
Decentralize by being your own market
On this line of thinking I had previously the vague idea of whipping up a NodeJS app to host my own Craigslist or 'Nerdslist' if you will for random personal items (computer parts, random items too big for my nomad lifestyle, etc). So I guess this offer is dipping my digital toe in that water; an indirect proof concept 'sell something to the world without the middleman' pitch.
Maybe if it works I will try selling more. Never been particularly interested in brokering Bitcoin (and I would rather not step on the toes of friends who already do) - though I do like the idea of helping to spread it around so that more people can acquire it and ultimately & self-servingly so that I can on the other side receive it in exchange for actual products I create & sell in the future. One day almost everything will be priced in Bitcoin and it'd be great to see that reality sooner than later (to disrupt the cults and moneychangers).
Of course, this is just a drop in the bucket - as I don't have much Bitcoin to sell because, well er um - despite being a 'business nerd' for a while my business has not yet hit meaningful pay dirt (and just never saved enough of those early satoshis I mined in 2012 gosh darnit)
Sell your wares! Self promote! Cut out the middle man and especially cut out big brother & monopolists when possible and legal to do so. Let's do our part to help usher in the new decentralized world order :p
To buy 0.0375 BTC at 0% margin (market rate) with cash in Vancouver, send your details to admin@nerdbusiness.com
Any one of the many chill cafes in this city are ideal meeting spots particularly for me I as don't mind arriving early to crunch code on my laptop; typically doing that everyday anyway so might as be equipped for Bitcoin biz too; here goes.
p.s - if you're a friend or colleague I already know personally and want Bitcoin of course you're welcome to take up the offer too - in that case there is no need to necessarily be in Vancouver, just shoot me an email or txt, happy to send you the satoshis in exchange for Paypal or Interac E-Transfer.
