Tonight, i went to my corner gas station, i almost always fuel my car there. (I live in Canada). I know the owner pretty well and i've been talking with him about Bitcoin for about a month now. I showed him how easy it would be for him to take payment via Bitcoin and he loved the idea. So he set up a temporary wallet on his smart phone in order to understand how it would work.
I then explained to him that he would be better off with a laptop which is more secure than a smart phone. So he will do just that in the coming days. From now on, i now have the choice to pay either with my credit card or use a bit of Bitcoin in my smart phone. I will not hold more than $100 in it because security is not that great on a phone. But still, just the fact that this gas station owner is ready to hop on the Bitcoin train is simply amazing. He did some serious research and he's even prepared to invest $100K into BTC.
When i came back home, i was thinking that i could do that with other businesses here in town. I just need to explain really well how it all works. It's wonderful that many people are now aware of this new financial revolution but business owners also need to play the game so to speak.
I know that there's a lot of new startups that promote things like Visa debit cards pre-loaded with BTC. But why bother when you can do it directly from wallet to wallet. It's true that many feel that it's safer to have a card and i respect that. When it comes to Bitcoin, security is very important.
If we want to abolish the old fiat system, talking about Bitcoin as much as possible with everyone you meet/know is essential. If everyone in the crypto community would do this, it would accelerate the road to our financial freedom.
Australia will soon have 3,000 Bitcoin ATM's where users will be able to buy BTC or sell BTC for Australian dollars. There are a few Bitcoin ATM's in Montreal but user adoption is not like in Australia yet. However, that will change very soon. The Canadian regulators are already supporting Bitcoin and even ICO's (if regulated properly of course).
Of course, if you buy BTC from an ATM, there are fees but for small amounts, it's not that bad. If someone plans to buy a lot, then a local exchange is a much cheaper option.