This is the fourth of a five-part series on cryptocurrencies as well as their uses benefits for the Second Amendment community. Read part one here. Part two is here. Part three is here.
By Rob McNealy
Accepting crypto payments in your business — firearms related or otherwise — isn’t hard. All you need is a piece of software called a payment gateway that’s compatible with your shopping cart software.
Payment gateways are a type of software that works within the shopping cart to process the payment when a customer hits the “buy” button. The gateways for crypto payments are very similar to the ones that process credit cards, except they are talking directly to a crypto wallet located on the blockchain instead of talking to a bank.
Payment gateways plugins exist for all the major shopping cart applications. I will focus on the open source shopping carts such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop and OpenCart for this article. The major shopping cart company hates the 2A industry (and freedom) so they aren’t worthy of further discussion.
Crypto payment gateways come in both self-hosted options, like BTCPay Server, or third-party services like Forging Block. There are several other prominent third-party crypto payment gateways providers like CoinPayments and BitPay, but their terms of service prohibit the sale of firearms.
Self-Hosted Payment Gateways Pros and Cons
The pros of self-hosted third-party payment gateways, like BTCPay Server is that they are the most decentralized and thus offer the least risk of being deplatformed. In additional, they have zero to low additional fees.
The cons of self-hosted third-party payment gateways are that they are much harder to configure and manage because you must host and run a literal server. Additionally, BTCPay Server can support some alt coins, but the community behind BTCPay Server is primarily focused on Bitcoin. Since BTCPay Server is a decentralized project, support is limited.
Third Party Payment Gateways Pros and Cons
The pro of a third party 2A-friendly payment gateways like Forging Block, is that they are a multi-coin payment gateway, so retailers using their gateway have the option to accept many different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, TUSC, and RavenCoin. And since you don’t have to host and run a server, they offer easier setup and integration.
The cons of third-party payment gateways are that some charge additional fees for each transaction. The providers are middlemen. That also increases the risk of political deplatforming if they change their terms of service.
At the time of this writing, ForgingBlock isn’t charging an additional fee to process TUSC transactions.
Read part five in this series here.
This is the fourth of a five-part series on cryptocurrencies as well as their uses benefits for the Second Amendment community. Read part one here. Part two is here. Part three is here.
Rob McNealy is an entrepreneur, 2A supporter and co-founder of TUSC, a 2A-friendly crypto payments and NFT project, and Krappy Art, an NFT and digital art collective. Rob lives in the Salt Lake City area with his wife, four kids and their ferocious guard doodle. You can listen to his podcast or follow him on Minds and Twitter.
It just don’t sound like money to me.
What does?
Silver has a nice clink to it. 😁
Whether or not crypto is money, it really isn’t particularly firearm related.
You missed the point then and don’t work in the industry. This was also posted in the Business section of the website for a reason.
Crypto = Based on BS = Hard NO
Lots of people will make a whole lot of money, right up until the time it all comes tumbling down.
It isn’t.
Someone please explain what the incentive actually is here? This whole thing looks suspicious. I don’t know what people do in other countries but this looks like something that could all too easily go horribly wrong really fast. FFl’s in America using crypto as payment could be the very thing that gives Democrats exactly what they want in order to shut them down. The left is already looking for any excuse. This is about as far from pro-2A as confiscation itself. You can do what you want but this entire discussion is akin to fraud. You want to get your guns using crypto? Sell what you have using it? You’d better watch yourself!
“Someone please explain what the incentive actually is here?”
Supposedly, (among others), a degree of anonymity.
“FFl’s in America using crypto as payment could be the very thing that gives Democrats exactly what they want in order to shut them down. The left is already looking for any excuse.”
Well, since it’s the Leftist Scum that seem to be ‘all in’ on crypto of many flavors, they would not likely want to see the whole ‘house-of-cards’ collapse and take all their money, it would seem to me…
The “leftists” thinks crypto will destroy the environment and want to tax it into the ground.
I am far from being a left. Crypto, as a whole, tends to be very right leaning.
How much are they paying you to shill cryptos?
I thought that was Tyler’s job over at ZeroHedge…..
“How much are they paying you to shill cryptos? I thought that was Tyler’s job over at ZeroHedge…..”
All the Tylers?
‘Tyler Durdan’ at the ZH is the same as ‘Staff Writer’ here at TTAG.
(‘Fight Club’ reference, obviously…)
Why would anyone come to a gun website for advice about a form of fiat currency?
As a businessman why would I accept as payment something that is high risk of losing instant value at any given time. If I accept $1000 in crypto today for a payment it could be worth $750 tomorrow. It is like accepting stock or etf shares in place of payment and that is a bad deal. The sooner we get off the nft and crypto bandwagon the better. We have idiots arguing over pics of damn monkeys, at least the Glock vs real pistol argument has merit 😉😇. The dollar has its own weaknesses but it isn’t as volatile as crypto currencies that could be worthless or gone the day after I accept payment.
We have a small antiques/decorating business. We don’t take any form of crypto…
Your business isn’t being financially deplatformed, so you have plenty of other options.
Crypto isn’t the answer and for all those that tend to lean a little more towards privacy there are still records being kept for things like firearms and NFA items no matter how you pay. Cash is and always will be king in this domain. more options aren’t bad but again, a “currency” that could randomly lose value at any given time is a bad model and decision when building a business in the firearm industry. If you’re going to run a gun store or the like online and use crypto then you better be willing to accept the risks and losses. I get it, most readers here are probably perceived as being old and out of touch but there are many of here that understand new technology and have grown up with it or have been open to new things. While the articles appear to come from a place to be a “dummies guide” I think the general sense from the comments and past discussions with folk on here is that this isn’t something that many readers are going to embrace or really respond to. You’ve got a better chance to sell/talk up an AR or Glock to some people on this site than you do trying to convince them that crypto is more than passing flatulence.
What makes you think they won’t “deplatform” payment by crypto eventually?
My business is 100% cash and 100% face to face.
“If you’re going to run a gun store or the like online and use crypto then you better be willing to accept the risks and losses.”
I look at it this way –
Elon Musk made a big splash awhile back when he announced that Tesla Motors would take crypto as payment.
And then quietly dropped it later on. If a multi-billionaire like Musk is squeamish on accepting crypto as payment, what does that tell you?
This. A lot of adult artists get deplatformed by paypal which effectively holds a monopoly on the payment processing, several other industries (including the one I’m in) run the risk of de-platforming by paypal and by other merchant processors.
As for Geoff, Musk was probably pulling a pump and dump on the side but who knows. I can buy gold and silver from Apmex with crypto and it’s cheaper than CC.
I really don’t understand this. It’s still legal for me to meet someone for a private sale. I pay him. He leaves. So do I. What’s the problem?
Me too. That doesn’t help online retailers that can’t.
Is this the reason the Democrats are so hell bent for universal background checks?
Put your firearm purchases on the blockchain for everyone to see! Yeah, that sounds like it’ll fly here…
There are several anti-gun groups trying to do just that. We oppose it. Just because you against crypto, doesn’t meant that you should be ignorant about it. This will affect the 2A world in many ways.
“ This will affect the 2A world in many ways.”
Interesting. That is exactly what the left says and with the same type of language.
Like I said…why should I?
Just answer the question. Because I haven’t heard a single thing that is compelling at all.
Don’t. No one is forcing you to do anything. However, your fear of the unknown doesn’t mean it won’t be a thing that will affect you and the gun industry.
Observing how new technology will affect an industry isn’t “left”, it’s prudent.
The FUD irony here is reading anti-tech comments on a blog, on the internet, while remembering when FUDS said that internet was a scam and a fad.
I use WooCommerce for my business (not firearms related) and it’s entirely adequate; once it’s configured, it’s done. Updates are a one button push and the sales tax tables are also updated. It does have crypto options but I prefer the old fashion way of crypto sales, it’s more private for both customer and business.
Old fashion crypto payments:
Customers checkout without paying or emails me their order with a request for a new payment address, I whip that up on my wallet and send it to them with the quoted amount in crypto, they pay the amount and their order is mailed.
While one could argue that email services are middle men, if customers need THAT much privacy then I can provide them with one of my public PGP keys.
Please clue me on crypto –
I have 1 BitCoin. It’s valued at nearly 20 thousand currently, IIRC. I want to buy something for 1,000 dollars.
The ‘BitCoin’ itself is a complex alpha-numeric number. How does it make change, if you’re not selling a complete BitCoin? Who runs that algorithm?
One BTC goes out to the 8th decimal with the smallest unit being 0.00000001 BTC, or 1 Satoshi / SAT. You don’t make change, you spend exactly the amount you need from it. If you want to pay for something less than one BTC then you would use the decimal amount; it’s not much different from breaking up a $1 bill into 100 pennies, or in this case 100,000,000 pennies. At the time of this comment, one Satoshi is valued at $0.0004698680, or $0.0005 cents.
The wallet address is an alphanumeric string, your mnemonic phrase (seed words) creates the cryptographic key for you to be able to access that address on the blockchain and spend anything from that address. Miners verify transactions and keep the ledger tidy so there are no double spending, etc.
TMK, the algorithm / protocols are joint-controlled by the largest miners with the most hashrate / stake. Miners are kept in business by block rewards and processing of transactions. Forks do happen, hence BTC cash. Since miners have a strong stake on the success of BTC, they are unlikely to make changes that jeopardize it, such as debasing or inflating the supply. If I recall correctly, inflation is built into BTC to create a few BTC every year which go to the miners crunching the numbers.
I unfortunately missed the boat when mining them was just a race / game a few people were playing on an anime forum way back when, didn’t understand how to setup the command line miner and in those days it was CPU specific as well. About a year later, someone bought some pizzas. Poor me, I’ll stick to running my little business and make riches the old fashion way. Tried to mine again (ethereum) the USMC but I wasn’t financially educated then and figured the price was topped out. Young and stupid.
Nice response.
Have these cryptofraudsters BOUGHT TTAG or just renting it?
My thoughts too neiowa…
Okay, now I’m catching on… Dan’s trying out a five – part Gun Meme of the Day – – – this one is really stupid !
People are making this a lot harder than it really is…
If you find yourself wondering how to determine the real-world attestable value of crypto, the only thing you really need to know is this- how much can I buy with it when there’s no power…
The thing about this argument is that there will always be electricity in some part of the world and if we go 100% dark across the entire earth, well, something far worse than Armageddon has arrived; BTC or any other currency will be the last thing just about anyone will be thinking of. It will be a species reset and extinction level event.
If you mean just when a hurricane hits or something, that’s what cash is for. Although people like me can still take crypto transactions on a laptop / cellphone. Who doesn’t have a backup generator or even a USB battery these days?
In a collapse setting; as long as you have a cellphone and a solar panel, you can use BTC. Governments and corporations have a very powerful interest in keeping the infrastructure running that facilitates commerce. Cellphone sites have a three day backup generator on site and I suspect they will be critical infrastructure that the military and national guard will protect. If you have infrastructure similar to that in Helmund province (Afghanistan) you can use BTC. Most people will probably use other currencies but BTC is still an option.
If you didn’t even have that, you could probably send it VIA a radio but that’s more PITA than it’s worth. Precious metals, food, clean water or the means to make it, and bullets will be the preferred currency of the day; barter will have its place too.
I could also argue that people aren’t going to want gold either, they will want food, water, bullets, and medical supplies or professional services when the grid goes out. People also do not have to choose one or the other, gold vs crypto; one can own both, as well as other commodities like laundry soap, trash bags, paper towels, and every day items of value.
ok…
That assumes quite a bit.
The power being on in Indo China means nothing to me. I do have a backup generator but operating that requires fuel. Even if I had plenty of fuel, that doesn’t mean my internet connection is working as that requires something of an infrastructure. Cell towers, cable based internet, and DSL all also require power and after living through things like Harvey and Ike, it might be weeks or even months before everything gets put back. No USB battery backup lasts that long.
This whole things sounds more like bs to me (and others). I’m not even sure why this is a discussion on this website. This isn’t about guns anymore than the coffee I drink. But if we must then all I have here tells me that it’s just as (if not more) fraudulent than governments just printing more money. It’s a setup for failure. I’ve read your other response and I came out the other end wondering if you even speak English. I am VERY computer literate but most people are not. People generally don’t care to understand how computers or the internet works. I personally don’t care to invest in graphics cards for any of this. You might notice that even though Yen is an established currency just like Rubles, I’m not paying my bills with any of that either. But atleast I can somewhat trust that they are still going to be there if I ever have the need for them.
Point being that the ledger (block chain) is intact in another country, even if it’s temporarily spotty in yours. Not everyone will be using the same services and facilities that you use so even if your cable internet, DSL, or even cell internet is down, someone else cell, satellite, or even LOS based radio internet will be up. If we have that thorough of a breakdown and you can’t make a transaction, then go to someone who can.
USB battery backups do last for months on end when you RECHARGE them with a damn solar roll you can get in just about any electronics department. People use them all the time to keep their phones and tablets charged in the field. Last I checked, larger blanket size rolls can put out around 300 watts but one that large isn’t needed unless you are charging A LOT of devices.
Even the third world can get propane and it never expires. To think we won’t be able to get it here in the USA is absurd; it might increase in cost but it will be available. No one runs their generators 24/7, they turned them on for an hour or so to charge up or pump water, then turned them off.
The article is about accepting crypto for gun related goods and services, and you brought up the age old crap about it being useless in a grid down and I’m addressing that. I hear a whole lot of “I can’t” and not a lot of “How can I?”, being able to latterly move around obstacles in life is a handy skill. If you don’t want to use crypto then don’t use it, but don’t rag on anyone that keeps it open as a payment option, along with card, even when the local grid goes down.
Power outages are always temporary and usually very localized or regional in nature.
If there was a national or global EMP event, people are going to eat each other and cash and gold won’t be all that important either.
Guns and beans are good for that, but that is the least likely event to occur. The most likely is national currency collapse (we are already in the early stages of that) and crypto can help with that.
Point being- vapor has more substance than crypto. Even when the grid is performing as designed, crypto’s substantiality is wholly predicated on binary code- it’s virtual, not corporeal.
One could argue that it’s simply inexplicable to attempt a rational attribution of convictive value to something that doesn’t physically exist.
Kinda like religion… or a cult.
I’m starting up a Turnip currency business.
send me your money, no checks, credit cards, or cyptos accepted.
3 large turnips = $5, the turnips may or may not go up in value however you’ll never go hungry.
The Turnip currency can be exchanged for any item you desire to purchase at participating businesses.
Food stamp approved, Non traceable, No sales tax when spent, and have a shelf life of up to one year if stored properly.
Turnip currency is the new future, and unlike crypto currency or bitcoin can be used to silence your preferred gunm.
Send your money to
Possum Possum
3rd Persimmon Tree
Swamp Marsh America 123456
You win the interwebz possum!
Bitcoin seems to work, however for most investers using their own money it is too unpredictable and volitale. Also appears to be complicated way to do business. I do not completely understand it and therefore will not use it. Cash works for me. I seldom purchase anything new, cars, motorcycles, snowmobiles, guns etc. With cash there are negotiations and usually discounts, which works for me. I also sense a air of distrust when interacting with those who actually use BC. Just a feeling I have. Just my opinion.
People fear what they don’t understand. Using BTC is little different than using any other money service. Log in to your wallet with is the same as your account, paste the recipients wallet address string rather than an email address, enter the amount and send.
Also, BTC isn’t “money” or an “investment” it’s a currency and anything from seashells to cigarettes can be used as currency with varying degrees of effectiveness. Gold and Silver are money and our best standard.
Yes, it’s complicated, but some business, like gun businesses, are under financial attack right now and need solutions outside of dollars, at least as a backup. Crypto can be an option.
I come here a lot and have come very close to signing up. I never will now that they are pushing gun dealers to trade something with intrinsic value for something that is nothing. And all they have to do is interrupt Internet service and you can’t even… You can’t even… Somebody help me here for when a guy walks away with a Belgian FAL and he has zero in return, and the internet goes down…
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I used to frequent this place often and even considered signing up, but after learning that they are pressuring gun dealers to trade their valuable assets for something worthless, I’ve changed my mind. It’s concerning that all it takes is a disruption in internet service for someone to walk away with a valuable item like a Belgian FAL without giving anything in return. It’s a troubling thought.
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