How to build a Bitcoin business, as explained by Joshua Henslee at Bitcoin DevCon 2020

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“Bitcoin apps should be generating revenue in the alpha,” Joshua Henslee believes.

In his presentation during the inaugural Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020, Henslee talked about how to build a business, the tools available to the entrepreneurs and the developers, and why co-opetition is the key to the overall industry growth.

Henslee said that it’s extremely easy for Bitcoin businesses to generate income. While the industry is still nascent, there are several tools that make it possible for the business to monetize its services.

“If you’re building on Bitcoin, use Bitcoin,” he urged developers, pointing to the many services in the Bitcoin space that are generating income from even the most trivial tasks. One of these is Dimely, a Bitcoin-powered application that allows you to monetize your time. Using Dimely, you can replace the endless Zoom calls and meetings with valuable sessions with your clients who in turn pay you in Bitcoin.

Henslee, a software consultant and a content contributor for the Bitcoin Association, believes that collaboration is critical. For a business to succeed, it has to integrate as many services as possible. Before building any application or service, you have to ensure that there isn’t any other similar service that could be easier to integrate. This contributes to the general industry growth and saves you time and money.

Let's get straight into the action with our first session on Business sensibilities when developing for Bitcoin. This will be presented by Bitcoin Association Content Contributor @cryptoAcorns. #BitcoinSV #BSV #Blockchain pic.twitter.com/LMCjMc9MG6

— BSV Association (@BSV_Assn) July 19, 2020

The Bitcoin space has already proven that it can harness synergies between the various applications. For instance, Dimely was the first to launch the ‘Features’ page which allows crowdfunding on-chain for additional features. It allows the app to communicate its roadmap and involve the users in the decision making process.

Other applications have integrated the ‘Features’ page to great success, including Twetch, Streamanity, Baemail and more.

Henslee also delved into how micropayments have enabled the new internet. The current internet infrastructure is inherently insecure. This has led to the creation of several protocols as remedies, including HTTPS, DNS and OAuth. Bitcoin solves these insecurity issues, with its micropayments capability mitigating security risk.

Bitcoin also solves the inherent risk that pertains to sharing data over the internet. With hacks affecting even the largest platforms such as Twitter, people are becoming more cautious about how they share data. However, with a service like Money Button, a simple swap can verify your identity while preserving your privacy.

Henslee concluded by sharing the Do’s and Don’ts of building a Bitcoin business. Entrepreneurs must leverage existing tools, charge for their time, fundraise on-chain and pay employees in outputs. On the flip side, they must avoid building services that already exist, removing existing and widely used functionalities and implementing legacy login systems.