Tales from the Crypt #57: Alex Adelman

— Alex Adelman's journey from building Cosmic (a commerce platform) to co-founding Lolly, a Bitcoin rewards extension for online shopping.

— Lolly's business model: retailers pay commissions when they drive sales, Lolly converts fiat to Bitcoin at market rates and distributes it to users, who can withdraw to their own addresses or convert to USD.

— The distribution problem for Bitcoin: mining and investing appeal to small segments; shopping is universal, making it a better on-ramp for mainstream adoption.

— Retailer incentives to accept Bitcoin: eliminating chargebacks, payment processing fees (1.5%+), and fraud costs, particularly in cross-border commerce.

— Privacy and security as core principles: tracking only purchase data necessary for rewards, then deleting or anonymizing; vision is full user sovereignty over Bitcoin.

— Long-term vision: getting over 500 major retailers to accept Bitcoin via Lightning Network, enabling direct peer-to-peer payments with near-zero fees and settlement in seconds.

— Consider using Lolly to earn Bitcoin passively while shopping at major retailers—it's free to users and offers an easy on-ramp for non-technical people to acquire Bitcoin without mining or active investing.

— Watch for Lightning Network adoption among major retailers; once payment processors see the cost savings (eliminated chargebacks, minimal fees), the business case becomes irresistible and friction to acceptance drops dramatically.

— Think of Bitcoin adoption as a multi-phase process: first distribution (earning), then activation (spending); Lolly bridges that gap by creating a closed-loop incentive structure where both retailers and consumers benefit.