"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution."

In the UK & EU, Bitcoin is considered by regulators as a Digital Asset. In the US, the SEC considers Bitcoin as a Commodity. Some refer to it as Digital Gold because it has turned out to be an excellent store of value over the long term, out-competing all other assets over the past 10 years. It has three main differences that make it better than gold.

1. It is more scarce than gold. While there is an unknown and vast amount of gold in the universe, there will never be more than 21 million bitcoin.
2. It has a better Stock to Flow ratio. This is the ratio between the current supply in circulation and the new supply arriving, like all the gold/bitcoin in existence vs new gold/bitcoin being mined.
3. It is digital and this means that it is free and easy to store (no Fort Knox required), and can travel as fast as electronic communications from one person to another directly anywhere in the world.

"As a thought experiment, imagine there was a base metal as scarce as gold but with the following properties:

• boring grey in colour
• not a good conductor of electricity
• not particularly strong, but not ductile or easily malleable either
• not useful for any practical or ornamental purpose

and one special, magical property:

• can be transported over a communications channel"

At Musqet, we believe that Bitcoin is the hardest, best money ever found. There are many, like us, who have Bitcoin and want to use it as money. Bitcoiners will go out of their way to find merchants that will sell excellent quality goods and services for bitcoin. Merchants love accepting bitcoin because, since it is an electronic cash and not debt based, they get instant, final settlement without any possibility of charge backs.

Many other types of cryptocurrencies and digital assets have been created since Bitcoin began. Some of them started by copying Bitcoin's open source code and tweaking a parameter or two to differentiate it, others are a complete redesign with a focus on providing some other utility. What happens in reality is that changing one parameter of Bitcoin just makes it worse in several other ways. Almost all of these cryptocurrencies were created to enrich the founders and early investors by issuing tokens to themselves before they launched, which may be fine for securities, but is immoral to do with money. Everyone has to either earn or buy bitcoin, including it's inventor. None of these other digital assets so far have been found to be a better peer-to-peer electronic cash and store of value without the need for permission from any third parties that can only be issued to those that can prove that they did work for it.

There is no second best crypto asset!

Actually, this question is not asked frequently enough, but it should be. Money is such a big part of our lives yet we seldom stop and ask ourselves what it is.

If you ask 10 economists, you will probably get 10 different answers that might include things like "Money is a ledger", "Money is a system that facilitates the exchange of goods or services", "Money is the most saleable good", or even "Money is whatever the state says it is".

The fact is that anything can be used as money, but some things are better money than others. People have been using money for thousands and thousands of years, long into prehistory. The kind of items people have used include carved stones, seashells, feathers, glass beads, salt, tobacco, crops and metals. One thing history teaches us is that better money outcompetes all other money. It has happened over and over again and that is the reason we don't buy things with seashells any more.

• Saleability or Liquidity. Is there enough demand for it that you can easily find someone that wants it from you immediately.
• Store of value over space and time. Will it lose/gain/maintain value over time and distance?
• Medium of exchange. Do people want it enough to exchange something with you to get it? Will they do so tomorrow or in a different location?
• Unit of account. Is it a good way to measure the value of other goods?

Where 2 kinds of money are competing in a free market, people will always want to spend the worse money and save the better money until there comes a point where no one wants to accept the worse money at all.

At Musqet, our conviction is that Bitcoin is the best money ever found and it will quickly become the world's choice for the best money as it gains adoption and understanding.

"It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Once it gets bootstrapped, there are so many applications if you could effortlessly pay a few cents to a website as easily as dropping coins in a vending machine."

Sats are the units of bitcoin named after the pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. 100 Million sats make up one bitcoin, just like 100 pence make up one Pound.

Musqet is based in the UK and we are initially aiming to support Merchants in the UK but Bitcoin is global and our bitcoin only services can be used anywhere or by anyone that isn't restricted by UK sanctions and export control laws or are from a jurisdiction where they are not subject to local restrictions or prohibitions.

Musqet offers a service that makes it easy for merchants to accept bitcoin for goods and services without being a custodian of the Merchant's funds. We provide the merchant with a reliable network node in the cloud and applications to send and receive bitcoin through their node.

In just a few minutes you can set yourself (and your staff) up to receive bitcoin in your business.

You can choose to save the bitcoin as an asset on your company treasury, or exchange it to GBP (for UK Merchants) sent to your bank account using our exchange partner (coming soon!).

With Musqet, you receive a self-sovereign Bitcoin node on the Lightning Network. This means that you are in control of the funds you receive and neither Musqet nor anyone else is able to take or move your money without your explicit consent. The Lightning Network uses a system whereby 'payment channels' are established and pre-funded to allow a seamless flow of funds without excessive fees or data usage, regardless of how busy the network is. We ask for information about your sales in order to set the appropriate size for the payment channel. If your payment channel is too small, you will either be unable to receive larger payments or will pay additional fees when receiving larger payments.

No. If you want to keep current provider and just use us for bitcoin payments then we have apps for merchants and their employees.

Bitcoin only

1% Transaction Fee*

• 0.5% per Lightning transaction
• 0.5% liquidity (swap out) fees OR 0.5% GBP exchange fees
• Bitcoin network settlement fees (only when a channel rebalance is required)

* Bitcoin miner fees apply in some cases

Accept Bitcoin and Receive GBP

Coming very soon...

Since Lightning works by pre-funded payment channels, capital is required to ensure you are able to receive payments. The deposit is an equal amount of sats to the sats used to fund the channel for you. The deposit does not need to be paid up front and is only charged once you have taken enough sales to pay it. The deposit lasts for the duration of your relationship with Musqet and is fully refundable (less any outstanding fees) should you choose to no longer use our service. Please note that the deposit is denominated in Bitcoin which can be volatile compared to other currencies and the value in GBP or USD may be different when the deposit is returned.

With Musqet, you receive a self-sovereign Bitcoin node on the Lightning Network. This means that you are in control of the funds you receive and neither Musqet nor anyone else is able to take or move your money without your explicit consent.

The Lightning Network uses a system whereby 'payment channels' are established and pre-funded to allow a seamless flow of funds without excessive fees or data usage, regardless of how busy the network is. We ask for information about your sales in order to set the appropriate size for the payment channel. If your payment channel is too small, you will either be unable to receive larger payments or will pay additional fees when receiving larger payments. For more information on how payment channels work and are used in your Musqet payment infrastructure, click here.