My name is Brian Harrington, I’m a project manager, business analyst, and marketing consultant.
I’ve been super thankful to be able to work for myself the past 7 years and have worked on a wide variety of projects from Politics to Entertainment to Technology and Bitcoin. My wife Sherin and I live in Anaheim, California with our cat Pishi. I grew up in Colorado and Washington state and I only drink IPA’s and black coffee.
#
Your history
Hi Brian, thank you for accepting this interview. Let's start with the classic question, as in how did you get in the Bitcoin space ?
My dad and I signed up for Coinbase together in 2015. I had a lot of time off in In 2016 and 2017 between political campaigns I was working on and that’s when I started watching a lot of Youtube about Bitcoin. I met any other Bitcoiners in real life for the first time in 2019. Sherin and I were there at the first meet up of the Orange County Bitcoin Network.
How did you connect your work, passions (Film producing and campaigns) and family life with Bitcoin ?
So from a marketing, and personal branding level I’ve never really wanted to compartmentalize my life. An article by Tim Ferris called The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades (opens new window) had a big impact on me after graduating college and I also read a book called Never Eat Alone (opens new window) by Keith Ferrazi that made networking a really big part of my life.
Those concepts combined with the fact that I didn’t feel like making separate websites for my film producing and my political consulting so I just put it all up at brianharrington.org (opens new window) because I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do in both worlds and I think they are connected.
Bitcoin then naturally fit into my site as well because something that Politics, Entertainment, and Bitcoin all have in common is that they are influential.
That’s really been the driving force of the way I connect my work, passions and my family all together is I want to have influence and I want the people around me to have influence so that we are not at the whims of this world.
My faith and belief in Jesus plays into a lot of the way my mind works as well. I truly believe I was created for a reason and I believe everyone reading this was created for a reason. I don’t believe it’s random that we’re alive at this very moment during this time in history and I’m thankful to be alive and thankful to be an agent for change.
# Meeting BTCPay Server
In your voyage through the Bitcoin space, when did you encounter BTCPay Server for the fist time ?
At one point I heard about it all the time from people tweeting about it and podcasts. In the same period I watched the panel between Open Node and BTCPay Server at Baltic Honeybadger 2019 (opens new window) I think on Youtube and I had met the Open Node team at a meet up out here so I had loosely heard about BTCPay Server and was up to speed on the whole thing from an observer perspective.
I had Open Node installed on my site back then but was really only using it as more like a tippin.me thing for fun.
However fast-forward to March 2020:
What really changed the game for me and made me have deeper interest in BTCPay Server was all these government lockdowns that we’re seeing. I really don’t appreciate the way small and medium sized businesses are being treated right now and that made me really start to think about how Bitcoin can start providing freedom today.
It really was like a light switch that turned on in my head that said all the tools are in place for me to stop taking checks and start taking Bitcoin. When the Strike app came out in the US that allows people to pay a bitcoin QR code with fiat that made me think it was possible even more so to just stop taking checks.
How do you use and promote BTCPay Server ?
I use BTCPay Server on my own site in the footer at brianharrington.org (opens new window) and don’t take checks anymore for my consulting work. When people from Orange County Bitcoin Network want to know more about BTCPay Server I send them to brianharrington.org/xpub and I put real beer on the line so they can try it out.
https://twitter.com/BrainHarrington/status/1310986298446868481
You seem to be fully committed to the Bitcoin Circular Economy. In your opinion, does BTCPay Server fit in that pattern ? How ?
"I think the killer app of BTCPay Server is it lets you earn Bitcoin. Period."
Absolutely I think the killer app of BTCPay Server is it lets you earn Bitcoin. Period. BTCPay Server turns any business into a Bitcoin business. That’s it, that’s the high level one sentence pitch.
# BTCPay Server's future
What feature/use-case would you like BTCPay Server to implement/develop to become even more suitable for a Bitcoin Circular Economy ?
"A trend we’re going to see is a few stores getting together and having someone run the server for their group"
In my opinion, just keep making the GUI better and better. A current hurdle I’m on is I don’t know how to turn on the email notifications for when I get paid.
I think a trend we’re going to see is a few stores getting together and having someone run the server for their group of stores so more tools to help separate out lightning payments between stores running off the same node.
And I love how Ride the Lightning (opens new window) comes pre-installed as well, getting loop-out working is another thing that is up next for me to learn.
On this topic also we all need to pump the One Click Luna Node installation (opens new window), big thanks to BTC Pins for walking me through that for the first time.
Where can our readers find you ?
Appreciate the opportunity and thanks for the time you’re taking to put this info up.
- Brianharrington.org/xpub (opens new window) for a BTCPay Server demo
- Ocbitcoinnetwork.com (opens new window) for meet ups in Southern California
- My DM’s are open on Twitter @brainharrington (opens new window)
If you’d like to help us tell your story next, join our community chat (opens new window) and let us know.