It's easy to blame the state and whatnot for everything but the merchants don't want to deal with BTC payments either. I live in Vienna. They care more about selling €30 pizza to tourists "cash only" and pocketing the money. We have only 2 restaurants accepting Lightning, some medical services and a few rooms for short-term stays. It's a generalized lack of education. 🤷

You can pocket Bitcoin like cash, so that's not a problem. What Square did is enable payment network for merchants who don't care. They just increased the number of paying customers and money available to their customers. Blame the politicians where blame is justified, but it's also true most merchants don't care about accepting Bitcoin. If they did, they could have done it self custodially even under MiCA - the crypto asset service providers are regulated. So both are true. For network effects, you basically need to make one side super easy, sometimes even subsidized. In the US or outside of European union, entrepreneurs can innovate on both sides. In European union, one side of innovation has been effectively banned.

Why does MiCA stop allowing businesses in the EU accept Bitcoin? Or just to convert it?

They need to do full KYC on the paying client. So either you are at a checkout and verify with your id or you preverify and pay with some kind of login. Then it's not a Bitcoin payment, it's basically a payment through some centralized KYC service such you can fund with Bitcoin. The exact opposite of removing friction and building network effects.

Qerko still works, right?

Yes, MiCA is not yet in effect.

Juraj, (i try to keep up with it!) but as an expert, what's currently the easiest way in EU to accept self custody lightning payments without having to manage lightning channels?

Phoenix - the management of channels is invisible, although there are channels. Minty Breez - these are swaps to liquid, so no channels. You can also use Cashu or custodial wallets (Wallet of Satoshi, Blink, Bitlify). I advise against custodial wallets, but they have some benefits.

I'm definitely looking for a non-custodial solution. I have staff so the option where they can't spend it is required. Breez wallet has POS option, unfortunately Minty Breez doesn't. Still not easy/perfect for merchants... Unfortunately, I can't help by building, only by accepting. 😁 Thanks for the tips! 🧡💜🧡

If you have more than one cashier, maybe blink with regular cashout to your wallet. You will minimize custody time.