June 14th. Our 24kg package gets stuck in French customs. 5,000+ envelopes. $250 in express shipping. Gone.

They think it’s drugs. Or counterfeit. Or illegal. They won’t tell us exactly.

It’s paper envelopes with “Bitcoin” written on them. That’s it.

The damage

• Lost 5,000 envelopes
• $250 shipping (non-refundable)
• Insurance paid out $350 (barely covered shipping)
• Had to cancel and refund orders
• Pissed off customers

Meanwhile, this tweet hits hard

There are many ways to do this already in existence, but red envelopes do look nice and has some background to it iirc - wish they had used that logo they have on geyser vs the MJB logo on the envelopes though.

— MoparMiningLLC (@MoparMining) June 23, 2025

He’s right. Our design needed work.

So we redesigned everything

Spent 2 weeks with designer Salma and my uncle (15 years printing experience):

• Bought hbtc.me domain (shorter = cleaner QR codes)
• Envelope back has a QR code which goes to a getting started step by step for newcoiner
• The red envelope totally assume the chinese tradition while the orange one is more neutral to Bitcoin
• Added ₿ symbol on the flap
• Cleaner back design

New shipping strategy

Screw customs. We’re shipping directly from Shenzhen with our partner Linda.

• No more customs BS
• Cheaper shipping
• Faster to customers worldwide

The new batch is printing now.

Sometimes getting punched in the face is exactly what you need.