Bitcoin Forum

Given that most of us believe that Bitcoin will increase in value over time, you will want to spend it instead of Hoddle and let it appreciate.
Example: Suppose I bought a car with 1 Bitcoin today, but the value of Bitcoin doubled next week, which means I'd better use fiat currency.
Do you think so?

Bitcoin is a currency and every currency can appreciate, take for instance you only have bitcoin and you want to pay for some goods you will not have a choice then exchange it to solve your needs. Because of the bitcoin volatile market, one may have to just hold and look away from it and look for an alternative way to settle some bills.

If people thought that way, then no one would use Bitcoin as a currency, which was the primary goal. Anyone who has been involved in paying with BTC for a long time (at least 5 years) knows that there is no point in regretting that we paid 1 BTC for something in 2015 when the price was around $200 - then it was hard for most to imagine that the value of Bitcoin would literally explode. If someone had known for sure that this would happen, he would probably have thought several times about whether they would spend that BTC or save it for the future. Yet life is short, if you don't do some things today, you may never have a chance to do it again.

My strategy is to pay something with BTC when it suits me, not only because of the current price factor, but also because of the current on-chain fees compared to some other payment options. In case Bitcoin becomes a legal tender in my country, I would definitely use it to pay whenever I deem it the right opportunity to do so.

I will prefer to spend the cash instead, but it also depends, if I am predicting bear market is near, I can decide to spend bitcoin, but in most cases, I will prefer to spend fiat instead of bitcoin. Bitcoin can increase in value unlike fiat that will not. But there are times I do not have option than to use bitcoin, especially when the fiat to be used will be of high fee, like when paying for items bought from outside the country. Fiat and bitcoin have different purposes, you can not expect me to spend bitcoin for daily spendings while buying items in my country, I will prefer to spend fiat instead.

You are talking about situation when all your wealth is stored in fiats and you treat BTC as investment only ("believe that Bitcoin will increase in value over time"). In such case for sure, you will spend fiats. But if your all wealth is stored in BTC, you get your salary in BTC, you pay your taxes in BTC, you get loan in BTC you use crypto wallet instead of bank account ... you will spend BTC for everyday things because its the only means of payment you have. You may even use BTC to invest in fiats (sound strange for non crypto people) and put it in safe place (in case something bad will happened to BTC) - in this case you will also use BTC for everyday payments.

In Salvador question is. Do you want to use dollars and store all your wealth in an asset that was printed +25% in last year, that lost 95% of its purchasing power in last 110 year or you want to store your wealth in BTC and use BTC for everyday spendings.

People, especially lower class, occasionally find themselves in need to tap into their savings to cover some spendings, and that's how Bitcoin would likely work - it will be a saving account first and currency second. In my country people prefer to keep their savings in US dollar, as it's more reliable than the local currency, but people occasionally have to pay with US dollars or convert them and spend them.

Some people might go 100% on Bitcoin if it will be convenient enough. In that case they will be spending Bitcoin like any other currency.

OP, why should anyone spend their Bitcoin if it’s still on its path of price discovery to six digits? There’s a time for spending, and there’s a time for saving/HODLing. Although you can always do both of them, spend some, and HODL some. It’s permissionless. 8)

Fiat currency or Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is only one of payment method you use to buy something, a car in this case.

If you spend your money to buy anything, it goes out of your pocket or wallet.

Your assumption is not make sense. Because if you only have Bitcoin, and want to buy a car, you have to sell your Bitcoin to buy that car with fiat currency or directly use Bitcoin to buy a car (if the company accepts Bitcoin).

If you believe in Bitcoin, and don't want to sell it to buy a car, hold it.

If you have spare fiat currency and big enough to buy a car, use that fiat budget, instead of Bitcoin.

I guess your assumption is for people who only have Bitcoin, and have to choose between holding it or selling it to buy a car. So tough choice has to be made: keep your bitcoin, forget about that car for a while; or sell your bitcoin and get that car. A binary option.

That fiat value of Bitcoin could also drop the next week and you'll have been better off using Bitcoin then than fiat. Bitcoin can be used whichever way the holder wishes too. If it's accepted as a legal tender, I will definitely use it to make some purchases, it will not necessarily replace fiat, but would have its uses in some situations.

You answered your inquiry in the same reply, if Bitcoin is the best means of payment at the time, then by all means use it to make purchases irrespective of price actions.

If Bitcoin were legal tender and most businesses were accepting it, I would definitely use and more likely would even turn all my fiat to bitcoin. Why? Because I don't want banks, tax departments, government to know where my money goes and how much. But it's a long time before such a wide acceptance and until that time we should hodl  ;)

yeah, but then again there are people who use it just as a currency and don't really care about the price or just want to experience buying something in BTC. I understand the point of Hdoling since I've been doing it but Hodling is only good as long as you can afford it. trying to Hodl your bitcoin to the point that you have to loan or borrow money from others is just stupid.

Maybe if the fees are reasonable, But i don't see it in real life scenario wherein we pay in bitcoin and the merchant is asking for 6 confirmation before he let go the merchandise we bought. So we will basically looking at each other eyes for the next 6 bitcoin blocks  :o

even though my country has legalized bitcoin, but in my personal opinion I will not spend bitcoin, to buy my needs, let alone to buy daily necessities, even to buy a car I will not use bitcoin, I will still use fiat currency to buy a car, because considering the price of bitcoin if it goes up it can be 2 times, but if fiat currency will not change in value, that's the reason why I don't want to shop using bitcoin..

I will see first what the market opportunity looks like .. If I see the opportunity and bitcoin market analysis can make it possible to experience an increase I will invest 35 percent of my capital into bitcoin .. and the rest I still make money just in case when bitcoin corrects.

I think almost everyone in this thread agrees that it's not worth spending your bitcoin for daily needs when you can still use fiat to buy it. And the chances of bitcoin going up in value is the biggest regret that you will have when you spend your bitcoin just because you can spend it on stores and malls.

Doesn't make sense what you are saying here. If you are trying to say that why would people spend bitcoin instead of fiat, since bitcoin will rise in value eventually, then I could ask you the same question, why would people want to spend their fiat instead of investing it on bitcoin?
How about you think it this way, you convert the fiat money you would have spent to bitcoin and then use that bitcoin to make transactions? You can hold some and you can spend some. The more you use it as a regular currency, the more people will know about it, the higher the price will be, right?

The main aim is to use it as payment source and when the country accepts it as legal tender the urge to use it will automatically increases say not to buy a car but rather make small transaction with its help.Take the case of El Salvador the people are already using LN to make transactions at small shops as we have seen some clips but buying cars and other big stuffs could not be reasonable justification according to me because you also need to HODL it as investment if you are aware about the future prices from the past indiacations.Use them in combined way will help to make btc liquidate in the market also and it will be treated as payment source rather than backup assest only.So take your decisions wisely.

that's the value of Bitcoin, nothing can match how useful bitcoin is. and compare it with the car you already have, does the price continuously from day to day be more expensive like Bitcoin? not !!! exactly the version of the car you have, will be replaced with the latest version and so on. where the car can be modified again with new advantages. while bitcoin can't. bitcoin is still bitcoin, cannot evolve from one version to another. cannot be updated.
so while the car can still be bought with fiat money, it's better to use fiat. instead of sacrificing bitcoin, I totally disagree. somehow the value, benefits, virtues that exist in bitcoin cannot be owned by cars, even with the latest version will still be unbalanced.

If that the case then most people would not spend their Bitcoin to buy something such as a car as you said, but what if otherwise things happen? We all know that Bitcoin values are so fluctuate, it isn't impossible if the value would decrease 25% or even worse in the next week, isn't it a fortune that they bought that car with Bitcoin?

The problem with using bitcoin as a daily currency is the fees, we can't go to the store and buy a $1 beer if we have to pay $5 in fees, even if we do our weekly shopping in 1 day the fees still too high. So, bitcoin isn't a coin to do small transactions, it would be great to buy a house or to buy a car, but to buy things like food will not work for the long term.

If i had both options (bitcoin or cash) I would pay with cash and avoid burn the money on fees.

What if you purchased a car with Bitcoin today and value drops next week like it happened recently, that means you would be better using Bitcoin for payment.

Long term Bitcoin may proved to be much better than fiat currencies, and I doubt I would use it everyday for purchases if it was legal tender in other countries,
but I would use it there was some special discounts for purchasing with BTC.
You can even buy a pizza or beer with Bitcoin, but don't regret later if price jumps to 100,000 or million usd.

I utilize a custodial wallet whenever I separate my BTC to be used as a payment for utility bills. The rest were up to just be there in my "bunker". Never to be touched unless it is needed.. for emergencies only of course :D .
Kinda sucks that here in my country, I still need to use a third party wallet just to pay with BTC.
I kind of wished there was like p2p method of paying.

If you have not noticed there are two threads that raise the same idea.
I'm going to give my opinion in this thread. I would probably not spend my bitcoin, instead I would spend my FIAT.
Thanks to Bitcoin I learned what saving is. IMO when bitcoin is accepted in many countries there will also be fiat to spend. Somewhere I read that bitcoin needs FIAT for more liquidity.
On the other hand, if I do not have more monetary resources, I would have to make use of bitcoin.

In my personal opinion, if Bitcoin legal in my country as a currency, I will also not use Bitcoin to pay something here. However, I probably will prefer using Bitcoin as a means of payment if there are some probabilities here:
- The price of BTC is in the high price, let's say if I bought on $20k and at that time the price is around $50k. I think it is I can use this BTC and will not regret it if the BTC price rises up again in the next few days.
- If I want to buy something that is easy and available only using Bitcoin
- If I want to buy something overbroad or pay something abroad so that it will be easier using Bitcoin
- If I have no cash money and I need to convert BTC, better to use BTC itself. 

This is often thought to be a problem but it is not, I have no problem using my bitcoin to buy stuff however as soon as I can I use my fiat to replace the bitcoin I spent, by doing this you never run out of bitcoin, you get rid of your fiat and you support the use of bitcoin as a currency, so if bitcoin was legalized as a legal tender where I live I will use it as such and if possible I will ask to be paid in bitcoin directly, that way I will avoid the fees to convert fiat to bitcoin, but I do not think we are even close to that day coming where I live.

With the current position of bitcoin, and with my holdings I rather hold and wait til it pumps the way I like then sell or buy things I need with bitcoin, I won't buy if it matters of wants than needs.
But to those who gain a lot from this dump then it's okay for them just don't feel regret when bitcoin pumps again after you expend your bitcoin.

Bitcoin will still be a great investment even if it will considered a legal currency so i will not spend my bitcoin and onlyd spend my fiat for my necessities. But in terms of buying real estate or cars which i think won't be catered with my fiat, so i will start to use a small fraction of bitcoin providing that its transaction fee will be quite low compare at the present. But bitcoin will still be considered as my top investment so as much as i can, i prefer to hold and keep it grow and only spend it when its price has surges into its peak.