Bitcoin Forum

since 2021 I quite often make transactions or buy some items from my friends who have shops with payments using bitcoin or other altcoins. because in my area there are no shops that accept bitcoin payments in general. but this is not an obstacle for me and my friends as fellow cryptocurrency users. I happen to have many friends in my area who have various professions and all of them are already familiar with crypto and trading crypto as an additional income and investment.

so I often transact with my friend using bitcoin.

and a few days ago I have bought a wardrobe for my son and payment with bitcoin. because I bought it by chance from a friend of mine who also accepts digital money as payment. and a few weeks ago I also bought an SSD for my laptop but at that time I made a payment Not with bitcoin but using BNB. because my friend needed BNB that time.

and it turns out that when are a shop there is no writing accepting payments with digital money. doesn't mean he doesn't accept it. but maybe he hasn't opened it publicly yet.

because we can ask the store even though there is no writing accepting bitcoin but at least try asking. because I recently did it. ie ask a store that has absolutely no writing accepting payments with bitcoin. but it turned out that after I asked the shop owner directly, it was very coincidental that the shop owner also played crypto and he explained to me that he could also accept bitcoin as payment but specifically. he deliberately did not write because the reason turned out to be that I also just remembered that in my country bitcoin as a means of direct payment is not yet legal. and that's the reason the friend and shop owner I asked didn't write a post on his shop about accepting bitcoin payments.

maybe friends here can also try it. and have you guys done it too and what items have you recently bought with bitcoin payments?

How often do you transact in the real world with your bitcoin or digital money?

Bitcoin: not as much as I want to. Could only spend bitcoin on servers and domains.

Digital money: If you mean like PayPal and such, then almost daily. Physical cash transactions getting slowly but surely less-frequent.

My every day transactions are done exclusively through credit card tapping. In extremely rare circumstances I would use cash.

I'm now waiting for my Bolt Card (https://www.coincorner.com/TheBoltCard) which should in theory allow me to do the same, paying with lightning by tapping with the card, and it would connect directly to my lightning node, and pay for the requested amount of Bitcoin.

Note that even though this card is advertized to be used with CoinCorner, you can set it up to work directly with your lightning node (https://stacker.news/items/29647).

Of course most shops are still living with legacy merchant checkouts, but covid has accelerated a bit the usage of cashless checkouts, so I hope more stores start using BTCPayServer and similar checkouts, which works with the NFC card (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SuhEPSMRoA)

I have never used bitcoin as a means of direct payment. because my profession or job makes me paid with ordinary money.

But I am interested and like your suggestion or your story about asking the shop owner directly about whether or not you can pay using bitcoin. Because I also think that there are actually a lot of shop owners who are familiar with crypto or bitcoin in particular. But certain situations keep them from making the bulletin board accept crypto/bitcoin payments. Maybe I'll also try asking the shop owner if he knows crypto and accepts crypto as payment.

I have been around ever since 2014 and I honestly have never seen anybody in real life that accepts altcoins as payment. You may find some places here and there on the internet that accept altcoins through payment processors which would give them the fiat equivalent right away into their bank accounts but never in real life.

I've seen Tether be used for P2P trading too but that is not payment. For example I recently sold a tiny amount of bitcoin for Tether and then dumped it for fiat through P2P trading.

personal use/lifestyle stuff:

bitcoin:
in 2014 it was mostly every day.. but in 2022 its mostly once a month

debit cards
in 2014 it was few times every day(buy daily convenience).. but in 2022 its maybe once everyday (but mainly weekly shop and less daily convenience)
.. covid and bitcoin taught me over the years to bulk buy and hoard, before the supplies dry up

paper cash
in 2014 it was every day.. but in 2022 its mostly once every 6 months

I don’t use Bitcoins to transact frequently.
Yes whenever i am unable to get to my cash, or when it’s required to pay anonymously, then i used Bitcoins.
I mainly treat Bitcoins as asset, and therefore try to store it as much as possible and sell it at a later period of time.

Regarding digital money, then to be frank it has become the part of daily life.
In my country, many places digital payments are accepted, so yes i use it whenever possible.
Also while buying online I prefer paying online, as it helps to get some discounts in some site.

We have a popular app here which allow us to convert crypto to our local fiat currency and to pay different merchants (app partners) using crypto. If you include transactions like that (not P2P), it's at least twice a week month for me. The frequency could increase soon because an even more popular app that's widely used by merchants in malls and department stores is already working on integrating crypto wallets.

There are things like bitcoin is not much accepted in my country and have to find some place that would accept it as payment mode but don't know about them.Second also don't have enough btc to spend them now online also and want to save them for future profits so at this time more preferably holding is best solution for me.

But yes digital payment through banking is more common and have mix use of fiat at small stores and for big payments use these digital modes.

It all depends on the area you are staying. If you have merchants in your area who accepts crypto payments, then why not! But unfortunately, majority of the crypto holders do not have such facilities available. If I look at my area, I will hardly find anyone else who had heard the name of bitcoin.

So it all depends on the options available. In my country,  a specialized technology called UPI has taken over the digital payments by storm and outperformed China in the number of digital payments and took number one spot.

So in my country, crypto payment is not a very cost effective idea. So it's best to keep them as an investment.

There's no way to transact directly Bitcoin in my country. The only thing that I can use my Bitcoin directly is by paying my bills online using the local cryptocurrency wallet app but they are still converting it first to PHP it's literally not a direct transaction. I don't know if other countries' business establishment allows BTC as a direct payment.

I remember that a coffee shop owned by my friend start to accept Bitcoin in 2017 and I love paying Bitcoin directly on it but he stop accepting when the price of Bitcoin dumped hard after reaching the first ATH to 20K. Until now he still didn't want to involve crypto in his business due to the loss that he got last time he accepts it and invested some of his shop profit.

I wonder how many merchants are afraid to publicly disclose that they are accepting cryptocurrency payments. The number must be huge.
Many merchants probably don't want to reveal that they accept crypto, because of some sort of "crypto is a scam" stigma, which might hurt their legitimacy. I would never ask any shop owner about whether or not he accepts crypto payments. Maybe I would feel embarrassed to ask.
Anyway, I don't use BTC for daily payments, because I'm a hardcore HODLer and the amount of merchants accepting BTC in my town is close to zero. I know that without even asking them. The people in my town aren't tech savvy.

According to some articles[1] on their website, they require KYC for your account to be setup before you can use the Boltcard for direct bitcoin payments via lightning network, which I believe contradicts bitcoin's initial use case. Or is it likely that I'm overthinking this?

[1] https://support.coincorner.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001559953-Verifying-my-account

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As for the topic, I wouldn't call myself using bitcoin for payments as I need to constantly convert bitcoin into our local currency either by using Peer-to-Peer(P2P) with some of my crypto acquaintances.

In fact, I have yet to see a local establishment that states "bitcoin payment is accepted," which I believe is understandable considering how unpredictable Bitcoin's price is and how technicalities are prone to human error are required.

Well, not that often. I do purchase things online with bitcoin but this time, as the price went down, I'm trying to keep it as much as I can. In my neighborhood, I don't know how many are we on this but I've known folks that got to know crypto just because of the NFT games. But having bitcoin to spend with, I don't think so that they're so into it because the craze and hype are done. I guess they're also done with the market as that's the common mindset not just on this neighborhood but also with most newbies that get to know bitcoin lately.

The OP is very fortunate to have many friends who accept Bitcoin and Altcoins as payment.

What I buy with Bitcoin is subscriptions to an e-mail provider, my web domain subscription
and the hosting of it too.

I also buy items from the Collectibles section of the forum from time to time always with
Bitcoin ^{the odd time maybe paypal}

Regarding day to day items thats FIAT by card very rarely cash.

In the last 1 year I rarely used bitcoins for any online transactions. I am trying to rebuild my crypto portfolio and avoid using cryptos for payment as much as possible. Only for gambling I am using my crytpos, but that doesn't count as real world transactions  :D Among friend we also don't really use cryptos, I know that some of my friends hold them only for long term investment. Back in 2016/2017 I used bitcoins very often for online purchases, like computer hardware. My biggest purchase was a new bicycle after I sold all my CSGO skins for bitcoins. Using digital money seems a bit easier for me, because I can get rid of my fiat money. PayPal is probably the most used for me when doing online purchases. My goal is basically pay with fiat and save with cryptos.

Actually not so much and Im not sure when was the last time Ive used btc for a transaction. Maybe because people usually convert ito stablecoins first and then withdraw to fiat. Thats the common, but I have a dream to use my btc earned from giveaway and signature campaign to buy a dream car someday, its like using it actually to trade for a car (brand new) that accepts payment of btc.

If you want to use the bolt card with CoinCorner, yes, of course you need KYC. But the card itself is simply an NFC card. You basically just write a LNURL-withdraw link into it, that's it.

You can setup the bolt card, or any NFC card, to work with your lightning node directly, as I mentioned in my previous post.

So, basically, if you want to use the exchange, you need KYC, but the card doesn't need to be used with the exchange.

Practically every day I guess, but I'm not sure what you mean by real world as the example you gave kinda means physical world.

I deposit/withdraw and spend for sure every day either on gambling (which is the most) and paying back friends for bill split (one person pays for all of us and we split later, I send and they send me back, BTC, it's like our way of using BTC without selling it), and rarely but sometimes gaming.

If you take out gambling then it becomes maybe once every 1 or 2 weeks.

I had one very pleasant gift purchase, which played a certain role not only for me but also for the seller.

Yes, I bought a gift for myself and my child by purchasing a thoroughbred kitten from my friends. I told them a lot about bitcoin, and so that they had some idea about bitcoin, I helped them create a wallet and told them all the necessary points. Friends simply did not want to spend their money on buying bitcoin, but in such a payment, they found it interesting.

Now my friends are not only watching the growth of their kitten but also waiting for their "cat" to grow in the price of bitcoin. :)

Physical shops where you can pay with Bitcoin are generally very rare, unless we are talking about some crypto oases like Arnhem in the Netherlands or that in theory Bitcoin should be a means of payment in every physical store in El Salvador. Everything else is just an exception, but in the online world things are completely different and the choice is far greater.

If the real world is the one online, then I can say that I often buy things in that world - although due to taxes and customs I am based exclusively on what I can buy within the EU or locally. Over the years I have bought really different things like TVs, smartphones, various gadgets and even food and drinks that I paid for with Bitcoin.

It's not that hard if you have an online store (https://bazzar.hr/) that allows you to pay for everything with Bitcoin (and some altcoins), and the choice goes from a simple bag of chips to auto parts or some expensive electronics.

In my country I can't do bitcoin transactions, I have bitcoins but I have to convert to dollars and shop using dollars I've never done transactions using bitcoin directly, hopefully one day I can make transactions using bitcoin.

Funny enough this was when I didn't even know anything about bitcoin and someone might ask how. I remember mentioning in some of my other posts how a friend or colleague actually introduced me to Bitcoin but we were to use it to pay for a service online which we did back in 2016 I guess but since I really came to know Bitcoin, I haven't spent it directly on paying for anything lately and really no shops that accept Bitcoin in my immediate area too.

There's a somewhat known store in my area that sells computer-related stuff and I usually go there a few times a year... Even though it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to be able to directly pay for something with BTCitcoin, they tend to sell their products at a premium ^{[in other words, I only go there if I really have to purchase a product that I couldn't find in other stores]}.

Make sure to approach the owner when other people are not around to minimize the risk ^{[in case the wrong person hears your conversation]}!

That's unfortunately true, but perhaps they're also scared of becoming someone else's target...

Almost never, unfortunately the people around me who play an active role in the crypto field don't have a sales and service business that accepts bitcoin. In addition, people around are still reluctant to reveal their crypto activities because of various negative assumptions from ordinary people.

'Never'
The fact is it is indeed hard to find places that accepts Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies therefore very often I have to switch it up, choose something else but then again I use Bitcoins as an investment for short term which means, whatever money am getting from the campaigns, I usually put in my wallet and then encash when I need it, there is not much scope of keeping it for long periods of time since at the end of the day, it's the only job I have and due to war in Ukraine, 'The most important ' one as well. Which inturn have led me to love the forum much more and consider my job a gift from God. Also there aren't many facilities available at the place I live regarding where I can use the bitcoins without converting it.

while this perfectly work out for you, I seldomly make payment in bitcoin else if i wanted to exchange it using p2p and i see the reason to that much because in my own locality there are not much businesses that i found accepting bitcoin except for some online purchase, while i may not as well have a number of friends that accept bitcoin as well, i only make use of the investment opportunity in it and perform a p2p exchange when need arises, but in your case OP i think that will help increase more adoption within your locations because if the influence you and your friends have created about using bitcoin for your payment and i hope some to as well develop such within my reach.

If it's an official purchase with Bitcoin then it's the first time I've bought a simple 2-wheeler in mid-2020, a 1975 classic motorcycle belonging to a friend first. At that time the price was pegged at around $1000 in Bitcoin when the price was around $11K and if I'm not mistaken, transactions using P2P exchanges after the goods arrived home.

I barely have enough to hodl let alone to buy stuff with. Yeah am struggle to save every btc i can lay my hands on at the moment so spending it on items is out of the question for now. I have actually done few transaction previously just to text things out, recently i came across one of transaction i made and i did a calculation with present btc price and you won't believe the dollar price has really appreciated.
All i want for now is hodl onto every little btc i have and spending it now will feel am letting go of my future financial freedom.  :)

This may be something good but in this case I prefer to use paper money or maybe in another form like Fiat (Because in my country it is still crowded and still the main thing) and maybe paypal.
The reason is very simple, I don't like spending my assets here and I still want to keep them longer :D
But maybe it wouldn't hurt to give this a try just to get a feel for what it's like to shop using bitcoin from Portopolio.

I've nevershoping with  bitcoin , just  buy  all about crypto in exchange
but digital money you mean paypal and atm almost every day I use it to shop online,
and the rest I study with fiat

Good, you've made a bitcoin transaction with your friend buying a 2-wheeler. I don't have similar experience, and I've spend cashing out bitcoin instead. Maybe if I request to pay with bitcoins, now many businesses will accept. Earlier I've tried and they were hesitant to it. One incident happened back in 2017, I tried to convince a computer store to accept bitcoin as payment. He ignored, and maybe now he could regret it.

Good thing if you do have a friend which shares the same interest which you do have like involving with crypto on where you could really potentially able to make out transactions in connected with crypto.
In general perspective it isnt really that bad on using up for some transactions but if you do really mind on having that potential profits in the future or via means of investment.
In my case, i never intent to make use of my coins and i do save it as much as i could or i can because we know the benefits that it could give.
Transact on fiat if you are liking to buy something.

That kind experience often occured through mouth by mouth .. your closest friend and through a community but it's not as often as we used to pay groceries with a credit card or any other form of digital money such as apple pay .. google pay etc.

Bitcoin environtment has not built really strong yet , once there is a huge company along with its government like facebook & USA walk side by side to make this happened ... well the price of bitcoin could skyricketed really wild and you can of course transact your bitcoin as often as you wish.

It was basically a bad method that I learned about it. I was looking for any money to make, like anything at all because I was too poor at the time.

I was going around online trying to find ways to make money and it wasn't always great methods, it was never illegal, never scamming anyone, but it wasn't glorified stuff neither, like farming gold in games and so forth, spent like 18 hours a day on some weird games that I did not even like, I wouldn't play them if there wasn't money in it, but the gold worth something and I could make like 4-5 dollars a day from it and for me that was good. Then I learned about bitcoin and 4-5 dollars daily never became a subject again, I made so much more here.

Here in my own country, not a lot of merchants are actively accepting cryptocurrency though there are now some but mostly are into luxury items and not everyday things we are usually consuming. In other words, people who are into Bitcoin here and even with alts are doing so as part of the speculative crowd. And I am not so sure if there can be some changes on this scenario in the next few years...especially if the supposed plan of the government to be taxing cryptos can be in place.

I don't often do transactions in the real world with bitcoin but I've done the same thing several times with you guys and even a close friend from the cryptocurrency circle, I bought a cell phone and some clothes on an offer from a friend but he applied for payment using Bitcoin of course very happy with that I agree and I just want to try with the transaction and it does look simpler than fiat money.

In essence, if you are around friends who have the same profession as us as traders or are already familiar with crypto, then we need more things from friends. Simpler payments with P2P altcoins are also possible.

For the most part I think this is the most common scenario, when it comes to making online payments many users in the forum do so with some frequency, but when it comes to using our bitcoin in the real world then our experience is very limited as the rate of adoption is still on the low side.

However I am also seeing a very slow improvement where I live and a few more business are accepting bitcoin as a payment, so I hope we come to the point in which this becomes quite common and no one thinks anything about someone paying with bitcoin at a physical store.

I have never and have never transacted with bitcoin in the real world, because in my country I still don't really understand how bitcoin itself works if it is used as an alternative payment instrument,
if you don't have digital money, there's no doubt that everyone has done it, even if it's only once in a month or even a year

Not very often. Actually very seldom, as a matter of fact. For the past year or two, aside from gambling, I cannot remember spending my Bitcoin as Bitcoin. There was not a single instance of me directly buying something using Bitcoin as payment. It is sad but it is what it is because it is very rare for us to find a business here offering Bitcoin payment option.

However, I am still spending my Bitcoin on prepaid loads and bills payment but these payments are to be converted into fiat by the local app that I'm using. These transactions would still be registered in fiat.

I don't transact much using bitcoin in real world if you are pertaining to actual establishments and businesses. It is because there are only so few establishments that accept cryptocurrency as payment method. Most of the malls and stores here only accept fiat, card, or digital money such as e-wallets. Hence, even if someone would want to, they can't because of the limited availability of those who accepts it.

When it comes to digital money, yes, I often use it. Digital money such as electronic money using paypal, paymaya, gcash, and the likes are the most often used ones in transacting because of convenience. In addition, it's available almost everywhere even in small business enterprises.

Since there are very limited of acceptance in Bitcoin here in my country? this is what I also do now because there are friends of mine that also using bitcoin and we often exchange sometimes for gambling and sometimes buying our products as almost each of us are Online seller.
with this? i can contribute in bitcoin circulation though this is only a small part compared to higher transactions per day.
but I must say that I am proud of what i am having and what we are doing.

This is the condition at most of the places as btc is not widely accepted or say you can find a rare place accepting it as payment mode through LN also as we are not living in El Salvador or CAR to make legal payments in it.The fiat usage is being reduced and digital payments are rising after covid in most of the countries and you just pay with it instead of using fiat everywhere.

I  Only use Bitcoin constantly monthly as paying my Bills is the only way i spend my bitcoin but not directly to the provider instead I am paying Bitcoin to my brother and he will pay using Fiat , as My signature payments is what i use now to pay for the bills , because all my funds in crypto are for Long term holding and I cannot afford taking any amount so this payments goes to my bills,
maybe this is not enough but for me? I am thankful of having this opportunity at least  once a month from Electricity , water and internet bills .

If you have Bitcoin you will use it as direct contact of exchange of what you want for the particular time, except in your region bitcoin is not permitted to use as exchange of goods and services, right now people is contradictory bitcoin using to buy items and digital currencies, and this suppose to introduce and make openly for some people to know the difference. we have varieties of digital currency and which bitcoin is one among them and PayPal is another one, if you uses PayPal for buying things is same digital currency

Maybe it should be studied in terms of countries how to treat Bitcoin as a real transaction, restaurants, malls, tolls, and so on.

My thinking is Bitcoin users in Europe, most are involved in real transactions, that's just my guess for countries that legalize Bitcoin, in the area where I live, it can be said that one year only makes real transactions 2-4 times, because places or facilities that prioritize Bitcoin can be counted on the fingers, very few.

I hope that in the future, in my country Bitcoin or the next 5-10 years at least 30% of public facilities, especially shopping places, can serve Bitcoin users and accept payments in Bitcoin.

Which in essence you exchange your bitcoins to your relatives for payment of electricity, water and internet bills using Fiat.

the same as what I've been doing so far. The payment I received from the signature campaign in the form of BTC or ETH I used again to pay for my needs every day.
These transactions are not directly related to digital money or bitcoins that we have and we must first exchange them to Fiat to make some bill payments.
This is because the country I live in also cannot accept bitcoin and regulations that apply only as commodities, cannot be used as legal tender.

But when it comes to digital money in the form of Fiat I often use it to pay bills and pay for some food at restaurants or street food that accepts digital payments.

I can spend for gift cards on bitrefill, but that is more or less it. That includes buying phone topups for calls and data. Have not tried buying any other services yet, more are being added everyday there.

I hope the crypto policies in more countries change with time such that users owning bitcoin can still spend some as they wish for daily necessities and luxuries. There is the chance to spend it on casinos and exchanges. However being very diligent about my investments and holdings I dont spend bitcoins there.

There is a large population in this world, who are willing to do KYC and spend their coins to get fiat and add it to their fiat accounts but laws and taxes are become the blockades.

I think if you're buying something simple and not requiring a warranty, it's fine to pay unofficially. But very often you need customer protection, so it's better to pay by official means.

Bitcoin is hard to spend in day to day but I like to keep it as a SoV. Maybe if LN gets full adoption this will get better but who knows!

This is a very good idea when going to a store to buy some furniture or accessories. After all, there is no harm in asking. But I think when we have merchants as friends it's much easier to ask and to make a deal with bitcoin, because we have intimacy with them for that.

Unfortunately I don't see opportunities to use bitcoin as money very often. When purchasing goods, I always do a careful research for the cheapest item of the model I'm looking for and it ends that the best promotions disponible are always in fiat. Maybe people living closer to the big urban centers are able to find offers they can pay with bitcoin more frequently.

Transacting with a friend is better than not using Bitcoin as payment at all, I suppose, but it's also sad that it's not possible to pay directly in shops. Where I'm from, it's also not commonly possible to pay with cryptos. I think most people at this point don't even prioritize the role of Bitcoin as a payment, and focus instead on it as a form of investment. As for me, I must admit, I usually sell some BTC for fiat to spend it. Other than that, I spend it on some donations to my country because of the war. At the current level of adoption, one's options to spend Bitcoin depend on one's location and perseverance heavily.

The country where I live has placed a complete ban on crypto including crypto mining. So there is no question of using Bitcoin here and I know this is the case in many countries. To use crypto as a mainstream payment method there are many issues in Bitcoin that need to be addressed like scalability, fee etc. For me Bitcoin is a heaven that allows me to receive funds world wide that otherwise was not possible.

To be honest, Binance makes it easier for me to use Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin isn't allowed in my country I can't use direct Bitcoin anywhere. But I can make it cash instantly from the Binance P2P exchange. I feel quite secure there and very rare chance of cheat. Buyers pay first before I release funds. So faking transaction details will lead to a ban and freeze of Binance accounts. That's how I use my crypto assets in real life. I don't need to look for sources where accept Bitcoin.

Like every month for me, because I treat my bitcoin like cash, so like every month I have to pay some of my bills through our local exchanges (yeah, I know there is still a 3rd party, a middleman), but for me this is a good exercise. And then some PayPal transaction here and there for online. So mostly I'm doing digital money as well. Although I say that I still uses my cash more often but now I have options in crypto.

indeed, the p2p service of binance is quite helpful to many, which i am also a frequent user. sometimes the rate is much better if you compare it to your local exchange. you can directly convert your crypto to your local fiat if your country is listed in their services. the convenience here is that there are several methods available, not only thru banks. just check the availability depending on your country.
i seldom use crypto to pay online as the charges are quite expensive. but before i did use it to pay like the domain name, when the fees were still cheap.

For Bitcoin, not so much actually. I usually ended up converting them to PHP so that I can use them to buy whatever I want. It is not that "direct" method of payment since it involved fiat still.
For digital money, it's daily for me now. There are plenty of QR codes out there almost here in my area where you would just scan using an app and the payment confirmation would go through so that you would be able to verify if you really wanted to pay that amount. I used local apps here in my country like GCash. Just bought Steam Wallet using that app yesterday, speaking of.

Not every neighborhood can use bitcoin to buy something in the place they are. Even now that bitcoin price is low the price of Bitcoin you have in usdt is still same value, so if you were using bitcoin to purchase something online when the price is high, nothing has changed for it, if you want to purchase something the value of the thing you want to buy will be same value, except you will say that because bitcoin falling down what you gain from trading or the area you get Bitcoin is not enough to get what you need online, because myself i have not stopped buying gas with bitcoin even as the price is up

at least you have succeeded in using and utilizing bitcoin in your life. and it proves that bitcoin in the future will be much more people who will start to feel the benefits and use it in their daily lives. and sooner or later bitcoin will become part of everyone's daily life in the future.

If cryptos will be tax on your country then yes the situation can changed and those shops that once supports crypto are I think not going to support crypto anymore because they are also afraid to get taxed.

You know many of us don't want to get taxed and this is also the reason why they use cryptos because cryptos are not tied from the governments or maybe if that law has been passed, cryptos are now also going to be encouraged more by the government and many shops are going to support cryptos and they won't mind the tax part as long as they can try this new payment method as it looks so innovative as when compared to the usual fiat.

I only widthdraw and transact with bitcoin and other altcoins if i really need some money. If i earn as well, it is my chance to get some portion of it and eat or buy some things for myself.

Shoping ang paying with Bitcoin is much easier than paying cash especially when you didn't bring any cash with you.

Fortunately, there is a local exchange in our country that offers easy and convenient conversion rates of BTC (or any other altcoin) to cash. Not only do you convert them quickly (rates are much lower) but you can also use such money to pay for various of services and products, such as paying the bills, ordering some food, etc.

While this feature may seem convenient, the problem with this is that the local exchange requires tons of KYC documents to the point that it asks for your ITRs, source of income, etc. While this may be also the case, I think it is just and fair that the exchange requires these documents as it is also for our protection in case the government freezes our accounts in the event of a huge transaction.

KYC process is necessary for security. just like in major exchanges when I register, I am required to KYC for convenience and to eliminate certain restrictions. maybe if bitcoin starts to be used by a country in physical transactions then kyc will definitely also be applied for security or for other reasons such as the obligation to pay taxes. I read the news that in Indonesia a tax for cryptocurrencies has started to apply. then of course its citizens are required to do KYC for the sake of calculating taxes by the state which will be applied to every citizen who uses cryptocurrency transactions such as bitcoin.

Specially on Binance and since im an active user of p2p system then you do really need to get verified before you could really make use of such feature which is something that cant really be avoided or simply

you could opt in or opt out depending on your needs and we know that active buy and selling could really make profits somehow even on smallest margin and this is why i dont bother my information to leak out

as long i do currently able to benefit on whats im been engaging on.Spending your coins isnt a bad idea and this would vary on someones goals and perspective into their investments.

Well, I prefer hodling the Bitcoin until the perceived far far future when you can buy anything with it. Such a future is very close actually. You can already buy cars, plane tickets, hotel rooms for renting and amazon, steam and other coupons. So could you survive with nothing but using Bitcoin as a payment system and still lead an enjoyable life? Definitely. Those payment options will only become more and more as Bitcoin is adopted.

But currently? Better to hodl.

Good to made that but actually it will always depend on financial capabilities of the holders or even how far their tolerance level on struggling market especially on ehat we see this days. If all people could hold and extend their patience unto this maybe as what you said we can enjoy this later on because for sure in future the price will soar up high and those lucky hodlers only will get benefits on it.

I'm newbie in cryptocurrency like bitcoin and other digital money

The question might not be "how often", but "how willing" are you to spend Bitcoin more often (If that is possible) in your area. Since most of the people in crypto space are keeping every fraction of Btc to save for the next bullrun. To make things short, most people treat Bitcoin as a store of value more than a currency.

We have not much of an option here in the 3rd world county, especially in a rural places like where I am currently situated to pay something in Btc simply because you can't barely find someone accepting Btc. However, I have to agree with you that because there is no writing about a merchant not accepting Bitcoin doesn't mean they automatically rejects Bitcoin as payment, we could always ask.

I totally agree with you firstly that people will definitely be reluctant to spend their Bitcoin directly in purchasing goods/services when in most cases you have bought your BTC at a higher price hance you want to keep them so that we can make profits from them.
I don't think it is just the third world countries, I suppose not every area even in the developed countries you will find where to spend your BTC directly and your last comment reminded me of this post which is true. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5401052.0

I transact using bitcoin a good bit.  If you look through my post history you'll see that I do a lot of transacting in the collectibles section. We buy/sell coins and other types of collectibles such as magazines or art and there is a rule that bitcoin must be offered as a means of payment, so we all use bitcoin to purchase things every day. I also use it for small things here and there but I do with there was more of an opportunity to do so.  I think this will simply come with time.

Bitcoin: almost never.

Digital money: a couple of times per week.

Having available and easily accessible exchangers is good most especially if you are really the type of person who uses digital money in purchasing goods and services. This is also an advantage for those people who reside in a place where the usage of bitcoin as payment method isn't much adopted. This way, we can still spend money without having to be troubled so much.

In terms of KYC, yes, most platforms really require it nowadays as per request of the central organizations as well. This is for them to ensure that there would be no illegal activities conducted in the platform as well as to monitor the taxation. This is a disadvantage for those people who aren't really fond of KYC because of personal reasons. Although there are still few exchangers that don't require such. You only need to keep finding closely.

Have not done that before reasons being that it is difficult to see any local shop in my country that accepts bitcoin payment. Honestly I think it will be wonderful if shops in my country will adopt bitcoin payment because it will save us the stress of converting bitcoin to our local currency before making payments...

If it's bitcoin or crypto, I don't spend it as much as I can. I treat those assets as my long term investments. I will just spend all of it when I retire or there is an emergency.

For digital money, if we are talking about real money stored in digital wallets then I use them often whenever it's possible on paying bills or buying groceries. I save some money that way rather than withrawing it on an atm because I only spend exactly what I need.

I myself have never either. the problem is almost the same as yours. But I'm a little interested in the way the OP dares to ask directly the shop owner who doesn't have any writing on accepting bitcoin payments. I also tried it yesterday at a convenience store, asking if I can pay with bitcoin or other crypto? and apparently he didn't accept it, but what surprised me was that the shop owner also knew about crypto and instead took a long time to talk with him.  ;D

And he found out that there was a friend's shop not far from there that accepted crypto payments. but his friend runs an electronics shop and repair service he said his friend prefers to be paid with stablecoins, but sometimes his friends also accept bitcoin and Tron. But I haven't tried to go to the shop because I'm just trying to ask the shop that I usually pass by after work. maybe next time if I have a need for electronic repair services I will try it.

High volatility is the usual reason of these merchants not to accept crypto.
But I believe this perspective will change over time as the adoption increases.
Once these shops understand the potential of crypto payments, they would be willing to add crypto payment.
But for now, let us be grateful that we can easily convert our crypto to fiat, and then, use it to whatever we need.

I have never. but interested in doing so in the future if any shop writes that it accepts bitcoin or cryptocurrency payments. Honestly, I was a little stressed when I first sold my crypto on an exchange and exchanged it into fiat or my country's money, because when I was about to make a withdrawal to my bank account it turned out to be a pretty big fee cut for me. At that time I had a slight need of about 5-7 US dollars and when I was going to withdraw to my bank account it turned out that the fee that was cut was also almost 2 US dollars. Ah, it's very annoying when the money to be withdrawn is small and is used up by fees. maybe if I withdraw a lot then it won't be a problem with such a big fee cut. so I also think it would be more practical if there is a need in small quantities we shop using direct payments with crypto. whether it be with bitcoin or something else. because the fee will not be too large when sending directly from a personal wallet.

Is there an exchange where fiat withdrawals to bank accounts have very low fees?

Same with me, this is only happen if I am going to cash out to fiat via a certain local exchange in my country. It is very easy and with very low fee of withdrawal for cashing out.

Unfortunately, this is only able to be done in certain countries that have merchants that accept crypto as one of the payment methods. But, it seems cannot happen in my country because crypto is still illegal if used as a payment method or as a currency. So, this is only used as a commodity asset with our own risks.

To convert your crypto to fiat and instantly withdraw to your bank account cheaply. You can take advantage of p2p on binance. but you have to do KYC first. And depends on which country you live. if in Indonesia you can use the very cheap Tokocrypto exchange in fiat withdrawals to an account of around $ 0.5 dollars. Binance can also be connected to Tokocrypto and withdrawn from Tokocrypto to a bank account. because tokocrypto and binance can be linked.

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well, it can be more practical to pay with crypto directly without having to convert it into fiat first. and transactions are more transparent when using a personal wallet.
I've had problems with withdrawing my fiat from the exchange. it was around the middle of 2021, I withdrew about $250 dollars into my account from an exchange and I waited a few hours and it turned out that my money had not yet arrived in my bank account. I contacted the customer service exchange and asked. and they just told to wait 24 hours. I'm waiting too. and after 24 hours it turns out that my money hasn't come in either. I also called back to the CS exchange and their response really pissed me off. they confirmed or stated that my money was already in my bank account. I was very upset at that time. I also provide authentic evidence that no money entered my bank account. And they checked again and told to wait again 24 hours. I also waited patiently and it turned out that my money had not entered my bank account after 2x24 hours. and then I called back because there was no further confirmation or response from CS exchange. and it turned out that CS just explained that there was a problem or error blah blah blah. and it turns out that at that time when I saw the group chat exchange, many experienced the same problem at that time. and my money was returned to my exchange account after 3 or 4 days.
from there I started my adventure asking shops and my friends about payments with crypto. because I'm afraid the same thing will happen again. But lately, problems like the one I experienced rarely happen anymore. because a few days ago I also pulled fiat from the exchange a few times and it worked fine.

it's new and impressive. Real P2P in the real world. Your story describes a community that does exchange and it is possible that there will be applications similar to crypto providers.
You are in the same country as me, my friend.
maybe individual marketplaces will adopt something like OlX maybe, or something similar.
I know crypto since 2013 and at that time I didn't realize the potential. I just spent my time on the exchange and didn't know the surrounding community. At least I tried 2018 by exchanging my airdrop tokens with friends for 100,000 satoshi/ mbtc. also a simple bag at a price of 300,000 satosi at that time.

In fact, why is it not legal in our country, because of the views of some religious leaders and similar observers who are burdensome in terms of measuring values ​​that can go up and down in an instant without anyone's control.
As for privacy and personal, I think P2p can also develop with its own time. Along with the habits that occur in the community or cryptocurrencies activists.

I only did it once and it happened unexpectedly and also happened at a very confusing time and bitcoin is the solution, because I made transactions using bitcoins with the right person and also at the right time which happened unexpectedly and you can see it here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5401052.0

bitcoin or other crypto is very useful when we don't have cash in situations and circumstances that we can't do due to circumstances, and other problems in the country where I live bitcoin is prohibited from being used as a type of transaction so no shop or anything is done and only allowed for investment.
but we can still use it privately or transact with fellow bitcoin users and although we can only invest due to certain factors and one day we will do it unexpectedly and this makes us love bitcoin even more because it can help us unexpectedly in chaotic situations.

My country don't offer much things to do with Bitcoin unfortunately but im using crypto to buy some games online or for some refill, also i use it sometimes for gambling and I really wish i could fo more things with my crypto in the near future

At least twice a week and most of those transactions are from the online MMORPG that I'm currently playing right now and the good thing with it is they added NFT as well as one of their main tourist attractions. It is reasonable to add bitcoins as their accepted payment as well because, with this kind of scenario, I think there are lots of people who are onto NFTs and will gonna join the game soon. Considering the number of people who are playing NFT games that are free to play nowadays, it is obvious for some MMORPGs out there to add NFT or crypto-related features to their games in order to catch up with the trend. so Yeah! I spend a lot here to invest and earn more.

I also only hold my bitcoins and only use bitcoin when really have no other choice but then I will find a way to buy them back when can, for me, I want to hold bitcoin as much as I can.

We all invest in bitcoin with the sole goal of wanting it to help us have a better life in the future, so using it now looks like a waste.
Holding will not create real value for bitcoin, I will only use bitcoin for spending when it hits the set target .

You may want the shops to accept it, but at the end of the day it is going to come with a lot of laws as well when you hope for something like that. If the laws are too strict to make it reasonable, then shops accepting it makes no sense at all to me.

I rather have no places accept it, and then just have the fact that crypto is a bit more gray, or at least the laws are not that much strict and we would definitely be profiting from it for sure. This isn't a guaranteed thing of course, but it is definitely something that would help us more. Hence, I do not spend bitcoin all that much in my regular life, just use it as an asset, but at least better than a liability.

It is understandable that everyone has planned about his/her Bitcoin holding but we also need to understand that we have to use Bitcoin as payment so that it can achieve the purpose of its creation. Meanwhile, I mostly spend BTC during the ATH price while I usually hold and buy my internet subscription online using BTC sometime.

I rarely do buy and selling transactions with bitcoin, even so, I am very happy with transactions via bitcoin and have done it several times...

I quite often make transactions with digital fiat money (not crypto currency). I have an online shop account for women's accessories that I sell on several e-commerce sites. because the transactions that occur there are very high, so I have to have the funds that I store in the account.

in indonesia (my country) buying and selling transactions with bitcoin is still prohibited, I certainly really hope that one day Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be used as legal payment options.

The access to spend in terms of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were very limited in my region. Maybe I can experience this in the future. As of now I haven't made any transaction in exchange for services/products. In the coming weeks I want to send bitcoin to my friend. I borrowed fiat from my friend and recently he mentioned about his interest into cryptocurrency. Now he had a good portfolio, so I've planned to send the borrowed amount in the form of bitcoin or ethereum.

I haven't been opportuned to exhange bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for an life commodity before but be rest assured, when am faced with this opportunity, I'll sure utilise it for the sake of it and the testimonial is sure to reflect on this forum.
The closest I've done is to exchange bitcoin for fiat and then get to shop with it. It's hoped me more than once before. Days before and in some real emergency situations I transfer coin from my wallet to an exchange with a high fee and meet up with what ever transaction that was up for the day.
It might be difficult now and unpopular to use actual bitcoin in our daily activities but, the time would surely come.

Not all parts of the world does have that kind of opportunity on making yourself able to spend your crypto on services or merchants around thats why not all would really be having that kind of experience or opportunities.

Even myself on where i do live which i dont see anything for me to make use.Yes, its sad on some point but at the same time it is a good call since you could save up even more since you arent that spending.

On the time that it would be recognized and adoption is high then you would definitely able to make use of those coins and it actually be depending on you.

I hardly carryout transactions in the real world using bitcoin, I have never purchased anything using Bitcoin. I just want to try it one day and transact using Bitcoin because it appear to be simpler than using fiat money. I hardly have enough money to hodl, much less buy anything. Yes, I'm struggling to save every bitcoin I can get my hands on right now, so buying things with it is currently out of the question.

It depends on how you define the words carry out transactions in Bitcoin because if you sell your BTC bag for fiat currency you have indirectly done a transaction through BTC.
Meanwhile, I do real-world transactions in BTC almost every month because that is the mode I use to pay for my internet network service.

In my country we can't buy anything using digital currencies like Bitcoin. But we can convert it to our local currency and can easily use it to buy or pay anyone.

If you consider using a third-party payment system the same as paying with bitcoin directly, then I can say almost every time I pay my bills.  I also use BTC when I am paying for online purchases such as pc applications like antivirus, VPN services, cloud storage services, etc.  I never connect my bank account online so I always pay with cryptocurrency using a crypto payment gateway.

It's the same in my country. but I pay directly with BTC only to people I know. like my friend's Store. and some shops that I know the owners of. but there are some shops too which i accidentally asked him that does he know bitcoin? and the shop owner found out. he even made an investment too. so i asked if can i pay with BTC directly. and he said yes. so basically even though a store doesn't have a 'accept bitcoin as payment' notice board. but the truth is that many shopkeepers know bitcoin and invest in it. even though the shop doesn't have a brand that accepts bitcoin.

but for daily shopping, it is more convenient to first convert to fiat currency. because many merchants can't even pay with digital money. and only accept cash with fiat money.

But in my country, Indonesia, coin applications are starting to appear that can pay for food and shopping at online shops and offline shops and cafes, minimarkets and hotels without the need to convert to fiat first. the important thing is that the shop supports payments via scanning the QRIS code. The name of Apk is Qoinpay. The way to pay is also quite easy, namely by just scanning the QRIS code. no fees. aka free .If there are Indonesians and later it will also be available for other countries, especially Asia and want to try it, please download it here https://www.qoinpay.id/

Support for Bitcoin, KUNCI coin, Ethereum, BNB and other. You can pay with your cryptocurrency with easy. without the need to change to fiat

https://i.imgur.com/8vLpMfo.png
https://i.imgur.com/OX811M2.png

I just found out about this Qoinpay, and it was also officially launched at the Coinfest Asia event on August 25-26 2022. Qoinpay is an application made by Indonesian children that acts as the first crypto utility platform in Indonesia. Of course, this will be a platform that many crypto users in Indonesia have been waiting for. Qoinpay will enliven the crypto industry in Indonesia and clearly become a new color for crypto transactions, and Qoinpay is a startup that participates in developing the digital economy in Indonesia.

As an Indonesian, I also welcome the launch of Qoinpay, so that crypto transactions can be done.
But my question is, does the regulation allow crypto assets to be used as a means of payment other than rupiah?

Yeah I also just found out about Qoinpay I only realized now after Ahli38 stated about this Qoinpay, so Qoinpay is very new and I honestly passed the Coinfest Asia news because there were other needs so I didn't see more news myself, but still happy with it new startup back in the new digital world.

Have you installed this application?

It seems that in Indonesia there are still no regulations regarding this and the legal means of payment is rupiah, not crypto assets but these are only commodity assets that we store.

Nowadays I buy anything non-physical using crypto, from different kind of apps to online courses, kind of getting hard finding a website that sells those but don't accept crypto lately.

But as for the offline purchases and those which you have to physically go to the store and buy them such as groceries or clothes which you have to try-on before buying them, that's not an option for me personally as where I live crypto is not accepted for those kinds of stuff, but 4-5 years from now I could see a good number of real world offline stores in almost all countries supporting crypto payment as an option.

It feels a bit for me like lightning is advancing really fast to become the "money in the wallet that you have in your pocket" kind of thing, whereas on chain is becoming more like a savings account.

In terms of spending, I think it's way simpler to make way more small lightning payment than on chain ones. But after certain threshold it makes more sense to do an on chain payment.

Also with things like the bolt card you will start to see more common lightning payments in a few years.