Bitcoin Forum

Now that we can seamlessly convert dollars to bitcoin from most bank accounts and we can spend most everywhere with gyft or bitcoin directly, there is no excuse not to convert your monthly discretionary income into Bitcoin.

To complain about the price and not be moving your spending to bitcoin simply means you have bought into something that you yourself do not understand or support.

Each to their own... I guess

For meantime still being few companies that accept BTC as a part of payment, will be difficult to ask people the conversion because the one who didn't do say the main problem is shops don't get the coin. But if you're consider yourself a Bitcoin supporter, excuses no more. Lead by doing it.

OP is assuming everyone here on the forum lives in the U.S. In other parts of the world, things you can buy with bitcoin is still very limited. Does your local supermarket accepts bitcoin?

Exactly right. 
Being most people's basic expenses are shelter, fuel, and food - who's landlord or mortgagee accepts bitcoin?
Can you buy gasoline with bitcoin yet?  Don't think so.

Interesting that you mention gasoline.  I have on many occasions touted gasoline as the ULTIMATE use case for bitcoin.

Typically, store owners pay huge fees on those transactions.  Like, their fees can easily equal their profit margins.  Bitcoin could, theoretically, dominate gasoline purchases because of the FAR lower transaction costs.

Don't be silly. Most places DON'T accept bitcoin.

Many businesses support Bitcoin payments, They pricing are based on Bitcoin price instead of Bitcoin.

The one good thing about the falling bitcoin price is that it will encourage people to spend it.  Previously when people were watching the price rocket upwards in a seemingly one way trend it was silly to spend bitcoins unless you absolutely had to.

As for spending bitcoins 'most everywhere', bitcoins represent 0% of my yearly discretionary spending.  The local supermarkets, hardware stores, computer stores, sports stores, etc do not take bitcoin and it's not possible to buy gift cards using bitcoins for those stores either.  Most people live outside the USA.

I would disagree. There are a very large number of merchants that either directly, or indirectly accept bitcoi payments. Many places that accept bitcoin indirectly do so via gyft. I would say that, based on total transaction volume of the merchants, you can spend bitcoin at majority of places

So let's see now....

Mortgage/rent. NO
Council tax. NO
Weekly food shop. NO
Electricity. NO
Water. NO
Gas. NO
Car fuel. NO
Car parts/repairs. NO
Various insurances. NO
Phone/internet. NO
Local pub for drink. NO
99.99% of friends, in private transactions. NO

Tell me again why I would want to convert all my wages to bitcoin?

I trade Bitcoin as stock, in fact no one wants to buy goods by btc, just make money.

Let me translate your first post real quick:


"Even though buying BTC to spend them around is dumb, has no purpose (unless it's drugs on tor markets) and people can lose a lot of money and purchasing power in a short period of time doing it, they should do it anyway because I want to get rich quick".


That's pretty much what you just said.

In the UK, you can pretty much buy anything indirectly with bitcoin (Including groceries, petrol and, clothes) using places like...

  http://cryptodechange.com/
  http://pock.io/

So I convert my wages to bitcoin, then convert them to gift cards, then go shopping.

Why?

Does the USA really have that much market penetration?

I thought it was more accepted in places like Germany and Canada.

I'm moving to another country (srsly) that is more BTC friendly, does that count  ;D

Cavirtex offers a debit card for use at POS, ATMs etc.

1. I'm not a Canadian citizen.
2. I might as well use my existing debit card my wages go into.
3. Didn't answer my question of why?

You might prefer to keep your funds in Bitcoin for security, privacy or other reasons.

The card just adds convenience.

problem would be solved if bitcoin goes to price $1 and top1000 bitcoin owners sell 90% of their stash then.  So bitcoin really seriously spread.

"Stephen Cotton attempted to withdraw £7,000, a little over $11,500, from his HSBC account in the United Kingdom. Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 program Money Box, he recounted how staff at the branch refused to allow him to withdraw the money without an explanation of why he needed it, in addition to proof. In this case, Mr. Cotton intended to repay a loan from his mother. The bank demanded he produce a letter from her, verifying this. Cotton then found himself in the position of haggling with staff over how much he could actually withdraw; finally, he was allowed to take out £3,000."
Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/money-in-the-bank-no-longer-belongs-to-you/#EPv8dG31Qaff16M9.99

DieJohnny is right, if all 10 of you that are reading this thread would start to just.... oh wait

What's going on in the trader's mind is irrelevant.  His or her bitcoins are worth only what the market will pay for them today.

When I went to apply for a mortgage the bank wanted to know how much my share portfolio is worth today.  They didn't want to know that some of the shares were worth 20% more 2 years ago.  That was irrelevant to the actual value today.

The trader who bought for $1100 would be quite happy to part with their bitcoins for $300 if the price continues to fall below $300 and doesn't recover.  As the saying goes, everyone has a price.

Discretionary income?  If you have discretionary income it means your electricity bill is too low - solution: you need to be running more miners :)

Don't look at this too much as a debt conspiracy.  The truth is that withdrawing cash is pretty much irreversible just like bitcoin.  So it suffers from the same "impedence mismatch" as CC to BTC conversions (for example).  Here's a scam I heard about from a banker when opening a checking account:  The perp digs thru trash for a bank statement.  Then gets a good fake drivers' license made up.  Showed up in person and used it to change all the account details, PIN, etc.  Go to ATMs, etc and withdraw maximum daily cash for weeks until the account owner notices.  Rinse and repeat.  This happened in NYC so there was essentially an infinite # of ATMs to withdraw from.  The only downside is of course his face on all the banks and ATM cameras...

You know I watched this exact line of reasoning take place in someone I know well.

They bought 1 BTC last year in run up at about $200 and got super excited as they watched it rise... I warned them, it will go up for so long, but be prepared for when it comes down. Oh yeah, don't worry I'm in it for the long haul they said. I said just imagine that you have already lost the money, write it off and sit tight. Don't worry they said.

Then the top was in, the price wavered, and dipped. They worried, I reminded them that I said this would happen. They worried.

Then we bounced, back up we started to go towards ~$600 again They then told me I'm just waiting for it to hit ~$1600 (that was 1000gbp) then I think I'll sell. I sighed.

Then they watched it slide for months on end... until eventually, about a fortnight ago, they said £200 and its yours (at the time it was worth about £240). I said "are you serious!?" of course I'll buy it off you!!!

Then *they* asked me if *I* was serious!? Well at this point I was just lost, what on earth is going through their mind?? Then I thought about the classic cycle of greed and fear, and realised that was exactly what I was looking at here. The fear had overcome all rational thought, nothing about the BTC long term binary bet value proposition had changed, if anything the odds were improving all the time.

Their rationale was they had held it for a year and made £80. A 60% rise is not to be sniffed at, they locked in gains. Again, a great strategy. They walked away from the trade 'not holding the bag'. All very admirable.

Except all of that is what you say after you have somehow thrown out every single shred of what you believed when you first entered the trade. Right at the start £120 was an insignificant amount, an amount you were happy to risk on a potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to be in at the start of something big. When it all looks rosy. 12 months later though, your are justifying throwing all that away because you can lock in £80 of profit.

So yes, I agree that there are plenty of people out there that think there bitcoin is worth what the market will pay for them today. That have totally lost sight of the fact that investment is thinking about what something will be worth in 10 or 20 years time.

More fool them.

so the price goes up

My favorite reply by far ! :) + 1

Most people here are just gamblers. Either betting on the upside or the downside.