Bitcoin Forum

I want to know if people are seeing bitcoin pop up as a medium to pay.

Want it in my city, unfortunately, dont see it.

Where are the best places to live that take bitcoin?

Impressions I have are...

#1, Amsterdam, Netherlands very into bitcoin.

#2, 3, 4 etc, Not sure of exact rank but Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, San Fran and bay area, Portland, NYC, London  etc all have active scenes.

Berlin is also a good choice as far as I know.

it is true that unless you live in a big city, you can't use bitcoin easily.

You have to look at this with perspective, I think that we are still in an early phase, First the internet has to be filled with shops accepting bitcoin and after that more physical shops will be available

Be already happy because you have some shops accepting it .
In my country they dont even know what online shopping is . Yep imagine what i feel .

I use it almost every day but I do most of my commerce online.

Give it time.

And promote it on your own.

Ask merchants/retailers if they accept, and encourage them if they are not and are considering it.

I heard Las Vegas has a bitcoin scene. There are some bitcoin ATMs and probably a few shops that accept it for face to face transactions.

where do you live? Hard to get internet or just not particular with online shopping?

Any real casino accept BTC at las Vegas ?

I can spend my bitcoins where ever I want using my Xapo debit card  ;D

Why would you even try to use Bitcoin everyday? Card works fine for me, and I don't see why would I take the trouble of paying by Bitcoin when there is no advantage.

In Zagreb, Croatia we have Bitcoin ATM in one coffe shop, recently installed so now i can change to fiat there when needed. There are only two places where you actualy can buy something with BTC in whole country i think but before few months there was nothing so that is great progress. Things are moving but i wish they move lot faster. Croatia have millions of tourists every year and that would be benefitial for both Bitcoin and our economy lol.

Where I stay people are quite oblivion about existence of bitcoin, nevertheless it's even rare to find shops that accept bitcoin as payment mode. But never mind, I still use it for internet purchases, paying for services I acquire in the forum and such, so it still holds some value as people will readily accept it.

Right about the Netherlands, wrong about Amsterdam.

The absolute #1 Bitcoin City is actually Arnhem (also in the Netherlands). See this CoinTelegraph article (http://cointelegraph.com/news/113262/my-experience-in-bitcoin-city-arnhem) from a reporter who went there to spend some coins. Fucking awesome if you ask me: hotel, supermarket, bike shop, car business, hair salon, gift shops, tons of bars and restaurants, you name it, and they accept Bitcoin. Several ATMs in town as well.

There are some initiatives going on in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities as well, and I hope they catch up soon, but they're nowhere near the same level of Bitcoin acceptence yet.

Netherlands is a good country to start off, also Isle of Man seems to have a lot of btc use.
I don't get why you would want to live off bitcoin though, there are no real benefits yet, you should just use more standard currency. 
I think you can get a xapo debit card and use bitcoins more easily, not sure how that works though.

Just wait till it gets more mainstream and then you'll be able to. Changing places to live off of Bitcoin doesn't really sound like a good idea.

My best suggestion is to find another altcoin moving more freely in your community/city/... (one of the 2000 odd so far created maybe)  convert the portion of your BTC you wish to spend to that alt coin and be able to spend your alt coin.

Its just a matter of time before people start using Bitcoin every day! Remember paypal, webmoney and others?
We use them everyday now don't we?

If you can pay your card bills with Bitcoin, nothing like it.  :)

Paypal and webmoney people don't use everyday... I think that bitcoin is not useful in the normal every day life. Maybe in USA it's possible, but in others countries no...

Infrastructure is still being built. Five years on many more peeps living on bitcoin.

We will see it :)

Let me rephrase this again: in the Netherlands (Arnhem in particular), you can pay with Bitcoin in all sorts of every day life businesses: hotel, supermarket, bike shop, car business, hair salon, gift shops, tons of bars and restaurants, you name it, and they accept Bitcoin. Several ATMs in town as well. And many more cities (in Europe, USA, everywhere) are following in the same track.

Source: CoinTelegraph (http://cointelegraph.com/news/113262/my-experience-in-bitcoin-city-arnhem)

You CAN use Bitcoin every day!

You can add Bali, Boston to that as well.

Be sides the city which they mention, you can visit Bali, there are hotel, restaurant, merchandise who accept bitcoin.

If you want it in your city then why dont you make something in your city and start selling your service or product for Bitcoin? someones got to take the first step

On my country , only a few merchant that still accept bitcoin.

Bali is the few one.

Bitcoin still need a time to rooting all store as a valid payment

well some of us can't even use bitcoin for single purpose. because we don't have any options to spend bitcoin in Bangladesh.

I use it at least weekly. Mostly online, but increasingly I find places IRL. The reason I do it is because I care about my private information. Using a card requires giving all the information needed to steal from me to a stranger. Those days are over for me. I also use it for travel. Its' awesome to have money that works all over the world. I also like to OWN my wealth, not store it someone's fed coupons. 

See it as a chance to create options ;D

But the bitcoin may be stolen from you too. So, the different entry fiat money and bitcoin in that case not so much, us we would like it be.

But with Bitcoin, that is within my own power. I don't have to trust some random stranger, as is the case with credit cards (and to certain extent, with bank accounts as well).

With credit cards, you're essentially giving away your private key to random strangers, hoping they will only withdraw (from your account) what you owe them, and not empty your balance, or store your details in some stupid way so hackers will get their hands on it. Hardly needs explanation why this is wrong on SO many levels. Hence the hundreds of millions (at best, probably billions) of annual credit card fraud. And then there's even people saying "yes, but we're insured against that". Guess who pays that insurance. Hint: not the banks or the credit card companies.

That's why fiat have a central authority to try to stop hackers & thieves. If you dropped your credit card in the middle of the street and someone used it, the bank is going to help you. You'll probably get all your money back even though it was your fault.

With bitcoins, you're on your own. If you dropped your paper wallet, no one is going to help you. The same could be said about cash, but that's why I use plastic instead of cash most of the time.

Both are right , but at the present time you can't use bitcoin as like cards or cash, we need a infrastructure, to spend it where we want, so companies which going to do it, will want to revenue and it means that they grow up the fees for every transaction.

In the end, who's paying for that service, you think?

And besides, I've witnessed enough cases where people were sloppy with their credit card details, got ripped off (due to their own stupidity), and their bank didn't cover them.

Obviously nobody is gonna walk around with paper wallets (that's explicitly not what they're intended for). And for normal Bitcoin wallets, no one needs to help.
1. Password, so if I lose my wallet, nobody can spend it.
2. Backups, so if I lose my wallet, I can restore it.

Huh? What do you mean, infrastructure. Bitcoin IS its own infrastructure.

I am using Bitcoin on a daily basis, in the same way I was using cards or cash back in the old days. Except faster, and cheaper, and less dependent of 3rd party companies like banks.

But how you using it? I mean, do you use your own wallet? I think no, also, we speak about spending BTC offline, how you going to do that, without infrastructure?

On my Android phone, I use Mycelium (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycelium.wallet) and Bitcoin Wallet (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet). On my iPad, I use breadwallet (https://itunes.apple.com/app/breadwallet/id885251393)

All three are excellent, stable, fast, user friendly wallets.

When I come in the supermarket, or in a restaurant, or bar, when it's time to pay, I ask "I'd like to pay that with Bitcoin please" and they say "yes sir!" and grab their own tablet or whatever they have (some shops have got it a cash register interface on a netbook or something, with Bitcoin integrated).

And in 1-2 seconds, I pay with Bitcoin, and done.

As for "offline": I mean spending in an actual, physical, brick-and-mortar shops, rather than online / webshops. Obviously there is still internet involved (as is also the case with bank cards / wire payments, credit cards, etc). But it's 2015, everybody's got mobile data, and there's also WiFi in most places.

Again, read this article on CoinTelegraph (http://cointelegraph.com/news/113262/my-experience-in-bitcoin-city-arnhem) from a reporter who tried it and found out for himself just how far every day Bitcoin usage has come already.

With a bitcoin wallet on your smartphone.

Ha ha.. Didn't the Central Bank say you can be jailed for using Bitcoin?

That is, around 95% of the world is outside places where spend BTC is easy

duty to introduce the bitcoin in your city. you learn here and if you are old enough to understand you can tell them. if that happens, you will be the hero in your town: D

Certainly true. I have to do my own security because my bitcoins are mine alone. I have little fear of theft however, to get any sizable amount would require breaking into my safe deposit box. Then you would still have to find and decrypt the wallet.

P.S. I have never lost a Satoshi to thieves, but I'm on my third replacement bank card in a year.   

But you have to realize that anyone who frequents these forums are much more knowledgeable and smarter than the general public. Almost every day I hear on the news that people are getting scammed because someone called them on their phone saying that they owe the IRS $300 and need to pay right away or else they'll come arrest them. People fall for this and buy Western Union or prepaid debit cards and pay it right away. Obviously you wouldn't fall for that. Neither would I. But thousands of people do fall for it and they cry about it to the news channels. The fact is, the general public is incredibly dumb and gullible. Ask any random person and they wouldn't even know what the word "encryption" means. In a way, you could say bitcoins are for smarter people.
As a side note, you wouldn't believe how many people STILL put their house key under the front door floormats. I don't know that many people, but I know two people who still do that. It's incomprehensible!!!

But what you can buy? You can buy a food? Pay your bills?

It might not be available today widespread, but isn't there ways around it to use Bitcoin for shopping?

Can't you just load up a Xapo Debit card or prefund Gyft?

Yup..just calm your tits..n hold your coins for a few years.!! Revolution will start soon.! so sit back n chill 4 a bit.!

Yeah, i know that already exist some debit card, but when i read the reviews about them, i always see that this product is not useful.

Places you go everyday ask them if they will accept it, even for you - just to start with. shouldn't cost them anything substantial to get set up.

Ofc I'm assuming these places arent all walmarts!

Yeah but that doesn't involve exchanging your fiat for a different currency, they are just ways to exchange your already possessed fiat. With this they need to deal with another currency. Im yet to see a merchant in real life.

The way I see it the more bitcoin we use in various bitcoin companies etc. the more we are supporting bitcoin growth and the better off bitcoin will be. For me this means even if I can't buy lots of things around my area if I have the option to pay for something online with Bitcoin I will even if it is at the cost of a slight premium.

Bitcoin can be use to invest some wealth and store your capital privately.

For now only few of us can use bitcoin everyday!
In future, i'm sure most of use can use bitcoin everyday like use paper money :)

Hope my country accept BTC