Bitcoin Forum

I'm becoming tired of people referring to the value of bitcoins in terms of US dollars. If that's all that we see BTC as, it is really just a financial instrument layered on top of USD.

As such, I'd like to start tracking the value of BTC in terms of Purchasing Power (PP) by calculating and maintaining a specialized Consumer Price Index (CPI) that contains a basket of goods that are commonly purchased with BTC.

The first step is to determine what goods should be included in the basket.

Please list the top 5 things (aside from currency) that you buy with BTC. Bonus points for links to the places that sell them. If you have less than 5, I'd still like your input.

Isn't the price (in bitcoins) those vendors show nearly always just derived from a price in fiat then converted to bitcoins?


Or are you trying to show the affordability to goods in various regions, simply using Bitcoin instead of fiat?  This would be similar to the Big Mac index:
 - http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index

Yes, the Big Mac Index is really just a play off of traditional CPI.

Hopefully I can find some fundamental goods that aren't just a function of fiat (although fiat exchange rates certainly still affect price, just as any currency is interconnected with others).

It is true that most bitcoin sales are now priced in fiat, but it is certainly worth designing such a price index immediately. It could help everyone understand the development of bitcoin over time, and more (accurate) information is almost always a good thing.

Still waiting for responses. Currently I have friends suggesting that VPS' and Domain Names be covered. Are there any other goods that you've bought with BTC?

Jump, good thread but I think the issue is almost ALL products and services sold for Bitcoin, are the price of fiat adjusted to the price of Bitcoin.

The only areas I would see what you are describing, would be regional markets, like a farmers market for food.

Example:
A pound of apples for 0.05 BTC.


Unless the manufacturer or producer of the item that is being sold, has the ability to source everything themselves, it is very hard to price things based on Bitcoin itself, not tied to fiat.

Examples I can think of would be: a farmer, a craftsman, any tradesman, a fisherman.


... and even then, I do think prices will pretty much mirror fiat. :/


EDIT: Nevermind, I think I got your intention now.

I suggest start by indexing the necessities: food, shelter, etc.

Andrew, thanks for your input. I think that, for this to be in any way useful, we need to have the items that are actually purchased in BTC. That is the purpose of this thread.

Have you ever bought anything in BTC?

No.

Since I was not an early adopter I don't have the luxury of having a small investment balloon into a very large one, as those who purchased Bitcoin years ago have experienced.


I have converted fiat into Bitcoin, in hopes it will rise. Until it rises, I do not see a specific advantage to purchase something in Bitcoin, until Bitcoin rises significantly, leaving me with more Bitcoin than I put into it.


That said, many of the merchants selling in Bitcoin cater to individuals who put a little or alot into Bitcoin early on, and saw that rise exponentially, and are now left with a very large amount of Bitcoin they are trying to "get rid of" or reap the benefits of it's rise in value. Therein lies the advantage Bitcoin would have over fiat, in regards to purchasing power, for someone who purchased low.

Bump. Still waiting to hear from someone about what they have spent BTC on.

privateinternetaccess.com

Bought silver, and insert advertising, both OTC. Silver market then promptly crashed, and I haven't sold anything that was on the insert ad.

Leaving out things where the price is linked to USD...

btccharts subscription
oddjobs over the internet such as translation work <- this is in my opinion the killer app of bitcoin

I'm going to leave forms of currency out since the wider forex and commodity markets will dictate their prices in terms of fiat.

I agree that buying services like translation and editing is great, but I'm not sure if we could quantify a value that could be tracked over time through data.

Thank you for the input. Keep 'em coming.

I bought some e-cigarettes from bitcoin-cigarettes.com

and i'm now waiting for my second shipment, i'm planning on buying this stuff on a regular basis, until i can stop smoking completely...

I also bought some hmmmm...

physical bitcoins.

a video card.

1 gram of weed

web hosting

Raybans, web stuff, some silver that was promptly flipped...

If you have found a way for BTC, you will try to find more BTC at this moment.

This is a good list, can I get some links to the sources of these items? I'm hoping to get a preliminary list ready by the beginning of next week.

I bought the obligatory alpaca socks, a hard drive, earphones, a VPS, a couple of t-shirts and a mug.

Can I get links to any of these goods? Alpaca socks sound like an interesting inclusion as a representative of clothing.

Socks: grasshillalpacas.com
Hard drive: bitcoinstore.com
Earphones: can't remember, bitmit I think
VPS: bitvps.com
t-shirts/mug: cafepress.com/bitcoinmegastore

Silver.

Gold.

Computers and computer parts.

Things I buy with bitcoins:
 
1. amazon cards (through gyft.com)
2. ammo (from users on here)
3. guns (from a couple users on here)

Coffee http://bitbrew.net (http://bitbrew.net)  (just got it have not brewed any yet)
Nerd merit badge in 2011 2BTC
have a bid on Blu-Ray DVD but auction is not closed yet

Browse the ratings on http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php - click the numbers in the "numbers of positive ratings sent" column. That will show what people have traded for.