Bitcoin Forum

I am currently investigating possibilities to replace the classic bank account by a set of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency tools, above all for people having difficulties to find a fitting bank. Thus, I'm interested in stories and advice of people who are already trying to live only with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, or at least to use cryptocurrencies for some of their regular expenses.

If there are already "bankless" people here, it would be interesting which services and tools you use. For example:

• Do you use centralized payment services like Bitcoin-filled prepaid cards?
• Is LN for you already an option?
• How do you manage the volatility risk? For example, do you use stablecoins, options or a centralized fiat wallet?
• What about DeFi?
• Do you get some kind of loans outside the banking system, for example, via P2P services?
• How do you deal with taxes and other service payments where the providers often require bank accounts?
• Instead of using banking services, do you have to rely a lot on (fiat) cash?

And so on.

I'm also interested in opinions, but not too trivial/general ones ;)

My opinion: I see great potential in a crypto-based, decentralized banking solution. The biggest obstacle is currently volatility - while it may seem everything's alright when price is going up, I think nobody wants to have to worry that (s)he'll lose half of the value of their salary until the end of the month. I'm currently investigating options and derivatives for this purpose.

PS: I have started a Spanish (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5191854.0) and a German (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5227579.0) thread about possible tools and solutions for "bankless" people. Maybe an English thread will follow.

I'm considerign experimenting with using my coinbase card for my next semester with ~£200 preloaded on my wallet for the 20 weeks just to see if it's possible... I use my phone to pay for stuff everywhere anyway so it makes it easier.

I don't trust stablecoins much yet, we seemed to have USDT selling for 86 cents for a while which would also be rediculous for stability. I don't think it's possible to live without a bank account as most companies say they want to receive funds form an accoutn with your name on it (and even though it's rarely tracked, sometimes it is).

I've recently tried defi on a recommendation and have funds in there a while, haven't tried to withdraw yet though - interest rates also look to have fallen which is good for lenders and traders but bad for investors - still 4% on usd isn't bad. I think the ideas of creating bitcoin credit cards though are still a while away but I've seen some already (although I'm not sure I'd trust them - like crypto.com).

If you're trying to go completely unbanked, I don't think anyone's managed it without needing some sort of cash reserves (or potentially gold/other assets) just to ensure they're not wiped out one day with a huge crash.

Ah, I think I'm way too old school and too set in my ways to try to go bankless--and I freely admit that this is a defect, a lack of adventurousness on my part.  I certainly can't say I like banks or even trust them, but they've been working for me for many years and at this point I don't have any desire to do things differently. 

It's one thing to abandon the use of banks out of a desire for financial freedom and another thing entirely to do so out of necessity.  I'm not sure even the world's unbanked has turned to crypto as a solution.  If there are a significant number of people who can't get banking services for whatever reason and use bitcoin (or some other crypto) instead, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Good luck in your quest, OP.  I am by no means trying to disparage your efforts.

I did it for 3 months by using a BTC prepaid card. Difficult to do something else as long the shops don't accept Bitcoin as a payment means. And while it may look "bankless", it isn't in reality, I mean we still make use of a3rd party (Visa/Mastercard)

You may find yourself limited in its use, for example, to pay the recurring payments (for water, electricity, landlord, insurance, etc). As it's usually paid with a bank transfer, it's extremely difficult or impossible to do otherwise.
Ok for the groceries at the supermarket, ATMs but other than that. Same sometimes if you want to book a hotel, rent a car, you may have difficulties.

I'm virgin with stablecoins because I'm not interested in, and the volatility isn't something that worried me. I loaded only what I need and used it the same hour. It's like with exchanges, you don't store a lot of money in, just what is needed.

If there were a way of avoiding fiat payments completely then I'd do it. Since there isn't then no.

I'd be dependent on third party services to handle that and most of the options in cryptoland aren't competent enough to place my entire life's necessities in. All it takes is one dirty phone call and that debit card you have thousands on suddenly becomes useless.

Why use a shitty 'bank' that could implode any second? May as well use a large and established one.

I don't know where you live, but in Europe, it's impossible to register a car, or buy a house without a bank account.
I also believe it's impossible to pay tax without one, but I have limited experience with tax.

Life without a bank account and using bitcoin as a means of payment in my opinion is a big revolution. I am sure LN will also be very helpful to implement this idea.

But living without a bank account in a country that prohibits bitcoin as a legal payment tool in my opinion is not a good thing, although we can still do it secretly but the adoption rate is still very low.

The pandemic problem also allows bitcoin users to temporarily store their bank accounts and carry out all transactions with bitcoin such as the use of LN and so on, but that will happen to countries that legalize bitcoin as a legal payment tool. This is a good revolution and will also increase the adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment in several countries that legalize it.

In my opinion bankless means no need for money or living in a society where money is worthless. I like the concept of bankless life or benefit only from what i work but it wont be possible. I belive banks became part of our lives and unfortunately everything is connected to it no matter what you are willing to do because everywhere everybody asks for money, in most cases, is i ask for a product or service.

It is impossible to live bankless in my country. Here, Bitcoin isn't allowed to be a payment tool, so how can we live without banks. We must use fiats to pay for everything, so our Bitcoin must be converted into fiats. And we know, fiats are made by banks. It means as long as we use fiats, we cannot live without banks.  (No idea to live bankless here, mate. At least for now)

Thank you for your opinions already, above all @LeGaulois and @jackg who shared their personal experiences!

I have included two new options in the poll, "In the past" and "I am planning it", this would have been the perfect answer for you both to differentiate from those who only "want" to live bankless but never did it nor are actively planning it.

I have also added a new question, from several opinions here: How do you deal with taxes and other service payments where the providers often require bank accounts?

For myself, I have some options in my country to pay my phone bill, Internet and electricity with Bitcoin and often use them (but not always). These options are provided, however, by centrally managed payment companies, at least two of them have a crypto background. I am mostly living with fiat, though, so I answered the option 2. For example, my taxes can't be paid in or via Bitcoin but only with a bank account or a locally issued credit/debit card, for some not even cash is possible.

This is certainly an important point. Those with large Bitcoin holdings, or even those that can live completely or mostly from what they mined in 2010, can live bankless without too many concerns about volatility, they likely would have to use bank accounts only as "payment processors" for taxes and public services. The "Unbanked" however, mostly need a tool which ensures they would not lose in a Bitcoin crash. Even stablecoins may be still too unsafe for them. On the other hand, there may be people in countries where a majority is unbanked, or where the state currency has failed (e.g. Venezuela) who own some cryptocurrencies - these opinions would be very interesting for this thread.

Anyway I think it would be much easier to provide a Bitcoin-based "(mostly) bankless solution" for the upper middle class upwards than one that really suits the needs of the lower classes.

In our days living bankless is like trying to write a novel without using the letter "e" - possible, but extremely hard. It can be interesting to some people who might view it as some sort of entertainment, similar to climbing a mountain or hiking in the woods. I never even spend cryptocurrency in real life yet, despite being into Bitcoin for 4 years already, so I personally can't imagine living even a day without fiat payments.

And I second what LeGaulois said, using Bitcoin cards is the same as using banks, so it shouldn't count.

I don’t have plans to live on cryptocurrency, I also don’t we the possibility of that.
First of all, cryptocurrency is a volatile asset and if I should move all my money into it I might wake a day to the unexpected, so I am not going to try that. I only store an amount I’m comfortable with in my cryptocurrency wallet.

There are also lots of digital banks popping up these days that I have seen, and I have used a few of them. They are quite interesting, but moving my money to such platforms is something I can’t do. I do know that a lot of us don’t like banks because of some issues they might have had with them, but they still remain a safe place to keep your money (I have not had issues with my bank though).

I mostly avoid bank but some restriction are in place. Living completely bankless is impossible in my country. It is not possible to pay electricity bill, mobile bill or pay taxes without bank account. Cryptocurrency is not completely autonomous. Exchanges are not avoiding KYC requrements. But I think there will be more freedom for cryptocurrency in near future.

Living absolutely "bankless" seems to be impossible now. As a small business owner I can't go without my bank account. Plus we all need fiat for everyday purchases. My way to becoming "bankless" has started with using cryptos for long-term investments and wealth storage.

I have voted for the option: partially because all my income is based on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies so I need my bank account to pay for my goods and services.
My dream is an App that allows me to make all my payments, keep my crypto portfolio and money in the bank account all in one place.
I have created my mechanism as follows:
1) I receive my payment (Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies)
2) I sell an amount of Bitcoin and the rest for my portfolio.
I choose Platforms like Binance, Cryptoway among others to get FIAT.

I have heard about DeFi and the model I know by reference from some friends in Nigeria is First Kudi App
https://firstkudi.com/ (https://firstkudi.com/)

An App where you can manage your bank account and cryptocurrencies. They has also offered its users a prepaid debit card with cryptocurrencies that is accepted in shops.
A solution like this would be perfect for me.

I am among those who do not save money in the bank. My wife can not see the silent money in my savings, so I keep my money in my (crypto) wallet account. My wife is a person who dares to take big risks in doing business, she can't see the money standing in the account, she will always rotate the money to buy things to sell later (especially when the value of the goods goes down). She always thinks that money should not stop in savings because the true function of money is as a transaction tool. The more money that accumulates in savings, the more difficult the economy to spin. She only left USD500 for savings just in case and even then he saved in cash, of course after all household needs are met child health insurance and school fees and children's tutoring is the most important.

In my mind, BANKING is good but the bank is the devil. So I only use the facilities owned by the bank for export and import payments, but once payment from the buyer enters I will immediately transfer to the supplier and withdraw cash with no savings left except the minimum value of USD 0.08. LOL

I tend to agree and you have a point on this, a Bankless world isn't a bad idea at all for it can expedite transactions and lessen charges when using a DeFi(Decentralized Finance) for online transactions and a lot more. Managing your finances without going through a bank may be possible but not too soon for DeFi are not yet globally accepted nor known in some rural areas especially in third world countries where the internet is not being serviced countrywide.

In third world countries where mostly fiat money is used to purchase commodities it may be hard for them to adapt to this financial management or welcome it with a warm hug. Myself finds it difficult to totally be in cryptocurrency or Bitcoin for most of the time I shop and do transaction personally but if the time comes for cryptocurrency to be the only thing we can use then I'll be more than happy to accept it since it has a lot of advantages.

Really impossible for now. It could only be possible if fiat has gone to rest. We all understand that there are little products or commodities that will be difficult to transact with bitcoin. The internet connection too is a very big something for certain people to use.

actually weve been not using banks for a long time now ever since my parents got bankrupt  . now we are now living on a poor life so i decided to take risk here joining cryptos in the hopes of getting an income from trades and investments . after cryptos became well known , many merchants already accept it so i also use my crypto and avoid using fiat or something that are related to banks  .  i think most of the people join here on crypto because they want to live a bankless life  but few could still be using both

You wrote that you normally would convert a part of your crypto income into fiat. It would be interesting how you deal with bear markets - normally these should affect your income significantly. Do you then apply some kind of hedging strategy (trying to lower you exposure to volatility), or do you simply accept a lower income for some time? It's these hedging strategies that are interesting for me, because bear markets currently are one of the biggest problesm for a "bankless" living with crypto.

These kind of services are slowly getting more popular (there is also Bitwala for example with a similar model), but I would classify them - like Bitcoin debit cards - simply as centralized "banks with Bitcoin services". So they're not really "DeFi". (DeFi are blockchain contracts, mostly to exchange risk for potential profit). One problem these services have is that, due to regulations, they normally only can accept clients from certain countries. A truly decentralized service would not need this restriction, but he also won't be able to offer a bank account or even a card (today all prepaid card companies do at least some basic KYC afaik).

What's interesting about First Kudi is their point-of-sale integration - if most businesses would use these kinds of services it would be much easier to live bankless.

No way would I ever depend on DeFi for anything other than the fluffiest of play money. They keep getting hacked. On top of that the 'decentralised insurance' I've read about did not pay out funnily enough.

That's best left to researchers and nutters, no way would I run my actual life through it.

Kudi seems to be just for Africans.

Very difficult not to have a bank unless there are merchants directly accepting BTC or altcoins we have in our wallets.

There was a video where Cardano is accepted in a grocery store, that would be nice if its also accepted in all stores then I would probably fill my bag with Cardano. Sadly it's not what is going on.

Not at all I need my bank account is basically very similar to "would like to but difficult" as well. I have voted for the would like to but its difficult option because I would love to be totally free from banks but I can't since there is really no way to do that right now. I need to pay for some stuff with fiat and that is mainly requiring me to cash out all I earn from bitcoin to fiat eventually. However I do pay my vacations with bitcoin for example, you know why?

Because I can, and that is literally the only thing I need to spend bitcoin, if I can, I will, as long as I have that option that is good enough reason to spend bitcoin to me. However "not at all I need my bank account" is basically the same, if you need your bank account, that kinda means bitcoin is not enough for you.

The problem with current DeFi implementations is ... that most of them are not really DeFi but CeFi ;D. They're centralized services operating with centralized smart contracts which are run by all full nodes but have a single owner. Some can be hacked for this reason. Dai is an example - the CFD contracts are set up in a way where a central account could close down the whole system. These contracts are transparent and the owners cannot run away with the money normally, but they continue to have a single point of failure. Other contracts surely are programmed in a sloppy way (does anybody remember TheDao ;D?).

I've still to investigate if with Bitcoin Script contracts options or CFDs can be realized, perhaps using a system very similar to Lightning which is aware of all blockchains that it needs to track (a kind of "optional atomic swap"). If this was possible, it would allow real DeFi. However, anything that uses oracles because it tracks fiat prices always will have a centralized component.

This is actually a quite difficult thing to do, especially in some countries that have not legalized or accepted cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
Personally, for now, I do not have any idea to move to bankless. I still need my bank account, as for some conditions.

Unfortunately, it is not fully because of the volatility, but the regulation. Well, yeah, but indeed I live in a country that only legalizes crypto as a digital asset. Meanwhile, as a means of payment, it is still not allowed. Of course, this is very influential in the use of crypto (especially Bitcoin) in this country. Fiat is still a major and central manner of payments. Our central bank also still does not regulate the crypto as a currency. The regulation is that we can buy and trade or make it as an investment, but for payment, not yet.

What's more, our government also hasn't seen how big the future of Bitcoin in this country. Actually it is unfortunate, however, looking at how the regulation is and how the general condition of the people in our country is indeed reasonable.

For the future expectation, of course, I really expect that crypto (mainly Bitcoin) is accepted as one of the legal currencies in my country, at least, there are many commerces that accept this coin as one of the payment manners. However, of course, it is also back again to government regulation. But, I really don't know when it will be.  ;D

The general sentiment from all the above response is that it is impossible to live a life without the banking system, if you are running a business or an employee you need to have a bank account to accept the funds. Even if you like it or not you are bound to use it one way or the other and unless you do not need a bank loan and have plenty of wealth to survive without any credits can think of this situation.

This is a common word that has become a trend in the BTCitcoin space since its inception, to help the unbanked, citing examples of Africa and other poor countries, but the fact is that people living under poverty is not even bothered to start a bank account is because they might be earning wages on a daily basis and there is nothing to save in a savings account and you cannot expect them to invest their money in a volatile market. When it comes to places like Venezuela, yes it is a failed state and people usually use US dollars instead of the local currency, i have been to Iran and their currency is not having any valuation because of their economic situation and during my stay i was using UAE Dirham and all the shops i went were displaying the price in Dirham as well as in Iranian Rial and they are happy accepting Dirhams.

If BTCitcoin could sort these issues it is well and good but we need to go a long way to see that happen, any way good luck with your investigating :).

 

I've been studying how to make my own electricity with solar panels, so I may avoid electricity bills, but there's water, and I was surprised to learn that I can pay my water bills with cash, but I have to go to the company office, which is more than 2 hours away. So, it's not very convenient... Last but not the least, there's property tax which definitely requires a bank account, and I can't imagine this to change in the foreseeable future.

Then I'm surprised nobody has talked about to get paid. I have several sources of income, but they all come via bank wires. And I can't change that.

If it were an easy option, I would go for it. Right now, it truly impossible for me. I receive my salary and university scholarship to different bank accounts (I have, like, 5 bank accounts or so because every institution that gives you money chooses the bank account for its employees in my country which is very inconvenient). Apart from that, as a person outside of the EU who lived in the EU for a year and intends to live for another half a year in the future, I need to make savings on my bank account to get a chance of getting my visa. The system pushes me to use bank accounts, and it's extremely hard not to in my country.

I really want to try do bankless , but in my country just few think that can get payment with cryptocurrency , so the bank account really matter here
sad

IMO staying in all the position of the currency (fiat, stable coin and BTC) at a percentage might be a good decision. I understand that most old investors were majorly in fiat in the bear market, stable coin in USDT is still the most reliable, even in conversion to fiat, the coin has enough physical cash to defend its value and all world financial value is still placed in USDT. It remain the most traded coin in space for a long time and strong effect on bitcoin.

For what? What i will get if start to live bankless?

Bitcoin is one of my main sources of income, at the moment. But there is no place to use it in my country, just translate it into fiat, or look for people who would agree to accept it, but there are quite a few, even among those who have cryptocurrencies.

I can't live only with Bitcoin and I beleive for many it's the same. I have a steady job and I receive my salary in fiat. I still need fiat money to cover all expenses for my daily needs and Bitcoin is not accepted enough and it's not regulated.
It's not only about banks, as long as Bitcoin isn't a part of world economy and financial system we can't live just on it, without using fiat money too. Unfortunately, I don't think that this situation is going to change soon.

I believe that we will have such an opportunity to refuse the Bank in the near future, when Visa and Binance launch their debit card. This way you can pay for any goods and services where a Visa is accepted. But if you are connected with a business, you will not be able to refuse the Bank's services.

I've been living partially bankless for a few years now, paying for everything with cash and using BTC for online payments like buying stuff on Amazon and getting cash from some trusted partners of mine who are always willing to buy more Bitcoin. It's somewhat a pain, because I have to go to the post office or a local bank branch to pay property tax and bills, but the experiment has been going well. I'm a rebel in these things so when most people around me pay with credit cards I have good old cash at hand.

I agree that regulations can complicate a "bankless life with crypto" in some countries. In other regions, however, this is not an issue. The regulation of your country seems a little bit strange however: aren't you allowed to barter an asset for another (without money intermediation)? I ask this because if Bitcoin is regulated as an "asset" or "good", and not as "money", then I interpret that paying something with Bitcoin would be barter. I know however that there are some countries where bartering is a grey area, and others that explicitly forbid payments with cryptocurrencies.

Independence. This matters, especially for people who:

- aren't accepted by banks at all (e.g. because they lack a permanent address)
- are accepted only if they accept unfavourable conditions (in most cases, a high monthly fee) - e.g. because they are indebted
- do not want to expose themselves to the risk of the bank getting broke and/or losing money because of a state tax on bank holdings (e.g. Cyprus some years ago)

There is also sometimes a (small) risk that the bank cancels your account without you necessarily having done anything wrong - only that your habits are seen as risky for them or they don't make enough profit with you.

I'm not saying that banks are evil - but I question the level of dependence on them, in our modern Capitalist system. Banks are businesses, they're not charities (at least most of them are not, and charity-like banks do not exist everywhere) and thus have to care about their profitability - so their behaviour is understandable. But: There should be a real alternative, apart from cash. I for myself also cannot still live without banks - while I could in theory live with crypto/cash, some tax payments in my country are only allowed via bank wire.

Exactly, that's why I'm interested in hedging solutions to be protected from volatility. Simply living with Bitcoin, without any hedging, would be economical suicide for most people (even in not-so-poor countries).

The issue with living without a bank is how will you pay your bills and how will people pay you if they can't pay by bitcoin?

Whether you own or rent your home. How are you going to pay rent exactly? Sure you can find a landlord which will accept cash since they know it won't bounce like a cheque. However how will you pay your utility bills? You can't mail cash, you also can't pay all your utility bills at a store. So the only way would be to buy money orders and mail those instead of cheques. If you got like 3-4 different bills the costs will add up.

And how will people pay you for your services if you run a business. Most can pay by cash however you will lose alot of business if you don't accept credit cards/debit. To get those merchants you will need a bank account obviously.

Hence its issues like these that make it difficult to live without a bank account.

I asked my employer to give me 30% of my salary in Bitcoin, because I use and also hoard almost 30% of my salary in Bitcoin in any way. So if they give it to me in bitcoin, I do not have to convert it. I would have increased the percentage, if I could have paid some of my regular expenses with it too, but some of these businesses do not accept Bitcoin payments.

I also found that a large percentage of the things that I pay for, has to be paid via Payment processors and that adds additional fees to the transactions. (Fees that I would not have paid, if I paid with cash or my credit card)

The volatility is cancelled if I use payment processors and if the price increase since I received my salary. Those bitcoins I did not use increase in value, so it makes up for some of the fees and visa versa if the price drop.  :P

Isnt the idea kind of difficult to realize? The idea itself is nice but since the idea itself is separating yourself from the norm, doesn't that mean some aspects of life might prove to be inaccessible to you? I mean, it might depend from country to country but generally, that would be the problems encountered by the idea of living bankless. The issue itself most probably lies on the fact that there's not much support with regards to cryptocurrency usage in most aspects of life, and not to mention the required identifications in normal cases.

Not flaming the idea or anything, but if you were to try to live bankless, the idea of cryptocurrency needs to be idealized. Not in just a single country but rather globally and it needs to be recognized as an identity similar to what a fiat does. I used cryptos to pay in the past but that was mostly for items I bought online. I've never really used them to pay items that are paid every month like rents and bills.

well congrats because you dont let someone control your money . we are on the same boat though as i dont also have a bank account   .  if i want to save money i will just save it on my own  . i dont save money on cryptos because that is risky and you shouldnt too if ur aim is to grow your money   . investing is a different thing than on saving because you need to monitor your funds when saving and sell them asap  . i am living on a 3rd world country and i agree on most of what you said but sooner or later the situation can change when the world became cashless

I have made huge efforts in order to live bankless.
However, society is build upon banks. If you have a job you have to have a bank account in order to get paid. I tried to find a job in the crypto industry but it is not so much evolved so I couldn't continue for long.

while my wish i can do that yet i can't because the best way to transfer money from my Crypto wallet is thru Bank and that is what i can say and also i have some transaction that cannot be processed using Crypto so Banks is the only way as well.
Lol it depend on your country in which if they are allowed to use crypto or not and thats the Only problem where you cannot have  a bankless like like what i'm  having now.

I'm trying to see the possibllity buying and selling without bank or cash. Some countries are yet to use bitcoin while others have. It will be difficult especially to illiterate societies because of the processes of use.

The key that needs to be understood is banking is good but the bank is devil. Banking 5.0 has emerged, namely banking services provided by non-bank institutions. Because banks are bad institutions, as much as possible we minimize activities that bring profits to banks. For example, not saving money in a bank, even if we have a lot of money we should save it in a safe deposit box or be invested through equity-based equity funding.

I do not know in other countries, in Indonesia that Islamic banks have begun to emerge, many of which operate using cooperation agreements on revenue sharing rather than interest systems. In addition, many housing developers provide home purchase credit facilities using the Islamic concept. Without fines, without confiscation and if in the middle of the agreement we fail to pay, the money already paid will be returned 100%. In the Islamic view, bank interest is a grave sin along with the growth of Muslims throughout the world of awareness to avoid banks also increasing.

We have to reverse our mindset, not we who need banks but banks that need our money. So far we have been doctrines and made dependent on institutions called banks. When our position as a customer determines the bank will be able to transform from margin oriented to service-oriented. Our actions simultaneously or slowly not to save our money in the bank, not borrowing money in the bank will create a new market for service-oriented banks.

The closest I can tell you is, I never had a credit card and I never taken out a loan before, so I can say that I have never ever owned any bank in my life. That is personally of course, my wife has a credit card and I am lucky enough to pay that... lol.

So I kinda do pay the banks, but I do keep my own personal banks always debt free, which I really cherish, I know it may sound like "well your wife has one" is like a loophole thing, but its actually quite smart to keep one of you debt free and one of you paying their debt constantly. That way when it comes to taking out a loan one day (hope never happens) I can take out a huge loan for both reasons. I obviously would want to live my life debt free on both sides if I can afford it but sometimes life is just too expensive.

In Europe many people have moved their banking to app based companies. As far as I can tell they are strong downgrade from your normal bank. The amount of people who get cut off from their money for no reason with no way of contacting any humans seems huge.

Since a normal bank still has a handful of physical locations left at least you can go there and blow them up.

That's actually a good workaround for today's situation. If Bitcoin crashed 50% down (which would be already extreme), you would lose 15%, which may hurt but not break you. And as you write, the probability that Bitcoin goes up is at least not much lower than that it goes down.

The problem is that this "idealization" (I think you mean adoption?) will come only if companies and merchants can find a reason to accept them. They will only accept Bitcoin if there are enough users and the risk is manageable.

So the pioneers - those who live bankless or use Bitcoin for all payments they can - can definitively contribute if they don't only hoard the Bitcoins but also use them. This way they can slowly rise the competitiveness of businesses who accept Bitcoin, which again would bring in some new merchants/businesses accepting it. "Wanting to hodl" is not a good excuse, because one can always re-buy the BTC spent on payments on an exchange.

I make use of Bitcoin and Ethereum for some of the transactions I make these days, and also for holding part of my savings (as investment?). But, I have no plans to go bankless, I still make use of my bank, I don't see anything wrong with making use of both of them.

Whenever I want to make local transactions, I go for the mobile banking, and when I want to make international transactions I make use of cryptocurrency or PayPal and similar payment methods. But as for recently, I have been steady making use of cryptocurrency for international transactions. Bank is far much better when it's for local transactions, it's instant and the charges are very small.

I tried it before but decided that I need a bank account to make it easier for me to get my crypto into cash or vice versa.
But I think there would be some who would try to consider this if they have some easy way to convert their crypto into cash or the other way around.

I vote for - Would like, but it's difficult.

See, when i convert my BTC/ETH (crypto) i always use my bank account to take my local currency from that buyer. Also if i want to pay my university fees, it never will accept crypto as replace of my Local currency and we pay it mostly by Pay-order system, so there i need a bank for that. Again if i want to pay my home-Tex, electricity/gas/water bill, i will need a bank for that.

Yes, its possible to live bank-less, if your county fully supporting crypto, otherwise its not seem possible to live bank-less.

I really want to do it but I think it's difficult for now...
the fact is very difficult for bankless, right now I am still in debt at the bank for buying a house, so I not bankless.

I am used to borrowing from banks, so the arrangement is easy for me, and for local transaction fees, I agree with you.

When it comes to fees then its comparable thats why usage will vary either it would be local or international.I have the same behavior on using these things
neither crypto or my own bank accounts.Even i do appreciate nor love crypto but it cant really tie or close up on what fiat system could give in terms of convenience
but ofcourse crypto do have its advantage too.They are on the same line but crypto would really be just good for optional matters and i do still
stick to my bank in most cases.

This seems to be an important issue: From what I read in the thread so far, the few people who really live bankless (or almost bankless) deal a lot with traditional fiat cash. It's also the experience I see in my country: There are several older people here who still live almost 100% on cash - so they could be called almost "bankless" people, with one exception: they get their pensions in banks, so they depend on them.

But what's important for our thread here is that services that convert cash to crypto and vice versa seem to be crucial for the "unbanked". So maybe a list of cash-to-crypto exchange services per country would be a good idea. There are already lists for Bitcoin ATMs, but these are only available in some countries and often have KYC procedures which are not easily fullfillable by people without access to a bank account.

Obviously, a decentralized cash-to-crypto network would be even better. We have LocalBitcoins and other platforms for that, but a thing many people worry about are robberies and scams. And people who sell and buy Bitcoin via personal encounters only are available in few cities. So the challenge remains how cash could be delivered without having to rely on personal encounters. There are ways to mail cash (via traditional postal services and specialized services like Western Union), but in some countries they're unsafe.

I added a question about cash usage to the OP, so this issue can be discussed.

Really?
How about spreading your wealth around the world? That 's a good way to become independent. I've been doing it successfully for 20 years. You're only dependent if you live your full life in the same country, with a single home and a single bank account. Travel everywhere, and you'll become independent, as banks will see you as a non-resident customer who can move without notice.

I doubt that's an option for many people of the groups I mentioned. Those from the middle class upwards - which could afford to travel everywhere like you suggest - generally do not have many problems with banks. For them, living bankless is completely optional (in the present situation). They won't be rejected nor get their account canceled for insignificant reasons.

The problems with banks arise mostly for people from the lower middle class downwards. If there was a reliable crypto-based solution which could replace a bank account, they'll be much better off than living mostly with cash and prepaid cards. (Let's be realistic, I don't think Bitcoin is an option now and in the next years for the poorest 20% of the world population, but between percentile 20 and 60 roughly, I see a big potential.)

To be honest, I really want to live without a bank, and I want to use bitcoin for payment. But it is prohibited to use bitcoin as payment
by the government in my country, so I still use the bank. It's hard to live without using a bank, I hope in the future bitcoin is legalized
as a global currency. So that my country can accept bitcoin as payment. I have try to use bitcoin to buy items from abroad on the internet.
It feels so good.

I agree with you there are still many societies where there has been no touch of improvement and no banking system has been introduced In that case, they use their money without banks. The people of developed countries are accustomed to using banking methods. Even if it seems like a problem to them it will not have much effect on the poor people of the society I think it is very impossible to be bankless to use bitcoin and crypto.

Yes I do want to live bankless which uses Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for my daily basis but even if I do want to, I can't because here in my country, even our national bank is not supporting the usage of cryptocurrencies even though it is not illegal but we must just use it for our own risk. Also, here in my country, we poorly lack of cryptocurrency adaptability so even we want to use cryptocurrency to purchase our needs, we cannot do it directly because we are still relying into a fiat system which is cash based. Adaptability is the main problem I have which prohibits me to freely use my cryptos and go bankless because cash is the main currency that is available here in my country which can be considered a reason why I do need bank account of my own.

Aside from that, there are situations that you still need your bank account like for example, if you are an employee, most employers prefer to send monthly salary via your bank account. And if you are dealing with government transactions or taking any kind of loan, most of the time, financial transactions go thru with banks. So right now, you can't go 100% bankless because a lot of financial transactions are still confined within the jurisdiction of banks.

Maybe you should combine option 1 and 2. I would love to avoid the banks, but that is impossible for me right now and I do need the banks. I receive all kinds of payments through my bank account and it is the only "legal" way for me. I don't think as long as bitcoin is considered a legal tender, I won't be able to avoid the usage of banks.
Maybe in the future, a new crypto currency (and probably government owned and regulated) will be available that will totally replace the usage of banking insitution.

That was the main idea, not to make bitcoin the only currency out there, it was to make an alternative. Nobody should try to go bankless, banks are still needed, but bitcoin could be used at least to tell the banks that if they do too much wrong we have an alternative right now.

For decades banks had no competition and people had to put their money with the banks, all of our money worldwide was with banks and that was just not okay, with bitcoin we could go bankless if we want to, and many people are putting some of their money to bitcoin as well. This way we could tell the banks "I may need you for some stuff so you have my survival money, but my investments could go out of the bank, so be careful" and thats quite important leverage to have against the banks.

Would be a hard thing to do at this early point wherein cryptos are still facing issues and it is not widely accepted to most of the countries making it quite impossible to live only with it, without fiat, especially in a country wherein most of the people are using the traditional currency. In the future this could be possible but that doesn't mean that rest is assured given that things could co-exist, as long as there are governments which would prefer using fiat over digital ones.
It is technically legal but that is different from being accepted, so it is mainly neutral to some countries. Many people do prefer using Bitcoin as an investment in order to make profit as time passes by, due to the volatlity of its market value. My observations is that, those people who are not into cryptos that much, are the ones using Bitcoin and other cryptos to buy things online especially from one country to another one. And those who are that into cryptos, are the ones using it in a profitable way which is quite ironic.

1) Do you use centralized payment services like Bitcoin-filled prepaid cards?
- Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I used this type of service.
2) Is LN for you already an option?
- No.
3) How do you manage the volatility risk? For example, do you use stablecoins, options or a centralized fiat wallet?
- I usually get rid of volatility by choosing stable crypto coins.
4) What about DeFi?
- Something that I haven't done much research on, but as far as I learned, has the power to change the financial system.
5) Do you get some kind of loans outside the banking system, for example, via P2P services?
- No, I am so glad that I did not need to borrow money from banks or such services.
6) Instead of using banking services, do you have to rely a lot on (fiat) cash?
- No, I do not trust the use of fiat money in banking transactions.

I wanted to answer the questions, although there are some concise answers.

Hello ,
This is amazing seeing this post and knowing that there is some people out there who have taken cryptocurrencies to another level.
This would do a lot of good , if you go and ask the shopkeeper for the payment options in cryptocurrencies you are actually going to make sure they learn something new that day and increase the reach of the Crypto community.
Unfortunately see for the day to day activities , I prefer buying stuff from the small farmers , since during this time they are very badly affected , plus you know the quality of their products is better than market.
Therefore I don't think I would be using cryptocurrencies we a means of payment anytime soon before quarantine.

I'm really surprised nobody's talking about getting paid.
I guess that if you're a dishwasher at a restaurant, you may get paid in cash, but that isn't possible if you have a normal job, or run a business.

Our banking system are fraudulent and bitcoin is only system that brings justice and fairness to our transactions. Bank only think of themselves and do not have the interest of the populace at heart. I am ready to reject the present system we have for bitcoin.

Well, banks really only give us the slightest benefits when storing our money and encourage us to deposit money into their vaults, they use our assets for purposes to invest and make the most profit but even if we understand this problem, we can't get rid of them because in this new age, banking is always needed for all levels of society, we need it to transfer money, store and create the most convenient. Bitcoin and crypto can bring a greater fairness but speaking of safety and legality, plus the popularity of the platform, it still can't compete

Being 'bankless' can be quite difficult. I've not encountered issues receiving wages from clients for the past few years via Cryptocurrency so effectively not needing a bank to store funds however, as some have pointed out here, you'll end up requiring a bank if you want to purchase property etc.

Not even property, most of the times when you are asking for a loan or for financing anything you will definitely need to have a bank account otherwise you can't get a loan. And also for cashing out my Crypto holdings I need a bank as I do cashout using an exchange and not p2p or in person trades as I feel safe and anonymous while using these methods rather than dealing in person physically. So other than these reasons I don't think I will need banks at all.

The moment banks in our country made it forced to have bank accounts for salaries there was really nothing we could do to win the argument over being bankless. Companies literally have to send your salary to your bank account, that is forced legally, you can't pay people their salary to their hands or to anywhere they want or in bitcoin or whatever, no!

You have to pay the salary to their bank account. That is seriously fucked up but that is how banks convinced the governments to have all the money in the bank accounts as much as possible and gave the people some debit cards instead. This way government would know all the money in the banks and how they are doing and so forth. Basically banks are back pockets of our politicians and it is really not something that helps the people.

It is not totally impossible, above all if you work in the crypto sector. But I agree it's complicated to run a business in most economic sectors if you don't offer "standard" payment options like credit card or bank wire.

If living bankless using Bitcoin was more popular, this could be a niche for payment processor services - they could allow businesses to outsource the acceptance of typical fiat payment options. These companies could take any payment in fiat and transform it into Bitcoin or a stablecoin. But I guess the market for this kind of services is still not big enough. At least I haven't seen this kind of service* - Bitcoin payment processors like Coingate or Bitpay mostly work the other way around, accepting Bitcoin for you and transforming it into fiat. If someone knows any it's appreciated if you post it here in this thread.

*It is possible that something like Neteller could be an option here. They seem to offer a payment processing solution for businesses/merchants which supports several payment methods, and they have an option to convert fiat into Bitcoin. But on their site there isn't much information about the merchant solution they offer - you have to contact their sales department for that.

If I could only do that during this pandemic situation then it will be a lot better for me but it's hard since most establishments in our place aren't accepting cryptocurrencies yet so I have no choice but to use fiat through banks. I'm also receiving a fiat out of my job so I can't live without banks for now. If most merchants and business establishments would accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, I'm sure that it will be easy for us to live in a cashless society.

That's really interesting and I have tried to do it a few times but it is not possible. It doesn't really work in my country. The only places I can make use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, spend them, send and receive is only online. But when it comes to making use of it locally, nah you wouldn't be able to do that.

Although from what I have seen online, there are countries where you are more likely to find a lot of means for you to make use of your Bitcoin locally. But for where I live, I have never seen a single person or shop that is accepting cryptocurrencies as payment, they always need their cash or you make a transfer with your card or bank app.

While i really wanted to be but i have no option because i need to at least use Fiat in my daily living,i need banks to cash out from my crypto profit so the thing is Bank and crypto is my life now.

i want to be cashless and bankless living but this is not possible for now,maybe in future when everything in my country is accepting crypto as payment.

If everyone of us can live like this for sure we will choose a bankless life but lets admit the fact that majority of cryptonians needed banks as this is not their desire but they have no choice .

Imagine if you are living in 3rd world country and you need Fiat,those money remittances that allows us to convert Bitcoin to Fiat requires Big fees while using bank accounts is lesser.

Maybe we can make this right in future,when crypto is already adopted by the world and can be in the market for everything that we wanted to purchase or even services that we might need by chance.

When I learned crypto and the basics of it, I said that I will use this in the future.

That is when I was still learning the basics of it. I'm not a fan of using banks TBH. I don't have that much transactions since I'm working as an employee in the past 2 years and I got my salary on hand and not on banks but there are times that I use it but once or twice every 2-3 months something like that.

When I knew that Banks hated crypto, I said to myself that I will not use banks that much and until now I'm not using it unless I need to withdraw my funds. Living bankless around the world right now would be hard since many are still using banks and many are using banks to withdraw their funds. The sole purpose of banks for me is for withdrawing purposes and not for putting my funds there. I know that keeping some cash for emergency funds like what is happening right now is good but I will just give it to my couple since she has a bank account and I don't want to hold one for myself. Living bankless would be possible but it would take decades or even centuries before it will happen.

Going bankless is provocative though I think bitcoins still have a long way before that happens. Also, as we need to consider the fact that in the near future, cryptocurrencies will need proper regulation, if not, it will all go to waste.

If things will go as we want it to be, we will surely have fees that I think we will not be glad about.
Would you think cryptocurrencies more pros than cons compared to banks.
Volatility is another thing to consider.

More thoughts and opinions as we learn from it.

Okay, to write a little summary: The proportion of "bankless" people seems to be still tiny. Well, excluding those who always lived mostly with cash, above all in the so-called "lesser developed countries". But only two people answered basically that they tried to live cashless using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or planned to do so.

It's obviously a problem that most people writing in this sub-forum are maybe not demographically the social group for whom "bankless living" is easy to realize.

About the obstacles from "bankless living" (using Bitcoin instead of cash), the following seem to be the most prominent:

- Tax payment
- Services payment
- Regulation (e.g. "prohibitions" to use cryptocurrencies for payments)
- General acceptance of cryptocurrencies for payments
- Payment of salaries
- Small market size (for businesses)

Volatility, which I consider the biggest problem personally, has been mentioned seldomly in the thread. This may have to do with that volatility operates mostly in the "background" of the problems that were mentionated - for example, it is related to the meager merchant acceptance, because those not being able to afford to do risk management themselves rely on (potentially costly) payment processor services.

I'll leave the thread open a while more, but will close it if no more substantial opinions are added and the same arguments are repeated over and over. Instead, I am still interested to read posts about experiences about living bankless and using at least partially cryptocurrencies for payments.

I'm the guy who voted "I already live completely bankless". We've been doing this for almost eight years now, it's not like we can't get a bank account here but it is easier to pay everyone in cash, lots of convenience stores, bakeries and other shops do not take credit cards or bank transfers, but certain stores like ones that sell electricity and mobile topup have an arsenal of handheld ATMs which can in theory take credit cards but nobody uses them for that, sellers just use the ATM to pay for things like water bills and then get paid in cash. Even salaries here are paid in cash. I have personally seen people collecting large bundles of their cash, instead of a credit card. Mobile apps that physically deliver stuff to you also take cash, the handler collects it.

I haven't seen anyone use a credit card here but that could be due to me not going out much. Cryptocurrency payments for anything local are completely out of the question, but this is a non-issue for me because I keep my bitcoin separate from our cash assets anyway. Also, using any altcoin for payment purposes is a waste, as they are accepted at less places than bitcoin.

Is there room for improvement? Yes. Currently I can't buy most online services because they only take cards, which I don't have. I've been exploring using virtual debit cards to pay for these things but they only work if the service hasn't blocked those cards, so I've been looking into "anonymous" debit cards, where the card owner is someone you meet online, and people willing to provide this service (there is at least one of them here on Bitcointalk). All of the above loaded with bitcoin.

So in short I am living bankless but it's not fun not being able to buy stuff you want, eventually I will load a debit card with a minimal amount of BTC for payment purposes.

If I had a crypto card with me, it’s possible for me to go bankless. There are countless crypto cards out there such as Coinbase, Crypterium, BTSE, etc. Here in the Philippines, I use GCash and it’s a centralised mobile app not connected to any banks and not into crypto. It’s possible for me to go bankless with them because they had a GCash Mastercard where I can withdraw my funds anywhere in the world. However, my limits would increase up to P500,000 in Philippine peso if I link it with an existing bank account.

I’ll try to order a crypto card to be shipped to my doorstep one day, and would try withdraw my funds to any bank since I mostly store my savings into crypto and not in banks.

mentally I am ready to live without a bank (using cryptocurrency only) but the majority of people around me are still not ready for that..  85% of my daily transactions use fiat money and 15% use credit cards.  I am only cannot change the system that has been embedded in the community around me..

I am currently running a vehicle washing business (cars & motorbikes), I include accepting payments via Bitcoin and Doge but no one has ever made a payment with it (not even asking for other coins).  I realize that 95% of residents in my city still don't know what cryptocurrency is, I continue to be patient because I really believe that in the future, payments via cryptocurrency will be adopted en masse..

i love banks and my bank never ask silly questions like why i deal with crypto and i like that.

i dont see any problem of banks as longes they dont act like police and i think banks want to be nice with us otherwise they lose customer!!

@NotATether, @Chrystora123: thank you for your postings.

I see that crypto debit cards / prepaid cards seem to be a necessity for those wanting to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at least indirectly for payments, without using bank accounts directlyu. This obviously makes it "not completely bankless", because the companies offering these services, depending on the jurisdiction, have to register "as a bank" or partner with an already established bank or payment service provider. This is even getting worse now - because of regulation tightening, crypto exchanges and online wallet service providers in jurisdictions like the EU will have to do the same.

Cash was also mentioned as a payment vehicle. I remember a year when I was younger when I also lived completely with cash. This has obviously several drawbacks - for example, one time my apartment was robbed and I lost a significant part of my salary. I think I wouldn't do this again. But I perhaps could live with a combination of cash and crypto, if crypto wasn't so volatile and if acceptance of crypto among my customers were higher.

How i wish i can use all my cryptocurrencies in daily living but it is difficult since my country may not be banning bitcoin/cryptos
but not totally supporting this meaning the use of these currencies are limited,and mostly we are using
 this for investing in future ,we believe that sooner it will be indeed available for our daily living but for now?we will only invest,accumulate and Hold or maybe
 sometimes convert into fiat
 specially when the value is growing high that profits is coming our ways.

I am trying to live bankless as much as possible because the fees are just getting insanely high for me. For example, there are fees on your checking account, extra fees for any transaction, fees on the credit card, special fees for your portfolio and depot and so on. With these fees and no interest on my savings it's just not worth it to leave money at the bank. Most of my payments I am doing with cash. It would be awesome if supermarkets and gas stations would accept bitcoins.

I recently encourage My cousin and two of my friends who has Online Business to consider using Bitcoin(and some other crypto that is supported by our local wallet)as one option in accepting Payments since the demand in online foods,service and gadgets are really hyping now,since pandemic time and now that Online classes is also coming and good to hear that two of them are now accepting crypto as payment.

but in supermarket?this will take long because of lacking support from the government,though we are open to use and trade crypto on our own risk.

Using a bankless bitcoin cryptocurrency will bring a lot of benefits to everyone in the current context of the epidemic everyone is leaning towards online work at a time when everyone can buy everything using cryptocurrencies it will double the demand for crypto and overcome the crisis. It will take a long time to accept crypto as money countries do not support crypto yet transactions can be a bit of a hassle but great for future investments.

There's a contrast between utilizing a bank and utilization of cryptographic money.
Banks are regularly using for guarding your cash,  paying bills, taxes, and compensation.
You can't survive without banks since you can't cover your bills or get you to pay rates in bitcoins.
In numerous zone, banks are required to purchase properties, vehicles or settling charge and our nation is one of them

If cryptocurrency can be used like fiat as a transaction that can be used to buy anything, I will do so entirely because of the convenience and safety of use and the freedom to use it.
However, it is unfortunate that in the country I live in, there are no purchases or transactions using cryptocurrency or bitcoin for purchases of any kind, and have to convert them to fiat in order to be able to make any purchases and transactions.

The same with you there are some of the establishment does not know the use of the cryptocurrency. Right now I don't have any banks and the one I only use is a cryptocurrency wallet which only has a  bitcoin and bitcoin cash, They are not truly adopted the use of the cryptocurrency and only a few people appreciate this kind of payment method.
But still, soon I want to apply to the bank because by this you can have a secured transaction and there is an assurance that your money than the use of the bitcoin once you send it, its gone.

I want to share AFAIK we have a thread on our local > Pilipinas discussion about this kind of business are establishing the use of the bitcoin or cryptocurrency as payment and also there are some well-known people already made and support their own business with the use of this coin.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5249761.0

But in relation with our situation right now during this pandemic, it is really not necessary to live bankless even when we are not ready in a sudden change in transactions. There are still a lot of people who are used to pay with bank accounts because they think that it is much easier and faster.

In some countries, it is really not that easy to evolve in terms of making transaction because not all of us do have an urge to use cash in paying bills and other expenses and rural areas are using cash because it is a traditional way of paying something. We also need to consider other things, not only the evolution of transactions.

In order to have a bankless society, each and every people who wants to live without should be brave enough to risk their health in this pandemic.

It is still hard to me, there is no merchant who accepts crypto currency as a mean of payment since my government still ban it.

Moreover with now, I have no job in my real life and I just focus to be a trader I must withdraw my crypto currency to my bank account at least once a week for my basic need. Actually, I'm ready to leave it as some user above me, with the reason the government has facilitated it.

Because, since the previous months after the coronavirus has killed many people in my country I never use the money paper anymore, I just use digital payment or using debit card to make any transction and I'm more comfortable to using it. So, I'm not weird if sometimes crypto currency is being used as a mean of payment I will not be stiff to doing so since I have enjoyed it now.

You can't avoid banks! I mean you have, but how many people can buy anything with bitcoins directly? Not with some cards that goes through some payment processors, I am interested just in direct line between buyer and seller? Well let me tell you, just rare people have the opportunity to make deals like that one.
I think there are people who can avoid banks totally, but those people live out from cities! Banks have finger in everything, so in one way or another if you are participating in this system (as we all do) you have conntacts with the bank, or the merchant, either way you can't avoid them.
Let's be clear about one thing, anything is possible, living bankless is possible,  but you will need a good organization and you will need to calculate each step you make!

By the way, what about if I get my salary in cash directly and just pay with cash in supermarkets? And what if the government pays communal service fees? Or what if I just directly go into their offices and pay there with cash? There are a lot of people who don't use banks, even in some good countries. So I wouldn't say that it's impossible or nearly impossible to live without banks. You don't need the help of cryptocurrencies in this case too.
Btw owning of a crypto card doesn't mean that you live bankless because it's in touch with banks too. By using crypto, you'll be bankless when you use your own wallet and send transactions from this wallet without any 3rd parties.

There are a lot of countries that can't also turn their transactions digitally even if they wanted to. There are countries that is not technologically fit with that but I know they could do that in the next years when countries are actually applying that system. I don't think it would be bitcoin or other crypto currencies though but for sure, it would be digital transactions in the future.

IMO we can't live totally bankless nowadays. Cryptocurrency isn't widely adopted and using cash as the main payment method isn't so easy.

The chance of going bankless won't happen in the short. To my understanding, at the moment everything is directly or indirectly related to banks. Maybe the trades taking place within the exchange doens't require the banking. The same when wanted to be exchanged to fiat there is a need of Bank. One can live only with cryptocurrency, but it's isn't that easy as one living with banks/fiat.

Apparently, this pandemic brought to us drought and anxiety on or daily living but also this pandemic doesn't also make a way for a people to live bankless. Even if there is a danger goin into a banks to deal with their bank transactions to be honest they never mind it since they are thinking that bank transactions is a lot convenient than transacting online. And up to now we are still living where traditional fiat transactions hand in hand are at work. For me i'm not yet ready to try living bankless totally.

Maybe this is the reason why those who want to try living with bitcoin only struggles to do so. Beside the volatility because it can be solved already when you are trying to buy something using btc. Again and again, we can't live in a society where it is so hard to find a place to spend our money. I've watch a short vlog of friends who tried to live a day using btc only, and they barely pulled it off. They got a hotel after so many tries, same with a restaurant. But the vlog just shows it's hard, some restaurants doesn't even know what bitcoin is. It shows the hassle it will cost you everyday just by trying to use btc, would you want to do it everyday, and of course no, no one would want to.

Its not that people don't know about cryptocurrency its just that people is not ready to make it their primary payments for everything that they are doing or buying because just like what the first person said it is embedded to the community and for the next century it will still be, its hard to change something that people is comfortable from and has been doing for so many years and honestly i agree with what you have said i would not want to struggle every single day just be because people are not accepting bitcoin as payment. For people who wanted to try living with only using bitcoin lets drop it for now we cant live doing it but its not possible to do so because many years from now maybe most of the essential stores will accept alternative payment like bitcoin.

I would like that kind of living but we can't still do that in our country.

I can use my Bitcoin through a local exchange but we are still limited to spend it since stores and merchants that accept it is not that many. We can buy through online stores but that would take time. Other essentials that I needed can't be used by it so if I will be using my Bitcoins that means I will be converting them to fiat, which also means we still needed the banks.

Several things that make individuals consider investing in Bitcoin apart from government regulations are because volatility is usually considered a bubble and nightmare when the value of an object is too high and then explodes, then drops dramatically. Many voices of someone's overnight loss or stories of people pretending to lose in order to deceive investors.

Even if someone learns that the internet bubble occurs when the internet touches the social side of humans, so is bitcoin today an alternative economic system and a rare asset that brings a new paradigm shift in modern civilization. The final consideration is that fiscal and monetary policy has a bad impact, one of which is the decline in confidence in the value of certain currencies, crypto-assets such as Bitcoin act as an element of democratization and intermediary for new values. So bitcoin can be said to be an agent of change, even though it is outside the system but de facto, bitcoin exists.

Despite the fact that the infrastructure for the use of cryptocurrencies is growing all over the world, the income received in the cryptocurrency market still has to be summarized in fiat currency in order to pay the bills. Government agencies are trying in any way to carry out a reform in order to switch to cashless payments, but using specific banks. Based on this, a person does not have much choice to pay for utilities, for example.

I have not used any of these stablecoins ever since I joined this community/market, all the coins I have invested my money in are all volatile coins; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, none of them stablecoins is on my portfolio.

As for the volatility, that’s really not something I have worried myself much about, though I would say that I have always been lucky with this, and I am the type follows the one rule that say people should only buy what they can risk in Bitcoin. I have no plans to live without bank, since there are lot of things I do and having a bank account is very important to me.

And if you are working either in a private or government-owned company, they usually give your salary via bank account. So you can't really avoid using banks at some point of your life. And considering that not many merchants or stores are accepting crypto, you still need to convert your crypto to local fiat in order to use it for payment purposes. So right now, your options to directly use your crypto or bitcoin is still limited, even if you want to directly pay them with your crypto. We are still living in times that we need our fiat in our major transactions to cope up with our day to day living.

Same here and I believe for anyone in any country living solely on Bitcoins or crypto in general is actually next to impossible because there might be a few things and daily needs you might get with bitcoins like for example I do all my recharges, shopping through amazon with bitcoins via Bitrefill as they provide a great service for all these needs at a reasonable price and negligible fees.

But, living completely with crypto is not possible because no matter what but things like bill and taxes have to be paid in fiat.


True that and I also earn bitcoins and cash them to fiat later so technically we all who earn through bitcoins are living on bitcoins just not directly but rather indirectly until all the stores and even the government legalize bitcoins which doesn't seem likely though.

Whenever I go for a bank, I end up with some clash with the bank employees. They might leave some loose talks or makes us wait for a long. We can't blame them, they're also human beings and does the work. They don't know on what emergency we're requesting the bank's service. By those time I feel like we need to go bankless making our survival only with cryptocurrency. In reality it isn't that easy as we people think, even with every transaction associated with bitcoin has some connectivity with banks. Hope the scenario might change in the future.

I guess the cases of those countries that are so exposed to technologies and the knowledge and usage of bitcoin and crypto currencies, they could live with just bitcoin but still, I don't think that they could do it for an entire year or their lifetime as we are still short when it comes to acceptability and liquidity of it. It will still take time.

I do believe the possibility of living bankless by using just bitcoin or crypto is dependent on which country one is living. It is only possible in a country where sellers of basic day to day needs accept bitcoin or crypto. As it stands, this is not possible in the country where I live in currently because very few people accept bitcoin as a means of payment. This means that I still need the bank to make payment for goods and services I buy.
Secondly, just like OP mentioned, the volatility of bitcoin and crypto in general only makes it harder for the adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment. It is unreasonable to receive $100 in BTC only to wake up the next day to meet $95. It means one has lost $5 without spending a dime.

It seems that in my country it is impossible to live bankless, because cryptocurrency is prohibited from being used as payment.
So until now my life has not been separated from using a bank for my daily financial transactions. Even in countries that accept
cryptocurrency as payment, it is still difficult to go live bankless. Because the number of merchants who accept crypto payments
is still limited.

I do get my salary in bank account but I always buy bitcoins with part of it and that helps me gamble with crypto and my trading experiments.

That actually is the biggest problem because to pay rent and things like fuel, food and other essentials are not available through bitcoins and while some websites allow bitcoins payment but I mean if I have to order pizza from dominos then there is practically no direct way to order via bitcoins. I imagine a world where we can pay with bitcoins for dominos that would be so cool and so easy really.

And we might always have to rely on fiat for that because the government will never help this cause and the truth is that because of the decentralized nature if even somehow we get bitcoins as legal currency there will be a lot of problems of money laundering as there already are though.

In my country, crypto finance is a small speck in the financial institution. Banks right now is the most lucrative choice in my country and I hope that someday that will change. I really hate the hassle that is incorporated in the banking process, it is a good effort but the time wasted could have been spent into something that is productive.

I never thought that I could go about everyday life without the involvement of a bank to make financial transaction. Almost every day I use bank service just to transfer money to other people. Even though cryptocurrency can be used as a mean of payment but I'm sure everyone may not agree to accept it for various reason. Knowledge, price volatility and these are some of the reasons why not everyone can accept crypto as a mean of payment. But I'm also quite used to paying for some stuff with crypto and I only do that if they agree to accept it.

It seems a good in idea in the future but like what I'm trying to say, it's very hard to implement. Similar topic of yoyrs was also posted on local, aiming to be a cashless society where we use digital payments. There are many things we should consider on implementing cashless or bankless such as all people are aware of using it and reliable net connection for daily transaction. Another thing is the volatility of cryptocurrency, lile what the other says, not very stable.

You can not live without banks since there's some limitation.
For instance, if you want to pay your bills then you should have an account on the off chance that you don't have an account you won't ready to cover your all bills which caused the government to cut the supply of electricity.
I think that's the reason why the government doesn't want to support bitcoins because if every person starts using its bank will be closed and soon lose their clients.

I think it is difficult in this world without having your own bank account, especially if you are an employee, so your net earnings will have a destination that here you will receive it. In banks, here we sometimes borrow money or take a loan for us to buy things that we needed the most such as opening your own business or buying a new property. It is the reason why the government will not let bitcoin and cryptocurrency reign in the future because people still need banks for their daily lives.

I'm not a fan of bank loans, mortgages and so on. In banks, I like the ability to quickly send money to someone or receive it. I cannot imagine my life today without this opportunity.

I used to have the impractical dream of having no bank in my life. But I soon realized that it is extremely hard to right from the start. First of all, I am surrounded by people who have no choice but to use the banking system. They are my friends, my families, my colleagues and my clients. Getting rid of bank, therefore, becomes more difficult since I always have to transfer my money from to this person or that person.

Second, since bitcoin was invented, bank also proves that it still has a position in this society. Many updates and new features have been added to enhance capabilities and transaction speed. They are becoming more and more faster than bitcoin (still there are many cryptocurrencies which are faster but they are not widely used). Bitcoin is a good competitor up to now. Dev team works day and night to give us the best advantages which might turn my dream comes true. But there is still a lot to do ahead

Third, cashback programs, visa are extremely fascinating to me although I know I shouldn't be seduced. Against those rewards makes me feel exhausted and silly enough. Giving up bank means abandoning many different benefits. On the other hand, we can self-control our economy, identity and privacy. This situation still confuses me many years

No matter what monetary system is dominating right now , I always act as a bitcoin/cryptocurrencies supporter. As long as people still see it as a precious technology, continuing to watch and obtain more knowledge of crypto is my number one rule. Maybe some day in the future, living without banks is no longer a dream. I would love to become a part of the revolution.

Education plays the most important role in such adoption because once the population of a country is educated enough it is easier for anyone to help them adopt digital currency but in a country where education levels are low we cannot expect them to adopt crypto or digital currencies.

Volatility issues can be solved by coins like USDT where those who want can keep their coins in usdt to preserve value and still buy bitcoins in a single click when they need. I often see the market being swinging and I buy USDT with all my coins so preserve the value and it is not a big problem at all, then once market stabilizes I buy bitcoins back. This is how traders also estimate their profits that is by converting into USD or USDT or any other stable coin.

Same thing with me, the first time I learned what bitcoin is, I have this imagination of living with it. But I realized that I can't live with bitcoin only if all the things I've been purchasing isn't bitcoin friendly. If I have to send money to a family or for online purchase, I still need to convert it to fiat. Living a day with bitcoin is very hassle, I can't even order a single food in my place using bitcoin, same thing with gas. And I can't afford to live everyday of my life like that. I am a supporter of bitcoin, but we have to face the reality that fiat online bank is the best as of now. What we need to do is do something for this currency to be adopted. and maybe we'll get a chance in the future.

We all need fiat and banks to live a normal life but I guess living on crypto can have many different meanings like for someone like me I pay my bills, recharges and everything possible with money earned through bitcoins which should count as living through bitcoins because not directly but all my expenses are being done because of bitcoins. I don't pay in bitcoins but I use bitrefills for recharges and I use some local services for my bills or if they are not active I try and exchange for fiat my coins and pay them.

Living bank-less can be near impossible in a country like mine because you cannot get enough digitalization in coming years here and cannot expect people to accept payments digitally let alone bitcoins or crypto. Most of the people here in my country want to save tax and they would always prefer cash so they can save it and avoid tax and in such situations you can't live on crypto completely.

I believe many people want to live without using a bank, so financial transactions are carried out using cryptocurrency.
But unfortunately it is difficult to be realized, because the government certainly will not allow this to happen. Even though
transactions using cryptocurrency have quite a number of benefits, especially in a pandemic situation like now, live bankless
can prevent the spread of the corona virus.