Why do you use Bitcoin?

[imfed]

In my opinion most money in the Bitcoin economy are funds that are held as investment, followed by Bitcoin as a currency to buy privacy services.

1. Investment: You are investing in BTC as a security that is a better store of value than fiat currencies?

2. Privacy: You are buying services like web hosting, domain registration or VPN with Bitcoin because you want more privacy?

3. Research: Because you are just learning about this new currency and doing some research by selling and/or buying  BTC yourself?

4. Selling: You are selling goods or services and want to extend your customer base by accepting transaction in BTC?

5. Gambling: You are using BTC to play poker online or for other gambling or sports betting services?

6. Forex: You are using Bitcoin to exchange your local currency to an other fiat currency using BTC as unit of account?


Please post any other usage below. Why do you use Bitcoin?

[Akka]

1.

Because the Technology that is behind Bitcoin enables us to do trades directly between the supplier and the customer (goods and services) without the need of a middleman that basically provides the service of transferring funds and therefore takes his cut of the trade.

Bitcoin has the ability to do to Banks and fin. Service providers like Visa, Paypal, etc. the same as what E-Mail did to Post offices. They will still exist but will loose a lot of their business.

This will result in fairer pricing.

2.

Bitcoin is free Money (like Free speech).

It can't be controlled, devalued or frozen by a single entity. Everyone can do with his BTC as he pleases.

On a Global scale this has the possibility to democratize money and provide the people themselves with more power.

[knight22]

Because bitcoin has the potential to replace the fractional reserve system.

[Arrogance]

Because chargebacks are god awful.

[nevafuse]

Because bitcoin has the potential to replace the fractional reserve system.

Did you mean federal reserve system?  Because bitcoin can be used in fractional reserve banking.

[knight22]

Because bitcoin has the potential to replace the fractional reserve system.

Did you mean federal reserve system?  Because bitcoin can be used in fractional reserve banking.

I mean the whole fractional banking system, not only the FED. If bitcoin becomes mainstream and I can use it for all my transactions, what role they have if I don't use fiat currencies anymore?

[RodeoX]

Privacy:
When I recently bought my llama wool socks I gave my home address to the sock people and that was all I had to share. If I had bought it with a credit card more private info would be required and it would be shared with banks, payment processors, others??

Convenience:
click, send

[Akka]

Privacy:
When I recently bought my llama wool socks I gave my home address to the sock people and that was all I had to share. If I had bought it with a credit card more private info would be required and it would be shared with banks, payment processors, others??

Convenience:
click, send

That's also one of the biggest points. Credit card companies and other payment processors store all transactions you make for eternity, the block-chain does so too, but if proper used only allows you to link you to a transaction if you want so. So you can have the benefits of proofing you transacted money and to stay anonymous.

You may say: "I have nothing to hide".

Well so do I.... today!

I have no Idea how the world will look in 20 Years, who will have access to my transaction history and what they will think of the transactions I made today.

Maybe (probably not, but maybe) the 200$ donation I made to the EFF today will be enough to label me as Enemy of the State in 20 Years from now! So better don't link it to me in the first place.

[nevafuse]

I mean the whole fractional banking system, not only the FED. If bitcoin becomes mainstream and I can use it for all my transactions, what role they have if I don't use fiat currencies anymore?

Just so we are clear (and based on your signature we should be) fractional reserve banking is the process of loaning out a fraction of your deposits.  There's nothing stopping mtgox from participating in FSB.  While people store their bitcoins at mtgox, mtgox could be loaning out a percent of those bitcoins.

You could also choose to never bank with Euros or USD as well.  This would avoid the FSB risk with those fiat currencies as well.  But nothing can stop other people from participating in FSB with fiat or non-fiat currencies.

[elpenguin]

For me it is privacy, so I mine enough to pay for the services I use

[imfed]

Because chargebacks are god awful.

Does it mean you are selling goods or services online?

The downside of "no chargebacks" is less buyer protection.

[imfed]

Because bitcoin has the potential to replace the fractional reserve system.

Did you mean federal reserve system?  Because bitcoin can be used in fractional reserve banking.

I mean the whole fractional banking system, not only the FED. If bitcoin becomes mainstream and I can use it for all my transactions, what role they have if I don't use fiat currencies anymore?

There would be no real advantage to gold or cash if it is just about the fractional banking system as it would be possible for exchanges (when they issue "vouchers") to build a fractional reserve institution.

You can find an article about vouchers (redeemable codes) here: http://imfed.org/2012/11/22/fractional-reserves-vouchers-issued-by-bitcoin-exchanges-increase-credit-risk/

When you compare Bitcoin to gold or cash the main advantage would be that it is very cheap, easy and secure to store and you can move it internationally much faster and cheaper than physical gold or cash.

[super3]

In my opinion most money in the Bitcoin economy are funds that are held as investment, followed by Bitcoin as a currency to buy privacy services.

1. Investment: You are investing in BTC as a security that is a better store of value than fiat currencies?

2. Privacy: You are buying services like web hosting, domain registration or VPN with Bitcoin because you want more privacy?

3. Research: Because you are just learning about this new currency and doing some research by selling and/or buying  BTC yourself?

4. Selling: You are selling goods or services and want to extend your customer base by accepting transaction in BTC?

5. Gambling: You are using BTC to play poker online or for other gambling or sports betting services?

6. Forex: You are using Bitcoin to exchange your local currency to an other fiat currency using BTC as unit of account?


Please post any other usage below. Why do you use Bitcoin?

1) Sure, the value of Bitcoin has increased quite a bit over the long term
2) Well not only that. It is way easier to buy all this stuff with Bitcoin, especially if I just wanted a quick unix box to test out some stuff
3) Yeah its new and cool.

[TooCasual]

In my opinion most money in the Bitcoin economy are funds that are held as investment, followed by Bitcoin as a currency to buy privacy services.

1. Investment: You are investing in BTC as a security that is a better store of value than fiat currencies?

2. Privacy: You are buying services like web hosting, domain registration or VPN with Bitcoin because you want more privacy?

3. Research: Because you are just learning about this new currency and doing some research by selling and/or buying  BTC yourself?

4. Selling: You are selling goods or services and want to extend your customer base by accepting transaction in BTC?

5. Gambling: You are using BTC to play poker online or for other gambling or sports betting services?

6. Forex: You are using Bitcoin to exchange your local currency to an other fiat currency using BTC as unit of account?


Please post any other usage below. Why do you use Bitcoin?

Well, yes to all the above.. AND is gooder and bestest!

[SAFEVoucher]

because bitcoin is like cash, it is even better than cash, I hope the whole globe will use bitcoins instead of paypal and alternatives.

[lepirate]

Well, I heard of it on a swedish forum called "Flashback". So I got interested and read about it and thought "wow, that is a really awesome idea with digital anonymous money". And then I started mining, using faucets and so on and finally I earned my first Bitcoin (yesterday).

[01BTC10]

Because I'm a geek and I like the open source/p2p side of Bitcoin.

[RichG]

Bitcoin is faster & more efficient than credit card transactions, and transactions can't be frozen/reversed.

Downloading and verifying the blockchain is a pain in a**, though.

[Mike Christ]

I like bitcoin because there are no strings attached.  Every dollar I earn, someone steps in and steals pennies from it.  I never consented to taxes, I was born with them.

On the other hand, if I earn 1 bitcoin, I actually earn 1 bitcoin, not 1 bitcoin minus cash for a football stadium which will make traffic even more of a hell and that I'll never go to because I hate football yet the city doesn't care because they do what they want with the money the steal from me, even tho it could've been used to put a sidewalk on the only road I can walk to school on and I have to travel several miles in another direction on another road that does have sidewalks and doesn't put me in constant danger of being run over.

[dave111223]

Because chargebacks are god awful.

As a seller chargebacks are awful, and it's gotten to the point where chargeback are way too easy for people to initiate.  I've had customers who accidentally chargedback, just by calling the credit card company to ask about a transaction was enough to start a chargeback process...

In my opinion if you get your credit card stolen that's between you and the card company, don't turn around and say "We'll just steal the money back from someone else...ah the vendor"