Why even use BitCoins? (read the post!)

[fr4nkthetank]

Cryptocurrency, bitcoin included, is great to buy goods and services on a global level.  If I am canadian, buying from china for example.  I have to convert to usd, then send it, then they convert it back to their local currency.  with btc its simpler and the fees are lower.  transaction times are fast compared to a wire transfer.  Also its peer to peer, no passing through a bank or other intermediary.  The block chain tech is useful for record keeping and it is safe, secure, fast and innovative.  I have bought many things, usually with dogecoin as transaction times are much faster.  Those that say its just a store of value are wrong.  Bitcoin derives its value from its usage and how useful it is.

[yoona]

I don't get it, now that I investigated and read much more about BitCoins and altcoins.

BitCoins are not secure, not private, not anonymous and to use them - you need extra effort.

Payments made through debit/credit cards are instant and most people keep their money in the bank (in fact, most workplaces choose to pay money only to your bank account now). That said, to use Bitcoin you'd have to buy BitCoins, which creates extra effort. Why do that? I don't get it!

Basically you have a choice: a) just pay instantly using your debit/credit card, or b) pay using BitCoins after wasting some of your time.

I always thought BitCoin was about privacy and anonymity, but clearly it isn't (just read the news...), so that argument goes straight outta window. Other than that, I see zero advantages, and considering what I just said - far as I understand it right now - BitCoin is a completely useless idea, unless we ditch it and start using one of the truly private and anonymous coins, which isn't gonna happen and is irrelevant to this discussion anyway.

So, am I missing something? Am I misunderstanding something? What's up with BitCoins when it comes to buying stuff? The more research I do about it, the less sense it makes to use it.

I'm not posting this to get on someone's nerves, I'm posting it because I want to understand. So don't get all personal and defensive and value-oriented here, I'm looking for facts. Thanks.

I'm talking only about paying using BitCoins. E.g. buying a monitor or a book or headphones using BitCoins instead of a credit/debit card. It's not about being a merchant or selling/buying illegal stuff on .onion sites, nor is it about using altcoins.

Note by which I seek to quench one potential argument: if you buy something and want to get it at some point in your life - you have to enter your name and address.

If you do not find the slightest advantages of using bitcoin, or even do not have easy to use bitcoin, why did you get into this forum?
I think a lot of people came to the conclusion that bitcoin is not profitable because they do not really like bitcoin, but if they already have bitcoin and use it, I think they'll change his mind, including you.

[calkob]

I don't get it, now that I investigated and read much more about BitCoins and altcoins.

BitCoins are not secure, not private, not anonymous and to use them - you need extra effort.

Payments made through debit/credit cards are instant and most people keep their money in the bank (in fact, most workplaces choose to pay money only to your bank account now). That said, to use Bitcoin you'd have to buy BitCoins, which creates extra effort. Why do that? I don't get it!

Basically you have a choice: a) just pay instantly using your debit/credit card, or b) pay using BitCoins after wasting some of your time.

I always thought BitCoin was about privacy and anonymity, but clearly it isn't (just read the news...), so that argument goes straight outta window. Other than that, I see zero advantages, and considering what I just said - far as I understand it right now - BitCoin is a completely useless idea, unless we ditch it and start using one of the truly private and anonymous coins, which isn't gonna happen and is irrelevant to this discussion anyway.

So, am I missing something? Am I misunderstanding something? What's up with BitCoins when it comes to buying stuff? The more research I do about it, the less sense it makes to use it.

I'm not posting this to get on someone's nerves, I'm posting it because I want to understand. So don't get all personal and defensive and value-oriented here, I'm looking for facts. Thanks.

I'm talking only about paying using BitCoins. E.g. buying a monitor or a book or headphones using BitCoins instead of a credit/debit card. It's not about being a merchant or selling/buying illegal stuff on .onion sites, nor is it about using altcoins.

Note by which I seek to quench one potential argument: if you buy something and want to get it at some point in your life - you have to enter your name and address.

Lets just say some of us love the freedom to choose how to spend the product of our labour, payments from credit cards are not instant for sellers and we no longer need banksters in the middle telling us how it should be done.......

Dont bother using this useless technology, oh untill that is, someday when you cant get by with out it...... all the best

[erikalui]

I don't get it, now that I investigated and read much more about BitCoins and altcoins.

BitCoins are not secure, not private, not anonymous and to use them - you need extra effort.

Bitcoins cannot be tracked easily (especially when you are using wallets like Xapo and Coinbase)


Payments made through debit/credit cards are instant and most people keep their money in the bank (in fact, most workplaces choose to pay money only to your bank account now). That said, to use Bitcoin you'd have to buy BitCoins, which creates extra effort. Why do that? I don't get it!

Bitoins are instant as it takes about 10-15 minutes for the transactions to be confirmed and even sometimes there are delayes while paying via debit cards. 10-15 minutes is not a long wait especially when you are paying online. Buying bitcoins is mainly like an investment (for example: Gold). People mainly trade in bitcoins like they trade in forex and this is the way they earn. There are also many ways to earn bitcoins but it's true that bitcoins can never be as good as fiat but it's still better as you never have to pay any tax on your bitcoins. There are many users who own thousand dollars worth bitcoins and if they would store it in a bank, by now they would need to pay a lot of tax which they are saving.

Basically you have a choice: a) just pay instantly using your debit/credit card, or b) pay using BitCoins after wasting some of your time.

It's an individual choice again as bitcoins is not fiat but is a virtual currency.

Hope this answers your doubts.

[draxpoker]

That "extra effort" to buy the bitcoins could pay off huge when bitcoin reaches its peak. The main reason it is better to use this? No taxes and high fees that a bank would charge, especially if you are a merchant. But like most of the others are wondering, why are you on a bitcoin forum if you don't get or agree with it? I hate Chevy El Caminos but I do not bother finding an El Camino forum to trash them 

[owm123]

That "extra effort" to buy the bitcoins could pay off huge when bitcoin reaches its peak. The main reason it is better to use this? No taxes and high fees that a bank would charge, especially if you are a merchant. But like most of the others are wondering, why are you on a bitcoin forum if you don't get or agree with it? I hate Chevy El Caminos but I do not bother finding an El Camino forum to trash them  

The "cheep fees" in Bitcoin can change very soon to worse:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3xt8hc/meanwhile_the_last_10_blockshint_well_soon_see/

And I'm not sure if "no taxes" is good slogan for advertising bitcoin. It implies that bticoin is primarily used for tax avoidance. Just more reasons for governments to ban bitcoin, and legit merchants to avoid it.

[BARR_Official]

There is no way I can be bothered to enter my name, address, billing information, and credit card number into every website that I might want a small purchase from.

I do not use Paypal because they are thieves.  They have stolen money from me before, without even talking to me about it or giving me any chance to appeal.  Paypal does not work for you, Paypal works for ebay.

So if I want to unlock a cheap flash game at some random website like Kongregate.com, I just send bitcoins.  I would not give them my debit card number, but Bitcoin allows me to pay instantly without any hassle.

If I want to buy a cheap service from Fiverr, I just send bitcoins.  Maybe somebody is downvoting your favorite post, and you want to buy upvotes from someone in the Phillipines for $5.00.  Maybe you want to commission a 30-second advertisement by a woman split-screening herself, and then herself with a blonde wig, and calling herself "The Ad Twins".  You can do it faster with Bitcoin.

There are even independent websites with independent films - you can rent the film for $3.99.  Do you want to give them your debit card information, and fill out a long form with your name and billing address, just so you can watch a documentary one time?  You can pay with bitcoins, and the movie starts about 5 seconds after you click "send" from your wallet.  (I've done this...the documentary was about Bitcoin)

I have also bought Reddit Gold with Bitcoin, which was fast and easy.  I would probably not take the time to enter my billing information just to spend $2.00 from my debit card.

I also bought physical items which were shipped to me from China, on a now-defunct ebay-type website called OneWallet.  They did not need to use an intermediary like Paypal, because all payments used Bitcoin.  I would not give my debit card information to someone in China, but I didn't have to.  I paid them instantly with Bitcoin.

[Amph]

That "extra effort" to buy the bitcoins could pay off huge when bitcoin reaches its peak. The main reason it is better to use this? No taxes and high fees that a bank would charge, especially if you are a merchant. But like most of the others are wondering, why are you on a bitcoin forum if you don't get or agree with it? I hate Chevy El Caminos but I do not bother finding an El Camino forum to trash them  

The "cheep fees" in Bitcoin can change very soon to worse:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3xt8hc/meanwhile_the_last_10_blockshint_well_soon_see/

And I'm not sure if "no taxes" is good slogan for advertising bitcoin. It implies that bticoin is primarily used for tax avoidance. Just more reasons for governments to ban bitcoin, and legit merchants to avoid it.

fees are not really a problem, if anything they will become smaller, because the price will become higher, and you need to spend less , hence less fee to use

it will be levelled out in the end

the no taxes will be certainly true for small things(which is also partially true with fiat already...), but for large things, i'm sure you can not avoid them completely

[Rizky Aditya]

What are you talking about. Bitcoin is secure and anonymous. Bitcoin is a new way of paying for things. Some people like it, others don't. Why are you on this forum if you don't like it?

[Snail2]

So, am I missing something? Am I misunderstanding something? What's up with BitCoins when it comes to buying stuff? The more research I do about it, the less sense it makes to use it.

There's one important point what you missed. Let's scroll back...not very far, just to mid 2013. 1BTC worth $60 in that time. Let's assume we bought 1BTC. Take a look at what we were able to buy for $60 back then. Now scroll forward to these days 1BTC worth roughly $420 now, $60 is still $60. Take a look at again on the shopping basket what we can buy for $60 and what we can buy for 1 BTC today. You know this is why we like it .

[ranochigo]

That "extra effort" to buy the bitcoins could pay off huge when bitcoin reaches its peak. The main reason it is better to use this? No taxes and high fees that a bank would charge, especially if you are a merchant. But like most of the others are wondering, why are you on a bitcoin forum if you don't get or agree with it? I hate Chevy El Caminos but I do not bother finding an El Camino forum to trash them  

The "cheep fees" in Bitcoin can change very soon to worse:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3xt8hc/meanwhile_the_last_10_blockshint_well_soon_see/

And I'm not sure if "no taxes" is good slogan for advertising bitcoin. It implies that bticoin is primarily used for tax avoidance. Just more reasons for governments to ban bitcoin, and legit merchants to avoid it.

The main reason for the current slower/more expensive transaction confirmations is due to the higher transaction volume and lower block size. There are optimizations planned to improve Bitcoin Core and the network's efficiency here. Transaction fees limits are decided by the miners, whether to accept transaction with 0.001BTC/kb fees or not include any Tx at all(except coinbase). With the diminishing block rewards, miners would be forced to accept more TXes. With the current volume, 0.0001BTC/kb fees is sufficient.

Government can't ban Bitcoins or stop tax evasion. Government can probably add taxes to Bitcoin exchange but that won't stop this.

[goinmerry]

So, am I missing something? Am I misunderstanding something? What's up with BitCoins when it comes to buying stuff? The more research I do about it, the less sense it makes to use it.

There's one important point what you missed. Let's scroll back...not very far, just to mid 2013. 1BTC worth $60 in that time. Let's assume we bought 1BTC. Take a look at what we were able to buy for $60 back then. Now scroll forward to these days 1BTC worth roughly $420 now, $60 is still $60. Take a look at again on the shopping basket what we can buy for $60 and what we can buy for 1 BTC today. You know this is why we like it .

I love that comment using the past. They wont understand if they havent been there or for some who havent been there but with knowledge knowing how low bitcoin is in the past.

[ahmadmanga]

One of the reasons to use Bitcoin is cases like mine: https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/the-africoin-report-libya

when your country don't/can't provide... not many people in Libya are banked and more than half don't have credit cards. paypal doesn't support our country.. but we all have mobile phones & internet access... Bitcoin is one of the few options we have to buy/sell online.

after reading a lot about Bitcoin (been user for a year) now I know it's not for everyone. but Bitcoin can be used in things that credit/debit cards can't.

[ObscureBean]

People will come out with all sorts of pros and cons, in the end it's really up to you to decide if it brings something new to the table and if you want to use it. Honestly I don't see Bitcoin as being any 'better' than the current system in place, it's just evolution. Just like the 60's was not better than today, it was just different.

[BellaBitBit]

Nothing is truly safe. Bitcoin has many advantages over a debit card and as time goes on it will become apparent why it is better than debit/credit/banks.  Right now it may be hard for people to see that but you simply don't have to participate.

[cjmoles]

I understand the OP's argument; however, one thing is missing in regards to using debit cards verses bitcoin, fees!  Fees for this and fees for that!  Fee's for international commerce are huge.  Not only are there huge fees for international commerce but try using your bank card for micro transactions!  (Don't really try that because it's not wise)  AND...The number one most attractive aspect of Bitcoin is that it is DECENTRALIZED!!!  There is no middleman telling one what they can and cannot do with their money.  There is no one single entity controlling it's value, no inflationary manipulations nor deflationary manipulations.  My bitcoin, here in the US, is worth the same as your bitcoin in Zimbabwe!  Wow!

[EdenHazard]

Bitcoins are not secure, not private, anonymous and not to use them - you need extra effort.
Can you explain why you said bitcoin is not secure?
If you still choose a credit card to make a payment, what if you do not have a credit card and had to make the difficult steps and takes more effort, rather than making bitcoin wallet is simple and fast?

[1Referee]

Nothing is truly safe. Bitcoin has many advantages over a debit card and as time goes on it will become apparent why it is better than debit/credit/banks.  Right now it may be hard for people to see that but you simply don't have to participate.

It's not hard to see that. The real early adopters have seen this comming back in 2010/2011. And look now, they are greatly rewarded for their trust in Bitcoin. Only ignorant people find it hard to understand that Bitcoin as technology and currency is far superior compared to the old fashion financial system.

[topiOleg]

Some will appreciate having decentralized currency in wallet you can trust only after they loose all fiat savings in hyperinflation (and dont be fool it cant happen or has little chance, check history for facts!). Obviously the smart ones holding Bitcoin already.

[yenxz]

The only reason why i should bitcoin than use credit card because bitcoin have a simple payment and fast registration,can you imagine if you can use ceedit card without go to bank to regist your account?if not,than you should pick bitcoin.