Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

[Serena Yin]

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

[sana54210]

Really ? First of all this is the altcoin part of the forum, so I don’t know how alright it is to ask about bitcoin.

Secondly, you can check all around the internet for the good parts of bitcoin, rather than asking for it, you can do a research, after you learn what is so good about bitcoin than you can start checking the big altcoins and see what they have over bitcoin and the added features. After that, you can come back and ask real questions.

[talkbitcoin]

what is the real use of bitcoin ?

you mean the decentralized, secure, fairly distributed, no premine, no ICO, original, crypto-currency called bitcoin?

let me introduce you to our old friend Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=spend+bitcoin

lists of thousands of merchants online and offline who are accepting bitcoin payment (this link is more than enough to answer anything you want and only looking at all the merchants names will take you an hour :
www.coindesk.com/information/what-can-you-buy-with-bitcoins/

also a good tool to find merchants that are accepting bitcoin payment online:
https://www.bitcoin.com/spend-bitcoin-online

Japan recognized bitcoin as a legal way of making payments aka as a currency and then Russia followed:
www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/bitcoin-price-rises-japan-russia-regulation.html

first bank of bitcoin (interest paying) is starting in Japan:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/japan-receive-its-first-interest-paying-bitcoin-deposit-accounts/

and since it seems like you are from China let me help you more specifically.

https://www.google.com/search?q=spend+bitcoin+in+China

bitcoin ATMs in China (Shanghai and Beijing):
https://coinatmradar.com/country/44/bitcoin-atm-china/

online shop accepting bitcoin from China:
https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-we-accept-bitcoin.html

2 awesome places to buy gift cards for most popular online shops such as Amazon at a huge discount and save up on a lot of money and a lot more:
Gyft.com
purse.io

[AmarO]

All these alts with no use will die but BTC will not it will grow to become the universal currency. A fork is definitely needed at some time though to optimize the system while keeping everything else intact. BTC is king.

[Yuhee]

All these alts with no use will die but BTC will not it will grow to become the universal currency. A fork is definitely needed at some time though to optimize the system while keeping everything else intact. BTC is king.

I thought fork is being generated as a solution for many and still increasing delayed transaction and higher fees?.

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

It's not bad to ask questions all over the forum but i think it's in your own initiative to search and go through pages and sections in the community. and sometimes there are FAQ's already answered and asked many times.

[yutyuf8687696]

Fees & slow transactions are big hurdles at the moment,hope it gets sorted out soon

[BitWhale]

To me, Bitcoin is a decentralized way of moving money from point A to point B without a middle man (unless we are counting miners as middle men).

to shut down bitcoin, they'd have to shut down every computer running it, which is like putting out a fire that continues to grow exponentially.

Secondly, to move money traditionally you had to entrust your funds with a bank, which would then act as a middle man and transfer the funds using their facility, charging you a fee. It'd take days and probably cost you 1-2% of your full transfer, not to mention having to deal with bank employees.

Bitcoin bypasses most of that (unless you are trying to convert back to FIAT, which is a mute point, you can't blame Bitcoin for FIAT's short comings). If you are transferring bitcoin directly to someone, you can literally send straight from the comfort of your living room to the living room of your friend half way around the world, no middle man required.

The fees are temporarily high, this will change in the future, but even with the fees they are now, it's still incredibly cheap to send millions of dollars to anywhere in the world, within a few minutes.

Now, I've long said I don't understand why Bitcoin is so expensive. It can function just fine @ $5 ea as it can @ $100. Unless there is so much need in the system (demand) that we need a rising bitcoin, I really don't understand where the giant market cap comes from. Today you can definitely send millions easy and the market is liquid enough to accept it, but is the price higher because of use & demand? or is it simply because we all saw it rising in 2015 and bought it up as we have multiple times before?

It makes total sense to me that if everyone is buying and holding that the price will go up exponentially. Does the demand of bitcoin outside of being used as a speculation vehicle call for such a high marketcap? I really don't think so. Don't get me wrong, the liquidity is great, and something that any good currency should have. All I'm saying is that the vast majority of bitcoin users HOLD their bitcoin, instead of spending it and using the system, so the liquidity is literally nothing more than to cash people out of their rising investment (which of course only works until there's more sellers than buyers).

Maybe I'm missing the "store of value" side. I definitely use it for that, but I've never seen it that way. When I buy bitcoin, it's an investment which I full well plan to profit from in Fiat terms. I know I'm not alone in that.

[Shiroslullaby]

Buying drugs and guns on the internet.

[BitWhale]

Buying drugs and guns on the internet.

Lol yes, can't forget that. A currency isn't a currency until you can buy drugs with it.

[emezh10]

Ahahah they are really funny but we have a bitcoin discussion thread here so you should be careful on your post please read carefully all the threads. And the thread or section of your topic so there are no complication also you will get a good answer in what you where asking.

[Karpeles]

Transfer money around the world for cheap, even where there are economic sanctions that would make such transfer impossible
Have a storage of value that won't surely loses value over time and won't require trust in banks or store or physical objects that can be stole, counterfeit or lost. Good if you live in violent places with fragile bank system.
You don't need to have a bank account or credit card to use them

[dinofelis]

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

The real use of crypto currencies, apart its main application, which is speculation and greater-fool game, is for those payments where fiat cannot go, is dangerous, expensive or difficult.  Main application: dark markets.
But there can be other kinds of payments where you don't want law and rule to go, or where law and rule are in such disordered state that there's no clear way to pay with fiat.  I could think of financing forbidden projects or activities, extortion, bribing, ordered killings, hostage taking.... on one hand ; and of sleazy business like porn, hookers, unregulated night life, unregulated gambling and so on on the other hand.

And yes, there are some geeks who like to pay regular stuff with crypto too !
 
The biggest draw backs of most crypto is that they are hugely deflationary, and hence the speculative part will always by far prevail over any actual currency usage, it will never become a stable unit of account (impossible with speculative non-stabilized assets) and so each time you deal in it, you take a risk of volatility.

Another issue is of course, that if using fiat for the purpose would be dangerous, don't use a transparent block chain.

[Thekool1s]

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

Once the transaction fee issue and waiting time issues get solved, There are million of daily life uses. Plus it will give you real control, no more inflation BS. Economic Crises etc.. Also Can kind of protect you against spying. The List goes on. Bitcoin needs tiny modifications and it will be ready for the mainstream adoption. Bitcoin will change how the governments work and will give people the real power against the "Ruling class". well that's my opinion

[iram3130]

Buying drugs and guns on the internet.

Lol yes, can't forget that. A currency isn't a currency until you can buy drugs with it.

And not getting caught for it. I think that is the best part of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Anonymity, although this is not fully anonymous most part of it helps in many ways. People will always tend to try new things to do illegal sh*t so it is nothing new to bitcoin.

[Karpeles]

Buying drugs and guns on the internet.

Lol yes, can't forget that. A currency isn't a currency until you can buy drugs with it.

And not getting caught for it. I think that is the best part of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Anonymity, although this is not fully anonymous most part of it helps in many ways. People will always tend to try new things to do illegal sh*t so it is nothing new to bitcoin.

and being scammed in the process, or being caught on the delivery

you know, lots of drugs and guns are being illegally sold much before Bitcoin existed, I believe it should be easier and cheaper to buy drugs and guns with cash

[lizardbtc]

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

Most of the people don't look at bitcoin use as they see it as a way to earn money, which goes for the altcoin trading as well. We forget its purpose, or some of us.

For me real use of bitcoin is that you can be anon (if you mix the coins the right way), there is no regulation , no tax to pay atm. You can buy some things with it. There is not some big market right there but as adoption grow I am sure that there will be some.

You don't need a bank account ( no need to give your info to anyone), it is simple to use, once you understand just some basic things that all of people need to. You just need string of numbers and you are good to go to receive and send transactions. It used to be "low fees, and fast" but with the adoption growing right now and as more people do the transactions network is kinda full. Until something happens we might see increase in fees and waiting time for coins to come to your wallet.

But basically it is money, real currency that is being used. You can be paid as freelancer in bitcoin for instance or be paid for your job. Noone controls your money, you do! But some people find it even hard to control their bitcoins and make some of the things like losing their backup or not even making a backup...

[saflem]

While anonymity is an illusion. You still have to convert their bitcoin official currency to spend. For example to fill the car. From this moment on you see everything. Maybe in the future it will not be so, but so far people have very little bitcoins and therefore no market.

[Vika NSFW]

what is the real use of bitcoin ?

Will to try some BTC interactive real live chat? (NSFW)

[smartbitcoininvestor]

Bitcoin is intrinsically a storage of value with the security of a Swiss bank that can be transferred anywhere globally. Who cares about the trading price lol

[szpalata]

Now the world is crazy about bitcoin!

We talk about its price ,its mining all day.

Besides its speculation ,what is the real use of bitcoin ?

Global payment processing dude, without the need of a central authority/controller or government.