I went to a bitcoin meetup Many people there had bitcoin, no-one actually use it

[shield132]

I went to a bitcoin meetup in my town (I'm going every few weeks for almost 2 years)
Because the market is rising now I somehow got into a talk with like 8 people about what they did recently or plan to do with their bitcoins.

All of them didn't touch their portfolio since the beginning of 2018
They didn't even use it for a small transaction.

there is a topic that always someone mentions and that's 'Why would I use bitcoin to buy something today when in two months from now my bitcoin might worth double'

I don't use my bitcoins as well and in some way, I think that the hodl approach is hurting us. I would like to know what the community here thinks.

Are there bitcoin meetups so often? What about to share usually what is the subject of theme, do you actually discuss around blockchain technologies?
To move on your topic, in that proposal I would make some edits: Might worth double or might be reduced. Personally I am against holding money the way some people do because money has to be in circulation, this way economy develops, when you stop money and do nothing, how can economy grow?

[rdluffy]

I have my investments in BTC and sometimes I use to buy something that will give me more BTC 

But I never spent any BTC unless the stated above

Depends on the strategy of people

[fulled]

Mine too still in my private wallet, i dont think to open it atleast until next all time high, i regularly buy it with 15% allocation from my salary. I want to make bitcoin my long term investment

[Nivia1st]

this is nothing new, in my place they only use bitcoin for investment. no one actually uses it for payment, or money transfers and more.

I once asked a few friends, "why don't you use bitcoin to pay for something". and they say, no one wants to accept bitcoin just to pay for food, snacks, or those that are under 5 $. it's too risky.

[Juggy777]

I went to a bitcoin meetup in my town (I'm going every few weeks for almost 2 years)
Because the market is rising now I somehow got into a talk with like 8 people about what they did recently or plan to do with their bitcoins.

All of them didn't touch their portfolio since the beginning of 2018
They didn't even use it for a small transaction.

there is a topic that always someone mentions and that's 'Why would I use bitcoin to buy something today when in two months from now my bitcoin might worth double'

I don't use my bitcoins as well and in some way, I think that the hodl approach is hurting us. I would like to know what the community here thinks.

I didn’t knew such communities existed because many people are sceptical about revealing that they hodl bitcoins, so it’s good to know you met with other holders. Each and every person has different use for bitcoins in my case I tend to hold them for a while, and when I need to buy gadgets or trips I cash them out. It’s difficult to take a stand that holding is hurting bitcoins, because there’s no actual proof that bitcoin prices get effected if people only hodl.

[poodle63]

this is nothing new, in my place they only use bitcoin for investment. no one actually uses it for payment, or money transfers and more.

I once asked a few friends, "why don't you use bitcoin to pay for something". and they say, no one wants to accept bitcoin just to pay for food, snacks, or those that are under 5 $. it's too risky.

Well considering the fee and maybe the complicated regulation I kinda understand although I'm myself as a bitcoin user wspend my bitcoin on my monthly needs like giftcard and many more but if it's too low of a value in USD then I'd just ditch to use cash by withdrawing instead but if the fee is quite cheap I'd still use my BTC.

[Astargath]

That's what I have been saying for a long time, no one uses bitcoin as a day-to-day currency and it's understandable. You don't really gain anything from it, you are paying fees, it's slow and it's accepted only in a few places. The volatility is also huge right now you would have to check literally every minute to see how much bitcoin you need to pay.

[dothebeats]

It's quite a contradicting thought going in to a meet/convention about bitcoin and people would only talk about bitcoin's value, expected and current, and not really the development they can do as a community. The last few local conventions I have had at least talked about what possible things can we do with bitcoin, with most of them pledging to open their shops for bitcoin in the near future (with one bar already doing it somewhere in Makati). Right now, I'm still looking for places wherein I can use my bitcoins without the need for a third-party service like Bitpay to handle the conversion. The last one I encounter was in California, a chili sauce dealer and bought two 50mL habanero chili sauce with them back in 2017.

[Ucy]

This sounds like propaganda.
Nothing stops anyone from buying stuff with bitcoin. If the there are online market where people can easily buy things with bitcoin, I bet 100% they will especially with the extra money from price increase. Who wouldn't want to spend the "free money"?

 I have bought stuff with bitcoin several times even while the price was going up.  In fact , I usually spend bitcoin when am happy with my "ROI".

The "no one spends bitcoin" argument is yet to be proven. Go get your data from marketplaces that accept bitcoin and not from conferences

[mk4]

Lol calm down with your "propaganda" allegations. OP never claimed that "no one" in general spends bitcoin. It's just that merely 8 people from from a local bitcoin meetup aren't willing to spend them. Maybe try reading the topic fully first.

[libert19]

I don't use BTC transactions because they are bit expensive compared to counterparts. Example, ethereum could make my transaction in 20cents when Bitcoin will need $2 and will take longer to get confirmed.

[Market-desi]

if I also often meet and gather with bitcoin users, bro. but most of the friends I know mostly use their bitcoin to buy altcoins for income.
 because they have a principle if the assets they have are not rotated, there will be no income to meet their needs. so we always try our best to find income every day, bro.

[Ridwan Fauzi]

I was confused when we talk about bitcoin function. In one side bitcoin still deserve to be use as payment system so as we can say it as global currency.

Each people will be easily to make a transaction although they are in the different country, there is no third party so they will make a transaction with an easy way.

But in the other side bitcoin can be use as an investment place which so far I can say it as promising place, you will get a wealth only for less then one month (such as the increasing price of bitcoin at this time $3200-$1000).

Those factor have been made me don't have a comfortable feeling when I had it, I have to use bitcoin as payment system in order to everyone know bitcoin can be use it and I have to hold my bitcoin because it's really promising to be hold.

[lienfaye]

The fact that bitcoin and other crypto were treated by people as an investment and not a currency is the reason why most of us prefer to hold rather than spending it. Especially now that the value of bitcoin is slowly moving upward, its a chance to take profit once it reach your target price.

Though I want to hodl my bitcoin as much as possible, there are really times I cant refrain myself to cash out because of emergency. The good thing about this is the value of btc now already surpassed the amount I bought it before, thus I want to just hodl and see how far it will go.

[Kakmakr]

I have a 80%/20% strategy that works very well for me. I Hodl 80% of all the coins I buy and then spend 20% as a currency to pay for goods and services. This way I support the merchant network and I still manage to "save" most of the coins I buy.

Yes, if we stop using Bitcoin as a currency, merchants will stop accepting it and then the demand for Bitcoin will go down and the price will go down to. So having a split strategy like this, helps Bitcoin to thrive. 

If you buy things online and the site supports Bitcoin payment, just convert those funds to Bitcoin and pay with Bitcoin. Why do you have to use your credit card, if Bitcoin payments are more secure for eCommerce?

[Rufsilf]

Well, good point, if I was in their place and they don't have anything to spend it with then I would hold it until the next bull run. In my case however, there are times that I will exchange to fiat if there is something important the comes up but as much as possible I want to save it.

[bitbunnny]

Actually I'm one of those who believe that Bitcoin should be actively used. There is no real purpose of it if it just stays idle in some wallet. Bitcoin is not only investment that you forget about once you put your money in. It should be used as a payment method, for transactions.
I think that people often forget that Bitcoin has its use in real world too and if we don't promote it with the actual concrete use why how can we expect some mass adoption and wide masses interest for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

[valentin68]

I will tell you why is necessary to use your bitcoin even when its value is going up.
Say that you want to buy something from a country with very wise people.  Say that you want to buy their knowledge.

What possibility to pay for this knowledge do you have? You can pay with PayPal, or you can pay with Bitcoin. What would you use?
Some people will pay with PayPal some people will pay with Bitcoin.

[Janation]

There are those people that use it and there are those that just holds it.

Saying that I think the people who use it and hold it has the balance and I think, for now, it won't affect the price. A lot of people are waiting for the price of BTC to pump, and if does happen, most of the people don't use it usually they hold it and I think that affects the price. The more people hold Bitcoin, the more it will affect the price.

[Leonardo7]

I have come to the realization that not using one's crypto asset will actually not help the price movement, it's when it's been used or traded  that it worth will be determined and more investors will be attracted, just holding won't help anyone as it can even kill the price, money needs to exchange hands