How many bitcoiners on here have actually used bitcoin/crypto for commerce?

[alyssa85]

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general will only advance if people actually use it for more than speculation.

In the past we've seen lots of retailers enabling bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their checkouts, and then been disappointed that hardly anyone has used the function. And we have had some orgs like Steam disabling bitcoin and giving up on it.

So how many people on here have actually used cryptocurrency in real life?

I'll start: I haven't used bitcoin (because I consider that savings), but I have used dogecoin to buy gift cards and bitcoincash (BCH) to deposit to a betting website via BitPay.

Anyone else want to share their experiences?

[o_e_l_e_o]

I spend bitcoin several times a week, both in person and online.

I've spoken about my in person spending on the forum before. I spend bitcoin predominantly at my local farmers' market, which runs every Sunday, and I usually visit 2-3 times per month. None of the stalls there accepted bitcoin when I first started going. I talked to my favorite stall repeatedly, stating I wanted to pay in bitcoin, and eventually they hopped on board. Now there are 4 or 5 different stalls there who all accept bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies, and I am definitely not the only one paying in bitcoin. If you want to spend bitcoin, then you have to create demand for retailers to accept it. Any small or independent merchants or retailers you frequent are easy to talk to and raise the idea of them accepting bitcoin. Large retailers are companies are much harder - I've sent emails to many a customer support asking for bitcoin integration, but no success on this front yet. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. The more people who starting putting pressure on retailers to accept bitcoin, the better.

Online I have spent bitcoin on Newegg to buy electronics, on Overstock to buy various home goods, and on Bitrefill to buy fiat vouchers for a number of other retailers I use online and in person who don't yet accept bitcoin themselves. I've also moved the small amount of sports betting I do from a fiat site over to a bitcoin site.

If you include methods like bitcoin credit cards which will convert to fiat on the fly, then you can literally spend bitcoin anywhere. Widespread adoption and people using bitcoin for what it was intended - a currency - is the only way we will see sustainable, long-term growth of both the price and of bitcoin itself. The wild price movements up and down are based on speculation only. I can sympathize with people who don't want to spend their bitcoin as they think the price will increase, but it won't increase unless people are using it. Replace it if you want, buy more, earn more, talk to your employer about switching some of your salary from fiat to bitcoin or accept it in your own business, but go out and spend it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Online I have spent bitcoin on Newegg to buy electronics

I've bought some nice stuff with bitcoin on Newegg, but the only other real thing I bought was some silver from Provident Metals.  Interesting to hear about that farmers' market you go to, and that's very cool that you got them to accept bitcoin.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general will only advance if people actually use it for more than speculation.

I don't think that's necessarily true, and if it is then 99.99% of altcoins will never advance, whatever that means.  I'm not sure that bitcoin or any other crypto needs people to force adoption or anything else upon it.  It works as a currency when people want to use it as such--except that not all merchants accept it--and it works very well as an investment.  If it catches on as a form of money, that's fine with me but I don't think it needs that for its survival.  Just my opinion.

[figmentofmyass]

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general will only advance if people actually use it for more than speculation.

the way i see it, speculation and adoption go hand in hand. the bubbles drew me in as a speculator, and years later i spend bitcoin all the time.

it doesn't have to be an "either/or" situation. if no one ever spent bitcoins, they would be worthless---i'll concede that. but that doesn't mean bitcoin primarily needs to be used as a currency.  it can primarily be a store of value and speculative asset. speculators are part of the network too.

i spend bitcoins all the time but i don't have anything against the hodlers.

[alyssa85]

I'm not sure that bitcoin or any other crypto needs people to force adoption or anything else upon it.  It works as a currency when people want to use it as such--except that not all merchants accept it--and it works very well as an investment.  If it catches on as a form of money, that's fine with me but I don't think it needs that for its survival.  Just my opinion.

If you look back to 2009 when Satoshi launched bitcoin - it was when the bank bailouts were happening. And governments bailed out the banks primarily because they acted as payment processors. There was the nightmare scenario where banks collapsed and shut their doors and people's wages couldn't get to them and retailers couldn't pay their suppliers and so on. Because the payment system would have disappeared.

If cryptocurrency doesn't develop a payment network then we are no further. In the next crisis govts will be forced to bailout the banks AGAIN, because there is no alternative network up and running.

But that alternative network could be cryptocurrency - and if it is widely used, then banks can be allowed to collapse.

[Hydrogen]

Some might find this interesting.

I've bought walmart and target gift cards via crypto. Printed the gift cards out on paper. Used them to buy frozen pizzas in stores. Then been spammed with frozen pizza advertisements identical to the brand/type of frozen pizza I bought, on social media.

Another story. I've bought items on amazon via crypto to gift card method. I picked up my amazon boxes from the post office with the original packaging tape broken and re-taped. Part of me wonders if the post office searches my packages to check if I'm purchasing drugs or contraband from a crypto dark web site like silkroad, alphabay or whatever exists now. Or if there is another motive for it.

If you look back to 2009 when Satoshi launched bitcoin - it was when the bank bailouts were happening. And governments bailed out the banks primarily because they acted as payment processors. There was the nightmare scenario where banks collapsed and shut their doors and people's wages couldn't get to them and retailers couldn't pay their suppliers and so on. Because the payment system would have disappeared.

I think one reason banks were bailed out was to prevent the american public from realizing banks $100k FDIC insurance wouldn't enable consumers to retrieve 100% of their account funds from banks that crashed.

They had to bailout banks to prevent the public from waking up & becoming aware of how fractured and broken banking institutions had become under the wholly deregulated environment created from Bill Clinton's admin onwards.

[boltz]

I used Bitcoin in a lot of commerce like buying games on steam , subscribe to my fav twitchers , buy gifts on our local online shop and then spending them in the shop , buy from my friends some goods with Bitcoin. This is why we use Bitcoin after all beside holding , to spend it, to make the receiver to trust even more Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as in time more and more will follow the example.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Interesting to hear about that farmers' market you go to, and that's very cool that you got them to accept bitcoin.

Me being a regular customer and on first name terms with the whole family who run that farm/stall definitely helped. But as I said, I would encourage others to try with any small, independent or family-run retailers or traders you regularly use. They want your business. If accepting bitcoin is going to help them get or keep your business, then most will at least consider/look in to it.

I've bought walmart and target gift cards via crypto. Printed the gift cards out on paper. Used them to buy frozen pizzas in stores. Then been spammed with frozen pizza advertisements identical to the brand/type of frozen pizza I bought, on social media.

Is the email address you have used to sign up to the gift card selling site the same email you use across social media? I think this is a far more likely link than advertising companies linking your bitcoin address to an individual gift card. I have also bought many gift cards for various retailers, and have never once noticed an ad based on my purchases. But having said that, my bitcoin are always mixed/never linked to my real identity, I use different email addresses for everything, I don't use social media, and I use very aggressive ad blocking, so who knows.

[gentlemand]

I have spent enough over the years to make me blub probably.

My latest is paying my local mechanics in BTC. They fucking hate their boss and don't put any of my work through the company. I supply the parts and pay them directly.

Other than that I have an upcoming holiday rental in the US. In the past I had to create a USD cheque at my British bank and then post the fucking thing. Last time they lost it and so it had to be done again. In total it took over five weeks before they got any money in their account.

This time around I told them it's BTC or nothing and they agreed. Dunno if they'll use Bitpay or whatever. Not my problem. It'll be done in an hour.

[figmentofmyass]

I've bought walmart and target gift cards via crypto. Printed the gift cards out on paper. Used them to buy frozen pizzas in stores. Then been spammed with frozen pizza advertisements identical to the brand/type of frozen pizza I bought, on social media.

i don't think that's to do with crypto. the marketing methods of today are just freaky as hell. i'm pretty sure they're listening through microphones in our devices among other nefarious things. the other day, my girlfriend was complaining to me about getting bad sleep. now she's getting spammed with sleeping pill ads.

Another story. I've bought items on amazon via crypto to gift card method. I picked up my amazon boxes from the post office with the original packaging tape broken and re-taped. Part of me wonders if the post office searches my packages to check if I'm purchasing drugs or contraband from a crypto dark web site like silkroad, alphabay or whatever exists now. Or if there is another motive for it.

it's probably amazon. things have improved over the years but they're known for packing things really badly. before i ever got into crypto, i'd received packages from amazon prime that were busted wide open.

[Kyraishi]

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general will only advance if people actually use it for more than speculation.

In the past we've seen lots of retailers enabling bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their checkouts, and then been disappointed that hardly anyone has used the function. And we have had some orgs like Steam disabling bitcoin and giving up on it.

So how many people on here have actually used cryptocurrency in real life?

I'll start: I haven't used bitcoin (because I consider that savings), but I have used dogecoin to buy gift cards and bitcoincash (BCH) to deposit to a betting website via BitPay.

Anyone else want to share their experiences?

Spent a month in Japan where having BTC was amazing. Started pestering every store I went to about accepting BTC and was able to use it several times.

I've also used Bitcoin on Amazon with the purse.io add-on, very useful and bought most of my technology with crypto-currencies from newegg and other sites. It's actually very useful to pay with Bitcoin and avoids the hassle with your bank card - a lot sites have really good interegrations so you scan a qr code with your wallet and it puts everything in automatically.

[BitHodler]

I have been spending a small portion of my coins consistently for over a year now. I order fast-food through a subsidiary of takeaway with Bitcoin and frequently purchase a wide variety of gift cards.

The one aspect of spending Bitcoin I like less is when the price has gone down like 60-70% because I know the price will recover with some patience, so I choose to use fiat instead because it makes more sense for me in that situation. 

I know I can buy back the coins that I spend, but that's not convenient at all, where the better alternative is to just use fiat to begin with, which I do.

[Hydrogen]

I've bought walmart and target gift cards via crypto. Printed the gift cards out on paper. Used them to buy frozen pizzas in stores. Then been spammed with frozen pizza advertisements identical to the brand/type of frozen pizza I bought, on social media.

Is the email address you have used to sign up to the gift card selling site the same email you use across social media? I think this is a far more likely link than advertising companies linking your bitcoin address to an individual gift card. I have also bought many gift cards for various retailers, and have never once noticed an ad based on my purchases. But having said that, my bitcoin are always mixed/never linked to my real identity, I use different email addresses for everything, I don't use social media, and I use very aggressive ad blocking, so who knows.

Yes. I was thinking it was the email address that was tracked. I used the same email on social media and on the site I bought the gift card from. Bad opsec on my part. I should be embarrassed/ashamed. Which isn't to say bitcoin transactions couldn't be tracked if authority figures were determined. Maybe it helps someone to know not to use the same email address the way I did.

I also applied for a bitpay debit card. Paid the $10 fee. Bitpay never send me a card. They claimed that they didn't receive the bitcoin I sent. Of course, they don't know my BTC would have been returned to me if they hadn't received it. That definitely never happened.

Another story. I've bought items on amazon via crypto to gift card method. I picked up my amazon boxes from the post office with the original packaging tape broken and re-taped. Part of me wonders if the post office searches my packages to check if I'm purchasing drugs or contraband from a crypto dark web site like silkroad, alphabay or whatever exists now. Or if there is another motive for it.

it's probably amazon. things have improved over the years but they're known for packing things really badly. before i ever got into crypto, i'd received packages from amazon prime that were busted wide open.

It 100% wasn't amazon. Boxes completely untouched. No dents, smashes, etc. Only visible signs of damage were tape seals being broken.

[Theb]

If you first think about it you'll think that Bitcoin is only accepted online through websites of big companies especially when you are living on a country where BTC is not known but basing it from my personal experience you'd be surprised to know that even people who just advertise their product online accepts Bitcoin and even some other crypto for payments. I won't go into too much detail but I am part of several sneaker groups on my country and one of sellers of the shoe I want happens to be accepting crypto, it was really the perfect timing since I was low in cash and BTC is the only payment I have that time so I contacted him before anyone else grab that shoe. They may not be a lot of them accepting crypto but this is a start and I was fortunate enough that this reputable seller is accepting other payments aside from cash.

[target]

I have bought some products in the local store but not online. I think some of the stores are disabling the acceptable of BTC was because of the bear market still. It always end to pointing to the bear market because when the stores receives 1BTC for hundred of products they have but after a month or two the quantity of products it can only BTC was less than 10. And so to prevent it from happening they are disabling BTC acceptance.

[gentlemand]

If only i can use some portions of my bitcoin in our local stores here, then i would definitely do it. But there are still no merchants accepting bitcoin so i am still saving my bitcoin for future use.

If it's something you want then why not ask them? No harm done and they might like the idea.

I've managed it a few times with different places but it tends to work better for services than things with supply chains. Most of them start crying or vomiting at the very thought of it but you get the occasional success.

[Twinkledoe]

In my case, I am using btc as payment for my prepaid phone as I am getting a little bit of cashback every time I load. Very convenient and you have a lil bonus at the same time. I also use btc as payment for my domain names but it is only once a year for every domain that I own. Other than that, I cash out btc to my fiat, if I badly needed it. To be honest, I want to store my btc as long as possible for the belief that it will continue to increase.  

[Google+]

I have used bitcoin to buy items in online games and currently I only use bitcoin for something online because for offline in my country there are not many people who accept payments using bitcoin and have not made it a legal exchange, so that is what makes I have never used bitcoin for transactions in my country.

[sirminesalot]

I used Bitcoin in a lot of commerce like buying games on steam , subscribe to my fav twitchers , buy gifts on our local online shop and then spending them in the shop , buy from my friends some goods with Bitcoin. This is why we use Bitcoin after all beside holding , to spend it, to make the receiver to trust even more Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as in time more and more will follow the example.

currently there are many uses of bitcoin in online trading and many countries use bitcoin as well as official currency and transactions, but in my country, crypto currencies are not yet used as a direct transaction tool and are still prohibited by the government, but I am sure in the future it will be able to done in my country

[1Referee]

I found my spending habits to have exploded the moment Lightning became easy to access and pretty stable in terms of successful payment attempts. For every on-chain transaction I conduct, there are probably a dozen or so transactions conducted through Lightning, and I absolutely love it. I just can't get enough of everything I purchase to be accepted instantly.

What I am waiting for is adoption of Lightning by exchanges, but I'm pretty sure that the Coinbase's of this space will not bother until the software has matured properly. It will open the door to a whole new set of use cases that people will like. I expect a lot to happen within the gaming and gambling industry once Lightning has made the necessary steps to onboard large entities without problems.