Buying food or groceries with Bitcoin

[Vishnu.Reang]

Here in India I saw Bitcoin QR code in one shop while visiting Delhi. That was the only time when I saw the "Bitcoin accepted". Now I may not find such signs anymore, because the government here is cracking down on Bitcoin usage. That said, it is possible to purchase groceries using Bitcoin in India (but not directly). You can convert your Bitcoins to Amazon or Flipkart gift cards, and then use these gift cards to purchase groceries from Amazon Pantry or Flipkart Supermart.

[AakZaki]

Sure, that can be possible but just as the OP suggested it will be best to have traders mostly become aware of the use of stable coins just to reduce any form of volatility should the market crash. But I am sure some traders would also want to experience some volatility should the market rise just to make profits whiles holding their bitcoins.

But still only a few traders who want volatility without having to convert it again to Stablecoin. The risk of bitcoin totality is also very high. Some platforms such as Coinbase Commerce can be chosen by traders to use bitcoin and other altcoins such as ETH as a means of payment which will then be converted directly to stable coins.
https://commerce.coinbase.com/

[gamer4156]

Many things could happen in the future. Many countries have now declared Bitcoin illegal. This is because of the illegal use of Bitcoin. Many crimes are being committed in more or less every country whose payment system is Bitcoin, And so many countries are now reluctant to legalize Bitcoin. Who can talk about the future. If I were asked food or groceries could be bought with Bitcoin, I would say that it is possible in some countries, and many countries will not legalize Bitcoin as long as Bitcoin is not under a government.

[Bitcoinislife09]

I think that is because most people don't know about crypto, especially bitcoin. And if they want to buy something at the supermarket, fast food, or another physical store, they can use credit and debit cards, which means they don't have to use fiat money. That prevents them from the Covid-19 spreads because of using paper money, and they can keep their hands clean. Besides using credit and debit cards, they also have another digital payment that store on their mobile phone, so they can directly deposit to their account, and they can buy what they want.

I am sure that in the future, we can use crypto to buy in the groceries and the local store, but perhaps, we are not only using bitcoin but also using the other coins as the payment system. It's a matter of time for people to know and learn crypto, and once they know the crypto, I think they will encourage each other to use crypto for many things, including buying at the local store.

Yes I agree with that many people are not aware of what bitcoin is, that is why they are not able to use the privilege of having a bitcoin. Using bitcoin anyone can buy goods, products, and services using bitcoin. In using electronic money such as bitcoin we can minimize the spread of COVID-19. They can have clean hands because they do not have to have cash on hand. Besides bitcoin also an advantage when it comes to credit and debit. You may also buy a load using bitcoin. And also pay bills using coins. Bitcoin may lessen your effort in paying bills and making transactions because you can do it online using bitcoin.

Bitcoin and other electronic money are not that introduced here in the Philippines. But I believe that soon cryptocurrencies will be launched formally here in the Philippines. This pandemic may be a good opportunity for it.

[TheUltraElite]

There are two ways to think on this. One is the investor approach who are buying bitcoin to keep for the future in a hope to sell at big gains and another which is the common man approach where bitcoin is just a mode of payment and could be used to buy groceries. I consider the first option and thus if fiat does not become completely useless, I would rather use fiat to buy daily necessities and not waste my bitcoin for that. It does not mean that everyone has to follow on of these approaches but mix and match both.

Currently the trend is to invest in bitcoin's future speculation by buying it in short amounts every month or so during a dump which is a healthy way to grow your portfolio. However if merchants accept bitcoin in a wider basis we might see a change in the trend in the upcoming years.

[huu78]

Bitcoin's popularity has been increasing ever since the bull market of 2017 took place. Even with the pandemic, prices have recovered to their original levels (near $10k) in just a matter of months. More people are accepting Bitcoin worldwide, albeit at a slow and steady pace. I've seen many sites out there in the online world which accepts Bitcoin for goods and services. But the number of businesses and merchants accepting it for food or groceries are quite limited. In the physical world, supermarkets and even fast foods haven't even adopted Bitcoin yet. Fiat is still the predominant type of currency in the mainstream world, for buying items that are required for one's survival.

Do you think that in the future it'll be possible to buy food or groceries with Bitcoin? I know that volatility is a huge issue for Bitcoin to be accepted as an alternative to traditional Fiat, but merchants and businesses could quickly convert Bitcoin to a stablecoin minimizing the risk of loss. What are your thoughts?

Very possible if the demand for the use of bitcoin or cryptocurrency is very large. maybe other crypto projects will adopt stable coins for merchant payments as such might occur if they will be adopted into real life to replace fiat.
to realize it might take a long time because some countries still do not approve cryptocurrency for real-life payments, only for trading or such investment for now. who knows?

[Negotiation]

A lot of things are going to happen to people in real life but bitcoin is only used for investing I don't think it will be possible to buy food or groceries with Bitcoin Bitcoin is not yet supported by illegal governments in many countries so buying and selling with Bitcoin will take a long time. Bitcoin is a very popular currency but it will take a long time to break the Fiat currency Therefore it is not possible to buy food without the support of the whole world.

[buwaytress]

We certainly need more adoption of BTC, that's for sure. When I see the whole Crypto marketcap for the last two years still sitting under 300 Billion USD, that is a very small market compared to other financial markets. So I agree that we have a long way to go yet. I am trying to educate my family into using Bitcoin and so far it's only myself and my father who actually use and hold BTC. I am the only member of my family that lives on the Blockchain and I live entirely from Bitcoin as my salary form my main job is paid to me in BTC. The more people enter the Bitcoin market, the more popular it will become to use and more merchants will adopt it.

I only agree somewhat about adoption (usually when people say this they mean adoption by merchants and services). I still agree with pooya that we also need to start paying attention to a stage a little higher up in the stream, and that's looking at encouraging people to actually buy bitcoin (as opposed to paying an exchange to have an account saying they have bitcoin) and then encouraging these bitcoin holders to start using bitcoin. Adoption will come when more people request to be allowed to pay in bitcoin.

[Becky666]

There is a simple logic to this: many holders won't like to buy food with their bitcoin because of the possibility of Bitcoin rise in no time but have forgotten that, this won't help the needed adoption we think. Holding bitcoin without buying things online will not help achieve the dream we'll dreamed with bitcoin. How many have tried asking for bitcoin payment when they buy food or other things, either in stores or online? We have a long way to go to achieve this in reality. Don't always hold up your stash, use them to purchase something and ask for bitcoin payment.

[Alert31]

Bitcoin's popularity has been increasing ever since the bull market of 2017 took place. Even with the pandemic, prices have recovered to their original levels (near $10k) in just a matter of months. More people are accepting Bitcoin worldwide, albeit at a slow and steady pace. I've seen many sites out there in the online world which accepts Bitcoin for goods and services. But the number of businesses and merchants accepting it for food or groceries are quite limited. In the physical world, supermarkets and even fast foods haven't even adopted Bitcoin yet. Fiat is still the predominant type of currency in the mainstream world, for buying items that are required for one's survival.

Do you think that in the future it'll be possible to buy food or groceries with Bitcoin? I know that volatility is a huge issue for Bitcoin to be accepted as an alternative to traditional Fiat, but merchants and businesses could quickly convert Bitcoin to a stablecoin minimizing the risk of loss. What are your thoughts?

No doubt that one day many businesses and stores will accept bitcoin as payment for goods and services. It would have been nice if more had just been accepted bitcoin now as exchange or payments for foods and other important necessities where people are just at home due to covid19 pandemic. It could be a great help for everyone.
You also have a point that despite of volatility merchants and other businesses can convet immediately into afiat money right after the payment transaction to avoid loses. But there is another problem ,the internet connection because every transaction needs an internet.

[adzino]

A lot of things are going to happen to people in real life but bitcoin is only used for investing I don't think it will be possible to buy food or groceries with Bitcoin Bitcoin is not yet supported by illegal governments in many countries so buying and selling with Bitcoin will take a long time. Bitcoin is a very popular currency but it will take a long time to break the Fiat currency Therefore it is not possible to buy food without the support of the whole world.

What is an illegal government? I think you meant corrupted government.
This is bitcoin. Your government can't stop you from using it to buy your groceries. As far as I am aware, only few countries put a ban on the usage of crypto currencies. So unfortunately, they cannot set up a physical or online shop that accepts bitcoin. But you still can do it indirectly. How about buying giftcards with your bitcoin and use it to purchase things off the internet?

[kobe24ever]

You already can in some parts of the world. many of the people who own cryptocurrency typically limit themselves to using their cryptocurrency as a means of storing value, or trading it as a way to make money, so buying foods or everyday necessities, hasn't become quite mainstream yet. it doesn't mean that it won't become that in the next decade.

[Reatim]

Why not be able to accept bitcoin for groceries in the future? I know here in Chicago there are small little mini marts that currently bitcoin.  Sure nothing on a large scale, but that doesn't mean that's not coming in the future.  We are still in the first inning people, that's important to keep in mind.

Because the most concern is the volatility ,this is the problem if the goods purchased is usable but the payment offers are droppable so the main thing is what if after paying the price of Bitcoin fell down more than 50% then how could a seller  recover from that loss?

Not unless the seller is cryptonians and willing to accumulate as many Bitcoin they can have.

But a small businessman that only using the small profit to add as capital int heir business?i'm sure this will be the most affected and will not welcome Bitcoin at all.

But i am agree on this matter and i will love seeing grocery stores offering to accept Bitcoin.

[Latviand]

Buying food or groceries with Bitcoin is a good idea but there is some problem. The price of Bitcoin is very volatile so many people are not interested in buying and selling everyday items with it. Moreover, Bitcoin's transaction fee is a little high at present that many people are not interested to pay for small transactions due to high transaction costs. Yet most people collect bitcoin usually for trade and to earn income from it. Many top companies already accepted bitcoin but if it is possible to maintain the price stability of Bitcoin and make the cost of its transactions less, it will be possible to buy and sell food and groceries worldwide.

Most of the grocery markets here in my place are not that knowledgeable in using cryptocurrency as a payment tool. When I try to buy goods in the groceries, I always use fiat as it is the traditional currency that they only accept. They also accept credit cards or debit cards but cryptocurrency is not that known here.

Maybe some of them understand how bitcoin works, but they are scared about its volatility once they have it. Bitcoin's price is really uncertain especially in the market so maybe some stores are not that courageous when it comes to holding a bitcoin. We all know that bitcoin is risky to invest that's why you need to be patient and manipulate it properly in the market.

[Sebas.tian]

I hope more and more stores will make it possible to buy goods using bitcoin.

For them to make their stores available for the purchase of food and groceries we must have one thing to do for this to happen, when buy anything around your visility ensure you ask for bitcoin option payment method. Many of us don't always ask for this option to create the awareness of Bitcoin to the shops owners. Let us play our part in this mass adoption which will be good for the entire industry. Personally, I will buy food and groceries with bitcoin because thus will bring in those who haven't heard about the technology before now.

[pinggoki]

I hope more and more stores will make it possible to buy goods using bitcoin.

For them to make their stores available for the purchase of food and groceries we must have one thing to do for this to happen, when buy anything around your visility ensure you ask for bitcoin option payment method. Many of us don't always ask for this option to create the awareness of Bitcoin to the shops owners. Let us play our part in this mass adoption which will be good for the entire industry. Personally, I will buy food and groceries with bitcoin because thus will bring in those who haven't heard about the technology before now.

That's right!! In order for the stores to have a bitcoin transaction on buying some goods, why we don't play our part by just asking them if they are accepting bitcoin or any cryptocurrency as a mode of payment to their products? Due to this kind of asking we will be able to open a door of ignorance to other people that there are some people who are looking for a new and more fast transactions on buying their products through the mode of payment using bitcoin.

[yazher]

In our local exchanges, we can use BTC as a means of payment in buying in an online store like Shopee. There are many cases when I tried to order using BTC and there was no problem at all. I managed to get every item I bought. Because most of the time people in that online store are using cash on delivery for their payments. But for me, I tried to use BTC because I really wanted to know how far we are now with the BTC payment method and guess what? it was all smooth and perfect. I hope I can try it too, buying groceries and other stuff in the market with BTC using QR codes.

[Bitcoinislife09]

Who knows what the future holds, btc is gaining popularity and recognition everyday that passes, new stores are accepting btc slowly, if using btc to buy groceries is more cheaper than using fiat I think people will start using btc to buy eventually in the near future, for now, many people are still very comfortable using fiat to make payments whether it is online or offline.

With the number of people knowing a thing about bitcoin versus the population of the entire world that uses fiat, I think that it is still a long way before we can balance the scales, not many have the access to the technology and the cap of bitcoin is not enough for the billion population of the world since there will be individual imbalances on how much someone is holding. The future is not something that we should worry that much about because we will get there when we get there.

Yes I agree bitcoin is becoming popular form time to time. Bitcoin nowadays are accepted in some establishments as their mode of payment. Though compared to fiat, fiat has a better performance than bitcoin. But then I believe that bitcoin has the potential to improve and has the potential to be a number one soon. Through bitcoin someone can make transactions without falling in line at payment centers. The future is yet to come and I think bitcoin will be number one.

[Raflesia]

In our local exchanges, we can use BTC as a means of payment in buying in an online store like Shopee. There are many cases when I tried to order using BTC and there was no problem at all. I managed to get every item I bought. Because most of the time people in that online store are using cash on delivery for their payments. But for me, I tried to use BTC because I really wanted to know how far we are now with the BTC payment method and guess what? it was all smooth and perfect. I hope I can try it too, buying groceries and other stuff in the market with BTC using QR codes.

It will be easier if BTC becomes a payment instrument in an online store like you mentioned, especially if you have used it, to be honest, I want to use BTC as a payment tool in the shop but it is still not available, it only provides debit and cash on delivery services.

Like it is still some who use this method and only in some European and Asian countries.

But I hope this can be used in the near future to make it easier to use bitcoin in the online shop.

[dcybergeek]

Yes you can if you buy from shops that accept them. Once Get a bitcoin Visa or Mastercard to automaticaly convert bitcoin to fiat. This way you have 100% in BTC and convert in the last moment when you need it.