...
And OROBTC has completed the circle. I now have a cheap way to buy BTC (see:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5257626.0) and just today have used a good way to sell Bitcoin (I am a HODLer, but long wanted an exit ramp) for CA$H or "stuff".
Bitpay offers a debit card that pairs up with an account (app) that allows you to fund a MasterCard with Bitcoin, at least in the USA. I am not the first to have found this, but I wanted to post my experience to encourage any interested to go for it.
First step is downloading the Bitpay app. Then ordering a physical card (you will have to submit the usual KYC), which arrived about 11 days after applying. Activate the card (I had to do it via the 1 855 398 1373 tel number, doing iy via the app did not work for me). Next is to fund the card via the Bitpay app/wallet (apparently no other way or no easy way) to fund the card -- you send BTC and it is automatically converted to dollars. After confirmation, you're good to go.
I used it to buy a book (Albert Camus'
The Plague, the bookseller applauded my choice and with a contactless card to boot) at B & N, the transaction went through just fine. Then visited an ATM to pull $20 to see of that worked, yes.
* * *
So, non-tekkie Americans now have a good way to get some of the best features in the Bitcoin Ecosystem, an end-to-end way to conveniently use BTC and cash:
1) LibertyX offers a great & cheap (1.7% or so premium over "spot") way to BUY
BTC, see link in second sentence above
2) And Bitpay offers the other end, a way to buy stuff or get cash when needed.
Imagine now being able to travel and use another way to pay, this might reduce anxieties about robberies or losing cash/cards.
[Previously I could only "cash-in" BTC by buying gold via
providentmetals.com or APMEX]
The circle is now unbroken. If I can do it, almost anyone else can. The future of Bitcoin looks brighter every day!