...

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!