Do you pay with Bitcoin whenever you're able to?

[rodskee]

In our time now ? i must admit that i tried keeping my Bitcoin intact mate , practicality reason i guess .

I bought my Bitcoins when the price is still 8k and i sold when the price rise to 55k and then buy back at 42k meaning up to now i am still waiting for the pump.

meaning i will keep my coins and will only use Fiat or some of my altcoins if allowed but not my Bitcoins.

[breathlessz]

In our time now ? i must admit that i tried keeping my Bitcoin intact mate , practicality reason i guess .

I bought my Bitcoins when the price is still 8k and i sold when the price rise to 55k and then buy back at 42k meaning up to now i am still waiting for the pump.

meaning i will keep my coins and will only use Fiat or some of my altcoins if allowed but not my Bitcoins.

from the statement you made, at least you have received the benefits of bitcoin, where you have pocketed a profit of 8k-55k, I think we rarely find such profits in other investments. even though you bought back and it is currently floating minus, but I see you are calm, and I think you will always be patient to wait for the next bullrun, as you have experienced before

[bakasabo]

If you use Bitcoin for large transactions, it is more cost-effective than using cash.

Could you please explain how the size of payment influence on paying in cash? Did you mean that paying $100 is more easy and convenient than paying $100,000, because $100 is just one bank note, but stack of 10 * $10,000 can not be held in persons palm? While in crypto this is same one transaction?
I see no big dependence in amount transferred in fiat. Cash is cash, it depends how you store it. While in wire transaction sending $1 or $10,000 will still cost the same. But with Bitcoin it is different. Sending $1 in BTC will be cheaper than sending $10,000 in BTC. Or it will cost the same, but time spend for confirmation will be different.

[isaac_clarke22]

~

Not everyone there, mate. I had foreseen these in my area quite a while when a popular custodial wallet here in my country got released and it just seemed like many were still like using fiat over cash. It is just that not everyone is still used to using Bitcoin. It is like "boomer" vs "gen z" when you call it. The former isn't expected to get used to the technology these days.

[yazher]

— Let's have some fun.

I believe that the majority of the forum users want to see Bitcoin being globally adopted, including myself; I imagine people using it in their daily transactions for food, coffee etc. Lightning payments can tackle the scaling issue and the only thing left for Bitcoin to be used as a currency from the whole world is its mass usage. If the adoption rate increased so would the price's standability.

So, do you set a good example and pay with Bitcoin whenever you're able to or do you prefer not to spend your coins? I'll speak my personal view about this, in my country none of the merchants accept it and I rarely buy some hosting services from the internet. If they do accept it, I'll pay for it, but not because it satisfies me; it's just that I can't with PayPal. I'd prefer paying with PayPal for online services, because I may be scammed if they aren't popular.

Not sure why irreversibility is an advantage when you're paying an unknown person online. That's why I'd prefer having a third party for my online transactions.

Backi on the days when I play online games like MMORPG that I used to play back in the past years, they accept bitcoins to be traded with the same money and items. Therefore, I managed to progress the game quickly with the help of it since I don't have any Paypal or some kind of online payments to cash in. Today, I don't do that anymore since I miscalculated the past years that the bitcoins I spent right there would worth a hundredfold right now. Yeah! I messed it up, lesson learned though.

[tiCeR]

— Let's have some fun.

I believe that the majority of the forum users want to see Bitcoin being globally adopted, including myself; I imagine people using it in their daily transactions for food, coffee etc. Lightning payments can tackle the scaling issue and the only thing left for Bitcoin to be used as a currency from the whole world is its mass usage. If the adoption rate increased so would the price's standability.

So, do you set a good example and pay with Bitcoin whenever you're able to or do you prefer not to spend your coins? I'll speak my personal view about this, in my country none of the merchants accept it and I rarely buy some hosting services from the internet. If they do accept it, I'll pay for it, but not because it satisfies me; it's just that I can't with PayPal. I'd prefer paying with PayPal for online services, because I may be scammed if they aren't popular.

Not sure why irreversibility is an advantage when you're paying an unknown person online. That's why I'd prefer having a third party for my online transactions.

This is a great topic you opened here and apart from all the issues raised like volatility, or the tendency to keep onto it because of the potential for price appreciation, and so on. The most important issue to me is what Andreas Antonopoulos once raised: taxes! He travelled around the world and paid with Bitcoin whenever he could and in order to annoy the IRS, he decided to print excel files onto paper for the innumerable amount of micro transactions he did, just to make them work so much that the amount of taxes was by far not enough to cover the work that has been put into. I think that is a big problem in many countries. They don't allow for tax free micro transactions, like paying the coffee and stuff.

[Ararbermas]

For me in my personal opinion even my country accept bitcoin as a payment option such paying bills and etc,  i will never use my bitcoin in it and i would rather spend my cash than bitcoin,  you know why? because for your information buying bitcoin nowadays is so expensive wherein the fees is too high than before. so for that reason i will prefer to invest my bitcoin because 100 percent i can make money on that way..

we need to be practical mate, keep in mind that bitcoin is keep increasing the value and we don't have any idea what will be the situation in the future..

[LogitechMouse]

Straight Bitcoin to be paid to the merchants?? No because nobody is accepting Bitcoin here in my place.
The money that I'm using though in paying some expenses and monthly bills here came from Bitcoin. I'm just converting them to our own fiat currency.

Lightning Network adoption is taking very slow and because of this, the process of adopting Bitcoin for the establishments takes a long time to happen. I believe though that in the future when LN will be popular, the adoption rate of Bitcoin will be much faster - Faster than we could imagine .

[sulis sudibyo]

if it's for online transactions, yes. I will use bitcoin or other crypto coins if possible. since these few years I've been less dependent on paypal for online payment matters. I prefer to use crypto if that place accepts it. I've been disappointed with centralized services like paypal or others. I can't be free to manage funds and I'm also worried if at any time I'm banned for no apparent reason. that's why I use crypto as much as possible, because I believe more.

[jaberwock]

No, I almost don't pay for purchases using crypto, because I don't know where.

That's a common and well-known problem but you can find a list of all websites accepting BTC below.

Link - https://icoholder.com/blog/places-accept-bitcoin/

Please note that I am just sharing it because I saw this somewhere but I am not affiliated or connected with them by any means so use it at your own risk.

Most of the porn websites now accept cryptocurrencies as well but I know that's not the optimal use of BTC.

There are some BTC ATMs now available in select countries and there are many BTC ATM providers now that are facilitating such transactions.

[perfect999]

I believe the only limiting factor to spending bitcoins is the fact that there aren't so many merchants accepting bitcoins. I am of the opinion that people will spend their bitcoins if there are merchants accepting  it.
Even if I'm willing to spend my bitcoin, I wouldn't be able if there's no one accepting it. I also believe just like OP mentioned that bitcoin would attain mass adoption if bitcoin can be spent just like the fiat currencies we have now.

Another small problem is the confirmation timing and some merchants require 3-confirmations which wastes a lot of time. I cannot imagine going to a shop making my purchase, paying with bitcoins and waiting needlessly for an hour for 3-6 confirmations. Maybe this can be solved by the altcoins payment option in such places where the queue is long and people cannot wait.

If the store allows Bitcoin to pay, I believe everyone will pay with Bitcoin. However, there are no merchants in our country that can use Bitcoin to pay. If you use Bitcoin for large transactions, it is more cost-effective than using cash. Now the system is getting better and better, and soon we can use Bitcoin as a way of daily payment transactions. .

There are mediators like Bitpay that allow customers to pay with Bitcoins and allow merchants to accept Bitcoins and it's legal too but I think not many merchants are aware of such services and I am not sure how much they charge for the mediation between the customer and merchant.

[RILWAN]

I visited an electronic store recently in my neighborhood to get a set of tv and I was so surprised that the store accepts Bitcoin as payment and I was so happy to pay with Bitcoin transaction was fast. This was the first time I pay for real-life goods using bitcoin without having to exchange them before payment.

[ndalliard]

Another small problem is the confirmation timing and some merchants require 3-confirmations which wastes a lot of time. I cannot imagine going to a shop making my purchase, paying with bitcoins and waiting needlessly for an hour for 3-6 confirmations. Maybe this can be solved by the altcoins payment option in such places where the queue is long and people cannot wait.

i do think you don't have the problem you mention if the merchants would use the lightning network (based on bitcoin) - there is no need to use altcoins for that

[dezoel]

I actually pay with Bitcoins at more places than an average user, I believe. I have been paying most of my bills via bitcoins, I will mention some of the services I use for various needs.

1- Bitrefill - For gift cards to do shopping with amazon, recharges for TV, mobile and even order gift cards for food delivery chains.

2- I purchase express VPN to remain anonymous and gladly they accept BTC

3- In a lot of places where I need to make direct payment, I always make a polite enquiry whether BTC is accepted and it is is, I pay with that only.

There are a number of other places I pay with Bitcoins but I cannot mention all of them because some are personal and some I can't recall quickly enough.

[tiCeR]

I actually pay with Bitcoins at more places than an average user, I believe. I have been paying most of my bills via bitcoins, I will mention some of the services I use for various needs.

1- Bitrefill - For gift cards to do shopping with amazon, recharges for TV, mobile and even order gift cards for food delivery chains.

2- I purchase express VPN to remain anonymous and gladly they accept BTC

3- In a lot of places where I need to make direct payment, I always make a polite enquiry whether BTC is accepted and it is is, I pay with that only.

There are a number of other places I pay with Bitcoins but I cannot mention all of them because some are personal and some I can't recall quickly enough.

Hey dezoel, thanks for lining out these examples. Two question if I may:

1. When you pay express VPN with BTC, do they request your personal information? They are required to aren't they? Or do they provide a key two a specified email address or anything?

2. When you make all these payments with BTC, are you running into any tax related issues?

[caryoscar]

I believe that everyone in the forum hopes that one day they can use Bitcoin to pay freely, just as
The Pharmacist---First time paying in person with bitcoin: Computer Heads, this article is very popular with everyone, and it also shows that we do people hope that there are more and more application scenarios like this, although for now, this kind of scenario It is not common in my country, and similar experiences only exist for some payments between friends.

[TOM Bb]

Why pay with Bitcoin?Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation, a savings vehicle.  HODL your bitcoin.,Never lost it.

[ndalliard]

Why pay with Bitcoin?Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation, a savings vehicle.  HODL your bitcoin.,Never lost it.

because i have to pay my rent for example - this hodl mentality has the assumption that people still have fiat left to spend... 

[Obito]

Of course but most of my purchase using bitcoins are big, probably in my country's currency it would be 6 figures so yes I do spend it on something whenever the opportunity permits to do so. I do hodl still but if I really want or need that thing and I don't have the fiat to buy it and I can buy it using bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, I would grab the opportunity.

[ndalliard]

I would do this much more often if the fees were lower and more stores accepted crypto as payment.

the mempool is nearly empty at the moment - the perfect situation to prepare for higher fees, for example by looking into the lightning network