Should we all buy a Bitcoin Pizza?

[hZti]

In 2010 forum user lazlo payed 10.000 BTC to buy Pizza for him and his family, this would later become famous under the name of "Bitcoin Pizza Day". As the days is now approaching again I was thinking about how bitcoin and especially the community has evolved since then. In my opinion there is an incredible amount of smart people that hold coins and try to make the bitcoin ecosystem better and better. Those users many times strongly believe that bitcoin is better than fiat money, but not so many of them actually use Bitcoin in everyday payments. It is even a good behavior under bitcoin enthusiasts, to hold Bitcoins and never spend them. Most of that users would not pay a pizza with bitcoins but instead pay it with fiat to not stop to HODL. In my opinion they want to show with that, that they believe in the future of Bitcoin but actually it stops it from being more widely adopted and just shows that it can actually not replace fiat.
So maybe everyone should once in a while stop HODL for a bit and buy something in a store or online with Bitcoin, so it is used for what it was originally designed for. In my opinion we would never celebrate a "Bitcoin Pizza Day", without users like lazlo that spend coins on real goods even if the amounts might look stupid from todays perspective. What do you think, why is there not more use of crypto in everyday scenarios?

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[LoyceMobile]

I use Bitcoin to pay wherever it's possible. Especially online, IRL isn't possible very often.

[hZti]

But have you every done a payment IRL?

[Incarnata]

BTC is deflationary by design. Lots of people (like myself!) don't want to spend BTC for everyday purchases, as the value tends to go up over time. I would argue that this is an advantage of BTC. Lots of unhealthy consumer activity is driven by the fact that fiat savings lose value to inflation over time -- that is, it makes more sense to spend your money on goods you don't necessarily need than it does to save USD and watch it fall in value. I like the idea of BTC being "digital gold".

Miner fees also come into play. For small transactions (say, a few bucks for a cup of coffee), the miner fees cost more than the item itself.

[OgNasty]

But have you every done a payment IRL?

I have never done a real life payment.  Mostly because 1) I don't have a mobile wallet with Bitcoin in it & 2) nobody actually accepts Bitcoin in real life that I've seen.

I have attempted to do a real life payment.  I once was in Vegas and tried to go to a bar that advertised they accept Bitcoin to get a beer and a burger.  However, their payment system was apparently "down" (funny) so they weren't accepting Bitcoin at the time.  I've also tried to get a pizza from a Bitcoin pizza place, but ironically they did not accept Bitcoin for payment.  There have been a few other times I tried to use Bitcoin for real life payments, but they never worked out.  My real life Bitcoin interactions have thus been limited to me giving Bitcoin to friends or the one time an undercover cop tried to set me up to sell him Bitcoin for a cocaine purchase, which I wisely told him to go fuck himself.

In short, magic internet money makes really shitty IRL money.

[SatoPrincess]

Lazlo is a bitcoin hall of famer in my book, we look back now and say what was he thinking? 10k Bitcoins for a pizzza I believe what he did was/is very significant in the history of bitcoin. He’s a true bitcoin lover, he used his bitcoin as a currency to buy an everyday commodity even at the early stages of bitcoin when a lot of people didn’t know what exactly bitcoin would turn out to be. Today, every one seems to hodl

[BIT-BENDER]

BTC is deflationary by design. Lots of people (like myself!) don't want to spend BTC for everyday purchases, as the value tends to go up over time. I would argue that this is an advantage of BTC. Lots of unhealthy consumer activity is driven by the fact that fiat savings lose value to inflation over time -- that is, it makes more sense to spend your money on goods you don't necessarily need than it does to save USD and watch it fall in value. I like the idea of BTC being "digital gold".

Miner fees also come into play. For small transactions (say, a few bucks for a cup of coffee), the miner fees cost more than the item itself.

Well call me what you want but I am the type of guy that wants to use Bitcoin for their daily needs, I believe there would not be an adoption if we don’t believe in the practicality of Bitcoin, yes we have the right to hold our Bitcoin or Any other Crypto-Currency for as long as possible, but Crypto-Currency would be even bigger if we can earn in Crypto, use crypto, share crypto and so much more.

[LoyceMobile]

But have you every done a payment IRL?

Lazlo didn't pay for his pizzas IRL

The best place for Bitcoin purchases in the Netherlands is Arnhem: about a hundred shops accept it, some of them take Lightning too.

[KingsDen]

So maybe everyone should once in a while stop HODL for a bit and buy something in a store or online with Bitcoin, so it is used for what it was originally designed for.

Everything we enjoy today, there are people that paid the sacrifice for it. I can say that Lazlo is one of those people that followed strictly what Satoshi wrote in the whitepaper. Bitcoin was created as a currency but it has metamorphosised to investment asset.
Again, the price of btc then was extremely low, no hope for wide adoption. If Lazlo had the idea what Bitcoin could become today, he wouldn't have spent that much for pizza.
So, it could be said that bitcoin hodlers learnt some lessons from Lazlo historical transaction.

Lazlo is a bitcoin hall of famer in my book, we look back now and say what was he thinking? 10 Bitcoins for a pizzza I believe what he did was/is very significant in the history of bitcoin.

Are you not familiar with this famous bitcoin transaction story?
Was it a mistake?
Princess, Lazlo bought the pizza for 10,000 bitcoins and not 10 bitcoins.

[Myleschetty]

In my opinion there is an incredible amount of smart people that hold coins and try to make the bitcoin ecosystem better and better. Those users many times strongly believe that bitcoin is better than fiat money, but not so many of them actually use Bitcoin in everyday payments. It is even a good behavior under bitcoin enthusiasts, to hold Bitcoins and never spend them.

In your opinion, those that use Bitcoin every day as payment are not practicing the good behavior of enthusiasts? I think you're more concerned about profit or the market bullish trend than the beauty of the technology. Besides, if no one uses Bitcoin for payment how would it be considered an innovative payment system and how would business owners know if the best mean of payment for border to border transactions?

[Welsh]

The best place for Bitcoin purchases in the Netherlands is Arnhem: about a hundred shops accept it, some of them take Lightning too.

I'll be honest, I tend to hoard my Bitcoin as a reserve currency, tucking it away with hopefully the prospect of it beating the inflation that's imposed on fiat currencies, and then using it for big purchases, and just let fiat get me by for daily life. However, if I saw more physical shops accepting it, I think the inner nerd in me would be itching to just purchase random stuff, that I definitely don't need just because I don't see that over here. I've actually yet to see a shop that accepted Bitcoin, maybe because I'm not in the capital or any cities, and don't tend to go to them often either, but still haven't seen one, at least that I recall.

[Hamphser]

The best place for Bitcoin purchases in the Netherlands is Arnhem: about a hundred shops accept it, some of them take Lightning too.

I'll be honest, I tend to hoard my Bitcoin as a reserve currency, tucking it away with hopefully the prospect of it beating the inflation that's imposed on fiat currencies, and then using it for big purchases, and just let fiat get me by for daily life. However, if I saw more physical shops accepting it, I think the inner nerd in me would be itching to just purchase random stuff, that I definitely don't need just because I don't see that over here. I've actually yet to see a shop that accepted Bitcoin, maybe because I'm not in the capital or any cities, and don't tend to go to them often either, but still haven't seen one, at least that I recall.

One of the things i do target on is on which i do accumulate as much as i could and wont tend be using it for some purpose on buying something even though there are merchants around me which i could simply make use

of my crypto to purchase something but i do still remain on doing it with fiat which i do believe that most people are really having the same behavior since we know the potential profitability that it could give out

thats why instead on spending it on casual ways then it would be more sensible if you do save it up and make out profits in the future even though its not an assured thing but at least we do have that kind
of point of view.

[dataispower]

It is very difficult to see someone who desperately make payment with bitcoin this days. I have seen that statement of some one bought bitcoin with pizza countless times. But i never witness someone that buy bitcoins with anything. Those days when this things happened bitcoin was not regarded as much people can see and know, and that buying of pizza with bitcoin is another name that makes bitcoin to be more popular by using it for exchange of valuable food. So with that people pick interest with bitcoin. Now bitcoin price going down someone can anything with 1btc to bring the name up, because so many people has portfolio of bitcoin

[hZti]

To me all this reactions that proofed my point are a little bit sad. In 2012 and 2013 we had a Cafe in my hometown where you could pay with bitcoin. I used to spent there like 1 BTC a mont for coffee and food, which of course is ridiculous. But in the end i would have spend that money anyways and I would just buy the Bitcoin specifically to spent them later there. So there was actually no drawdown to me, since otherwise I would have spent the same amount in fiat. The only difference was that I actually supported bitcoin adoption and many people became interested because of the Bitcoin Sign or even seeing me while paying. But somehow it seems like those times are over, and also I think this is why maybe there will not be some new ATH for some time. Because for that there need to be new people into crypto and they will not come in a market situation like this. But they would maybe come to be able to pay for their coffee..

[nullama]

To me all this reactions that proofed my point are a little bit sad. In 2012 and 2013 we had a Cafe in my hometown where you could pay with bitcoin. I used to spent there like 1 BTC a mont for coffee and food, which of course is ridiculous. But in the end i would have spend that money anyways and I would just buy the Bitcoin specifically to spent them later there. So there was actually no drawdown to me, since otherwise I would have spent the same amount in fiat. The only difference was that I actually supported bitcoin adoption and many people became interested because of the Bitcoin Sign or even seeing me while paying. But somehow it seems like those times are over, and also I think this is why maybe there will not be some new ATH for some time. Because for that there need to be new people into crypto and they will not come in a market situation like this. But they would maybe come to be able to pay for their coffee..

The new spot ETFs will bring a lot more money into Bitcoin.

Also, having now 2 countries (El Salvador and Central African Republic) and listed companies like MicroStrategy buying Bitcoin continuously also helps.

[xSkylarx]

In my opinion there is an incredible amount of smart people that hold coins and try to make the bitcoin ecosystem better and better. Those users many times strongly believe that bitcoin is better than fiat money, but not so many of them actually use Bitcoin in everyday payments. It is even a good behavior under bitcoin enthusiasts, to hold Bitcoins and never spend them.

In your opinion, those that use Bitcoin every day as payment are not practicing the good behavior of enthusiasts? I think you're more concerned about profit or the market bullish trend than the beauty of the technology. Besides, if no one uses Bitcoin for payment how would it be considered an innovative payment system and how would business owners know if the best mean of payment for border to border transactions?

Yeah, he's just thinking of profit and not using its beauty. I do agree that we should also use it as a payment system because that is the beauty of it now. It is just an investment, but as you can see, most of the people now talking about bitcoin are about gaining profit from their investment. They are looking at bitcoin as a business that could gain them some money, which is true, but its beauty is not appreciated because we are always talking about money.

[Welsh]

also I think this is why maybe there will not be some new ATH for some time. Because for that there need to be new people into crypto and they will not come in a market situation like this. But they would maybe come to be able to pay for their coffee..

I think you're reading too much into the situation. Those that have the opportunity to spend Bitcoin in a physical shop, probably would. However, unless you live in a major city, those opportunities are far, and wide in between. Besides, we don't need to be spending them offline to reach a new all time high. We've got where we are because of how Bitcoin is designed. Bitcoin is being spent, you only need to look at a Blockchain explorer to figure that out, but a lot of people are now using Bitcoin as a reserve currency, which to be honest I don't see the problem.

The main benefits of Bitcoin to me are; decentralised, freedom to be your own bank i.e cut out the middlemen, and a finite limit which actually means Bitcoin is deflationary in the long term. That's the real reasons, not because I can or can't spend it offline. Offline transactions come with more adoption, we aren't quite there yet.

[Lucius]

In my opinion, there are two main reasons why the average owner of Bitcoin does not decide to use it as a currency. The first is that most Bitcoin investors are only interested in profit, for them Bitcoin is the same as investing in gold or stocks. Another reason is that most people think that the fees for sending BTC are too expensive since crypto exchanges charge them very expensive fees, which they think are blockchain fees.

In addition, even sending from a non-custodial wallet can be problematic if we do not understand the importance of input/outputs, transaction size, and mempool status at the time we want to make a transaction. In other words, don't be surprised that there are no more physical places where you can spend your BTC, because it's a complicated way of paying for most people.

I pay regularly with BTC, it's mostly online because I don't have too many choices in that regard - but also because I don't want to attract extra attention.

[TravelMug]

But have you every done a payment IRL?

Payment directly? no? I have to used a 3rd party to process my payment and I have been doing it for the last 5 years, paying my bills with bitcoin.

So I'm not getting qualms in using it to P2P if there is chance to let say not just Pizza but anything that I need to buy online, simply as that.

[Welsh]

In my opinion, there are two main reasons why the average owner of Bitcoin does not decide to use it as a currency. The first is that most Bitcoin investors are only interested in profit, for them Bitcoin is the same as investing in gold or stocks. Another reason is that most people think that the fees for sending BTC are too expensive since crypto exchanges charge them very expensive fees, which they think are blockchain fees.

My perspective is a lot of us using fiat will forever be chasing the better life, due to rising costs, and inflation. Basically, by using fiat you're accepting you'll forever be in the rat race, up until you retire, and what you've worked your entire life for, is worth jack all in retirement due to the inflation.

Bitcoin, gives you the opportunity that I believe other investments don't, mainly because I actually believe in the fundamentals. For example, the freedom, not relying on a third party, and the fact that you can't just keep pumping Bitcoin into circulation, means it should actually counter inflation. So, obviously we're all in it for profit, but it doesn't mean when it comes to using it, I'll be converting to fiat, I'll be using it to better my life.