Can you use Bitcoin to pay everything online?

[Ayebabara]

I don't have bitcoin yet but planning to acquire it. I have been in the forum for sometimes now though I am not regular, but studying whenever I visit the forum. And noticed one thing about bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital money for trading, payment of goods and others. But what I noticed is that, bitcoin cannot be used to buy and pay some instant services and goods. Examples, you want to buy banana on the way while driving from a hawker, will you use bitcoin to pay the bananas? Because the way I am looking at it, it is possible but the delay in transfer is the concern here. Bitcoin transfer is not like the bank transfer in which we received instant allert within 2-3 minutes time. I know some people will say set the transaction fee high then you can pay whatever you are buying with instant alert. I don't think someone will pay something with BTC and the transaction fee is very high and double the amount you want to pay for the goods.

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

[1715260080]

1715260080

[mk4]

1. Base-layer bitcoin is slow and can be expensive at times, hence why we have layer-2 solutions being developed — which are networks/channels designed to have cheaper and faster transactions.

2. You obviously can't use bitcoin to pay for everything today because not everyone accepts BTC as payment. A bandaid solution though are bitcoin debit cards — which are quite useful if you're heavy on BTC and if you're fine with AML/KYC.

[KiaKia]

Bitcoin to buy bananas from a hawker? What do you expect the hawker to use the Bitcoin for? And how much are you paying for the bananas? In my city I can buy a bunch of bananas for 0.45$ and imagine I want to pay using Bitcoin, lets pretend that the hawker can accord Bitcoin as payment solution, which means I will use like 0.50$ to send Bitcoin to the hawker's Bitcoin address, it makes no sense.

There Are a few things that I have used Bitcoin to pay for but they are more valuable than buying Bananas, if what you are buying is valuable, and fits the transaction fee, also if the seller accepts Bitcoin as payment then no issue, I have bought...

Gaming consoles, digital cameras, shop for games online, pay for electricity and data bills, desktop PCs, laptops etc and that's because few stores online accepts Bitcoin and few other coins as means of payment.

None of these was bought in a offline store, no store in my area or city accepts Bitcoin as a means of payment.

[Faisal2202]

As your are new to crypto world let me tell you. Transactions are not slow all the time but only when the network is highly congested (high traffic). But there are many possible solutions to that too. For example you could use lightning network to send BTC instantly or if your transaction stuck you could increase the fee you are paying (yes you can do that we call it RBF where even during the transaction being processed we could increase the transaction fee) why we would do that? To increase the priority of our transaction to be processed earlier.

Other than such options, you might want to get benefit from many third party platforms. I came to know about 2 in my mind which is the new Mixin wallet messenger (i am not trying to advertise it) and other is vultor.io (this is not yet released). You could use a NFC card provided by Vultor.io and could use it to scan on the app of Vultor (that app will be on the merchant side) means you would instantly send BTC.

And in mixin messenger wallet, your hawker must have one so that you could send free of cost BTC from one mixin messenger wallet to another (receiver).

Note* i know these projects are new but i recently came to know about them and liked the motive but will not advice you to follow this path of trusting on third party platform like the two i aforementioned. Because there must be many great platforms in the market that must have great trust level.

Other than third party option, if you are using some CEXs like Binance and the Hawker is also using Binance then you could directly send him BTC over Binance pay id for free of cost and in no time also. This is not limited to only Binance because many other exchanges also provide such options.

[Hyphen(-)]

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

Bitcoin was created to give us financial freedom, not mainly for the exchange of goods and services, as you said.

Yes, Bitcoin is a digital currency, which I think is good for investment. You can buy Bitcoin and hold it for a long time instead of taking your money to the bank to save. If you invest in Bitcoin in your personal wallet, you are your own bank and will be in control of your money, not banks again, and you can have some profits if the price of Bitcoin goes up, unlike saving in your bank, where the bank will have charges removed from your money instead of adding to it since they do use the money.

Then why use Bitcoin to buy everything when you have Fiat currency that is generally acceptable for both small and large businesses?

[Fuso.hp]

All the online payment systems that have bitcoin transaction system can be transacted through bitcoin in all payment systems but most of the payment systems do not have the facility of bitcoin that is why it is not possible to transact through bitcoin online even if you want to. In some cases, even if there is a Bitcoin payment system, investors may not pay with Bitcoin because the price of Bitcoin is likely to increase significantly in the future. Now bitcoin is worth $30K If you pay $1K right now and after a few months if the price of bitcoin is $60K, then you will see that you paid an additional $1K for that payment, many people will not pay with bitcoin.

[OcTradism]

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant?

You can not do everything with Bitcoin everywhere. Different local locations will have different acceptance for Bitcoin and you must have other reserves like cash, fiat in your bank account, e-money applications to pay your expenses.

Bitcoin on-chain transactions need waiting time for confirmations, at least 1 confirmation to make it valid. So it will take in seconds to 10 minutes or longer to get a first confirmation. It is not instantly in most transactions. If you need faster transaction, you must use Lightning Network but the Lightning Network adoption is less than Bitcoin on-chain.

You need your smartphone running to make payment so if your smartphone battery is dead, need to charge, you can not make a payment. Having cash in your pocket is never a bad choice.

[hugeblack]

There are options that you can use if you want to pay in bitcoins in daily transactions, or if you want to buy something valuable, waiting for several minutes will not cost you anything. For example, When you want to buy a property, waiting for several minutes will not cost you anything.
The big question remains, will you use Bitcoin to pay for everyday things when you have paper money? The majority will not use it, even if the fees are low and the confirmations are immediate, but because the value of bitcoin may increase and the value of paper money may decrease, and therefore you will spend paper money because it is less valuable to you than bitcoin, which is money and investment, which may be one of the last options when you spend.

[Hatchy]

I understand your point. While there are ways to make Bitcoin transactions faster I still don't believe it's suitable for all types of purchases. Even though Bitcoin is a digital currency it does have limitations, and we shouldn't expect it to work for everything. If you want to buy something from someone using Bitcoin the first thing to consider is whether they accept that payment method. Not all online platforms have the option to pay with Bitcoin so it's essential to be prepared to use your local currency. When dealing with street vendors or hawkers it's always a good idea to carry cash if you tend to buy things on the go and want to avoid any payment delays or complications.

Now bitcoin is worth $30K If you pay $1K right now and after a few months if the price of bitcoin is $60K, then you will see that you paid an additional $1K for that payment, many people will not pay with bitcoin.

I won't quite agree with you here mate. If we all take it from your perspective, then no one will ever think of payment using Bitcoin. Yes Bitcoin will always appreciate but you only paid for what you bought at that instant using the current price at that time. So what ever the amount of Bitcoin you've paid with appreciates to shouldn't be your concern as it is one of the features of Bitcoin.

[OcTradism]

There are options that you can use if you want to pay in bitcoins in daily transactions, or if you want to buy something valuable, waiting for several minutes will not cost you anything. For example, When you want to buy a property, waiting for several minutes will not cost you anything.

A bigger value of the trade you are making, a more Bitcoin on-chain confirmations for that transaction should be seen. If I am trading with only $100, I can take risk if the person I am trading with is a person I know, and I don't wait for 1 confirmation. If it is a person I don't know, I will wait for 1 confirmation minimally.

If I have a trade like $1000 or $10,000, I am sure I will wait 3 or 6 confirmations. Because, it is a big capital with me and 3 or 6 confirmations will need like 30 minutes to 1 hour or a little bit longer.

How many Bitcoin confirmations is enough?

The big question remains, will you use Bitcoin to pay for everyday things when you have paper money? The majority will not use it, even if the fees are low and the confirmations are immediate, but because the value of bitcoin may increase and the value of paper money may decrease, and therefore you will spend paper money because it is less valuable to you than bitcoin, which is money and investment, which may be one of the last options when you spend.

Paying things with paper money does not cost on-chain transaction fee.

Storing bitcoin and use it for payment is risky. If I buy my bitcoin when 1 BTC values at $60,000 and 1 year later, I need to use it to pay my purchase when it values at $30,000, it is painful. So investment must be different with what I need for payment, purchase, expense.

[yudi09]

-snip-

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

No. Because I live in a country that does not allow crypto as a means of paying for goods and services.
In other countries there may be people who pay for something in transactions using bitcoin as a means of payment, but I am not interested in using bitcoin in transactions to buy goods and services both offline and online. I only use Bitcoin as an investment asset. If I'm on vacation to a country that allows transactions with bitcoins, maybe I'm more interested in paying using a cryptocurrency other than bitcoin.
Bitcoins are very valuable to me for me to spend in paying for something.

[Nwada001]

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

There is nothing that cannot be purchased using bitcoin; however, if you want to use bitcoin to purchase things in an instance where the fee alone may be greater than what you initially want to purchase, you can make a provision for a centralized means of payment. That's to say, since you are so concerned about how that could be made possible, You can develop something that you can promote within your locality that those who deal with small businesses and those buying from small business dealers can use as a means of transacting bitcoin off-chain. At the end of every day or week, when they (business owners) have gathered enough to cover the fee and profit, they can withdraw it back to their personal wallet or, better yet, convert it back to fiat, where they can use the money to buy goods for their next market.

[Emmanuelex]

Examples, you want to buy banana on the way while driving from a hawker, will you use bitcoin to pay the bananas? Because the way I am looking at it, it is possible but the delay in transfer is the concern here. Bitcoin transfer is not like the bank transfer in which we received instant allert within 2-3 minutes time. I know some people will say set the transaction fee high then you can pay whatever you are buying with instant alert.

Why would you be paying a banana seller with Bitcoin, when you can just give them cash and be on your way? Let's say you're on a public transport, and you're not the only one on-board, you're not going to start wasting other people's time buying banana and pulling out your phone to start asking for seller's address, and in worst case scenario, there happens to be a slow network issue, you would end up wasting everyone's time, when you could have just pull out cash and hand it over to the seller, easy.

[Poker Player]

I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services.

Kind of but you do not have the right approach on the subjet. Bitcoin was created as a currency and can be used as such, although today it is better as an investment vehicle than as a currency.

Why are you going to spend something that appreciates enormously. Wouldn't it be better to keep it or spend little? Today it makes no sense to use Bitcoin to buy bread, for that better to use fiat, shitcoins or CBDCs.

[bitbollo]

I don't have bitcoin yet but planning to acquire it. I have been in the forum for sometimes now though I am not regular, but studying whenever I visit the forum. And noticed one thing about bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital money for trading, payment of goods and others. But what I noticed is that, bitcoin cannot be used to buy and pay some instant services and goods. Examples, you want to buy banana on the way while driving from a hawker, will you use bitcoin to pay the bananas? Because the way I am looking at it, it is possible but the delay in transfer is the concern here. Bitcoin transfer is not like the bank transfer in which we received instant allert within 2-3 minutes time. I know some people will say set the transaction fee high then you can pay whatever you are buying with instant alert. I don't think someone will pay something with BTC and the transaction fee is very high and double the amount you want to pay for the goods.

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

bitcoin transfer is also instant. just check blockchain and you see your payment has been broadcasted immediately.
confirmation are "slow" requires as a median 10 minutes but once confirmed is confirmed.
With classic bank transfer payment could be always reversed (even 30 days later). ok maybe for a banana this will not happens but it must be taking in account.
In any case make a replace-by-fee transaction for paying a "cheap" object is useless. I mean you will pay 1 dollar + 0,10 cent of fee, I don't think it's a viable solution double spend this amount and add bigger fee...

Generally speaking nowadays you can pay everything with btc just because there are several method to instant cashout your coins if are not accepting directly.

[Zaguru12]

The big question remains, will you use Bitcoin to pay for everyday things when you have paper money? The majority will not use it, even if the fees are low and the confirmations are immediate, but because the value of bitcoin may increase and the value of paper money may decrease, and therefore you will spend paper money because it is less valuable to you than bitcoin, which is money and investment, which may be one of the last options when you spend.

I seriously agree that using bitcoin to pay for daily transactions which can be done with local fiat currency or paper money looks like me miss using my valuable asset (bitcoin). Rather bitcoin is actually advised to be used for transaction only if it is a cross boarder transaction, because cross boarder transactions are actually stressful going through the banking hassles. If we even compare it to bitcoin transaction fee except maybe the transaction fee is extremely high or mempool is congested, bitcoin payment is easier when use for cross border transaction.

[tw0.625]

I don't have bitcoin yet but planning to acquire it. I have been in the forum for sometimes now though I am not regular, but studying whenever I visit the forum. And noticed one thing about bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital money for trading, payment of goods and others. But what I noticed is that, bitcoin cannot be used to buy and pay some instant services and goods. Examples, you want to buy banana on the way while driving from a hawker, will you use bitcoin to pay the bananas? Because the way I am looking at it, it is possible but the delay in transfer is the concern here. Bitcoin transfer is not like the bank transfer in which we received instant allert within 2-3 minutes time. I know some people will say set the transaction fee high then you can pay whatever you are buying with instant alert. I don't think someone will pay something with BTC and the transaction fee is very high and double the amount you want to pay for the goods.

So I want to know in such situation, what will you do? I am asking this question because bitcoin is a digital currency for exchange of goods and services. I know that there are some services you pay ahead but what of the ones you are buying instant? You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

Bitcoin Lightning Network fees ~1000x less than Visa and Mastercard

[joniboini]

You just came to the place and you want to buy from the hawker and zoom off, and you are to pay with bitcoin because there is no physical cash in your wallet/pocket/hands. And because of the delay in payment I was thinking that not everything we see can be purchased with bitcoin, is it true?

The smart choice would be to withdraw some cash from a nearby ATM and pay him, or just look for other vendors that accept Bitcoin if you really wanted to use your BTC to get some bananas. I don't think it is a big deal, at the end of the day you can't pay with crypto if the stores don't accept them.

Personally, I never use my BTC for daily necessities since I don't think it is worth the cost. But BTC is my go-to choice for international payments. I use BTC to pay for VPN, gaming top-ups, and stuff like that regularly. It is cheaper, faster, and allows me to decrease my personal data exposure compared to using a credit card or something similar. Would I like to pay for everything with BTC? Maybe in the future, but for now I see no reason to use my Bitcoin to buy a coffee.

[worle1bm]

Ther are now many merchants who accept btc payments online through third party apps like they get fiat as platform charges fees only so you can find lot but word everything doesn't fit in this matter.There are still many who don't accept and rely on traditional methods only.

The LN fees is negligible as you can make multiple transactions without even bothering about fees as only the main transactions are pooped up to the blockchain so it works better for many people as it's really helpful.

[20kevin20]

The point Bitcoin’s trying to make by existing isn’t that it’s gonna be better than the banks. There’s always going to be a difference between banks and Bitcoin due to Bitcoin lacking trust and centralization. Banks will always help you recover your card or replace it, something Bitcoin won’t. Transactions can be “instant” with banks when you transfer to the same bank or when you pay through card, but the latter option only seems like an instant payment - card payments take days before they’re actually confirmed.

Banks can freeze your money though, Bitcoin can’t. Banks can close, Bitcoin can’t! If you really wanted to pay for everything, the best option is either withdrawing cash from ATMs or getting yourself a Bitcoin debit card you can fill with BTC and pay at the stores with. Otherwise, you’re obviously stuck with the businesses accepting to operate with BTC.