This Family is Road Tripping Using Only Bitcoin...

[keanbosch]

4,400 miles across the country on zero U.S. dollars.

http://www.ahametals.com/family-road-tripping-using-bitcoin/

[brian_23452]

Well that was stupid.  Using bitcoin to purchase gift cards denominated in US dollars is probably not what most people think when you claim to have made a trip using nothing but bitcoins. 

[franky1]

Well that was stupid.  Using bitcoin to purchase gift cards denominated in US dollars is probably not what most people think when you claim to have made a trip using nothing but bitcoins.  

its the same as americans doing a Euro trip and saying they wont use Euro's.. but then buying Euro travellers cheques and a prepaid Euro debit card...................

.... totally missing the point

[Aswan]

Well that was stupid.  Using bitcoin to purchase gift cards denominated in US dollars is probably not what most people think when you claim to have made a trip using nothing but bitcoins.  

its the same as americans doing a Euro trip and saying they wont use Euro's.. but then buying Euro travellers cheques and a prepaid Euro debit card...................

.... totally missing the point

Exactly. That way you could just go ahead and exchange a few BTC for dollars and claim the same..

[BitcoinLlama]

it is showing the point bitcoin is out quite clearly. In 1 year or 2 years people might be able to do this directly and this will remind us of "simpler" times in the bitcoin timeline!

[Nerazzura]

Well that was stupid.  Using bitcoin to purchase gift cards denominated in US dollars is probably not what most people think when you claim to have made a trip using nothing but bitcoins. 

I guess it does not matter, the things that need to be small and simple to introduce them to the bitcoin. and slowly but surely they will be using for something more special and valuable

[Ilsk]

It's the same as selling your bitcoin for dollars on bitstamp, you are not really using your bitcoin.

[leex1528]

4,400 miles across the country on zero U.S. dollars.

http://www.ahametals.com/family-road-tripping-using-bitcoin/

Pretty cool story....but like most of what everyone has said here....very silly to purchase gift cards (aka money) and call it using only bit coins.

I think this may be a possibility in 1-2 years though!

[Cicero2.0]

4,400 miles across the country on zero U.S. dollars.

http://www.ahametals.com/family-road-tripping-using-bitcoin/

Pretty cool story....but like most of what everyone has said here....very silly to purchase gift cards (aka money) and call it using only bit coins.

I think this may be a possibility in 1-2 years though!

Not to mention using up your stash for some publicity stunt. A lot of people will look back witha lot of regret if this does get as big as people think it will.

[franky1]

its not a bitcoin story. its not a dollar story. its just a story about living without a bank account story.

anyone holding bank notes can do this same story by buying giftcards instead of depositing bank notes into an account to then use an ATM or debit card issued from their bank, no matter what native FIAT/country they are in.

[brian_23452]

I buy everything in bitcoin too!  See, I use these green pieces of paper that merchants can use to redeem for bitcoin at coinbase.  That means i'm using bitcoin, right?

[TimS]

Not to mention using up your stash for some publicity stunt. A lot of people will look back witha lot of regret if this does get as big as people think it will.

Unless you repurchase the same amount of BTC that you spend. Which further departs this from the idea of "using only Bitcoin"...
Bitcoin could be great as currency between two parties who use Bitcoin. When one (or both) of the parties is only interested in holding the fiat equivalent, though, it's hard to classify the transaction along the lines of "using only Bitcoin". Then it's just another way to transfer the fiat, which may or may not be worse than traditional transfer schemes (credit, debit, cash, etc.), depending on the buy/sell gaps and fees you're dealing with when converting BTC to/from fiat.

[bigasic]

I don't think that they could do it any other way. I guess they could pay for hotel using expedia and when they have to get gas go thru local bitcoins and have them buy the gas and you pay them in bitcoin or get the vendors to take bitcoin on their route. It literally takes 10 minutes to get set up on coinbase or bitpay..

[lihuajkl]

No matter how did they spend BTC through the entire journey and in what ways,  at least they were enthusiastic about BTC things. It was really a kind of big campaign for BTC.

[Harley997]

I don't think that they could do it any other way. I guess they could pay for hotel using expedia and when they have to get gas go thru local bitcoins and have them buy the gas and you pay them in bitcoin or get the vendors to take bitcoin on their route. It literally takes 10 minutes to get set up on coinbase or bitpay..

wouldn't selling your bitcoin for fiat be kind of the same thing as just using fiat in the first place?

[lihuajkl]

Not to mention using up your stash for some publicity stunt. A lot of people will look back witha lot of regret if this does get as big as people think it will.

Unless you repurchase the same amount of BTC that you spend. Which further departs this from the idea of "using only Bitcoin"...
Bitcoin could be great as currency between two parties who use Bitcoin. When one (or both) of the parties is only interested in holding the fiat equivalent, though, it's hard to classify the transaction along the lines of "using only Bitcoin". Then it's just another way to transfer the fiat, which may or may not be worse than traditional transfer schemes (credit, debit, cash, etc.), depending on the buy/sell gaps and fees you're dealing with when converting BTC to/from fiat.

No many people really know and accept BTC. They prefer to keep fiat rather than BTC. It needs to take some while before the majority of population find BTC valuable and superior. Then one party just pays BTC for goods or services to the other party without the third party(payment processor to change BTC to fiat).

[Cicero2.0]

Not to mention using up your stash for some publicity stunt. A lot of people will look back witha lot of regret if this does get as big as people think it will.

Unless you repurchase the same amount of BTC that you spend. Which further departs this from the idea of "using only Bitcoin"...
Bitcoin could be great as currency between two parties who use Bitcoin. When one (or both) of the parties is only interested in holding the fiat equivalent, though, it's hard to classify the transaction along the lines of "using only Bitcoin". Then it's just another way to transfer the fiat, which may or may not be worse than traditional transfer schemes (credit, debit, cash, etc.), depending on the buy/sell gaps and fees you're dealing with when converting BTC to/from fiat.

No many people really know and accept BTC. They prefer to keep fiat rather than BTC. It needs to take some while before the majority of population find BTC valuable and superior. Then one party just pays BTC for goods or services to the other party without the third party(payment processor to change BTC to fiat).

Those of us that realize it early on are the ones that will benefit most. I am glad to finally be ahead of the curve on something.

[waldox]

technically he is using bitcoins only to buy
but the merchants are not taking bitcoins directly, they convert to usd

[brian_23452]

technically he is using bitcoins only to buy
but the merchants are not taking bitcoins directly, they convert to usd

He purchased everything except for a few hotel rooms with fiat cash, and gift cards denominated in US dollars (i.e., fiat cash).  That isn't "technically using bitcoins" any more than if I hand you a hundred dollar bill and say "this is bitcoins, you just need to redeem it at coinbase first". 

[rext]

well, at least he's helping us to promote bitcoin, go go