Hi all together,
tl;dr: Bitcoin serves MY real world purposes. I am having fun with them in South America. Cool technology. Keep'em buying
I am on this board for a while but had nothing to add to the discussion until now that I have a few personal BTC success stories to share.
I am no microsoft, dell, expedia or whatnot. Just a guy owning some BTC and using them for real word needs. I post my experience, so that other people can share the good news. If you want some proofs of the details, feel free to ask me about it.
I am from a European country and am travelling for many months in South America (will be 10 months in the end). Being involved in Bitcoin made me aware of monetary policies around the world so I checked beforehand how the situation will be in Argentina before going to Buenos Aires.
Because of this I took 1000 US dollar in cash with me. I also brought the credit card of a european bank. Last but not least I prepared an encrypted paper wallet and loaded it with an amount that would allow me to survive in an emergency.
In Bs As, of course, I avoided official conversion offices and credit card withdrawals and instead went to calle Florida instead. It was an interesting experience having to negotiate with the arbolitos. Whenever I needed argentinian cash I checked a website that told me the blue dollar rate and then tried to find a vendor who would sell closest to that value. Easy as pie. I stayed one month in Argentina and, at first, also continued to rely on my dollar bills when going to Uruguay and Brazil.
This however had the side effect that I did not touch my credit card for 6 weeks and I had received it only a short time before the trip. So it happened what had to happen: I was without cash on a Sunday afternoon, wanted to pay something with the CC and when the device asked me for my PIN I noticed that I had no clue what this random number was.
This is where the BTC came into play ...
I started checking localbitcoins to see where I could meet vendors in southern Brazil. There are people in Curitiba, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Upon searching further I found out that Sao Paulo sports South Americas first bitcoin ATM (it is located in the lab88 coworking space in the madalena neighborhood). The other day when I was in the city, I loaded my smartphone with some BTC went to the place and changed money until the machine's daily limit was exhausted. It gave me 1700 RS which was enough for me to get along a while (I am travelling on a budget: hitchhiking + couchsurfing).
The process of getting cash out of the machine was so easy I could not believe. Every official exchange office wanted me to fill out papers, provide a passport, blablabla just to get their local currency in exchange for someone elses. It was the first time I exchanged BTC like this for cash and it was a very powerful feeling: This is bitcoin! The thing that all these "oh so intelligent" bankers, economists and journalists think is a complete crap that cannot and will not work. This is "mtgox desaster" bitcoin that got its end predicted so many times. This is bitcoin - the thing hardly anyone knows in the world!
... I scanned the machine's QR code, send the BTCs and within seconds the machine gave me brazilian reais. Dead easy, no bank, no president of the united states or anyone else involved. The whole process took less than 3 minutes.
A few weeks later I came to Rio de Janeiro and my local cash was about to end soon. I checked localbitcoins and found a seller whom I could contact on Skype. We arranged a meeting in my hostel and I told him that I would like to buy 2000 R$. The next day he came to the place (for which I owed him a service fee of 20 RS which is OK and I think good business strategy on his side). I counted the bills, checked their security features, we agreed on the exchange rate, I send him the BTCs and the deal was set. Again, no bank, no goverment, no third party involved. Perfect!
Another experience: I had bitcoins on my mobile phone using the Android bitcoin app. The other day it got stolen (actually robbed but that is another story). I had a wallet backup prepared and followed the instructions to restore the funds. Wow, imagine! I returned 300 dollars worth in bitcoin from the hands of a thief into my own pocket again BY MYSELF within one hour. No need to call a credit card company, no waiting for anyone but pure reliance on my own capabilities. This is powerful stuff.
While travelling with my paper wallet I realized the following:
- it could contain insane amounts of wealth, no one could stop me from carrying it over a border
- it could get stolen, the thief cannot use it because the private key is encrypted
- I could lose it, I go to a copy shop and print another copy from the file on a USB stick or restored from cloud storage
For me bitcoin is better than:
- cash
- travellers' checks
- credit cards
The process of dealing with BTCs would be so much easier if I had not to rely on nationcal currency at all. In my opinion this is not a problem of the technology but of their users.
I used to be quiet about bitcoin. But all these live experiences with the technology made me realize what insane potential this thing has and I dont see a problem explaining it to people anymore. This turned out to be a good thing: A guy whom I met realized that bitcoin is the way to fund a small but transnational NGO he is about to setup. Perfect - people got inspired.
To the moon!
Extra info:
- before this trip I did not intent do be using Bitcoin or at all being dependent on them. It just happened because I forgot the CC pin.
- kudos to "coinverse" who operate the ATM in Sao Paulo. Keep growing!
- kudos to my fiat provider from Rio!
Disclaimer: I am travelling a lot. I have to deal with visas, border controls, different currencies, residence permits etc etc. By speaking with many people from many countries I have seen how politicians manipulate people in *every* country. All of this made me realize that I don't want to accept any government as my representative. I play by their rules because they force me to but I think they have to go away. I see Bitcoin as a way to take away a large part of their power.
