What can you -not- buy with bitcoin? Let's get that list down to zero by 2016

[Elwar]

It is getting to the point where the amount of things you cannot buy with bitcoins is easier to list than what you can buy with bitcoins.

Considering that using bitcoins you can buy anything online, you can buy gift cards for most places in the US with bitcoins, what can you not buy with bitcoins?

I will create a list and we can mark them off as we go through 2015.

Anything on Amazon.  http://www.purse.io
Anything else online. http://www.brawker.com http://coinsfer.com/
Bills. https://billpayforcoins.com/ https://bylls.com/ https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com
Restaurants. http://www.gyft.com
Groceries. (Your grocery store gift card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Gas. (Your gas card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Income taxes.
Car dealerships or houses.

? ? ?

[1714708816]

1714708816

[Jace]

Great initiative. I wasn't aware of some of those services, pretty impressive! Are they available worldwide, or at least in Europe, or are they limited to U.S. only? I can imagine especially tax related payment services, but also bills in general, may be restricted to e.g. the Dollar or Euro zone?

Either way, I fully agree. Let's get that list down to zero by next year.

[Elwar]

Great initiative. I wasn't aware of some of those services, pretty impressive! Are they available worldwide, or at least in Europe, or are they limited to U.S. only? I can imagine especially tax related payment services, but also bills in general, may be restricted to e.g. the Dollar or Euro zone?

Either way, I fully agree. Let's get that list down to zero by next year.

I'm in Europe and I use http://www.brawker.com and http://www.purse.io for my online purchases.

The Bill services are in the US, Canada and Australia...we need one in Europe and Asia now

[geforcelover]

You cant buy ! Peace and lives !

[Mr Tea]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

[Elwar]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

Does your petrol station use a card that can be filled online? Or your pharmacy?

When I was looking for a car here in Germany I found a car I liked and e-mailed the dealer and said I would buy it today if he would take bitcoins for it. I did get a response but by then I had already decided on another car. I am sure if there are several choices and you tell the dealer you will only pay Bitcoin, they will do what they can to accept it.

[Mr Tea]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

Does your petrol station use a card that can be filled online? Or your pharmacy?

But that's like saying they also accept apples because I could sell the apples to someone in exchange for a card which I can then use.

When I was looking for a car here in Germany I found a car I liked and e-mailed the dealer and said I would buy it today if he would take bitcoins for it. I did get a response but by then I had already decided on another car. I am sure if there are several choices and you tell the dealer you will only pay Bitcoin, they will do what they can to accept it.

Well I'm sure some dealers would make the effort but most wont. It'd probably be easier to sell the coins myself and pay in cash.

[Elwar]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

Does your petrol station use a card that can be filled online? Or your pharmacy?

But that's like saying they also accept apples because I could sell the apples to someone in exchange for a card which I can then use.

If all you have are apples, that would be pretty useful.

[R2D221]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

Does your petrol station use a card that can be filled online? Or your pharmacy?

But that's like saying they also accept apples because I could sell the apples to someone in exchange for a card which I can then use.

If all you have are apples, that would be pretty useful.

Yes, that's how it begins. That's how the first pizza was paid for Bitcoin: he paid for someone to buy the pizza with dollars.

[albert11]

how does brawker work? I filled in address,price,item then what?

Don't want to register before i know more

[Elwar]

how does brawker work? I filled in address,price,item then what?

Don't want to register before i know more

I think registration is just an e-mail confirmation.

You put in a link to the product you want, then you give public details about what you are buying. You put your address and other info in the private area.

Then you choose the amount of discount you want. I got 10% discount on a 120 euro purchase, 5% on a quick 30 euro purchase I wanted (I was willing to get less of a discount because I needed it quick).


Then people bid on your purchase. You choose the bidder you like and send your bitcoins for the purchase to a multi sig address.

Once you get your product you release your coins and give a review of the buyer.

[albert11]

how does brawker work? I filled in address,price,item then what?

Don't want to register before i know more

I think registration is just an e-mail confirmation.

You put in a link to the product you want, then you give public details about what you are buying. You put your address and other info in the private area.

Then you choose the amount of discount you want. I got 10% discount on a 120 euro purchase, 5% on a quick 30 euro purchase I wanted (I was willing to get less of a discount because I needed it quick).


Then people bid on your purchase. You choose the bidder you like and send your bitcoins for the purchase to a multi sig address.

Once you get your product you release your coins and give a review of the buyer.

ok thanks

[jani]

The Bill services are in the US, Canada and Australia...we need one in Europe and Asia now

There is www.cashila.com to send money, make purchases or pay bills with Bitcoin in countries with EUR.

I'm the co founder. We haven't launched yet, but feel free to shoot PM for an account before we publicly launch.

And then you can even pay your Taxes... just input the Bank account number and wire Bitcoins. We do the exchange and settlement then:)

[Daniel91]

I think the list of things we still cannot buy directly with bitcoins is countless. I can't buy most things in my country. I can't buy a car from a dealership. I can't buy anything from my local shop. I can't buy petrol. I can't buy medications from my pharmacy etc, though I think and do hope the number of things you cannot buy will shrink over time but it could be a very long wait before we can purchase everything we need with it.

You are right, every beginning is very difficult.
It seems that now we can spend bitcoin only on some digital things, but in most cases bitcoin is useless.
This is the reason why many users look in bitcoin as form of investment.
Hopefully this will change when more ''big'' merchants and ''big'' names accept bitcoin in the future.

[turvarya]

Sorry, but I don't think, this list is valid.
Buying giftcards or wait for someone to buy stuff for you and then pay him with Bitcoin is far away from the optimum.
I want to buy something spontaneous, easy to use and instant, not plan buying something days in advance.

[Skeksis]

You could probably buy anything if you're using external services to buy things. For things you can't fond third parties to use I'm sure there would be someone out there who would exchange the coins for the goods or just to cash so you can buy anything you want so I don't think they should count really. I'm hoping more and more merchants will just accept btc directly in the future though.

[sifter]

Love, you can only buy lust.

[MadGamer]

Well buying Product keys isn't listed also . most of the websites out there like Key4co.in are just selling Origin,Steam,Battle.net keys . and nothing else , it would be nice if there is a website to buy Softwares keys etc ...

[koelen3]

That really does it all
And people saying you cann't buy love , lives , etc...
Can you buy them in real life ? -_-

[RodeoX]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

[redhawk979]

Bitcoin gets rid of all the useless middlemen*



*Every service involves ton of middlemen to buy shit

[Elwar]

Well buying Product keys isn't listed also . most of the websites out there like Key4co.in are just selling Origin,Steam,Battle.net keys . and nothing else , it would be nice if there is a website to buy Softwares keys etc ...

Amazon? I bought my last video game from Amazon via purse.io.

[thebitcoinquiz.com]

It is getting to the point where the amount of things you cannot buy with bitcoins is easier to list than what you can buy with bitcoins.

Considering that using bitcoins you can buy anything online, you can buy gift cards for most places in the US with bitcoins, what can you not buy with bitcoins?

I will create a list and we can mark them off as we go through 2015.

Anything on Amazon.  http://www.purse.io
Anything else online. http://www.brawker.com http://coinsfer.com/
Bills. https://billpayforcoins.com/ https://bylls.com/ https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com
Restaurants. http://www.gyft.com
Groceries. (Your grocery store gift card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Gas. (Your gas card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Income taxes.

? ? ?

Heard of brawker for the first time. I guess its amazing service.
Is the site active and will my order get confirmed quickly?

Also I want my grocery shop owner to accept bitcoins. I asked him to accept them but he refused to accept it

[newIndia]

It is getting to the point where the amount of things you cannot buy with bitcoins is easier to list than what you can buy with bitcoins.

Considering that using bitcoins you can buy anything online, you can buy gift cards for most places in the US with bitcoins, what can you not buy with bitcoins?

I will create a list and we can mark them off as we go through 2015.

Anything on Amazon.  http://www.purse.io
Anything else online. http://www.brawker.com http://coinsfer.com/
Bills. https://billpayforcoins.com/ https://bylls.com/ https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com
Restaurants. http://www.gyft.com
Groceries. (Your grocery store gift card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Gas. (Your gas card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Income taxes.

? ? ?

I think this list US specific and at most cover parts of Europe. At India you can buy almost NOTHING with bitcoin so far. I think, the scenario is similar in China, Russia & Brazil too.

[ChuckBuck]

Car dealerships or houses.  Can't buy cars or houses easily with Bitcoin.

And I'm not talking about if a person lists something and accepts Bitcoin as a payment, I'm talking about any car or realtor.  It's not really an option I'm afraid of yet.

[R2D221]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

Landline or mobile? At least for mobile I use a service in Mexico called PagaBitcoin to prepay for my calls.

I don't know if there's a similar service for other countries.

[Elwar]

Hmm, I did not realize that so many people were paying cash directly to the wholesaler. Do you mail the cash directly to China, maybe overnight it in an envelope or do you fly directly to China to buy your merchandise with cash?

Or do you use a third party service like PayPal or Visa on a third party middleman that buys from the wholesaler and sells to you? Or worse, a website that has many retailers that acts as yet another layer between you and the wholesaler?

In the beginning it was a chicken and egg thing. No merchant accepted bitcoins so nobody spent bitcoins but since nobody was spending bitcoins no merchant was willing to accept it.

Now you can buy practically anything on the Internet with bitcoins but no...not good enough still, you have to buy directly from the wholesaler with bitcoins and the wholesaler has to keep the bitcoins, oh and that's not good enough still because he might live in a country that doesn't pay taxes in bitcoin so he will eventually convert some of your bitcoins to fiat to pay taxes so you will wait until some country accepts bitcoins for taxes, pays all of their public services in bitcoins and never trades with any other country that might want to convert those bitcoins to fiat.

Even then people won't be satisfied because the company isn't big enough, they want a big company to not only accept Bitcoin but advertise Bitcoin (would a 10 minute Superbowl commercial suffice?). Because that gives Bitcoin "credibility". Not so you can actually spend it, just so the price will go up so you can cash out to some fiat currency (which you claim to not want any part of during your purchasing experience).

So yes, let's refuse to use any third party service to spend bitcoins (at a discount). Instead let's use fiat currency while we wait until we can use bitcoin in the most optimum way possible.

[Elwar]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

https://www.mobileshop.ph/ for top up worldwide.

[newIndia]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

https://www.mobileshop.ph/ for top up worldwide.

I wish to pay my credit card bill using bitcoin, because Google Appengine bills me in credit card and does not accept bitcoin.

[RodeoX]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

https://www.mobileshop.ph/ for top up worldwide.

Hey thanks Elwar! That looks good and they had the service I use. I could not get it to work just now, I'll have to play with it later.

[ChuckBuck]

Car dealerships or houses.  Can't buy cars or houses easily with Bitcoin.

And I'm not talking about if a person lists something and accepts Bitcoin as a payment, I'm talking about any car or realtor.  It's not really an option I'm afraid of yet.

Guess my post just got glossed over completely.

Just named the 2 things that you pretty much can't buy easily with Bitcoin: Cars and Houses.

Guess, because there's so much involved, titles, legal fees, determining mortgage or car payments if paying over time...

Maybe this is an untapped niche that some Bitcoin dev can come up with, since most people can't buy houses or cars in one payment.

[RodeoX]

Car dealerships or houses.  Can't buy cars or houses easily with Bitcoin.

And I'm not talking about if a person lists something and accepts Bitcoin as a payment, I'm talking about any car or realtor.  It's not really an option I'm afraid of yet.

Guess my post just got glossed over completely.

Just named the 2 things that you pretty much can't buy easily with Bitcoin: Cars and Houses.

Guess, because there's so much involved, titles, legal fees, determining mortgage or car payments if paying over time...

Maybe this is an untapped niche that some Bitcoin dev can come up with, since most people can't buy houses or cars in one payment.

There are plenty of options.
Cars:

http://cars.overstock.com/?referrer_id=ZOSCOHP0001&TID=HEAD:Cars

http://www.spford.com/

http://coinmotors.com/

Real estate:

http://www.eggify.com/real-estate

http://www.bondnewyork.com/

http://vistaabstract.com/buyrealestatewithbitcoin/


There are more of these also.

[elephantas1]

Car dealerships or houses.  Can't buy cars or houses easily with Bitcoin.

And I'm not talking about if a person lists something and accepts Bitcoin as a payment, I'm talking about any car or realtor.  It's not really an option I'm afraid of yet.

Guess my post just got glossed over completely.

Just named the 2 things that you pretty much can't buy easily with Bitcoin: Cars and Houses.

Guess, because there's so much involved, titles, legal fees, determining mortgage or car payments if paying over time...

Maybe this is an untapped niche that some Bitcoin dev can come up with, since most people can't buy houses or cars in one payment.

There are plenty of options.
Cars:

http://cars.overstock.com/?referrer_id=ZOSCOHP0001&TID=HEAD:Cars

http://www.spford.com/

http://coinmotors.com/

Real estate:

http://www.eggify.com/real-estate

http://www.bondnewyork.com/

http://vistaabstract.com/buyrealestatewithbitcoin/


There are more of these also.

http://www.eggify.com/real-estate apartments for 25 coins? wouldnt it be far too cheap even for small apartments?

[ChuckBuck]

Car dealerships or houses.  Can't buy cars or houses easily with Bitcoin.

And I'm not talking about if a person lists something and accepts Bitcoin as a payment, I'm talking about any car or realtor.  It's not really an option I'm afraid of yet.

Guess my post just got glossed over completely.

Just named the 2 things that you pretty much can't buy easily with Bitcoin: Cars and Houses.

Guess, because there's so much involved, titles, legal fees, determining mortgage or car payments if paying over time...

Maybe this is an untapped niche that some Bitcoin dev can come up with, since most people can't buy houses or cars in one payment.

There are plenty of options.
Cars:

http://cars.overstock.com/?referrer_id=ZOSCOHP0001&TID=HEAD:Cars

http://www.spford.com/

http://coinmotors.com/

Real estate:

http://www.eggify.com/real-estate

http://www.bondnewyork.com/

http://vistaabstract.com/buyrealestatewithbitcoin/


There are more of these also.

Those are workarounds and limited options available, not readily available for the common person that sees something and wants it now.  

Basically settling for what's out there, as opposed to here's the house/car with the kitchen and/or sunroof I want, and the 3 and half baths, or 17 inch wheels I want.

This is settling, man.  No choices or options.  This is take it or leave it, as is.

Proved my point.  Still can't buy houses or cars easily with Bitcoin on my terms.

[RodeoX]

I hear what your saying. I often have to compromise on model or price to get what I want with bitcoin. However look again at Overstock. You can get whatever kind of car with whatever features you want. And the Ford dealer can get you any Ford product. There is also Tesla motors. They will make a car for your bitcoins.

Same with the real estate market. They take BTC or cash. Same price, same everything except payment method. I have been looking into this a while now. I am shopping for 40+ acer plots of real estate in the upper midwest. They are not as hard to find as you may think.

[ChuckBuck]

I hear what your saying. I often have to compromise on model or price to get what I want with bitcoin. However look again at Overstock. You can get whatever kind of car with whatever features you want. And the Ford dealer can get you any Ford product. There is also Tesla motors. They will make a car for your bitcoins.

Same with the real estate market. They take BTC or cash. Same price, same everything except payment method. I have been looking into this a while now. I am shopping for 40+ acer plots of real estate in the upper midwest. They are not as hard to find as you may think.

Understood, working within the limits or places or sites, you can get what you want in a roundabout way.  Will definitely check out Overstock for car shopping to see if the participating dealerships will work with me.  As far as houses go, several of those properties are way out of my range.   I know that Bitcoin is continually growing and progressing, so one day, all of this will be available on the most common sites and the local dealerships/realtors at some future point.

[Aswan]

Stocks cannot be bought with bitcoin (aside from some crypto stocks maybe, but I am talking about big companies stocks)

[pawel7777]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

https://www.mobileshop.ph/ for top up worldwide.

Hey thanks Elwar! That looks good and they had the service I use. I could not get it to work just now, I'll have to play with it later.

Apparently T-mobile Poland started to accept bitcoins. Just came across this post in press section:

http://www.cryptoarticles.com/crypto-news/t-mobile-poland-heyah-now-accept-bitcoin-for-mobile-top-ups

Mobile Top-ups with Bitcoin are slowly becoming a new trend in 2015. Even though none of the “major” mobile operators is leaning towards accepting digital currency payments just yet, T-Mobile Poland has broken the ice in that regard. In fact, it’s not just T-Mobile Poland accepting Bitcoin payments, but its subsidiary Heyah as well.

That's pretty big.

[cellard]

Can I buy a swimming pool with bitcoin?

[harrymmmm]

Stocks cannot be bought with bitcoin (aside from some crypto stocks maybe, but I am talking about big companies stocks)

Reggie Middleton will get you exposure to the big indexes at least
/r/BitcoinDerivatives

Not much of a trader, but I think what he's doing is amazing.
Surprising I hardly ever see a mention in /r/Bitcoin or /r/BitcoinMarkets.

[Beliathon]

Slaves! Where are my glorious bitslaves?

What's a guy gotta do to get some slaves in the 21st century, buy a friggen prison?! Or a factory in China? I can't afford that!

[monkeygang]

how do you get bitcoins? to be able to buy stuff?

[Aswan]

Stocks cannot be bought with bitcoin (aside from some crypto stocks maybe, but I am talking about big companies stocks)

Reggie Middleton will get you exposure to the big indexes at least
/r/BitcoinDerivatives

Not much of a trader, but I think what he's doing is amazing.
Surprising I hardly ever see a mention in /r/Bitcoin or /r/BitcoinMarkets.

Yeah well, I am not talking about derivatives or anything like that. I am talking about actual shares of companies that come with voting rights, dividends and all that.

[MobileShopdotPH]

Phone service. It seems such a natural fit. I know I can use a bill pay service for a fee, but I would like to directly pre-pay for my phone service.

https://www.mobileshop.ph/ for top up worldwide.

Hey thanks Elwar! That looks good and they had the service I use. I could not get it to work just now, I'll have to play with it later.

Hi there,

Thanks for checking us out.

Please free to contact us if you need any assistance.

We look forward serving you soon! 

[Gleb Gamow]

It is getting to the point where the amount of things you cannot buy with bitcoins is easier to list than what you can buy with bitcoins.

Considering that using bitcoins you can buy anything online, you can buy gift cards for most places in the US with bitcoins, what can you not buy with bitcoins?

I will create a list and we can mark them off as we go through 2015.

Anything on Amazon.  http://www.purse.io
Anything else online. http://www.brawker.com http://coinsfer.com/
Bills. https://billpayforcoins.com/ https://bylls.com/ https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com
Restaurants. http://www.gyft.com
Groceries. (Your grocery store gift card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Gas. (Your gas card via http://www.brawker.com if available)
Income taxes.
Car dealerships or houses.

? ? ?

The last one first: Josh "BTC-House" Zerlan purchased 1 house and 2 cars last year via bitcoins equating to over $750M USD total (all documented).

Paying income taxes via bitcoin is easy, provided the likes of an independent H&R Block facility accepts bitcoins.

That said, add this to your list:

[AltcoinInvestor]

you should houses
because of this: http://www.coindesk.com/remax-london-accepts-bitcoin-litecoin-dogecoin-pilot-program/

[pawel7777]

Maybe not quite right position for the list of things you cannot buy, but it may be possible soon to pay your taxes in bitcoins in some states:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/03/06/paying-your-taxes-in-bitcoin-bill-would-make-it-easy/

A bill introduced earlier this year in New Hampshire, HR552, would require the state’s treasurer to “develop an implementation plan for the state to accept bitcoin as payment for taxes and fees.” Under the bill, the plan would have to be in place by 2017.
...
In addition to New Hampshire, the state of Utah (maybe not-so-coincidentally the home of Overstock.com) is exploring the idea.
...

[ChuckBuck]

You know what you can't buy with Bitcoin yet?  Yachts.









I mean you can probably go through https://www.bitpremier.com/, but I mean you can't go to your local yacht dealership and point to a Yacht and say you want that model in navy blue with gold trim.  Can't pick and choose, just whatever's posted on the site.

[TheGr33k]

This is a great list of services but I would like to see amazon accepting bitcoin without the third party purse.io

[pawel7777]

You know what you can't buy with Bitcoin yet?  Yachts.

I mean you can probably go through https://www.bitpremier.com/, but I mean you can't go to your local yacht dealership and point to a Yacht and say you want that model in navy blue with gold trim.  Can't pick and choose, just whatever's posted on the site.

You don't know that. For such high value items, dealers could be pretty flexible and open-minded. If they know (roughly) what the Bitcoin is and that it can be quickly exchanged to fiat, if they know you're a serious customer and if the agreed price is right (protecting them from rate fluctuations etc) there's a big chance they would agree to take BTC as a payment.

[VytautasK]

You can also pay your bills by using https://spectrobill.com which is powered by European Bitcoin exchange https://spectrocoin.com.

[calchuchesta]

MMmm.. a house in North Korea.

[thebitcoinquiz.com]

MMmm.. a house in North Korea.

Just post an ad somewhere that you are ready to buy a house for bitcoin in North Korea. I think that you'll surely get someone who would sell you his house.
This year I don't know if its a mere coincidence or not, I have seen like 40% of the sites(that sell some service or goods) are accepting bitcoins.
This currency has a bright future.

[cryptocult live]

it can't buy you love  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwZsFKIXa8

[futureofbitcoin]

Other than things like love, street food in Asia is a good example.

[alani123]

I've used purse and egifter to buy stuff from amazon, however I don't think that this means I bought those things with BTC. I essentially paid for a service to convert my BTC into amazon credit.

[bitkilo]

Take away alcohol, i can go to the pub and pay with bitcoin but the bottle shop won't accept it, go figure.

[Kprawn]

I think the fact that we need to use 3rd parties to enable us to buy with Bitcoin, cancel out the positve features of the technology.

Name any of these services, where there are NO 3rd party involved in the process? {Only direct payment to the company, who render the service}

These 3rd parties absorb the benefit we have of having "cheaper" fees. {We pay 3rd party fees, for their services, on top of our normal mining fees} This is surely not what Satoshi had in mind, when he created this technology.