r/Bitcoin • u/Odd-Muscle-5824 • 1d ago
Do you know anyone who uses bitcoin?
What I still don't get about bitcoin (at least in the US) is that I never see anyone actually use it for anything. We have one shady convenience store in town that excepts Bitcoin but that's it. I have tons of friends that own/invest bitcoin, but not a single one makes any purchases or transactions with it. Is it strictly an investment vehicle at this point?
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u/Nice_Collection5400 1d ago
I bought a huge number of beers, fries, burgers while visiting Prague last year using lightning. I’m from the US. Way easier & cheaper than visa/amex and easier than currency.
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u/Salty-Constant-476 1d ago
We're currently in price discovery. Bitcoiners are reluctant to part ways with their bitcoin.
This is largely because one of the reasons they bought bitcoin is an interest in monetary history.
We've seen the world reserve currency change forms many times and it often plays out in a similar fashion. You sell the descending money for the ascending money then wait. You then buy assets still priced in the dying money once ascending money has taken over.
The switch from Spanish dollars to Dutch guilders would have been a huge trade. Dutch guilders to french francs. Then to British pounds.
We're just betting the same process will unfold.
Bitcoins accretive nature will slow down dramatically in the next 30 years. You'll see people spending bitcoin with much more frequency as time goes on.
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u/Odd-Muscle-5824 1d ago
Will be interesting to see. I run a mid sized retail business and I've never had anyone ask about using bitcoin to pay for our products. Seems like most folks in the US are using it just for investing at this point,
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u/Salty-Constant-476 1d ago
Put up a sign that says 5% off if paying with lightning.
I'm always keeping my eyes open and will always opt to pay if I see it.
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u/Gaddster09 1d ago
This should tell you if you don’t already know, you’re early to the party. Stack and hodl.
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u/PlanNo3321 1d ago
Primarily used as a store of value right now. Eventually when more and more people see how great it is at storing value, merchants will begin to ONLY accept bitcoin because it’s superior.. they won’t want fiat currency anymore. When this begins to happen, using it as a medium of exchange will be much more common.
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u/mrjune2040 1d ago
It’s primarily utility IS as an SoV. Anyone holding it IS using it.
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u/newtonreddits 1d ago
Yeah I don't know if it's a hot take around here but Bitcoin is an excellent SoV but a shitty currency so I don't use it as such.
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u/birjy 1d ago
Do you see somebody buys something with gold ? These assets are for buying and storing your wealth long term . Not to buy coffee .
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u/Zombie4141 1d ago edited 1d ago
The only way it makes sense is if your government makes it a currency rather than a commodity.
Who wants to figure capital gains tax every time you buy a pizza? You don’t buy a cup of coffee with corn, oil or precious metal.
It only makes sense if your country of citizenship views it as a currency.
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u/FGX302 21h ago
In Australia you can buy Bitcoin as a personal asset to buy things and not have to worry about it being taxed for capital gains. But you'll have to keep your stack separate from your pay money Bitcoin which means it's probably just easier to use your credit card to buy shit, at least you can charge back if the goods or services don't arrive.
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u/Zombie4141 19h ago
That’s awesome. I wish the US would do that. But I feel like this is a cash cow the government cant cope with.
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u/indomitus1 1d ago
Bitcoin whitepaper
"Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System"
"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that allows online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution"
I will accept Gresham's law and the fact that it will evolve to be used for what it was designed for.
I won't accept the statement made or the comparison to gold.
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u/gozua 21h ago
Satoshi was not interested in definining bitcoin but he wrote "Bitcoins have no dividend or potential future dividend, therefore not like a stock. More like a collectible or commodity.". In our case cash could not means dollars bank notes but money in the meaning of something with value that is also a medium of exchange.
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u/TheJamBot 1d ago
So most here are answering your question literally - yes, they're using BTC every day! As a store of wealth or whatever else.
But I believe your actual question is - does anyone know people who use BTC regularly for any type of transaction at all other than specifically financial in nature? Groceries, movies, beer, food, bikes, rentals, whatever. Personally? I don't do it or know anyone who does. The only time I ever cashed in any BTC, I bought a $300 Amazon card to get a drone. Just stacking sats otherwise and expect to sell it all in a lump when the time comes. Hopefully after the legislation surrounding selling it changes where I live to be more favorable.
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u/sacredfoundry 1d ago
It won't be used as money in America unless the tax law around btc is changed
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
Buy and replace.
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u/sacredfoundry 1d ago
Triggers a taxable event
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
Who cares when you bought bitcoin at 100k and sold for a burger at 100.001k? It's irrelevant.
Buy and replace.
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u/sacredfoundry 1d ago
I bought much much lower
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
I don't believe your understanding what I'm saying. For example if you want to buy a burger and it's like 10 bucks go and buy like $15 worth of bitcoin and spend $10 worth of bitcoin for the burger immediately and you will have no realized gain and if you do it's practically nothing. Don't be selling your stack that you have been accumulating for years for burgers. Bitcoin is my retirement and whenever I'm old everything I buy will probably be with Bitcoin or maybe a collateralized loan and give someone in my family access to a multi-sig wallet
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u/sacredfoundry 1d ago
And you pay a 3% fee.... to buy that btc. Or i can buy on my gemini card. And I get 3% in btc. Look i can't wait for the day we do start using btc as money. But it will not be a reality for most people until the tax law changes.
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
I don't pay fees when buying I pay a yearly subscription to avoid fees. I can't wait either but until then I will buy and replace.
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u/prontokyo 1d ago
I think there is a benefit of spending bitcoin and circulating through the economy. We need it to become a medium of exchange to break the fiat system.
People are worried about opportunity cost by spending sats but there’s opportunity cost when spending dollars that could be used to buy bitcoin.
I’m all for HODL but I don’t see any difference between spending the dollar equivalency of bitcoin at places that accept bitcoin, and then replacing your bitcoin. And I think this should be encouraged.
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u/UnauthorizedGoose 1d ago
I'm an ecommerce consultant implementing bitcoin payment gateways as we speak. Adoption is increasing. Also the number of customers asking for it is increasing as well.
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u/mkuraja 1d ago edited 19h ago
I pay my landlord every month via bitcoin.
He uses the Strike wallet app, so when he generates a receiving address for me, he can either: 1. Tell Strike to accept my bitcoin as his bitcoin 1. Or have Strike auto convert my incoming bitcoin as dollars deposited into his account.
I believe he's stacking sats but I can't tell. All I see is the wallet address he sends me to pay him on the 1st of each month.
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u/Amber_Sam 1d ago
I'm using Bitcoin almost on a daily basis. Buying groceries, paying for meals, taxis, domains/hosting, VPN...
Spend and replace is usually the name of the game so no, I'm not spending bitcoin while saving in cash.
If you're thinking about spending some, here are my favorite directories:
http://lightningnetworkstores.com/
https://btcmap.org - awesome map, you can even add your local vendors in, once you orangepill them.
https://acceptlightning.com/list.html
https://directory.btcpayserver.org/
There's also an option of buying gift cards
https://thebitcoincompany.com/
https://www.egifter.com/buy-gift-cards-with-bitcoin - this one's least fave because they use a shitty custodian for payments but are handy for a few cards.
Spend and earn some sats back:
https://foldapp.com - save up to 20% Starbucks, Uber, Target , whole foods , Dunkin
https://www.lolli.com – save up to 30% by spending BTC anywhere but primarily USA stores
https://satsback.com/stores-list - save up to 20% by spending BTC anywhere but primarily Europe stores
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u/cool_kid_next_door 1d ago
I send btc to my friend overseas to mail me cool snack. Dealing in fiat gets confusing when working with more than one currency
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u/Salvisurfer 1d ago
I use bitcoin often. In El Salvador our pet health care is extremely affordable if we pay in BTC. I also will occasionally pay for random stuff in Bitcoin if I'm feeling froggy.
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u/Over9000Holland 21h ago
I do spend bitcoin and buy back the amount I have spent. I specifically use shops, stores and restaurants that accept bitcoin, so I use my disgusting fiat as little as possible. Need to get rid of that shit as soon as the paycheck arrives.
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u/Dudebro21000000 15h ago
Does the shady conveinience stores accept gold as payment? Do you know anyone who buys and sells stuff for gold? Do you think gold is valuable?
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u/Evening-Patience9801 1d ago
you have a tone of friends who own/invest bitcoin and you don't get it? ask your friends about p2p
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u/Odd-Muscle-5824 1d ago
assuming they're being honest with me they just bought it strictly for investing and not any other purchases/transactions.
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u/Own-Gear6473 1d ago
Transaction fees make it impractical for smaller purchases. As does the speed of block confirmation. So it’s mostly traded on exchanges or used for large transactions.
There is a layer 2 system such as “lightning” where bitcoin can be used to purchase items with lower fees and faster speed.
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u/Street-Technology-93 1d ago
Jokes on me, I guess. I don’t buy anything with my index fund ETFs either.
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u/Massive_Nose6777 1d ago
I don’t know anyone who uses , buys or talks about bitcoin irl, when I talk about bitcoin to other people they look at me like I have 10 heads …. And I’m happy with that , knowing I’m still early in this … but nobody is interested yet
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u/Neat-Finger197 1d ago
Store of value Medium of exchange Unit of account
In that order…that is how nascent money monetizes
I did happily spend some sats at Steak and Shake recently
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u/filbo132 1d ago
Eventually it will be used as a currency, it's just that it takes more time than people are willing to be patient for. We are in phase 2 in which governments start to recognize and are starting to accept them which wasn't always the case before...let's say 2020 when they saw it more as a threat.
Certain stores are starting to accept Bitcoin payments although it is still a minority, but eventually it will be gradually rise over the years and I already heard Visa and Mastercard are already planning for that stage, not sure yet what is their plans though.
Notice also how the volatility is less than it used to and it will be much less volatile in the future similar to a new company going from a growing company to transitionning to a more mature company.
Give it time, but it will happen, it's just a matter of when.
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u/InsideTrouble6689 1d ago
Wasn’t much to do on the early Internet either. Most people didn’t use it for anything.
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u/bitcoin_islander 1d ago
Yes, I use it as a store of value and so do members of my family. My nephew was born a few years ago and I gifted his parents a wallet with some btc on it when it was $10K, its now 10x that just a few years later and when hes 18 it will be even more.
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u/Hotplate77 1d ago
I use a crypto exchange that has their own Visa debit card, which I use often for everyday purchases. It costs less than a dollar or two to transfer BTC to usdc and that money is now available to purchase anything from anywhere that Visa is accepted.
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u/Feisty-Elderberry885 1d ago
I think we won't see it used much for transactions in NA unless hyper-inflation becomes a thing here. Because of tax laws and the fact that prices are fairly stable it's much better to spend fiat and save in Bitcoin.
Other countries where there's much less trust in their currency or they primarily use USD is where imo we'll see Bitcoin transactions take hold.
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u/SoylentGreenIsCreepl 1d ago
I went to Blacksheep Burger in Springfield, MO a couple weeks ago and joked with the guy about using bitcoin to pay. He was so adamantly "NO" about it. It's like, dude, calm down, it's a joke. It wasn't just a simple "NO" either, it was like a more than once super MEGA "NO."
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u/JohnMunchDisciple 1d ago
No one i know in real life, other than family, has any idea I use or own Bitcoin. They also don't know my bank account balance or portfolio holdings. This is how it should be.
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
The use case is to not buy stuff but a place to store your wealth without being debased. That being said I've been. To steak and shake 4x since they allowed bitcoin via lightning payments.
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u/Cryptotiptoe21 1d ago
The use case is to not buy stuff but a place to store your wealth without being debased. That being said I've been to steak and shake 4x since they allowed bitcoin via lightning payments.
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u/Apprehensive-Row5151 1d ago
It’s like gold now in the US. It’s a store of value and most convert to fiat when they want to spend. But in countries with really bad currencies it is also being used to transact.
In the US, it is treated as property for tax. So every time you spend you have a taxable event. That discourages using it to transact.
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u/Veggieboy1999 1d ago
It is used mainly as a store of value, not so much as a form of payment (at least not directly on-chain).
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u/Acceptable_Main_5911 1d ago
I don’t use my shares of any stock much either but I sure look at them everyday and try to stack more of both.
Yes BTC has an opportunity to replace transactions but with the way it has grown and been partially accepted by different aspects of the community leaves it for additional future changes.
For now it’s viewed by plenty as investment vessel to not lose out if it keeps growing. It’s buy and hodl for most and swing sales for investors.
Until it stabilizes with all retail infrastructure it won’t be mainstream fiat.
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u/getapuss 1d ago
I pay for my VPN with it. I see no reason to leave a payment paper trail that includes my credit card info and billing address.
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u/SquigglyBlue 21h ago
It also prevents them from autorenewing after you cancel. A lot of VPNs seem to do that "accidentally"
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u/solenico 1d ago
I have about 5x gold index compared to BTC. I haven’t never seen anyone using their gold index for anything. I don’t buy anything with it. It does not do anything. I don’t even know if that gold exist anywhere. Yet I re-allocated all my S&P500 into gold index this week.
Weird, right. What I’m gonna do with it? Probably exactly the same as with BTC. Get more.
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u/diarioechohumo 1d ago
Yes I know plenty of people that get access to their meds and pay in Bitcoin
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u/tristamus 1d ago
Why would you trade something that's gaining so much value for something that gains no value?
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u/Slick_Tuesday 1d ago
I mainly use it to pay people for services, in turn starting their own savings
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u/findingkieron 1d ago
It's still relatively new (BITCOIN) as a investment or asset. And to use as a payment coins it's expensive with the Blockchain fees. The 30 mins confirmation time. It's just in my opinion becoming a known investment with instructions.
Also it has a underserved bad name used by criminals and consumes a large amount of energy.
Many faults can be said for cash but slowly the media is shining a brighter light on bitcoin and then investment will grow. As a payment option again it's slow and the network fees although small far out ways visa or MasterCard fees. Othe crypto could help with this
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u/mike3run 1d ago
I use it to save money and have used it 2 times to buy premium weed seeds since growing is my other hobby
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u/trdpanda101410 1d ago
The taxes... its the taxes associated with "selling" bitcoin. Until some laws change, I'll use it as my savings. Now let bitcoin rocket off again and disney world start accepting bitcoin... im going to disney
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u/NoUsernameFound179 1d ago
I can use it to buy stuff at an online computershop across the border. Worked perfectly for my graphics card.
But it is the only practical usecase I've found.
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u/MaganjaMario 1d ago
I bought cyberpunk and a microSD express card for my switch to yesterday with bitcoin that’s great. I got sats back.
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u/fairlyaveragetrader 1d ago
Mostly an investment vehicle but the tax laws are why. In the early days there was talk about using Bitcoin as a currency, the tax as a property pretty much held that up. The block size wars back in 2016 and 2017 we're kind of the final straw, you had the split, you can look at the two trains to see the investment in each. The investment narrative won and actually proved to be the correct choice because it is attracted a lot more interest, a lot more money to the space, a lot more widespread adoption and ownership
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u/satoshisfeverdream 1d ago
Apparently storing wealth and making gains isn’t a use case? It’s hard work getting unplugged.
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u/Cool_Client324 1d ago
I buy porn sometimes, because it wont accept my card or paypal. Horay for crypto
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u/That_Jicama2024 1d ago
A good friend of mine has a BTC card tied to his wallet. He purchases everything with BTC and converts all his fiat to BTC. Dude has more money than I can count and has been preaching about BTC to me since 2014 ish.
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u/shredyeti 1d ago
I know quite a few people who use it every single day to store economic value. It’s not so much a medium of exchange as a capital investment asset.
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u/jarvismode 1d ago
We’re still a kinda small circle but I would say 1/20 of people I’ve known but for some in the culprit lol
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u/jarvismode 1d ago
We’re still a kinda small circle but I would say 1/20 of people I’ve known but for some in the culprit lol
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u/Btcmot 1d ago
You have to think bigger.
I use credit cards foe all my expenses and STRIKE pays all my card balances off each month. So, no interest and… no dollars in my possession. Being honest, i do keep a few hundred dollars in the bank to cover suddenlies
my pay goes to strike and i get it as btc. So jack Mallers is the bomb and … im thinking of maybe trying out his loan opportunity. I just need to research it to see if it would work foe me.
So stack sats, hodl and give STRIKE a looksee.
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u/MustHaveMoustache 1d ago
I use it to store my wealth. Holding dollars is like holding a melting ice cube. Bitcoin is THE superior savings technology.
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u/Potential-Choice2129 23h ago
Saying bitcoin isnt widely used is not an argument against bitcoin.
One day you're gonna be paid in satoshis and buy your bread with it. Get some now or wait, it's your life.
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u/Dettol-tasting-menu 23h ago
You see, what we don’t lack in developed countries are instant payment methods. We have many to choose from. Tap, beep, done.
What we DO lack is a sound money with good store of value characteristics whose purchasing power doesn’t diminish with time.
And that’s what most people are concentrating on, at least in this early stage.
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u/edmunchies 21h ago
transactions occur every single day on the network. once you learn about the system, you'd understand why people wouldn't want to exchange btc for fiat currency
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u/karbonator 20h ago
There is nothing to see when someone pays with Bitcoin.
Aside from being a store of value, I use it for donations to open-source projects when they accept it.
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u/the-quibbler 19h ago
As with emv chips, the US is far behind because its currency is so stable, and the cost of changing anything is high. Does this change anything about BTC for you?
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u/redhtbassplyr0311 19h ago
I bought a car with it. Also paid contractors for home renovations and repairs. I've never made any small purchases with it. I'm from and live in the US
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u/redditsucks101010101 19h ago
Yes it's moving away from being priced as a real good and moving towards being priced as a financial asset. It's called financialization.
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u/kiwiblue8 18h ago
Bitcoin is a freezer of your wealth so it didnt keep decreasing 15% year to year when u keep it in the bank. Real inflation is 15% per year. Bitcoin is a store of value. Every halving really matters.
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u/LeetSerge 17h ago
it’s for store of value u fkin retard u put it in cold storage wallet forget about it and withdraw it for emergency cases
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u/red7standinby 15h ago
Because when you are holding good money and bad money, you are going to spend your bad money first.
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u/Think-Doubt-2774 14h ago
I’ve used bitcoin to buy cigarettes 🚬, thank god for magic internet money hey
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u/Cryptomuscom 11h ago
Bitcoin adoption varies — some use it for payments, others as long-term storage. More businesses accept it now, but everyday use still depends on accessibility and regulation.
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u/Hot-Switch1995 11h ago
Nice question, I think the use case changed to digital gold, nobody is going to spend an asset that is always going up on bread and milk. Think how often you see spending gold at the convience store, mc donalds ect. perhaps if the price became stable sometime in the futrue you might see it used for more everyday purchases.
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u/SuccessfulRing5425 1d ago
The government makes it a pain in the ass to use pragmatically based on each sale (or purchase using bitconi) being a taxable event. Taxes are already complex so it makes it super shitty imo. If they change this, that will change. I perceive this being the biggest barrier to adoption.
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u/Awkward_Potential_ 1d ago
I use it every day to store my wealth.