Now that I "have" Bitcoin... what do I do with it? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Now that I "have" Bitcoin... what do I do with it?

1156 sats \ 33 comments \ @028559d218 27 Oct bitcoin

So I have some Bitcoin (obviously otherwise I wouldn't be on Stacker news!) Now what do I do with it?

I would like to be in a place legally, ethically, and technically where I can spend Bitcoin as easily as I use a debit or credit card.

Meaning... Spending Bitcoin from a Lightning wallet on: Gas Groceries Food Lunch Coffee...

You know regular every-day things. NOTHING fancy just regular living-expenses for a regular person.

When I got into Bitcoin (a few years ago) I had precisely zero idea what its price was, or had been, or could be I had literally no idea and didn't care. I just thought it was cool.

Now I find myself with a little Bitcoin, and I would like to spend it because it is a better and more transparent money - an improvement on our current monetary networks. It should be so obvious, right?

I refuse to sell "Bitcoin for dollars" I think it is unethical, a scam, a bad trade, and postponing the eventual transition to a post-fiat world so i have never done it and don't intend to. (It is just so trashy and tacky people... can do that if they LIKE but it doesn't interest me).

And Bitcoin 'credit cards' or 'rewards cards' don't appeal to me either... I want to use the actual Bitcoin network. Because with use it gets stronger.

Lightning is already pretty good (although layers are still being built/developed) and I want to use those real networks because they will get stronger over time plus are incredibly interesting. I don't want an account I want a wallet and there is a difference.

So where do I go from here?

Posting on Stacker News (as cool as Stacker News is) doesn't buy me groceries, doesn't pay for fuel, doesn't get me a bus ticket... it doesn't even get me coffee. I cannot purchase any of those things from posting on Stacker News.

In other words there are still very few stores, businesses and merchants accepting Bitcoin directly and I don't understand why that is.

Everywhere takes fiat even as it loses value year after year and people complain about high prices (fiat debasement)... but I have to seek out establishments accepting Bitcoin and they are scarce.

So what do I do with sats???

Nostr is a circle-jerk (even if the technology is very cool) Stacker News is uber-niche, and the media platforms/websites I do frequent don't accept Bitcoin for payment or donations.

Wikipedia doesn't even accept Bitcoin... and the Financial Times? No way they want a credit card which doesn't make any sense to me.

So what does a Normie (like me) do with some Bitcoin?

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313 sats \ 2 replies \ @nout 27 Oct

Some high level thoughts and directions

Get bitcoiner friends (find them, talk to your existing friends that are technical, etc)
Create groups with your bitcoiner friends and start using bitcoin (e.g. when they pay for you in a restaurant, you pay them back in bitcoin)
Find many of the online stores that actually accept bitcoin - even for niche stuff (order Satoshi coffee beans, clothing, socks, meat...). Just search online for places that accept bitcoin - after a bit of digging there are hundreds, maybe thousands.
Buy online services with Bitcoin (Mullvad VPN, server hosting, etc)
Go to a local bitcoin meetup and start spending there (e.g. help creating the places to spend)
Go to the local shops/restaurants that you like and talk to their owner about bitcoin. Keep asking about bitcoin. Especially in the US if they use Square terminal, let them know that it will be easy to enable it in November.
Travel to a community with circular economy (all the "Bitcoin Something", like Bitcoin Beach, Bitcoin Jungle...) and spend there. Sidenote: In these communities big % of shops and restaurants accept and yet they only have 5% of people paying with bitcoin - they need more people spending (#887222)
Use btcmap.org to find places that accept, actually go there and use bitcoin
If you are in Europe, join one of equivalents of https://einundzwanzig.space/ (i.e. group of folks in a country that are trying to establish circular communities in their cities... they print out materials, help businesses accept bitcoin, etc)

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

Thank you for your comment.

Get bitcoiner friends (find them, talk to your existing friends that are technical, etc)

Have tried it's really slow. I'm hopeful that the signal/youtube/rumble community will finally adopt Bitcoin for online tipping... It is the best adopted internet-money and Lightning/Cashu/Zapping makes me hopeful.

Create groups with your bitcoiner friends and start using bitcoin (e.g. when they pay for you in a restaurant, you pay them back in bitcoin)

My Bitcoiner friends are on Stacker News so... there's that. I don't know any in person. I paid a friend once in Bitcoin and he was cool about it. He was (and is) really interested in Pi-Coin at the time.

Find many of the online stores that actually accept bitcoin - even for niche stuff (order Satoshi coffee beans, clothing, socks, meat...). Just search online for places that accept bitcoin - after a bit of digging there are hundreds, maybe thousands.

I have really looked into this and have. Although honestly I get tired of ordering things I 'dont need'. Plus I much rather support small business in person/that represent the communities I care about.

Buy online services with Bitcoin (Mullvad VPN, server hosting, etc)

I really like the online lightning-adoption among nerds.

Especially in the US if they use Square terminal, let them know that it will be easy to enable it in November.

I really hope the Square rollout is successful. I know Square/J Dorsey has commented that we need Cap Gains reforms in the States to help Bitcoin payments. Could be huge or not we will see.

Travel to a community with circular economy

I have tried this. It's amazing the first day or 2 the progress is great. But these are not places I live and most people probably cannot do this as the travel/lodging costs are significant.

Use btcmap.org to find places that accept

I love btcmap

If you are in Europe, join one of equivalents

I'm going to have to brush up on my German. Thank you for the link. I have definitely noticed more acceptance in the German-speaking countries (Germany Austria Switzerland) than other places which is remarkable... for how anti-tech the EU is. They certainly get Bitcoin

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 27 Oct

I'm in a similar boat as you and was going to mention the Square rollout as something that might be huge for people like us.

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @Butterfinger 27 Oct

You should donate your sats to me

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

You beat me to it

39 sats \ 5 replies \ @SimpleStacker 27 Oct

In other words there are still very few stores, businesses and merchants accepting Bitcoin directly and I don't understand why that is.

Do you really not understand why that is? I think it's pretty obvious.

IMO, being upset that not enough real retailers are accepting bitcoin is a fruitless endeavor. Be glad for all the things that do accept bitcoin, and do what you can to educate others about bitcoin. Did anyone think the introduction of a new currency, one without any government support and totally decentralized, something previously unheard of, was going to be easy or fast?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

I understand your response... But i respectfully believe it is a cop-out

[Cop-out: a way of avoiding doing something difficult or unpleasant that you should do, or the excuse that you use to do this]

Bitcoin is all over CNBC... people should realize/recognize what is going on by now. We need real Lightning users, and people (including Bitcoiners) who basically demand a way to pay in Sats to keep the ball rolling/get Bitcoin involved in the real economy.

If it were up to me... everyone would have a Lightning wallet.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 27 Oct

I don't think the way CNBC talks about bitcoin is educational as to ethos, purpose, or even use cases. You won't get a proper bitcoin education by watching CNBC. You are better off reading Stacker News!

I agree, I wish everyone had a lightning wallet. But in my opinion, instead of complaining that retailers don't accept bitcoin, bitcoiners should start accepting bitcoin in their own areas of business.

12 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

I agree about CNBC. CNBC teaches people literally nothing about Bitcoin. And in fact the 'programming' nature of CNBC (TV) really comes out... it's full of boomers who when they start talking about crypto apparently don't know what they are talking about.

I think the conflation of 'crypto' and Bitcoin on tv hasn't helped.

I have tried to discuss Bitcoin with friends and coworkers... and maybe 1 has been open to it. Several of them have come back interested in memecoins or tokens i have never even heard of. A few respectfully roll their eyes at my "thunder wallet" LOL

And the rest I cannot even discuss it with because there is too much stigma. I don't know how to move the needle/break the glass barrier in that environment frankly

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 27 Oct

I posted a response to an old post of yours that hopefully helps #1019007

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

Exactly

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 27 Oct

This is a huge and long ignored problem. I am in much the same boat as you- wanting to spend my bitcoin but hugely limited in how to because so few retailers will accept it. This is no accident! Bankers and governments have slyly obstructed MoE adoption by imposing unreasonable tax recording and reporting obligations by arbitrarily designating Bitcoin as a speculative commodity despite the white paper explicitly describing Bitcoin as a p2p payment protocol. Use BTCmap.org and find any btc accepting businesses near you- and support them because we are up against massive and very determined obstruction from the fiat debt slavery bankers cartel and most bitcoiners even here on SNs as is evidenced in the other comments here are in denial about the scale of this problem. Many of them are here just for NGU speculative greed- not monetary freedom from the fiat debt slavery monetary system. The fiat debt slavery bankers cartel who own most governments have very successfully captured and controlled the narrative around the protocol (ie it is as a speculative commodity not a p2p payments protocol) and increasingly also the custody of the protocol...yet most even on here do not want to know and acknowledge this. As a speculative commodity Bitcoin is very little threat to the fiat operators. They have slyly captured it.

66 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

Just think of it this way - If someone has 100$ worth of Bitcoin. And that's all they have just the Bitcoin.

And they buy a Soda for 2000 sats and they 'received' some of those Sats the day before at 1% less exchanged rate... the Bitcoin 'appreciated' 1%.

NOW they owe capital gains taxes on that soda. But they have only Bitcoin so how do they pay the taxes??? The government wants fiat to pay the 1% appreciation on a Soda. So the person has to sell Bitcoin for FIAT to pay the taxes on THAT sale JUST to get the fiat to pay the taxes on the Soda!!!

You would have to sell way more Sats than you need to... just to get the fiat to pay the taxes on the soda THEN pay taxes on the other sale which you didn't want to do anyway!

This is in part an educational problem. But it's also huge regulatory problem. Governments should want their citizens to have access to better money.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 27 Oct

Very few governments are not owned by the fiat debt slavery bankers cartel.

MoE use of Bitcoin is outright banned in most autocracies while in supposed democracies while technically possible the tax recording obligations make its effectively impractical.

As a kyced and taxed speculative commodity its much less of a threat and so they tolerate that and only that...in fact via ETFs and Treasury accumulation they further centralise custody and reduce MoE capacity.

#1265705

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasko 27 Oct

Move to Uvita in Costa Rica if you want to be able to spend it easily for those things.

If you would rather wait for the people around where you currently live to accept it you might be waiting decades since they aren't incentivized enough to switch or accept multiple currencies.

Simple as that in my opinion.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @AG 27 Oct

Your view is so negative... where do you live? NY? Your environment is not doing good to you my friend. Is zapping really the only thing you can do with your sats?

All these companies you mention, are all sucked into the fiat machine, what you expect? BlackRock is collateralizing bitcoin, that's how they are robbing us.

Look at our Weekly Sunday, lately @unboiled and others are demonstrating that living on bitcoin is possible. Now, there are fiat companies enabling it, so your sats still going into a AMLed registered entity.

Fact is that is a beginning, things will evolve, and I see more and more private markets surging. Be patient my friend, look for the good company and enjoy your sats with the community around you, privately :)

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @jaspervanderee 27 Oct

We are the change. So once you have lightning wallet, I would ask any place if they accept Bitcoin.

We're incredibly early still.

66 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

I have asked. They look at me like I have 2 heads. Or it has such a weird/negative/strange connotation that I only ask if they are on Btcmap and even then many who are on the map don't take it.

Big franchises have zero chance of taking it, they take fiat and the places in the world who do take it are either 1) really really rich or 2) really really poor.

So explain that one to me.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @X3NO533D 27 Oct

It starts by yourself accepting it and signify it. Put a sign on your shop, your website etc... Give discounts when ppl pay you in btc. Ask your boss again and again, even if they laugh at you.

And of course, there's the hardest part, convincing others. If you're bad at it, like me, well ... then let the others do it. Live your best life and the others will come to you.

You can also move to a place where it's much more accepted and used.

But yeah, we're just still in the fiat world, that's it.

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

Please see this #1019007

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

Not sure what you are asking. It makes more sense to ask "how can I" than "what can I".

You wanna buy groceries with bitcoin directly? The grocer needs to want it. There are many people that sell goods and services for bitcoin. If they have things you want buy from them.

Personally the problem I have that bitcoin solves for me is saving for the future. The ability to spend it is vital to its value but its not the biggest issue have with fiat.

12 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

If you cannot 'spend' it... then what is the point of saving it? It's 'worth' something but if you cannot spend it then... what?

This is perhaps my greatest concern about the current situation (other than the filterers who are about to fork themselves off the network LOL)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

Who said you can't spend it?

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

So what does a Normie (like me) do with some Bitcoin?

You may be something but for sure you are not a normie.

6 sats \ 5 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

But I thought Stacker News is for normies /s I mean SN has hats... and a weekly newsletter, and a meme-Monday I mean it's destined for normiehood.

I mean you can pay and be paid in Sats. What could be more normal than that???

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

I can't take you seriously. Sorry.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

So in 10 years Bitcoin is still a speculative commodity... then what? Mempool fees are 1 sat/vbyte. Lightning is rarely used, barely accepted anywhere. Zero progress on cap gains reforms for buying... a bag of groceries or sack of potatoes.

And Stacker News (or Nostr) is an ultra-niche community... and we have basically no more people using Lightning than today [in 10 years].

I don't consider that success sorry... sorry to be a negative Nancy. We only help ourselves by looking at reality and what is actually going on and being critical if necessary.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 27 Oct

I can't take you seriously because you don't respond in good faith, at least that is how it appears to me.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

What did I not respond in good faith to?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 27 Oct

You asked questions which challenge their NGU speculative commodity narrative and so they will attack you rather than address the inconvenient questions you ask.

Most people on SNs and 'Bitcoiners' generally are now captive to the speculative commodity narrative.

The bankers and governments are clever and sly and have largely captured the narrative with the speculative commodity bait.

Most people value personal wealth and comfort over principles and freedom.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @039ef40c01 27 Oct

Bitcoin backed loan continually rolling forward as Jack suggests he does in this announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvFdzJiGzU0 (https://strike.me/lending/). If this was available in my region I'd probably do it. Until then I buy regularly and hodl.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @028559d218 OP 27 Oct

I don't want a "bitcoin loan" I worked my way out of debt and I don't trade (never have). What I'm asking for - using Bitcoin in commerce - is completely different imo.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 27 Oct

I'm happy when I find something I do use that can be bought with sats, even if the options are pretty limited.

For now it may just be VPN services and niche items from nostr merchants, but it's growing fast and I trust it will expand rapidly.