I do very much wonder about the rates at ATMs, those are absolutely insane and I suspect it's primarily scam/extortion victims using them.

But 4% isn't insanely high for a tourist if you imagine that my old bank would charge me 3% for a foreign currency transaction, or at least 2% for an ATM withdrawal. There are some businesses that will give me a 5% discount on using cash over card, so it could be worth it for me to buy cash at a 4% fee over a prepaid debit card at 0%.

great insights, thank you.

Super happy to see this, already running it!

What would you say is the difference between a minivan and an SUV?

BMW makes minivans, the iX, X5, X7 for example. That minivans today are marketed as "SUVs" or similar isn't their problem.

The pictures you posted made me smile, though

You can calculate a statistical confidence interval. If you randomly draw 21 from a group of 30, and zero accept sats, what are the chances that any of the remaining 9 do? In fairness, I wasnt able to talk to people at the venues that were temporarily closed, but there was also no indication they would accept sats. I reached out to the community, talked to the supertagger and others of the BTCMap team. If any of these venues really were to miraculously take Bitcoin, it would be easy to add them. If the bar to add venues is so low, the bar to remove them has to be as well.

All these merchants (and more!) were added together through a web form. There must have been some serious misunderstanding of what this web form is for.

The city centre of Rovigo. I expected a fair share of Bitcoin merchants here.

This is what you'll see before entering town from the train station. Not exactly a beautiful city, but Italy's standards are high.

I had some this weekend, great taste, thank you again!

I will try to find some, thank you!

I mainly find buyers for my sats through mutual friends and Bitcoin telegram groups. As a seller, it's super easy, there are far more people that want to buy sats than sell. I dont charge or expect to pay a fee for such transactions. And I've never been in an uncomfortable situation, either.

I've used non-KYC cards, but they are a total mess and I'm giving up on them. The KYC cards are more reliable, the fees they charge are mainly foreign currency fees.

I stopped using my bank account in early 2021. Since then I've been paid in Bitcoin, and it's been quite the journey. I knew that eventually my bank accounts would fail me as I travelled the world and moved countries, and eventually in late 2022 I got locked out. Not a big deal, I closed both accounts I had shortly after.

I'm getting paid in sats, I'm trying to pay as many expenses as I can in sats, but it's been getting more difficult. There are fewer services now that let me book hotels and flights with Bitcoin than in 2021. I would sell Bitcoin for cash peer to peer, which would help me cover a big portion of my expenses and even tax payments. I also use gift cards a lot.

In 2023 I got a Bitcoin debit card, which made my life a bit easier, and I think this year I'm going to take another step back away from Bitcoin, using a virtual bank account that I can fund over Lightning, attached to a debit card, to cover regular expenses.

I fear there are way too few of us, the "buy and hodl" meme is too strong and Bitcoin is failing as a currency. I don't think Bitcoin can do well as "digital gold", mainly because I think gold is an absolute failure, too. I would love to use Bitcoin more, but at times I feel a bit alone in that struggle.

Awesome to see more trip reports!

The historic Tooting Market entrance

View inside the market

Signage at Boom Bap Burger

Fresh juice from the juice bar

Maybe we're all just stuck in our self-destructive habits. How can we get out of these traps?

I do fear you are onto something here