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@unboiled
stacking since: #1034092
0 sats \ 1 reply \ @unboiled 29 Jul \ parent \ on: Need Feedback from my Stackers: Should I spend Bitcoin on a Car? bitcoin
People didn't know how an economy works before spending fiat money. They did so because others around them did.
My stance is that we can do the same with bitcoin. Getting started is not as hard as we make it out to be.
I think the people you are referring to are writing it with a very specific goal in mind: to discredit bitcoin.
As for their reasons to do so, I can only hazard a few guesses. Frequently, taking that stance will buy them social credit in the circles they've invested their career in. They're not writing for everyone, they're writing to be seen by their superiors who can help them get their next promotion.
It feels that way, but I am not so sure. There is more curiosity in the 'general population' out there than I would have thought.
The level of openly showing you're in favor of bitcoin is niche, but more and more people seem to get that there is something going on, and it's not matching the narrative of the anti-bitcoiners.
Part of it, I think, is a lot of bitcoiners are private about it to protect themselves not only from wrench attacks, but also from social ostracization.
But the encouraging bit is how many of my non-bitcoiner friends (the vast majority) are starting to understand that the anti-bitcoin narratives are exactly that: just a narrative spun to make it look bad for the environment, social cohesion, or what have you.
In my opinion, non-stackers were just fed the lies first before they got around to find out more about it from a neutral place. It needs time for the lies to expose themselves.
What also helps is having a trusted friend to tell them to take a second look; it isn't what they have been told it is.
Would your stance change if the car dealer accepted bitcoin? And what if they were likely to keep the bitcoin to spend it themselves? What if your buying with btc made them consider the option to keep more on their books in future?
The need vs want consideration may get a new dimension depending on your answers to the above questions.
Ignoring the btc adoption considerations, it's a pretty straight forward process for me: Will spending the money on a toy hurt my future self's finances? And will I get more joy out of it today than in x years where I can get the same (or better) for less?
Now, if I were to drive adoption with my purchase, it would carry some degree of utility forward in time even though the object I am buying has little to none.
We need more adoption and a stronger circular btc economy today, not in 30 years.
Flying airplanes. Renting those little machines cost a wee bit. As do the licenses, and I got a few more of those I'm eyeing.
Groceries, household water & electricity, and some of my basic clothing when I'm in South Africa (about 4-5 months per year). All of the above are sold at Pick'n'Pay stores and can be paid for with Lightning.
And with bitrefill: vouchers for gas, restaurants, steam (games), prepaid mobile, and other random things.
Between those two, I can cover a vast chunk of my day-to-day expenses when in South Africa. Sadly there are fewer options in the other regions we spend each year in. For now.
- How did you find out about SN?
Dunno, been a while. I suspect via reddit's r/bitcoin, or maybe a random podcast.
- How difficult was it to get started? Any feedback?
Easy to get started once I discovered the "skip" button for attaching a wallet.
As for feedback: if there are custodial options (ie. easier to set up and/or use) that do not require a registration, it would be a great place to hint at it on the connect page. Privacy-minded beginners would benefit from it, if such a thing even exists.
- How much experience do you have with lightning?
A bit. Use it frequently enough (mostly Phoenix) to buy things with it, but don't run a node or anything like that.
4.Have you read the FAQ already?
Glanced over it.
- Have you realized that you need to attach a wallet to receive sats?
Yes. But can't be bothered to set up a non-custodial setup yet. And don't want to register with custodial options (like alby) where I'd need to sign up with an email address.
- Do you understand the difference between cowboy credits (CCs) and sats?
I think I do? So probably not really.
- How were your first weeks on SN?
Been lurking for a long time. While I'm not super familiar with everything yet, I do feel the content in general is of considerably higher quality than many other places. Including nostr. (No hate for nostr; I am a fan of the concept even if I'm not a fan of most of the content. Then again, I never liked Twitter/X either.)
Are you trying to live on Bitcoin too?
Yes.
We spend each year across multiple countries. Part of the year we spend in South Africa where we can buy a lot of things with Lightning at one of their major supermarket chains, Pick'n'Pay. That covers an incredible range of products, and even includes things like household water & electricity, as you can buy prepaid codes for those at PnP.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in spending or saving BTC?
Finding ways to pay for insurance and levies, finding merchants accepting bitcoin/lightning in the other locations (we spend significant time in Europe and every other year Asia).
Another, sort of challenge was the friction to stay on top of sats in and out to track CGT. But I gladly endured that friction, rather than the lazy approach which just means supporting fiat by leaving more cash in that system.
We resolved the CGT challenge by leaving our jurisdiction, but I still keep track of the sats, cost-of-goods style.
Finally, my wife is only coming around slowly, but I need to pace myself to not alienate her. She is starting to see the light (see below for a prime example). But for now, we still have significant holdings in fiat (emergency fund) and a good old-fashioned ETF retirement portfolio - albeit we're adding very little to that these days, way more goes into BTC.
Any tools or apps you can’t live without?
In no particular order:
- Bitrefill, I suppose I could live without it, but don't want to :)
- Crypto debit cards
- Lightning wallet & CryptoQR (the app to pay at PnP, it decodes then reroutes payment info to Lightning wallet)
- Cold storage
- My spreadsheet of sats in vs sats out, a modified FIFO cost-of-goods sheet to track how much I paid for the sats I am spending today
That last one is an invaluable tool in helping my wife - and also myself - understand the benefits of living on BTC. Prime example: We bought a cruise, and to thank her for her support and trust in me wrt. BTC, I told her I'd pay the remainder (deposit had to be paid immediately), by selling BTC - cruise operator only takes fiat, obv.
She was delighted to see we got a "discount" of over 70% by using the sats that were next in line to be spent which I bought about 3 years earlier.
All the best of luck with your channel! I'm certainly going to follow.
I'm in the early process of starting a blog on the exact same topic as you: How to live on BTC with a mix of the motivation for it and practical examples from my own life. Hoping to help early stage bitcoiners in embracing a more self-sovereign monetary life. It's still early days, but I hope to have a pipeline of posts ready soon(tm).
I'm also sure I'll be able to refer to your work, so I'm looking forward to explore your content.
GENESIS