How have you actually USED cryptocurrency?

BLOCKCHAIN and SOCIETY
#1

I was just having this interesting discussion with one of my friends and while he clearly understood cyrpto as a concept, he mentioned that he would not be able to truly believe in crypto until he saw actual use of crypto.

Of course there is a whole argument about whether investing and having it appreciate in value is a use in itself. But lets say we ignore the whole investment point (buying BTC/ETH and also ICOs) for a moment. Do you guys actually use crypto in any way? Do you use it to send money overseas? Do you pay for things with crypto? Do you write dapps and need ETH for gas?

I realized I might be more bullsih on crypto because more so than the average person, I actually make use of crypto to do the following:

  • Transfer money. I have a close group of friends who are very into crypto and we actually pay each other in crypto pretty often. Its a lot faster than other methods actually. I actually find it much easier to money in general with crypto
  • Pay for things with Ten X
  • Pay for gas costs when deploying / executing smart contracts
  • Pay for some services which accept BTC
  • Register and ENS name

I just wanted to get a sense of how many people are actually using crypto vs buying and storing them as an investment. If so, what are the use cases. I wanted to collect more use cases so that I can make a point that crypto is more currency that it is tulip.

3 Likes
#2

  1. I did used to lend BTC on poloniex to margin traders, sometimes earning 0.2% a day, but thats when I trusted poloniex, I now don’t and hence do not do this.

  2. Obviously I am buying as an investment to hold for the long term.

  3. I have a TenX card on order and as I am a European customer I expect it to come very soon.

I would be keen to hear other people uses.

2 Likes
#3

In June, when ethereum and bitcoin shot up over 100%, I used bitcoin to buy computer equipment to mine ethereum and other altcoins from Newegg.com.

In the past, I’ve also regrettably bought silver and gold with bitcoin from providentmetals.com. Bitcoin has gone up over 1000% since then, and gold and silver have done next to nothing.

The problem with buying things with cryptocurrencies is that it always seems like a bad deal.

4 Likes
#4

Actually I was really thinking a LOT about this idea. But the way I look at it, is that if I can use crypto to buy thing, its going to allow me to be over invested in crypto. Since I started using my Ten X card, I have less anxiety about holding less of my local currency I can have most of it and still be able to pay my credit card bills easily.

Once I adopted that train of thought, things stopped looking like bad deals to me :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

3 Likes
#5

I know how you feel, I have my regrets also. In 2015 I spent about $400 on BTC mining equipment which then broke a few weeks later. Had I just spent the $400 on buying BTC directly I would have had nearly 2 BTC, something I am now forking out a lot for to try and get. After the mining rig broke in 2015 I stopped following BTC until earlier this year. Its all good though, we are still in really early compared to the masses :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

I regret buying the precious metals when I did, but I don’t regret buying the mining equipment. I learned a lot in building and setting up the mining equipment. I find that kind of thing to be fun since I like problem solving. For a lot of people, mining is a nuisance. If cryptocurrencies keep going up in price then building the miners might turn out to be the smart investment choice too, if not then some lucky kids will be getting great deals on gaming computers and gpus on ebay.

2 Likes
#7

Hey there! My answer is pretty simple; so far I’ve used crypto for

  • Paying for my coffee/meals (a few local restaurants in Buenos Aires are accepting BTC atm!)
  • Buying tokens
  • Specifically buy ETH for the gas limit required on the transactions/ Dapps use.
  • Transactions
    I believe this is a really interesting topic! Pretty more down to earth than a talk of what will btc/eth/blockchain do for us in the future…The uses we’re giving to crypto right now in our everyday lives are the most important proof of what it has already done for us!
    Thanks for bringing up this topic @Rigario :slight_smile:
2 Likes
#8

I live in Copenhagen and there are a few places you can actually buy things with BTC. For example last year I bought myself a beer in a local pub. Now, Copenhagen is famously expensive, a beer can cost between 5 - 10 euros depending on what you go for. I had a pint of Guinness which would usually cost around 5euros I guess in most places. I think the bar/pub I was in was particularly pricey though and it ended up costing me around 17 euros at the time with the transaction fees. Painful. Even more painful to think how expensive that pint of Guinness is now worth :stuck_out_tongue:

On a serious note this seems to be a major problem amongst people I know who are small business owners or professionals who would like to take Bitcoin as payment. People are simply not willing to use their BTC as currency due to the huge volatility and possible month on month % increases. Until things settle down it’s hard for me to see people using BTC or other crypto for real and regular transactions (beyond things like Storj or Sia which are direct use cases). Apart from those who are ideologically against fiat currency, or involved in activity that they do not want to declare maybe.

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#9

Of course though I am thinking/writing from my eurocentric view of the world. I can imagine lots of reasons that people in other places might transact with crypto. Just do not know that many examples of that kind of activity. Does anyone have any good examples of adoption and use in the real-world?

#10

I think its hard to actually come up with real world use cases of bitcoin or ETH right now. Which is why I wanted to start this thread so that I can start collecting use cases and hopefully to spot something I missed out.

That is the very reason why I’m excited for projects like Ten X and Dether.

On a side note, this rumor is circulating a lot these days. Hopefully it turns out true, but for now, it definitely does seem like a rumor - https://cointelegraph.com/news/unverified-rumor-circulating-that-amazon-may-accept-bitcoin-by-october

2 Likes
#11

I have only bought a few computer components online with bitcoin. But I plan to start using it much more often to pay for goods and services I need - both personally and via my businesses. It just makes sense once you are invested to start using it as much as possible. Another example of how these blockchain technologies are used to align incentives so well in high human value markets.

So thanks for starting this thread. I’m going to play catch up with you for now, but I’ll come back here if I come across anything new.

#12

This is a good point. I feel like a currency can set itself apart from bitcoin in this way - by finding a way to maintain relative price stability. Perhaps by not allowing the coin to be traded, or at least reserve only a portion of the currency for trading.

#13

From my past experience with cryptocurrencies, my advice to you is that cryptocurrencies are an extremely risky investment and if you are going to invest, learn the processes firstly and don’t invest yourself! Connect with best brokers & they will tell you where to invest in the crypto world. When I was new in the trading world I trade with VolumeFX and made huge profit from my investment.

#14

using crypto to build anew world so far no product consumption yet on my part!! like others have told crypto isto valuable we must reinvest to build are foundations every .000001 counts godspeed!