

Ask HN: Bitcoin owners—how many of you have actually *bought* something with it? - clin_

I think there&#x27;s little question that bitcoin is unsustainable unless an ecosystem emerges for spending it.<p>So how many of you actually transact in bitcoin? What for? And if you haven&#x27;t, why not?
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vyrotek
There's no incentive to purchase something with BitCoin if the value continues
to go up. Would you spend $5 on a sandwich knowing that by the end of the day
if you don't spend you may have $10 instead? BitCoin is not a currency. It's a
commodity or "virtual good". The speculation around BitCoin will be its
undoing.

~~~
jennichen
That's a flawed argument, because you can by the sandwich for $5 worth of
BTCs, and then immediately buy the BTCs back with cash.

Of course, that seems excessive for the individual user, which is why your
wallet service provider will do it on your behalf and assume the risk. I
imagine Coinbase will do this very soon.

Assuming that in a couple of years there will be a functioning derivatives
market, the wallet service provider can then offload that risk to investors.

Speculation isn't a "bad thing", it's a natural thing that is necessary for an
efficient market.

~~~
clin_
Your logic is bewildering. In your scenario, you're still essentially
transacting in USD and using BTC as an investment or a store of value. You're
not actually _spending_ BTC, since you expect the value to continue rising,
and you buy back the BTC. Another way of looking at it is that there's no
exchange of goods in BTC, since the BTC you sell doesn't transfer to a
merchant, but to another investor.

Either way, this implies BTC doesn't have intrinsic worth. The OP's argument
stands: deflationary forces make it even harder to create a market in bitcoin
since no one wants to trade an asset that they think will appreciate in value.

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zachlatta
I've purchased domains (NameCheap), food (Foodler), work (contractors), and
countless other little things. Checking out with bitcoin is incredibly simple
and easy when compared to using credit cards. I also don't need to worry about
my credit card information being compromised if someone I buy from is cracked.

~~~
clin_
Were you worried about giving up bitcoin that could dramatically grow in value
later? Or did you buy back bitcoin after spending it?

~~~
zachlatta
I'm fairly invested into bitcoin. I buy bitcoin on a regular basis and often
get paid in it. I'm not too worried about the bitcoin I spent going up in
value later.

I like to think of myself as a user of the currency, not necessarily an
investor.

~~~
cstrat
That is cool that you're paid in BTC. If you only have BTC, then it can become
your primary currency, because you have no other option.

However, as long as people have access to cash in their local currency, it
doesn't make commercial sense to spend BTC. Bitcoin is a self fulfilling
prophecy because of this...

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Ellipsis753
I've bought stuff at least a couple of times. Most notable was when a client
paid money onto a Namecheap account (for a domain name) but accidentally
missed a sub-charge (and I forgot about it too). This meant that the account
balance was a few pennies short of the price of a domain. If I used my credit
card or Paypal not only could I end up linking my card with someone elses
account but there was also a minimum of $5 charge (you could not add pennies).
So I added the remaining pennies in Bitcoins and just a few seconds latter the
balance had gone up and I could buy the domain name. :) I had a very good
experience and it was a lot faster than even logging in with Paypal. I would
also strongly recommend Namecheap to anyone. It's a very good company.

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FatalLogic
I bought a laptop recently.

The price was a little higher than if I had paid old fashioned money, about
$700 instead of $680-690. But I needed one. I guessed the price of Bitcoin
would be likely to go down temporarily, which was right. It was one way of
taking some profits from the increase in value

I earn money in Bitcoin, so it is a closed loop for me.

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juliangoldsmith
I've bought a few ASIC miners with bitcoin. I bought two BFL Jalapenos when
they came out, for $150/ea, and I just preordered a Coincraft miner for abour
$3k.

I've also bought two 4TB hard drives, for about $300.

(The prices are all in USD, and the price of bitcoin when I bought each thing
varies.)

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quadlock
I bought a used Macbook Pro for ~$300 worth of bitcoins a couple of years ago.
those bitcoins are worth ~$20K. My argument for why he should accept the deal
was, "they will probably go up in value". I'm happy I did it.

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jennichen
Yes, mymodafinil.net

Basically, merchants who benefit from Bitcoin are those that VISA/PayPal don't
want to touch.

~~~
bmelton
> Basically, merchants who benefit from Bitcoin are those that VISA/PayPal
> don't want to touch.

Interestingly, that site has Visa and Mastercard logos on the home page.

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MarkPNeyer
lots of people are already using it to buy drugs and do online gambling.

it can also be used by people in countries that restrict internet access to
buy vpn services.

