Hoarding AND Spending
Since I’m loooong on Bitcoin, I’ve stashed away some coins in an offline wallet as an investment in the future success of the currency. However, since I also want to actively help the Bitcoin economy flourish and accelerate mainstream acceptance of the technology, I keep some spending money on hand in my mobile Blockchain and online Coinbase.com wallets.
As of today, I’ve only purchased one retail item with some of the BTC I have available for day-to-day commerce. However, I’ve sent $1 worth of BTC to several online friends so that they can personally discover and experiment with the technology. Interestingly, and indicative of the innocent ignorance that keeps Bitcoin flying under the radar for the mainstream individual, some people have “ignored” my $1 offer. They simply:
- have never heard about Bitcoin at all, or
- they don’t know enough about Bitcoin to understand its potential to make the world a more equitable and peaceful place, or
- they’ve only been exposed to Bitcoin’s negative publicity (the collapse of Mt. Gox, the extortion scams, the use of BTC to buy guns/drugs on Silk Road) and are afraid to join the community
By far, my most frequent usage of BTC as a currency has been to donate small amounts ($1-$5-$10-$25) to non-profit causes and send tips to people that I deem deserving: Wikipedia, Tor, Andreas Antonopoulis, a volunteer-operated Electrum wallet server, etc. If you’re reading this post and you’re associated with a non-profit org that doesn’t accept Bitcoin as a method of donation, you may want to reassess your situation.
The advantage of using Bitcoin over traditional credit cards for donations is huge. By using BTC, I don’t have to expose my credit card details to the payees and I can yield as much or as little personal information as I choose to. There are no long, multi-box, online forms to fill out. I simply copy & paste the recipient’s BTC address into my wallet’s send box, specify the amount to donate, enter my wallet PIN, and click “send“. I’ve discovered that I’ve been donating more with Bitcoin than by using traditional, 50 year old, insecure payment mechanisms. And that’s a good thing, no?
So, I’m not just a BTC “speculator” or “hoarder“, I’m an (almost) everyday user – like you might be one day too. 🙂
Leave a Reply
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
My BTC Address
Bulldozer00's Blog 
You hear the NPR Nightly Business Report on BitCoin yesterday?
No, but I read both the lengthy Gizmodo and Wired articles and followed closely on twitter what both the bitcoin community and press are saying. I also watched the Las Vegas video in which Mr. Wright participated and watched closely how he answered panel questions.
After evaluating all of what I’ve heard up to now, I (like most of the bitcoin community) don’t think Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. Besides, it doesn’t matter who Satoshi is. Bitcoin is open source and has passed the threshold where it needs a single creator to nurture its growth. If Wright turns out to be Nakamoto and he joins the community again, his opinions will count, but he won’t be “running” bitcoin – just like Torvalds doesn’t “run” linux and Stroustrup doesn’t “run” C++.
Once again, thanks for stopping by Glen!