Ask HN: How are people spending Bitcoin?

7 points·nbourbaki··3 comments

Where do people spend Bitcoin? What do they buy? How do vendors manage pricing given the volatility of the currency's value relative to the USD? Roughly how many transactions account for Bitcoin-based purchases, versus transfers?

Would be very interested to learn the answers to any of these questions.

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# of daily transactions: https://charts.bitcoin.com/chart/daily-transactions

Hard to know if it's a purchase or a transfer. I think it's impossible to answer that question right now. In Japan merchants accept bitcoin pretty much everywhere, people buy cars with bitcoins, coffee, etc. unlike in the US where most of the transactions are for transfers.

People spend Bitcoin on the exchanges. They buy Bitcoin or buy Bitcoin to buy altcoins. Some may use with a debit card, but many feel the price is too volatile. Obviously, those that bought Bitcoin at $0.06 don't care, but I think most are hodling as a speculation tool.

I've used Bitcoin to buy ASIC miners because it is a niche product with where the sellers dictates the payment method. There is always less supply than demand, so forcing specific payment methods is easy to do.

So far I have only spent Bitcoin via the Lightning network. I bought vouchers at https://bitrefill.com. I also know of a web store that integrated the https://bitpay.com/ API. https://www.cryptowisser.com/merchants/ also has some links.

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