Buttcoiners learn that Gyft was purchased by large credit card processing company. Existential crisis ensues, as paying with credit card is cheaper than paying with bitcoin.
I bought from Overstock paying with bitcoin directly and using Gyft cards. Gyft is better, here's why.
First, Overstock uses Coinbase to process transactions, while Gyft uses Bitpay. Bitpay consistently offers a better rate for the buyer. In my case, Bitpay gave me $820/BTC when Coinbase gave me $805 at the exact same time. On top of that, Gyft gives you 3% back as "gyft bucks". On top of that, buying gyft cards allow you to lock in an exchange rate which is advantageous if you know you're going to buy an item in the future that's not incredibly time-sensitive. For example, I knew I wanted to buy something from Overstock for $200, sometime in the next few weeks. So I bought $100 worth of bitcoins, waited for the exchange rate to go in my favor, and bought $100 gyft card as soon as my $100 in BTC was worth slightly more than what I paid. Repeat (or break it down into smaller chunks for less risk). Granted this won't always work, especially if you happen to buy right before a "crash", but for the most part bitcoin varies (up and down) by $20-50 every day. As long as you're not greedy and keep your eye on the exchange rate, it's very easy to break even if not profit slightly, from buying gyft cards with BTC as soon as it becomes worth more/equal to what you paid. Even if you lose 3%, the points that Gyft gives you for paying with bitcoin make up the difference, assuming you use Gyft regularly. That being said, I've done this many times and have never lost out, the worst that's happened is I have to wait longer than expected. EDIT: another reason gyft is a great company that embraces bitcoin.
Gyft iOS app now allows you to pay with Bitcoin! Just tried using the app and when you select to pay with Bitcoin, it switched to my Blockchain app and prefilled the address. It's now easier to pay with bitcoin than any other payment method!
You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. It all started with the release of the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following videos for a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great resources include Lopp.net, the Princeton crypto series and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series. Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here and here. Developer resources can be found here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here. Potential upcoming protocol improvements and scaling resources here and here. The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!)
Key properties of Bitcoin
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoins reside has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - On chain transaction fees depend on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view current fees here and mempool activity here. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Secure - Encrypted cryptographically and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
Nearly instant - From a few seconds to a few minutes depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible after one or more confirmations.
Portable - Bitcoins are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can even be transported by simply memorizing a string of words for wallet recovery (while cool this method is generally not recommended due to potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for new users due to ease of use and additional security).
Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoins are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Preev is a useful site that that shows how much various denominations of bitcoin are worth in different currencies. Alternatively you can just Google "1 bitcoin in (your local currency)".
Securing your bitcoins
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoins OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoins for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended. Alternatively there are many software wallet options to choose from here depending on your use case.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. Don't trust, verify. Also as they say in our community "Not your keys, not your coins".
Where can I spend bitcoins?
Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoins can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node using this setup guide. If you would prefer to keep it simple there are several good options. You can view the global node distribution here.
Earning bitcoins
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoins by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoins by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoins for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoins.
Bitcoin-Related Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
bitcoin
BTC
1 bitcoin
one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
100k sats
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
[H] Crypto, Apple Pay, Paypal, Skrill, CashApp [W] All Your Gift Cards!
Please don’t use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors Paypal1, Skrill2, Square Cash, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Apple
60%
60%
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
60%
60%
Amazon.com
70%
65%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
65%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
65%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
75%
70%
Fandango4
10%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Grub Hub 70%
70%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes
60%
60%
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Khols
30%
30%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
70%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$40
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
70%
70%
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
70%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
PM me
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
Bass Pro Shop
Fanatics
Google Play
Hilton Honors
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
[H] Crypto, Apple Pay, Paypal, Skrill, CashApp [W] Apple, Amazon (CA, Com, DE, ES, FR, IT, UK), B&N, Baskin Robins, Clothing Stores (Saks Macys J Crew etc) Delta, Disney Plus, Dunkin Donuts, eBay, GameStop, Grub Hub, Gyft, HBO, iTunes, JCPenney, Microsoft, PSN, Target, Uber, Walmart, Xbox + More
Please don’t use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors Paypal1, Skrill2, Square Cash, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Apple
60%
60%
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
60%
60%
Amazon.com
70%
65%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
65%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
65%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
75%
70%
Fandango4
10%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Grub Hub 70%
70%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes
60%
60%
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Khols
30%
30%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
70%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$40
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
70%
70%
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
70%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
PM me
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
Bass Pro Shop
Fanatics
Google Play
Hilton Honors
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
[H] Crypto, Apple Pay, Paypal, Skrill, CashApp [W] Apple, Amazon (CA, Com, DE, ES, FR, IT, UK), B&N, Baskin Robins, Clothing Stores (Saks Macys J Crew etc) Delta, Disney Plus, Dunkin Donuts, eBay, GameStop, Grub Hub, Gyft, HBO, iTunes, JCPenney, Microsoft, PSN, Target, Uber, Walmart, Xbox + More
Please don’t use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors Paypal1, Skrill2, Square Cash, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Apple
60%
60%
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
60%
60%
Amazon.com
70%
65%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
65%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
65%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
75%
70%
Fandango4
10%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Grub Hub 70%
70%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes
60%
60%
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Khols
30%
30%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
70%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$40
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
70%
70%
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
70%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
PM me
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
Bass Pro Shop
Fanatics
Google Play
Hilton Honors
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
Do not use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors Paypal1, Skrill2, Square Cash, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
70%
70%
Amazon.com
75%
75%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
35%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
35%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
70%
70%
Fandango4
50%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes4
40%
NA
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
50%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$26
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
50%
NA
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
60%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
PM me
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
Bass Pro Shop
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Google Play from anywhere but the US
Hilton Honors
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
Do not use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors , Google Wallet, Paypal1, Skrill2, Square, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
70%
70%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
35%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
35%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
70%
70%
Fandango4
50%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes4
40%
NA
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
50%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$26
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
50%
NA
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
60%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
$72/$36/$18/$6
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Google Play from anywhere but the US
Hilton Honors
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
Do not use mobile to trade. I will ignore your chat message.
Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors , Google Wallet, Paypal1, Skrill2, Square, Venmo, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Cash or a Gift Card ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Amazon.ca
60%
60%
Amazon.co.uk
70%
70%
Amazon.com
70%
65%
Amazon.de
50%
50%
Amazon.es
50%
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
50%
Amazon.it
50%
50%
Arrow Films
65%
60%
Barnes & Noble
50%
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
60%
Bloomingdales
50%
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
contact me
Dell3
60%
60%
Delta gift cards4
35%
NA
Delta Sky Miles4
PM me
NA
Delta Vouchers4
35%
NA
Disney Plus
PM me
PM me
eBay
70%
70%
Fandango4
50%
NA
Gamestop
60%
60%
Gyft
70%
70%
Half Price Books
50%
50%
HBO
70%
70%
iTunes4
40%
NA
J crew
40%
40%
JCPenney
25%
25%
Macys
35%
35%
Magazines.com
40%
40%
Microsoft4
60%
NA
Nordstrom
50%
50%
PSN4
50%
NA
PSN Plus 12 month4
$26
NA
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
50%
Sears
50%
50%
Sephora
50%
50%
Target
60%
60%
Uber4
50%
NA
Urban Outfitters
50%
50%
Vudu4
50%
NA
Walmart
60%
60%
Xbox (gift cards)4
60%
NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)4
$72/$36/$18/$6
NA
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Google Play from anywhere but the US
Hilton Honors
Spotify
Steam
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
Xbox live gold
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 943 trades worth more than $61,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. The following videos are a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoins reside has the authority to move them.
Low fee - Transactions fees can vary between a few cents and a few dollars depending on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate the fee automatically but you can view current fees here.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Portable - Bitcoins are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can even be transported by simply remembering a string of words for wallet recovery.
Scalable - Each bitcoin is divisible down to 8 decimals allowing it to grow in value while still accommodating micro-transactions.
Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found here. Bitcoin statistics can be found here, here and here. Developer resources can be found here and here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here. The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here. Scaling resources here, and of course the whitepaper that started it all.
Where can I buy bitcoins?
BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com and Howtobuybitcoin.io are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also, check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Cashila or Bitwage. Note: Bitcoins are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Preev is a useful site that that shows how much various denominations of bitcoin are worth in different currencies. Alternatively you can just Google "1 bitcoin in (your local currency)".
Securing your bitcoins
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoins OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoins for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, there are many software wallet options here. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor or Ledger is recommended. A more advanced option is to secure them yourself using paper wallets generated offline. Some popular mobile and desktop options are listed below and most are cross platform.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Coinbase or Xapo but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk.
Another interesting use case for physical storage/transfer is the Opendime. Opendime is a small USB stick that allows you to spend Bitcoin by physically passing it along so it's anonymous and tangible like cash. Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code to access your account, usually from a text message or app, making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoins can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node using this setup guide. Bitseed is an easy option for getting set up. You can view the global node distribution here.
Earning bitcoins
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoins by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoins by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoins for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoins)
Bitcoin Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
SI unit for milli i.e. millilitre (mL) or millimetre (mm)
microbitcoin
μBTC
1,000,000 per bitcoin
SI unit for micro i.e microlitre (μL) or micrometre (μm)
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
Colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
Smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $500 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.02 BTC
20 mBTC
20,000 bits
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. A complete list of bitcoin related subreddits can be found here Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):
Type of card(s) and amount of each.
What payment method you accept.
How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.
For Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk cards, if you can verify their origins, I will pay the listed price, otherwise it will be 50%. I have the following crypto 5: ALGO, BCH, BTC, ETH, LINK, LTC, XLM, and XRP and payment processors , Google Wallet, Paypal1, Skrill2, Square, Venmo, and Apple Pay
Want ↓
Bitcoin/ethereum/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin ↓
Amazon.ca
60%
Amazon.co.uk
70%
Amazon.com
70%
Amazon.de
50%
Amazon.es
50%
Amazon.fr
50%
Amazon.it
50%
Arrow Films
65%
Barnes & Noble
50%
Baskin Robbins
60%
Best Buy
65%
Bloomingdales
50%
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)
contact me
Dunkin Donuts
60%
eBay
70%
Gyft
70%
Half Price Books
50%
HBO
70%
J crew
40%
JCPenney
25%
Macys
35%
Magazines.com
40%
Nordstrom
50%
Saks Fifth Avenue
50%
Sears
50%
Sephora
50%
Target
60%
Urban Outfitters
50%
Walmart
60%
1 When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. 2 Skrill charges an upload fee and transaction fee, both of which will be taken from the payment. 3 Larger denominated gift cards preferred. 4 PayPal is the only payment option. 5 I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.
What I don’t buy:
iTunes from anywhere but the US
Google Play from anywhere but the US
Starbucks
Hilton Honors
Spotify
old navy/gap/banana republic
Hot Topic
PSN Canada or UK
Xbox Canada or UK
I will buy gift cards in almost any denomination, although if you are offering an item worth $100 or more we will need mod approval. I will not trade Bitcoin for cash, or do any other cash for cash trade, as that would violate rule 6, and I don't sell gift cards. This is a buying post, not a selling one. Any fees are built into the price. Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 932 trades worth more than $60,000:
Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks
You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. Some great introductions for new users are My first bitcoin, Bitcoin explained and ELI5 Bitcoin. Also, the following videos are a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Also have to give mention to Lopp.net, the Princeton crypto series and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series. Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. Bitcoin statistics can be found here, here and here. Developer resources can be found here, here and here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here. Potential upcoming protocol improvements here. Scaling resources here. The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!), and of course Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper that started it all! :) Key properties of bitcoin
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoins reside has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - On chain transaction fees depend on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view current fees here. On chain fees have risen recently due to network demand however instant micropayments are on the way via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi :)
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Portable - Bitcoins are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can even be transported by simply remembering a string of words for wallet recovery.
Scalable - Each bitcoin is divisible down to 8 decimals allowing it to grow in value while still accommodating micro-transactions.
Bitcoin.org, BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com and Howtobuybitcoin.io are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also, check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoins are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Preev is a useful site that that shows how much various denominations of bitcoin are worth in different currencies. Alternatively you can just Google "1 bitcoin in (your local currency)".
Securing your bitcoins
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoins OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoins for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, there are many software wallet options here. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor or Ledger is recommended. A more advanced option is to secure them yourself using paper wallets generated offline. Some popular mobile and desktop wallet options are listed below and most are cross platform.
Another interesting use case for physical storage/transfer is the Opendime. Opendime is a small USB stick that allows you to spend Bitcoin by physically passing it along so it's anonymous and tangible like cash.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code to access your account, usually from a text message or app, making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
Coinmap and AirBitz are helpful to find local businesses accepting bitcoins. A good resource for UK residents is at wheretospendbitcoins.co.uk. There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations, such as Wikipedia, United Way, ACLU and the EFF. You can find a longer list here.
Merchant Resources
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoins can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node using this setup guide. Bitseed is an easy option for getting set up. You can view the global node distribution here.
Earning bitcoins
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoins by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoins by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoins for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoins)
Bitcoin Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
SI unit for milli i.e. millilitre (mL) or millimetre (mm)
microbitcoin
μBTC
1,000,000 per bitcoin
SI unit for micro i.e microlitre (μL) or micrometre (μm)
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
Colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
Smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. A complete list of bitcoin related subreddits can be found here Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
TL;DR at bottom I think we need to seriously examine our path forward to growing the community. I believe we should focus less on getting businesses to accept BCH and focus more on living on BCH, and getting other people to become full time users. I've been moving towards living on BCH for some time now. Let me go over the benefits to the community, the benefits to the user, and the methods for accomplishing this. Firstly, without a strong user-base, companies accepting BCH will do us no good. Sure, YOU can spend it more places, but that business will not get much more traffic because of accepting the coin. They are likely to drop the practice once they've lost interest. Imagine invading a country. Do you start by invading the capital? No. Do you start by invading the edges? Even still, no, you start by building an army. We need an army of users if we want to hold any ground we take. To be clear, what I am saying is that if we want businesses to continue accepting BCH, we need a strong, large userbase. Next I will go over the methods I use for living on BCH and their benefit. I primarily use 3rd party services such as gyft or even the Shift card (https://www.shiftpayments.com/card). Only a couple of the people I do business with accept it directly, but that's fine and it still does the BCH cause good. Get your coins: The way I get my coins is simple, and I imagine most people may do it this way in the USA. I have a recurring buy in my Coinbase account on the same day as I get paid my USD. This amount is the same amount as all bills and other expenses I pay in BCH, plus about $200 a month for recreational activities or purchases. This comes out to about $500 every two weeks.
I pay my electric/insurance/waterbills/gas/Groceries via the Shift card. See my reasons why this is beneficial below.
If a business is on Gyft, I use Gyft for purchases, or giftcards.bitcoin.com if I know at least half an hour ahead of time. Gyft is instant though.
I eat at menufy (https://www.menufy.com/), since you can buy food via BCH using menufy at most restaurants that have a menufy website.
I get my internet via Calyx. Calyx is actually a non-profit which offers a 4G wireless modem for members who donate enough ($500, good for 1 year) with a technically unlimited data plan. They accept donations via BitPay.
I also browse places like OpenBazaar or https://acceptbitcoin.com/ occasionally for new places or services.
Edit: I forgot purse.io! I frequent there Also I don't follow these rules strictly. Don't feel that you must.
I know some people think there's no point in using BCH if the receiver converts it straight to fiat or some other coin, but I think this is a wrong assumption. I've covered this a bit and I cover it more below. Why I use the Shift Card: There are advantages to the BCHer who uses the shift card. Firstly, using the shift card (which is a debit card that can link to any coinbase asset you have) allows you to segment your money. If you don't have a credit card, this protects the money in your bank account while only putting your coinbase funds at risk of fraud if someone steals your card information. I keep the funds in my coinbase account low in order to combat this threat. Next, holding value in crypto rather than dollars resists entities from stealing from you via inflation. Third, holding crypto in any way at any time increases demand ever so slightly. One convenient thing about the Shift card is you can just send money from your own wallet to coinbase whenever you know you are going to go make a purchase. Best to do this ahead of time. Why I use Gyft: There are advantages to the BCHer who uses Gyft. Gyft is a company (who has a convenient mobile app) that sells gift cards for various retailers. Check out their website to see where all you'll be able to spend BCH via Gyft. The advantages include directly holding your coins with your own keys and just completing a BitPay invoice when you want to buy something. This method has all the advantages of the shift card plus holding your own keys and subverting the VISA system, thus avoiding a degree of surveillance. I believe if enough people used BCH wherever they could, the demand for the coin would be higher, and TL;DR: I use the Shift card and the Gyft app, along with a couple other things, to try to live on BCH. PS: If you do this, be sure you have an emergency fund big enough to cover any market crashes so that you can still, you know, eat.
Bitcoin is a distributed, worldwide, decentralized digital money. Bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever: there is no government, company, or bank in charge of Bitcoin. You might be interested in Bitcoin if you like cryptography, distributed peer-to-peer systems, or economics. To buy with Bitcoin on Gyft, just choose Bitcoin as your payment method at checkout. Gyft is perfect for Bitcoin users! For retailers who don’t accept direct Bitcoin payments, you can buy a gift card instead. Use your gift card to buy what you need from the retailer! We accept all major credit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Bitcoin. Plus, Gyft is Apple Wallet-friendly! FEATURES: SEND AND RECEIVE eGIFT CARDS Send e-gift cards to your friends and family instantly. Add a personal message to make it extra special. REDEEM AND TRACK BALANCES Redeem gift cards online or pay in-store with your phone. Purchase in just a few steps on the web, iOS, or on any Android device. Pay with Bitcoin. No Fees We do not charge any fees when you shop with Bitcoin. Choose gift cards from the best brands like Target, Gap, GameStop & more. Safe & Secure We are certified with Digicert for all transactions. Gyft is the best way to buy & send gift cards online for retailers like Amazon, Starbucks, and iTunes. Use the Gyft mobile app to balance check gift cards. Discover the easiest way to buy, send, upload, and redeem gift cards.
How to Spend Bitcoins Anywhere Just Like Cash! - YouTube
Gyft Tutorial - How to Use Gyft App with Bitcoin - Duration: ... 2:11. How to pay with cryptocurrencies on Overstock.com, using CoinPayments - Duration: 1:17. CoinPayments 483 views. 1:17. Check out GYFT.com or the GYFT app on Google play store or App Store. Buy gift cards with credit, debit, PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Bitcoin. NO FEES! Earn 2-3% in rewards or more during ... Check out this app in the Google Play or App Store: http://gyft.com http://PeaceNewsNow.com Blog: http://LiveFreeOrDance.com Support: http://LiveFreeOrDance.... Como comprar en gyft utilizando Bitcoins. En este tutorial muestro como usar cualquier monedero web based (yo uso Blockchain en este ejemplo), para comprar una giftcard de 20 USD en Amazon. In the early stages of competing digital currencies, most of our favorite retailers don't yet directly accept the money we want to pay in. A great interim solution is gift cards -- and many of ...
