Over the past few years, I have been investing and earning cryptocurrency, but I have not really put it to much use outside of the whole crypto world.
With the recent spike we saw in the value of Hive last week, I decided that I was going to start powering down some of my account so that I can use crypto to buy things. I had only purchased one thing with my crypto before and that was a pair of AirPods a long time ago. Even then, it wasn't a true purchase with cryptocurrency because I had to move ETH from my crypto wallet and cash it out to my bank account, which I lost some of the value in fees, plus it hit my bank account, which technically makes it a tax issue.
When I was speaking with 
They have a Chrome Extension for Purse, which makes it pretty easy to add things to Purse directly from Amazon. One of the other cool things about Purse is that you get a discount on Amazon items when purchasing them using Purse.
I have been looking at options to get more photography gear and I think I have found the easiest way to do so. There are a few lenses that I want to get and some other accessories.
I wanted to test things out first before I purchase a lens that costs over $1000, so I decided to start smaller and get a new speedlight for my camera.
I found this pretty cool bundle of the Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT. I have been wanting to get this flash for a while so that I can use it for some macro photography or other portrait photos. I have a cheaper external flash, but the light power is very inconsistent, so I wanted to upgrade to the Canon speedlite that is a lot better.
After I found what I wanted, I added it to Purse and began the checkout process.
You need to fund your wallet with either Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash to complete the transaction. When I sent BTC to my Purse wallet, I was surprised with how fast that it arrived. I have had to wait hours for BTC to send before, but this only took like 15 minutes. It still isn't as fast as sending Hive, but not much I can do about that.
One of the cool things about Purse is that it is cheaper than Amazon. When you go through the checkout process, there is an option to add extra money to your total so that it can cover the shipping costs. This is the only thing I don't like much about this service. I would like to know what the actual total is prior to submitting my order so that there isn't any delay in shipment. I added like an extra $15 to cover shipping, so hopefully this is enough.
After I completed entering in all of my shipping information, I submitted my order and it all went through pretty easily. I got a confirmation email after the order was completed and now I am waiting to see how long it takes for it to ship.
I have looked into other services for ordering items with crypto, but so far I am liking Purse.io the most. Bitrefill is one that I was looking at. With Bitrefill, you can purchase gift cards to Amazon and a lot of other services. But when I was going through the reviews, I saw that a couple people said that their Amazon accounts were closed after they put in the gift card information. This isn't something that I want to go through, so I went with Purse instead.
I am very hopeful that this will work. Purse has staff that you can contact if you need help with anything and they are very fast at responding to questions as well.
It is always a bit sketchy when using a service like this for the first time, but until crypto currency is more accepted, I guess this is something that you just have to deal with. I am pretty excited for the potential that this site has for me because I will finally be able to put my crypto to use as a currency and bypass the whole banking system to do so.
But as with everything in crypto, do your own research into things to make sure that you do not get scammed. This whole post is not financial advice, so be sure to use reputable services and don't put any money into crypto that you can't afford to lose. If you all know of any other reputable services like this, let me know in the comments. I am looking forward to learning about new ways to use my crypto and use less fiat.
