Buying and selling has been done for a long time with fiat but, cryptocurrencies have come to replace them. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin whose main purpose is to serve as a decentralized digital means of exchange as said in the title of the bitcoin whitepaper“Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”are still yet to gain global adoption. This brings about the usual question“What can it be spent on?”when someone receives a coin as a gift item or just shows curiosity. Mainstream adoption has not yet being achieved and might still be a long way to come but this has not stopped it's use as a means of exchange. Some businesses accept them for services rendered or goods purchased.
Here are some ways you can spend your cryptocurrency. You'd be surprised how u can use them at your favorite marketplace.
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Online Shopping
Spending coins online is only logical since digital coins belong in the digital world.
Overstock, a major online retail market which sells items ranging from toys, smart home systems, clothes, furniture and materials for interior decorating started accepting bitcoin in 2014. Their partnership with Shapeshift, a digital asset exchange has made them able to accept more coins like dash, ether, litecoin and a host of others.
Coinpayments, a cryptocurrency payment platform integrated their services with Shopify in May 2018, this allowed merchants on Shopify the ability to accept a wide range of coins for their goods and services.
Openbazaar, a peer-to-peer marketplace provides a less centralized way of spending your coins which inolves a seller, buyer and a trusted third party. Electronics stores like Newegg also accepts bitcoins for some of it's products.
Although, retail giant Amazon does not accept cryptocurrency yet, there is a walk-around with their giftcard.
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Gift Cards
The top online marketplaces like e-bay and amazon do not accept cryptocurrency yet but they do have gift cards which can be purchased with these coins. These gift cards can be bought from third parties that offer them for coins.
Purse.io, a peer-to-peer Amazon gift cards marketplace offers discounts for goods on when you buygift cards with cryptocurrency. Some other places that offer such services are gyft, egifter and bitrefill.
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Phone Top-up
Phone top-ups or refills can now be done with crypto.
Bitrefill, a private company located in the USA helps you top-up your phone with bitcoin, ether, dash, dogecoin, litecoin and the nascent bitcoin lightning network. Their services are available in over 150 countries with 700+(this varies on the website) supported operators. To top-up you just need to select your operator, enter a phone number and amount and pay with your preffered coin for payment. Once your payment is confirmed you receive your refill which usually takes less than a minute.
Two other platforms that offer the same service are alfatopup and cryptorefills.
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Charity and tipping
Unlike traditional fiat, crypto donated to charity can be monitored to prevent funds diversion and ensure intended use. Donors are able to make their donations anonymously and privately.
An increasing number of charities now accept donations in cryptocurrency. Wikimedia, redcross and Sean's outpost which feeds homeless Americans are some of the charity organisations that accept cryptocurrnency donations.
Tips can also be offered with cryptocurrency for a job well done this can be done physically or online on sites that display their addresses for visitors to send tips as seen on coinmarketcap.
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Movies, Applications and Games.
Microsoft and Xbox content can be purchased with bitcoins. They began accepting it in 2014 and although it has been disabled before during the 2018 crash, for now it's available.
You can use bitcoins to buy movies, games and applications in the Windows and X-box stores.
Games Planet and green man gaming also accept bitcoins.
Bittorent, a peer-to-peer platform used for movie downloads which was recently acquired by Tron now allows you access to faster download speed with BTT the platform's new token.
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Online Services
A bunch of online platforms offer their services for cryptocurrencies. It's only logical to spend digital coins on digital services.
VPN and cryptocurrencies ensure privacy for their users. VPNs ensure a private connection between an individual's device and the endpoint of connection and an extra layer of protection when they accept payments in cryptocurrency. The makes the user anonymous and free from possible government sanctions.
NordVPN, Cyberghost and SaferVPN are some of the best VPN services that accept payment in cryptocurrency.
Cloud mining, a method of mining remotely by paying mining pools for hardware enables anyone to particapate in the mining process without owning the required hardware. These services usually accept payments in cryptocurrency. Hashmart and hashshiny are some mining pools that accept payments in bitcoin.
Domain name purchase with cryptocurrency can be done at Namecheap, you can upgrade your account to pastebin pro by paying 20 USD worth of ether to Pastebin's (Pastebin is an online platform for storing text) public address and you can attain gold membership on reddit with bitcoin payments. The list of webservices that can be paid for with cryptocurrencies is endless.
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Brick-and-Mortar
The usage of digital coins is not limited to the online world as some might think. It is also accepted for offline traditional transactions.
There are brick-and-mortar shops around you that accept these coins. Some of the online services that accept cryptocurrency might accept these coins in their brick-and-motar shops if they exist. Aside from that there are also some strictly brick-and-mortar shops that accept coins for their services or goods.
Coinmap gives you a host of places in your area which are bitcoin friendly all displayed on a map and easy to trace out. You might be surprised how many there are. Spend Bitcoins also provides a list of Businesses that accepts bitcoins and you can search for specific products or services that can be paid for with Bitcoins. Bitcoin Map app is also a good alternative for android users.
Are you hungry? You can check bitcoin restaurants(limited to the US) for restaurants around you that accept bitcoin. If you love pizza, you can order a pizza at pizza for coins(available in the US, Australia and Canada).
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Debit Cards
If your local shop or online retailer does not accept cryptocurrency you can get a cryptocurrency debit card. These cards allow you use your coins for traditional transactions both online and offline.
The card provider converts your coins to traditional fiat which let's you use it in places that accept debit/credit card transactions.
Bitpay offers one of such cards that let's you use it for online shopping and at any brick and mortar shop that accepts Visa debit cards, you can withdraw cash at any Visa compatible ATM.
Wirex Visa card lets you convert instantly and spend your Litecoin, Ether, WAVES and XRP like traditional money.
The list of available debit cards goes on (others include Coinbase's Shift Card, Xapo and Cryptopay) and continues to grow.
Before you get one do try and find out their privacy policy, it's availability to residents in your country and coins they operate with.
Now you have seen the different areas you can spend your coins. I think we have the answer to the question we started with. The answer is “Nearly anything.”
Cryptocurrencies can be spent almost everywhere if not directly with coin transfer then indirectly with debit cards or gift cards. Privacy, anonymosity of customers and transparency of transactions have never been this easy.
Although transacting with traditional money is still easier, dare to enjoy the rough ride and thrills of this emerging means of exchange. It's not going to be easy but you will be surprised with what you can do with them. Enjoy the ride!
