Buying Coffee With Bitcoin
“Do you mind if I film this? I’m trying to buy this coffee with bitcoin.”
The barista laughs - “yea, sure.”
From across the coffeeshop, the manager hollers at me: “Whoa, I’m interested to see this!”
I whip out my Shift card, powered by Coinbase… it hooks up to my BTC wallet on Coinbase and spends money like any other debit card — no fees — as easy as it gets. The barista takes the card, swipes it into the machine…
APPROVED
The staff are so excited they accidentally pour me two coffees.
Here’s the VIDEO EVIDENCE lol:
So much fun!
The coffee was delicious by the way.
Huge Props to Coinbase for the Shift Card
I have to say that Coinbase’s Shift card is AMAZING. It cost me $10 to order it, which was payable directly from my bitcoin wallet. It took about two weeks to arrive in my mailbox, then activating the card took five minutes.
The video above occurred about one hour after activation. It’s quick and hassle free.
At first, I was nervous about ordering the Shift card. Coinbase gets a weird reputation some times - conspiratorial type people will tell you that your money isn’t safe there, etc etc. I wouldn’t keep a large amount of money on Coinbase - it’s more risk than is necessary - but that’s also true of PayPal or any other company like that.
When it comes to putting a few hundred bucks into a “checking account” (or in this case, bitcoin wallet), Coinbase is safe and easy. I have much greater control of my money here than I would via PayPal or a bank account.
No More Checking Accounts
At this point I can’t imagine using a normal checking account with a major bank. There’s just no reason to do it. Big banks are cumbersome and difficult to work with. Coinbase is much easier.
I think from now on I’ll keep my day-to-day spending money in a bitcoin wallet and a few extra emergency funds in PayPal. That, plus a little bit of cash in my wallet, is enough to keep me afloat regardless of any short term situation that arises.
The New Financial World Order
Easy, secure, and under my own control. That’s the new financial way. I’m grateful to Satoshi and everybody who came after him for building the cryptocurrency model… after buying this cup of coffee, I’m even more convinced that we can change the world.
Do you have a Shift card or other bitcoin-enabled debit card? How do you feel about it? If not, why haven’t you given it a try?
