I love Bitcoin. If I had the choice, I would be paid 100% in bitcoin. I would do all my shopping with bitcoin, either through purseio or by buying gyftcards. Here are the reasons that I love bitcoin.
No dumb fees
Everyone gets shafted by big name credit card companies. Merchants are charged 3% per transaction. Consumers pay exorbitant interest rates. I don’t own a credit card because I’ve been there, been burned, and learned from it. The convenience is not worth the trouble.
No overdrafting
I have a debit card. I don’t balance my checkbook. I think that’s silly and should have gone the way of the paper check. If I have money, I should be able to spend it. If I don’t have money, there’s nothing to spend, I’m not able to buy something, and I shouldn’t be penalized.
I do have a strategy, it’s pretty crappy and it only works as long as I keep getting income. My strategy is to only use my debit card if I know it’s balance is above $100. This strategy breaks the moment I stop earning income. There’s no way to stop automatic monthly charges from being pulled out of my account, so the overdraft fee motherload hits me, and I feel that instant poor tax.
I’m not saying I should get away with not paying for things, no no. I’m saying If the money’s not there, I don’t want to be able to buy things. Debit cards is a programmable system, and this is a huge flaw that hurts me and profits banks. I don’t have a credit card for a reason… I’m not responsible with money!
I’m in control of my money
I run servers and buy domain names using bitcoin. Vultr for servers, Namecheap for domain names. The way I pay the bills here is I preload these accounts with bitcoin, and as I use their services, bitcoin is debited from my account. This is super convenient because I can pay up front for a year of service, and not worry about a thing until the next year. As it should be, nobody can pull money out of my account. Bitcoin doesn’t work that way.
No government control
I don’t want to use a currency that loses it’s value over time, is endlessly created for reasons x y or z, or has its perceived value skewed by an authority.
No log in screen
On my hot wallet, I have a couple PINs in the way of checking my balance. There is no login screen, captchas or security questions. My money is right there when I need it, quickly accessible, spendable, and easy.
No container to haul around
I imagine the day I don’t have to carry around so much stuff. Well, actually I like carrying around stuff. I’m a cargo pants kind of guy. A physical wallet for holding money though, I’d rather not. I’d be happy freeing up that pocket for more space for things like a multi tool or a notebook and pen.
No more bank transfers
I’ve remotely sent and received money to family before, it’s a chore. Log in, find their member number, pick the right account from a list of cryptic account numbers, select the amount, wait… wait some more… All of that is meaningless if that family member uses a different bank. With bitcoin the currency, the money has it’s own internet, where it is free to be transferred to people. I can use Mycelium, my brother can use AirBitz, but they both speak the same language and transactions between the two are seamless. No bank permission? no problem. Bitcoin transcends this bank thing. With bitcoin you get to be your own bank.
Micro transactions
Try sending 10 cents to your favorite charity using a credit card, or even paypal. I don’t think that’s even possible with a credit card. Paypal would take a huge chunk of the payment. Try getting 150 earthlings to chip in a couple dollars worth of their local currency into a single borrower’s account using credit cards or paypal. Oh wait, someone did that (kiva.org). Well, Bitcoin is doing it now (btcjam.com) and it’s even better because of bitcoin’s tiny transaction fees in comparison.
It’s futuristic
I feel like I live in the future. I’m just about done with bitcoin by now, I want to find some sweet alt coin with anonymity built in, so I don’t feel so tracked like I am with almost everything else I do online. Anyway, I imagine a time where you just think of sending some cryptocoin to the guy serving your pizza, and the transaction is carried out in a few milliseconds. Crypto currency is the future. Money is real again, controlled by it’s users again. Be ahead of the curve with me and buy some bitcoin!
