A few months ago I got my Coinbase Shift card. This is a debit card that lets me spend out of my coinbase bitcoin wallet as if it were cash.
I was so excited when I got it. It felt like a great way to participate directly in the cryptocurrency economy and like one step closer to a fiat-free life. I even filmed my first time buying coffee with bitcoin!
However, if I am being honest - I barely use my Shift card anymore because the fees associated with bitcoin are way too high.
Fees Fees Fees
I want to avoid fees. You probably feel the same way. It’s a pain in the ass to pay a fee just so that I can send my own money from one place to another.
I earn most of my cryptocurrency as steem. If I want to spend my cryptocurrency, I have to send it over to my bitcoin wallet. But that costs upward of $6! Talk about fees…
It’s a real bummer. I am a low income individual for now and I would generally only have $100 in a day-to-day spending wallet. That means if I want to transfer $100 of BTC into my coinbase wallet, I have to give up $6 of it in fees.
In contrast, if I sell my BTC for cash (Coinbase —> PayPal), I’ll only spend about $3 in fees for that same $100. Half as many fees.
As Long as It’s a Pain In The Ass to Spend Bitcoin, I won’t
I want to spend bitcoin. In the long run, I’d love to spend steem directly for my needs - groceries, transportation, rent, etc. You could call be the exact target customer for cryptocurrency spending options.
However right now, any kind of cryptocurrency spending is difficult. Maybe not for John McAfee…
…but not all of us are spending thousands of dollars of bitcoin each week :-).
As a side note, I can definitely see the argument from people who support BitcoinCash right now, in that it would be really nice to have lower fees and faster transactions.
At least it is not so big of a deal to exchange my steem for cash before I buy things. Cryptocurrency is making huge strides, so I expect that better payment options will come into play soon enough.
Do you spend your Bitcoin regularly? How?