The Wacky Tales of Bitcoin: Stories and Uses

Published in

FinanceX

6 min readOct 18, 2018

Sometimes we forget Bitcoin is a currency!

A currency should be able to be spent, right? Bitcoin isn’t by any means a dominate means of purchasing… yet. It’s still mainly seen as an investment option and the birth of a new technology, but changing the world financial system doesn’t happen overnight.

These days it’s becoming more and more rare to find someone who hasn’t heard of Bitcoin. For the majority of these people the cryptosphere is still a mysterious entity.

Some have heard the stories: An individual buys Bitcoin and forgets about it. Their memory is jogged some time later and they return to find a pleasant surprise waiting for them. Or they threw out their hard drive or forgot their password…

And sometimes we forget Bitcoin is a currency!

Let’s explore some of these stories and also look at some of the uses for Bitcoin in 2018!

Once upon a time…

Don’t you love it when you find cash you’d forgotten about? In 2009, a Norwegian man studying encryption bought $27 worth of Bitcoin, 5,000 in total. He quickly forgot about them until widespread media coverage in 2013 jogged his memory. After racking his brain for possible passwords, he connected and discovered that his initial investment was now worth $886,000! Imagine that!

As an 11 year old, Erik Fineman received $1000 from his grandmother in 2011. Following the advice of his brother he invested in Bitcoin at $12 per coin. Between now and then, Erik made a huge profit, sold, started an online education company, sold it for 300 Bitcoins, and became a millionaire before the age of 18. What were you doing as an 11 year old?

James Howells accidently dumped a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins. He tracked it backed to a landfill site where he tried to get financial backers to support him in his digging efforts. At today’s exchange rate, those coins are worth in excess of $48 million US.

On May 22, 2010, a guy named Laszlo Hanyecz agreed to give a guy in England 10,000 Bitcoins (BTC) if the guy ordered him a pizza from Laszlo’s local Papa John’s and had it delivered. If that pizza was purchase for the same amount today, it would be just shy of $65 millon US!

A rather uninformed middle-aged couple bought 1 BTC for a 1000 USD. Strangely, following the transaction they could sell it. He sent them the links to various medium articles and blogposts on how to buy and sell bitcoin. The couple got in touch with him again and told him that they had failed to sell the bitcoin. So my friend went and met them. They then “showed” him their bitcoin. It was a plastic coin with the Bitcoin symbol on it!

Bitcoin has even been used to order a hit! In Denmark, an Italian woman used bitcoin to execute a hit on someone related to her boyfriend. The plan failed and she was sentenced to six years in jail as well as losing the privilege to live in Denmark.

That’ll be 1 Bitcoin please…

Although you can’t use Bitcoin at your local street market, there are still many places that will accept it and the growth is encouraging. So… what can we buy with our hard-earned Bitcoins?

The more conventional

College tuition — Kings’ College in New York was the worlds first educational institute to accept crypto and many more universities have followed suit, especially in Europe.
Mavericks games — Owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, Mark Cuban, was once a crypto skeptic. Things must have turned around drastically as the 2011 champions now accept Bitcoin, Ether and CyberMiles tokens as payment for tickets and merchandise.
Online shopping — Overstock, a major Amazon competitor, accept many different cryptocurrencies. If you aren’t satisfied with anything less than Amazon, you can buy gift vouchers redeemable at Amazon via eGifter, PayBis, and recently Bitrefill with a range of cryptocurrencies.
Fast food — One of the original Bitcoin merchants, Pizza for coins, only accept Bitcoin for their pizzas! Along the same lines, Bitcoin Coffee in the Czech Republic only accept Bitcoin, too! Some Subway and Burger King outlets also accept at certain stores at the store owners discretion. Menufy, based in the US, also embraces Bitcoin.
Taxi rides — Argentina, Hungary, Italy and the United States are just a few countries with taxi companies allowing the use of Bitcoin as a method of payment. Uber Argentina have seen a resurgence for the same reason.
Travel — Expedia stopped accepting Bitcoin as of June this year driving some would-be customers to competitors like BTCair.com, Cheapair.com and Peach to name a few.

And the less conventional…

Lap dances — Legends Room, a gentlemans club in Las Vegas, accepts any crypto traded on Bittrex for anything from drinks to lap dances. If that wasn’t enough the club also has Bitcoin ATM’s!
A Brazilian butt-lift — The Manhattan-based plastic-surgery practice bodySCULPT says it’s the first in the Big Apple to accept bitcoins for the aforementioned posterior procedure, and all of its other services, including liposuction.
Lottery tickets — Cryptotrading can be considered a form on gambling so why not double up and buy a lottery ticket with your winnings! In Minnesota and New Hampshire, you can buy lottery tickets with Bitcoin via the Jackpocket App.
Concert tickets — Before you think this is normal, I’m referring to Kasotsuka Shojo, an eight-member, all-girl Pop group out of Japan. Their name translates to “Virtual Currency Girls” and each member is a different cryptocurrency in a cosplay outfit. Their purpose? To promote cryptocurrency of course! Very strange indeed.

You can take a breath…

There are plenty of limitations currently but in general the crypto payment method is a growing phenomenon. While the market is so volatile and with a bullish market around the corner, why would you want to spend $100 worth of Bitcoin on anything when it could be worth 5 times that amount without touching it?

Rome wasn’t built in a day and the world financial system doesn’t change overnight so strap yourself in the long ride. One day someone will write an article about the strange place that still accept regular money! ;)