My bitcoin should have an impact on my life, but they don’t.
In the last year since I’ve become deeply involved with cryptocurrencies, they’ve changed the way I view both money and technology. In fact, I’m afraid that’s it’s taken until now to realize that the blockchain could be one of the most important inventions of the last decade.
However, despite these changes in thinking, there is little that MY bitcoin, sitting in MY wallet, is doing to affect my everyday life. What am I going to do with it other than stare at the numbers flash higher and lower everyday. I want my money to do something for me, else it’s not really money. Right now, I want it to get me some lunch, but MY bitcoin isn’t going to do anything help me vanquish this hunger.
So if the corner store isn’t going to let me pay for a sandwich with my bitcoin(even though I’ve asked nicely), what am I to do? I see a few sensible paths out of my predicament.
I could search Coinmap for a restaurant that takes bitcoin, but here in Atlanta, there are zero, zip, nada restaurants accepting bitcoin. Except for Club 1626, but I have a strong feeling that place isn’t my jam.
Ah! A much better idea would be to get some USD with Localbitcoins. I could get my dollars immediately, but wait, why is Paypal the only method people are sending money. It takes three days to transfer that money to my checking account! That’s not going to work.
Bitcoin ATM? Yes! There are a few around Atlanta. Hmm but the one at Bitpay’s office doesn’t work anymore, and the only other one in town only exchanges USD for bitcoin, not the other way around.
Arg! I give up. No wait, there is one last resort. I’ll use Gyft, buy a gift card and go to Whole Foods to get myself a sandwich. The smallest gift card is $50? I guess I could always save it for later. It seems pretty simple to pay, I just send bitcoin from my wallet, but I’ve got to wait a few minutes for the transaction to be confirmed. Might as well use the time to gaze at the overpriced kale and reflect on my departed bitcoin. Instead I’m stuck carrying my remaining $41.23 Whole Foods bucks once I’ve paid for that sandwich. Guess it’s sandwiches for the whole week.
That’s not too bad right? No, it was awful and painfully complicated. No one but diehards will ever see bitcoin in a positive light. It’s frustrating.
I’ve got an idea. I think I’m going to grab a bunch of coder friends and build a bitcoin payment app to solve all of this. I think we’ll call it Fold.
Co-Founder, Card for Coin
Originally published at blog.cardforcoin.com.
