Where I would (actually) use BCH over fiat

Let me preface this by saying I love BCH, despite being quite new to crypto, and especially new to Bitcoin Cash. But I’m also a long-time fiat user, living in a first world country, with a shortage of crypto-supportive stores in my local area. I do approximately half my shopping online, and the other half in store. Of the shopping I do in store, majority is charged to my card, which I actually used to carry with me, prior to finally caving into Apple Pay earlier this year. So while I align myself morally and ethically to cryptocurrency (see: Bitcoin whitepaper) and libertarianism, using crypto in my daily life has not been as successful as I would like to envision for myself. Here’s the main scenarios I see myself using crypto over fiat in my daily spending as a modern first-world living (and therefore very fortunate) individual:

When I actually have money in my (hot) wallet

I’m a very cautious person, and risk-adverse. What this means when you’re your own custodian of your money, which you wouldn’t be used to as a user of fiat and banks, is that you’re much more afraid of losing your money. I combat this by keeping my money in cold storage (no, not inside a fridge) and only keeping a small amount in my phone wallet. This means that after a day of regular purchases, I would likely need to top up my hot wallet again.

When there’s a place around me that will accept (the right) crypto

The massive pool of cryptos that are available on the market for adoption right now means that on the rare occasion that I come across a crypto-accepting vendor, it may be the case that they do no accept a cryptocurrency I actually have on hand. Sure, there are services like Shapeshift that allow you to change from one to another — this is not something I do or plan to do just to pay at a restaurant, in all honesty. I don’t want to look ahead at a restaurant menu online to see if they accept crypto, and what crypto that is so I can make the appropriate conversions prior. I don’t want to stand at the bar moving things around on an exchange to buy a beer.

When I want to make conversation

I’m surprised crypto or some variant hasn’t been made word of the year yet. Everywhere I go, everyone and their grandmother has an opinion on what it is, and what it means for society. It is a very selfish and lazy attitude to simply want crypto to be the norm, and be able to pay for something in BCH without it being announced and discussed and my political views being on display, but that is the attitude I honestly have most of the time. While I’ve had some really neat conversations about crypto while I’m out and about spending my BCH, where I’ve even shown people the ease of the phone wallets available, I also have had some very discouraging conversations about cryptocurrency. I’m sorry Karen, I don’t care about whether you think the price will go up or down, or whether it’s normally used for “drugs”, or why you like the government and the roads they build for you.

What does this mean?

I could write a lot more about what I’d like to see in products that promote crypto-usage in daily life. But certainly this article is really just trying to highlight simple, obvious and realistic barriers that are beyond technological solutions, but require UX solutions, or feasibility and integration changes.

Where do you stand on spending crypto? Share how you integrate BCH or other cryptocurrencies in your daily life, I would really like to know!

Thanks for reading — this is my first read.cash article, and my first article in general. Always looking for feedback and constructive criticism, genuinely. Thanks again, —J