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Comment by Canada | Hacker News Reader

> crypto's usability as a currency is practically 0.

I don't read any comments here from anyone who uses it as a currency, and yet I personally do. For me it works really well. I don't buy coffee with it, I swap it for cash for that purpose, but I've paid most larger bills with it for more than 2 years. I had a good initial experience being paid with it years ago.

I find it extremely convenient. I prefer it very much now. It is currently my preferred method of accepting payment. I guess I'll just keep using it until it all collapses or whatever.

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> but I've paid most larger bills with it for more than 2 years.

Do you have examples?

Have you paid rent, your mortgage, your car, for a laptop, etc, with cryptocurrency?

> Do you have examples? Have you paid rent, your mortgage, your car, for a laptop, etc, with cryptocurrency?

Of course they don't, if they live in a vaguely developed nation. I can't speak to the stories some tell of using it countries where the national currency is unstable, and my apologies to previous commenter if this is legitimately a problem the have, but everywhere else this is easy enough to answer.

In somewhere such as the US or Europe, who in their right mind as a landlord or mortgage provider is going to take the volatility risk of accepting crypto as a primary means of settling rent/home payments, when well in excess of 99 percent of customers wouldn't use it anyway? The very few businesses that do accept often do so as a novelty - see the use of dogecoin on some fan stores etc etc.

As always, I'm sure there are exceptions that prove the rule, but I can tell you right now my mortgage provider, car dealer and computer vendor would all laugh at me if I even asked.

I pay rent, computer hardware, airfare, electrical bill and similar. I don't have a mortgage or own a car currently, but if I did I'd settle those expenses with crypto easily. The recipient has no idea, they receive bank transfers and see no different than any random person. Crypto also funds the credit cards I use to pay services such as AWS. (And day to day Uber, grocery delivery and that sort of thing too)

I pay as much as possible with cash as in paper bank notes, but those are also almost entirely crypto funded.

I do not use regular CEX (centralized exchanges) at all as on or off ramps or submit to any KYC for any of this.. that said I'm definitely wouldn't be able to remain anonymous if I were to do anything grossly illegal with my funds.

What power company accepts crypto?

Do you pay all these things with crypto or do you (or a service) convert it to fiat and then pay your bills?

it's converted of course, and I don't do it myself (as in sell at exchange into my bank account and then pay, as that defeats the point) but it's not exactly a service either.

I don't live where my username implies, in case you're wondering.

Are you paying taxes on every conversion? Because if no that would classify as illegal.

Yes, I pay taxes. I don't typically settle these kind of transactions from volatile holdings like Bitcoin or Ethereum. I use stablecoin for that, so matters of gains or losses are dealt with separately (if at all, as the case may be).

The stablecoin is not in the local currency of course, but it's not different in any practical way from handling foreign USD payments.

Until the stablecoin goes poof from under you, so could bitcoin at any moment.

I'm well aware of that possibility.

> The recipient has no idea, they receive bank transfers and see no different than any random person.

You're not using it as currency.

Just because you can and do doesn't mean you should.

Why not?

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