I have long wondered about how we can spend the Hive we earn here
I mean sure, you can spend it on Hive Engine and Splinterlands and some other dapps which is great! But wouldn't it be nice to spend it in online stores (web 2.0) and in the physical stores close to where you live?
For some reason I didn't know that this was long possible. I always thought that this was years in the making with e.g. https://hivelist.store/ having some options, but way too limiting to be actually useful. I really hope that @hivelist can expand and grow in the near future!
But it's actually already all here. It's just that it's packaged a bit differently. You don't get to own a real physical Visa card, but instead a virtual Via gift card; you don't get to exchange Hive into your local fiat currency, but instead you get vouchers that you can use at the store you want to buy stuff. You see, the magic words are gift cards and vouchers. This is how we are able to buy "real" stuff instantly with digital Crypto currencies. How awesome is that...
Of course you can also use centralized exchanges and off ramp your cryptos to your bank account, but to many this may be unattractive for various reasons. So how does this magic work?
Use Bitrefill
Yesterday I discovered bitrefill which is a complete game changer to me. You can convert your cryptos without KYC into gift cards and spend them online or at physical stores. I literally converted my Hive into Blueberries yesterday! Finally, we actually get to use the magic internet money. And suddenly that value becomes much more real...
Use TheBitcoinCompany
There is another option for everyone who wants to use credit cards. Like I said, you don't get to own a real physical card, but a virtual instead. Yesterday @patrickulrich made an awesome post about how to use this website. The main idea was that you could use @brianoflondon awesome new Bitcoin lightning payment capability that works with Hive! In other words, you can send your Hive to a lightning address and fill up a visa gift card with TheBitcoinCompany. I just tried this myself and it is pure magic. You can buy real stuff with a magical credit card paid with crypto :) The only caveat at the moment is that it is limited to about $20 (with brian working to raise that limit soon).
There are other options available
For example, I stumbled across egift.com. I haven't used it yet but it seems to work in the same way. However, it is only usable for the US area (due to the shops it provides).
I would like to know: what other options are out there that I haven't listed here? Maybe we could make a bit of a collection which could be helpful for us Hivers ;) So let me know in the comment section!
This is a band aid fix, but it works
Sure it would be nice to move around larger amounts or to have an easier time utilizing our cryptos, but for now this is really helpful. Especially if you have some passive crypto income!You can now spend that for real things and bolster up your financial situation. How cool is that?! I think for most it is really about that extra 20-30% of income that can make a really big difference in their lives. For example, you can now buy all of your groceries with cryptos and save your fiat money or spend it in other ways...
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