Picture this: All the government-issued money you earn from a company in the form of salary that you then spend via credit card, bank transfer or cash, is on the top half of this image; the over world. Everything you earn and spend in self-custody, digital freedom money (cryptocurrency) is on the bottom; Freedomland.
What percentage of your time do you spend on top vs underground?
For me, right now, about 88% of my income comes from digital currencies: USDT, DASH, HIVE, HBD and BTC. The other 12% comes from a small rental property I purchased a long time ago. Most of what I earn has to be converted back into fiat so I can pay rent on the apartment I live in, buy food at the grocery store and market and acquire other services at normie businesses. Some of my income, however, stays completely digital. In other words, it doesn't leave the underground.
A visualization would looks something like this:
If my landlord accepted cryptocurrency as payment for rent it would be HUGE! but it would be difficult for that to happen because we need to have a contract, proof of payment and of course we all need to pay taxes on that money, so that's out of the question for the time being.
I could also consider using services like Bitrefill a bit more. I can buy giftcards for groceries, home and hardware, as well as airtime. This would add at least one more transaction in the digital economy as opposed to the legacy economy.
Because I live in a small, crypto-friendly neighborhood, I already make a few of my weekly purchases like coffee and the weekend beer at places that accept Bitcoin over Lightning, but somehow I feel it's not enough. Maybe I need to be onboarding more business so I can spend more time in Freedomland.
Today I saw an interview from 2023 that Joel Valenzuela made asking people how they manage to live on cryptocurrency. I thought it was quite insightful, so I thought I'd share it here:
https://x.com/TheDesertLynx/status/1727543706394181730
Anyway, what's your money situation like?
If you're reading this, you're most likely not earning/spending 0 cryptocurrency, which is awesome, but I'm curious to know what it's like for you.