Quote:
Originally Posted by sam1chips
Out of curiosity, what are some "legal" things that people use bitcoins for?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimM
Trading and speculation of bitcoin itself.
Buying and selling other cryptocurrencies with bitcoin.
Buying goods and services from legitmate retailers. (bitpay, coinbase)
Online tipping and donations.
Sending money worldwide.
Yeah, there are a lot of completely legal reasons for having and using bitcoin.
I think the last number I saw was that there is set to be $800 million invested in to Bitcoin related companies like Coinbase in this year alone... so even though the news may portray it as shady dark web money it has moved on to being a lot more.
To expand on Tim's list I'd say:
- People that just believe in what Bitcoin stands for and want to have some and help it grow.
- Using bitcoin to buy things online without having to give out your credit card info. That's a main benefit of paying with bitcoin, you don't have to worry about someone stealing your info or a site hitting you with fraudulent charges. Bitcoin is like cash where you push the money to them, they can't pull it from your account.
There are a bunch of small businesses that accept bitcoin and some large ones like Overstock, NewEgg, Microsoft etc.
- Buying bitcoin because you think the value will go up in the future.
- Actively trading bitcoin on an exchange like a stock.
- To send tips to people over the internet on sites like Twitter or Twitch.
- As a means of saving money outside of a bank account, but in a method more secure than holding cash.
- To send money to someone around the world because it is faster and cheaper than WU.