·It was very difficult to make typical daily transactions necessary to survive using only bitcoin in New York City for a week.
·Not many retailers and restaurants accept bitcoin directly still.
·If they do, additional fees make it more expensive than using dollars.
Read more here: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/14/despite-its-record-setting-surge-this-year-its-still-really-hard-use-bitcoin-as-a-regular-currency.html
Why not just convert it to USD and put it on a debit card like WIREX?
Well, in my view, having to convert it to USD, or any other currency, essentially prevents the full utility of a currency from being a feature of BTC.
Worse, fees are eating BTC alive.
It is the possibility of being able to use BTC to make purchases at POS that make it a currency, after all.
Not really good for everyday transactions at this moment. The network is so congested right now that it does not make much sense to use it for payments. All will hopefully change when/if segwit gets activated. Right now the bitcoin is in bit of a mess that is unfortunately influencing the whole crypto market. After all, bitcoin does not have to be used for everyday transactions but as a store of value while other coins such as LTC or XRP can be used for day to day payments. The future is bright, let'just get over the mess we are in right now. Have a great day!
It occurs to me that Bitmain, a BTC miner, is currently extracting a significant portion of the value of BTC through fees, and the prospect of segwit to fix the problem is a threat to the profitability of miners, and why Bitmain is going to hardfork BTC when the UASF is implemented on Aug. 1, 2017.
This is a real mess, and makes it possible that, instead of segwit fixing the debilitating fee problem, BTC will become three separate currencies. Clearly miners are positioning themselves in a similar manner to banks in fiat finance, and segwit seems to be properly designed to end that problem, and Bitmain is fighting back in order to retain and increase it's ability to concentrate wealth at the expense of everyone else.
Will be interesting to see what happens after Aug 1. Not sure what would be the best to do right now but I guess nobody does..... Huge manipulaiton right now with uncertain end....
As I invest in things I understand, rather than gamble, I am manipulation free.
I wish you and all crypto enthusiasts the best!
Things will get better and that's for sure
i use bitpay.com visa card. it puts bitcoin to cash on the card and you can use it anywhere for anything like a regular debit card.
THIS interests me- to make it feasible to actually USE it and not just collect would be something I am truly more interested in! Thanks for the info!