Now I have my Bitwala debit card I can get on with buying a few things I had on my wish list. First stop was to buy a couple of albums on Bandcamp that I was wanting.
Dark Days by KingBathmat is some heavy pop. John Basset of the band has been producing lots of great music over the last few years with various projects.
The Second Brightest Star by Big Big Train was a surprise follow-up to their last album. They sing about old England with some epic songs.
To get this far I had previously converted some Steem Dollars into Bitcoin on by Bitwala wallet using @blocktrades. That went through in a matter of minutes. Once the card was activated I needed to top it up. There's a charge for topping up, so I'll probably move a fair amount each time. This transfer took about a day and a half! It's going through the Bitcoin blockchain, so maybe it's part of the general slow-down there, but Bitwala admit there are issues with transfers being slow.
I then added my card to my Paypal account for convenience so I could buy the music that I'm listening to right now. I realise I'm paying charges at each stage, but I treat my Steemit earnings as a bonus anyway. I know it could be worth more later if I hang onto it, but I want to buy stuff now and I am retaining most of my Steem anyway.
Now I know this works I'll be looking at some bigger purchases and I'll transfer some more funds from here.
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars
Is the card really worth it then or are the fees too extortionate?
I think they are acceptable. They may take a couple of percent overall and I can live with that
it looks amazing, steve! I will activate a card soon too. and I'll try to add it as payment way to my showcase for art (Steemarket)!
In a world where most people steal their music, one man dreams of a better world.. of paying for tunes on the blockchain... STEVE!
(Id pay for that movie)
Who would play me? I love music and I want to help musicians keep on making it. Most of what I buy is by bands most people haven't heard of. I've spent a load on Bandcamp
Hmmm... Steve Bushemi.
Great Idea. I would support buying music on blockchain. We could create a similar protocol as what has been done with LBRY, a blockchain bittorrent for streaming video. I guess you could do the same for music
Awesome dude. Well invested money :D
As I said in one of my posts, a life without music is life food without salt, it has no taste :)
That's a great buy will be looking forward for your music.
That is fantastic, supporting the arts through revenue earned on Steemit. I have got to look into this bitwala credit card here in Canada!
I'm sure there will be others available. I just want the convenience of spending my Steem
It sounds like you have certainly found a convenient way to spend Steem. Thanks again for sharing your method Brother!
Hi @steevc , my roommate is a guitarist and I have forced him to join Steemit and share his music. Let's see how it all fares for him but I am excited.
Hey @steevc, I am finally here. Your blog is amazing. I see plenty of good posts on all things music!
I hope he enjoys it. I'm no great musician, but even I can make something with a music post
Hi @steevc, he's here and excited. He already followed you. Please do welcome my friend. I'll head over to my blog and introduce him to my community.
I hope so. Let's see.
I have to start to get myself understand the 'how to' of buying and selling SBD/SP/STEEM as soon as possible! It seems so complicated! What you suggest as the best one to do all these transactions @steevc?
It's not that complex to do. The trickiest part is ensuring you have the correct Bitcoin addresses. It's just a series of steps as I have described. You need to understand the basics of how Bitcoin transactions work, but there's plenty of info out there about that
I'll surely get to understand it @steevc! Big learning time ahead!
Cheers
@progressivechef
Good for you... I do something like this with Bitcoin and Cryptopay Card. and I plan to do the same with STEEM but haven't earned that much yet.... (and my plan to sell my unused STEAM keys for SBD looks like it's failing)
great info.. resteeming .. making it work is part of the plan.. showing others it does work creates more interest in steemit ..
I'll check out your music later heh!)
It's not my music, I just bought it :) Feel free to support these artists
Oh, i thought you had an album there too. Kk
Not yet. Maybe one day
It's is good to see business' accept crypto @steevc
I'd like to see people accepting Steem directly. Then it will be simple to spend