Can you actually buy anything with Bitcoin?

For many people, Bitcoin is one of those things that you hear a lot about without really getting to grips with how it all works. Bitcoin is a currency that is generated or “mined” through the online activity of computers.

Oliver W.
2 min readJun 8, 2019

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the practicalities of Bitcoin is to think about what you can buy with the Bitcoin currency. Let’s take a look at a list made by Crypto Slice News and see what you can buy with Bitcoin.

Online purchases

As you might expect from a virtual currency, it is e-commerce sites that have been amongst the first to confirm that you can use Bitcoin to purchase products and services. However your online purchases using Bitcoin are no longer to niche products or unknown brands — big names such as Microsoft and Dell are also adding Bitcoin to their payment options when you are using your online account to purchase apps, games, videos, as well as actual computer hardware.

Book your vacation

Airlines are also now accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. In Europe you can use your Bitcoin to fly with Air Baltic, or Air Lithuania, or elsewhere in the world there are services such as Cheap Air, or BTC Trip who offer flight and hotel booking services — all of which you can pay with Bitcoin.

Be cultured

In the United Kingdom one of the major theatre ticket sellers, Theatre Tickets Direct, is now accepting Bitcoin as payment for tickets to the major plays and musicals available in London.

Go see a game

Even sports teams are getting in on the Bitcoin act. In the NBA the Sacramento Kings have been leading the way, accepting the online virtual currency for anything from tickets, to jerseys, to hot dogs and beer. Meanwhile in soccer, the San Jose Earthquakes have also enabled their payment processor to accept Bitcoin payments for box office tickets and merchandise.

Buy a gift card

One of the clever ways to living frugal and get the most out of your Bitcoin currency is through the gift card industry. If there is a store or supplier that you want to shop at but they don’t accept Bitcoin as a payment method, you can bet that there will be a gift card provider for that store that will happily take your Bitcoin in exchange for a store gift card. For example, if you want to buy your goods from a store such as Amazon, Nike, Walmart, or Target, you can use your Bitcoin to pay for the relevant gift card and then use that stored value card to shop until you drop.

The bottom line is that if you have some Bitcoin to spend, then there are no shortage of business out there happy to help you spend it. You can try a do it yourself bitcoin hardware wallet to have a safe way to keep your precious Bitcoins.

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Oliver W.
Oliver W.

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