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7 Best Ways to Shop With Bitcoin in 2019

Shop anywhere with Cryptocurrency Instantly, Privately and Securely

5 Best Ways to Shop Online using Bitcoin 2019Are you looking to spend your bitcoins and Altcoins but cannot find enough online sites to accept them?

Well look no further, here I’ve found ways for you to pay with bitcoins on popular sites like Amazon or eBay!

If you missed my last blog post on The 3 Best Stock Trading Website for Beginners Offering Bitcoin Read on…

In 2017, I began to notice the effects of inflation eating up my hard-earned savings.

Then I started digging deeper and found that there is no historical precedence for any fiat currency that succeeded in holding its value.

Simply put, No fiat currency has ever lasted forever. Eventually, they all fail.

Chris Mack writes:

The average life expectancy for a fiat currency is 27 years, with the shortest life span being one month. Founded in 1694, the British pound Sterling is the oldest fiat currency in existence. At a ripe old age of 317 years it must be considered a highly successful fiat currency. However, success is relative. The British pound was defined as 12 ounces of silver, so it’s worth less than 1/200 or 0.5% of its original value. In other words, the most successful long standing currency in existence has lost 99.5% of its value.

Given the undeniable track record of currencies, it is clear that on a long enough timeline the survival rate of all fiat currencies drops to zero.

That’s why, to me, the most attractive aspect of bitcoin’s design is its fixed supply of 21 million btc.

So instead of diluting the value of my hard-earned money, I will always know how many bitcoins exist in the world. And how many bitcoins I have with respect to the 21 million units.

Try comparing that to some of the fiat currencies below and you’ll find that governments in control of money often sprinted towards greed and stupidity:

They couldn’t care less about future generations.

Yugoslavia – 10 billion dinar, 1993

Zaire – 5 million zaires, 1992

Venezuela – 10,000 bolívares, 2002

Ukraine – 10,000 karbovantsiv, 1995

Turkey – 5 million lira, 1997

Russia – 10,000 rubles, 1992

Romania – 50,000 lei, 2001

Central Bank of China – 10,000 CGU, 1947

Peru – 100,000 intis, 1989

Nicaragua – 10 million córdobas, 1990

Hungary – 10 million pengo, 1945

Greece – 25,000 drachmas, 1943

Germany – 1 billion mark, 1923

Georgia – 1 million laris, 1994

France – 5 livres, 1793

Chile – 10,000 pesos, 1975

Brazil – 500 cruzeiros reais, 1993

Bosnia – 100 million dinar, 1993

Bolivia – 5 million pesos bolivianos, 1985

Belarus – 100,000 rubles, 1996

Argentina – 10,000 pesos argentinos, 1985

Angola – 500,000 kwanzas reajustados, 1995

Zimbabwe – 100 trillion dollars, 2006

    Make no mistake, inflation will creep up on us.

    The cost of food will climb, prices will rise, quality of life will dwindle as we age and all those who hold fiat currencies will feel like hostages of the state desperately preventing their hard-earned wealth from escaping beyond their reach.

    That’s why it’s so important for everyone to learn about the principles of sound money which Bitcoin holds so dear.

    In this blog post, I will cover:

    • Why Use Bitcoin to Shop Online?
    • My Top 7 Picks to Shop With Bitcoin
    • A Walk-through Guide to Shopping with Cryptocurrencies
    • The Best Value that your Bitcoin can Buy!

    Why Use Bitcoin to Shop Online?

    PayPal is an American Company. It is NOT a neutral and borderless online payment system. It has to adhere to government policies such as KYC and AML laws. 

    With Bitcoin there’s no need to register for an account like PayPal or even a bank account. Creating a Bitcoin wallet is easy and a 1000X more secure than your PayPal account. 

    For you to send any money using PayPal, first they need to trust that you have all the necessary paper work to verify who you say you are… Because that’s what they asked me for once I’d exceed their transfer limit. There are many PayPal accounts have reportedly being frozen and locked from time to time, mostly affecting small business owners. 

    Age and other legal restrictions also apply as major barriers to entry.

    Bitcoin is set to empower over 2 billion people who are still unbanked in the world. A neutral, peer-to-peer and borderless currency allows them to trade and do business on the internet instantly without needing to qualify for a bank account or a credit card. Something which people today take for granted of having. 

    Unbanked: Data from World Bank

    Bitcoin will play a “pivotal role” in reducing the number of people who are still unbanked due to economic segregation or sanctions that undermines economic freedom.

    Paying with Credit Cards At the Expense of your Privacy

    Sure extracting your personal information is so easy and convenient with a credit card. But we live in a world where we sacrifice our privacy for a little convenience. When we do that, corporations and banks misuse our data for profit.

    Credit cards are broken by design because the token itself is the secret key. If you transmit that token, you expose your entire account to risk.

    Bitcoin is fundamentally different. What I’m transmitting is not the key but simply a signed message, it is an authorization. And that authorization has two external references: one, to where the money’s coming from by referencing an unspent output on the blockchain; and one reference to where I want to send the money.

    By creating a new encumbrance, a new limitation on who can spend the money, usually a public key or Bitcoin address. That transaction contains no sensitive data.” ~ Andreas Antonopoulos

    A. Wherever you are, it doesn’t matter, you can send BTC from anywhere in the world & it will be processed instantly as all transactions are blessed with color-blind anonymity.
    B. Avoid costly currency conversions. When you make a payment in your national currency on the World Wide Web, your local fiat currency gets converted into the local currency of the merchant.
    C. Payment processors charge merchants 3% or higher for every credit card transaction, and that cost is passed down to you, the consumer. With the Lightning Network, you pay fees at less than fractions of a cent 1/100 cent.
    D. While charge-backs seem like a good feature for consumers, merchants often lose money from fraudulent card purchases. Even as a consumer, merchants can often reverse a sale and cancel your booking on an email notice (My experience w/ Agoda recently cost me thousands of dollars more from a last minute hotel cancellation, on the grounds that the offer I received was too good to be true)
    E. There will be a future potential of highly loyal customers who will look for places to spend their Bitcoin in the near future once mass adoption kicks in. First movers will get to embrace this new base of potential customers.
    F. A new marketing opportunity would present itself to merchants, thereby attracting special offers, discounts and deals for those who pay in Bitcoin instead of fiat currencies.
    G. Your Privacy is assured as transactions you make don’t get sold to the highest bidder or stolen from the weak security the merchant uses. Your government and banks have no business prying into your private lives.
    H. You will gain the first movers advantage of being a pioneer in the cryptocurrency economy. Bitcoin’s scarcity and utility will prove to be an even better value proposition than Gold to a growing population of Digital Citizens.

    Before you are able to shop online with bitcoins, you first need to buy bitcoins directly on fiat-crypto exchanges or (P2P) LocalBitcoins. Here are more ways you can do that:

    How to Get your Hands on bitcoins (btc)

    1. How to Buy Bitcoin In Different Countries [+International Infographic Guide]
    2. How To Deposit & Withdraw Money (GBP/EUR) on Binance?
    3. How do I Buy Bitcoin (BTC) on Binance w/ My Credit Card?
    4. Buy Bitcoin With Paypal Instantly on these sites (Explained Step-by-step)
    5. Best Asian Bitcoin Websites To Buy Bitcoins [The Ultimate Guide for 2019]
    6. The Best Cryptocurrency Exchange 2018 (+7 Bonus Categories )

     

    Best Places to Shop Online with Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies

    Moon is an extension that you can install on the Chrome, Opera or Brave browser. It allows you to shop directly on Amazon.com via the Lightning Network using your bitcoins or altcoins.

    Besides bitcoins, they also accept:

    1. Litecoin
    2. Ether

    If you have a Coinbase account, you can also choose to use that as an alternative to pay with Moon. But in essence, you will need to have a Lightning Network wallet that they suggest:

    How it Works?

    After you install the Moon browser extension, you will see a pop up on the top right hand corner of your screen prompting you to sign up an account with them. You can choose the good old fashion email account or with your own Facebook or Google.

    Now when you’re browsing on Amazon, you can simply follow the same habits when you shop and then at the checkout, Moon detects when you’re there and shows you the the amount of bitcoins you owe to purchase the items you’ve added.

    Just swipe to instantly pay with Moon in bitcoins and voila, you receive your items as usual.

     

    • OpenBazaar

    This is a decentralized platform where you can shop online without needing to go through a middle man. When you go to OpenBazaar.org , download the FREE desktop client and you can shop from the safety of your home computer.

    Is OpenBazaar similar to Amazon or Ebay?

    No. When you shop here on OpenBazaar, your privacy is assured because you’re dealing directly with the seller (peer-to-peer) and not through centralized corporations like Amazon who knows, learns and spies on your every shopping habit.

    This is the future of shopping and eCommerce where buying and selling happens directly between the buyer and the seller with no middleman to take a cut from each transaction.

    Not only that, you can now be a seller and not just be a consumer of sorts.

    For example, Lee in China, who wants to sell his toys in the US will just need to download and install OpenBazaar where he can immediately list his toys inside an in-built search engine within the software.

    A buyer then browses through his favorite search engine within OpenBazaar itself and stumbles upon Lee’s toy. He then clicks “buy now” and sends bitcoins directly to Lee without going through OpenBazaar.

    OpenBazaar doesn’t take a cut of his profits.

    The buyer in the US sends Bitcoin to his wallet address by following Lee’s listed instructions. He does not need to reveal any other private information, like his name, etc. except his address for shipping the item.

    Both buyer and seller can also take advantage of OpenBazaar’s Multisignature escrow to manage any disputes that arise from that sale.

    But at the end of the day, where you send your bitcoins is entirely your responsibility, your bitcoins are extremely valuable and the seller has the right to not refund your bitcoins if you’re unhappy with your purchase.

    You can check the multitude of features available here: https://openbazaar.org/features/
    Download the software here: https://openbazaar.org/

    Read more: 10 Master Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Wallets That’ll Instantly Empower You

     

    The hosting space is sort of a start-up entrepreneur’s dream: unceasing competition between hosting providers gives us, the consumers extreme value. One of them, Hostinger, decides to roll the dice and bet on Bitcoin to provide incredible opportunities to younger web developers to start a blog.

    Hostinger’s Head of Product, Giedrius Zakaitis explains:

    There are millions of young web developers and people with great ideas around the world, but they do not have a bank account due to their age or other restrictions. The last thing we want is for a talent with a great idea for the Internet to give up on it just because they do not have the chance to pay for the tools that will make it happen.

    Hostinger integrates coinpayments to facilitate bitcoin transactions between them and their buyers.

    They are one of the few merchants in the hosting space familiar enough with Bitcoin as a payment method that they use it to disrupt the traditional payment methods of hosting companies.

    Read more: How to Buy Hosting with Bitcoin (+ Get a Free Domain)

    Other hosting sellers that accept bitcoins: 6 Top Web Hosting Service that Accept Bitcoin and Altcoins

     

    Purse is a very unique discount driven eCommerce platform that utilizes the earning potential of Bitcoin to fulfill orders on Amazon.

    As a shopper, you can save money by choosing to shop using your bitcoins on Purse.io when you set your discount to 5%. Purse will automatically fill and manage your orders directly.

    The other way is to “Name your Own Discount“, if you’re looking for steeper discounts on your purchases, you can always set it before you go browsing.

    Obviously if you’re looking for a bigger discount, the delivery time will lengthen depending on your order size.

    You can also Earn Bitcoin by Selling your Amazon Gift Card right here.

     

    Whatever you want to shop for, there’s a gift card for it. Bitrefill is THE PLACE to go to when it comes to eGifts, topping up & refilling prepaid phones and buying international gift cards.

    The Gift Cards you buy can be used in over 170 countries.

    Shop with bitcoins in Categories like:

    1. Gaming
    2. Travel
    3. Shopping
    4. Entertrainment

    List of Gift cards include: Amazon, Hotels.com, Skype, Uber, Spotify, STEAM, XBOX, Apple, Nintendo, Ebay, GooglePlay, Viber, Homedepot, BestBuy, Nike, Adidas, Burger King, Tesco, Target, Barnes & Noble, Macy’s, Groupon, CVS and lots more…

    They boast over 130,000 happy customers who used their refills and gift cards on a daily basis. Some of these gift cards even helped thousands of people in poverty stricken Venezuela.

    Others, use Bitrefill’s Lightning Network to pay for Movie Tickets in India doing it in a matter of seconds.

    Bitrefill offers Thor, their Lightning Network channel that opens your account on their node for 30-days (longer if active), within this period you can transact at lightning speeds utilizing the awesome power of the Lightning Network (LN). All this doesn’t come free though, you pay around $3.00 for a capacity to transact $30.00 on Bitrefill’s Thor.

    You must use one of the supported wallets below to use this service reliably:

    More info here: Lightning Channel Step by Step Guide

     

    Shop at major retailers with your cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in stores (around the U.S.)

    Flexa Crypto Payment | Coinzodiac.com

    Gemini has partnered with Flexa in order to give holders of Gemini dollars (GUSD), bitcoin and ether a way to easily spend with merchants like:

    • Starbucks
    • Nordstrom
    • Amazon-owned Whole Foods
    • Barnes&Noble
    • Baskin Robbins
    • Bed, Bath & Beyond
    • Jamba Juice
    • Lowe’s
    • Gamestop
    • Regal cinemas
    • Caribou Coffee
    • and more…

    Flexa gemini crypto payment | coinzodiac.com

    When you store Bitcoin in your SpedN mobile wallet app, it is custodied with Gemini, giving you a sense of security in case you lose you phone. App only works in the U.S Region at the moment.

    How It Works?

    After downloading the SpedN app on the iOS (Android coming soon) you can begin depositing bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies there.

    Then as you check out in stores, you can generate a QR code with the SpedN app and let the merchant scan your barcode. The merchant will instantly receive payment in dollars and the equal amount of bitcoin is deducted from your app.

    *(In order to allow for instantaneous payments, the FlexaCoin is used to secure each transaction by first paying the merchant in real-time, then undergoing the slower process of deducting your bitcoins from your wallet)

     

    A Chrome extension, Lolli allows you to earn free bitcoins when you shop at major online retailers

    lolli Walmart | coinzodiac.com
    Lolli Priceline | coinzodiac.com
    Lolli Macy | coinzodiac.com

      How It Works?

      1. First install the Lolli extension on your chrome browser.
      2. Shop on the web, and Lolli will pop up to notify you on the percentage of Bitcoin you can earn-back
      3. Earn bitcoins instantly when you checkout

      Earn up to 30% in bitcoin for over 500+ top brands all across the web. Lolli top brands | coinzodiac.com

      So to recap my 5 top picks to shop online with your bitcoins or altcoins…

      Best Places to Shop with Bitcoin

      At the moment, merchants like Amazon do not integrate cryptocurrencies directly. Fortunately, extensions like Moon sidesteps this complicated process by absorbing all the red tape and fees.

      On the other hand, we’re starting to see decentralized platforms such as OpenBazaar making headway in the future where peer-to-peer buying and selling becomes the norm.

      In 5 years time, you are going to see people shop anywhere online with bitcoins and cryptocurrencies instantly, securely and at fraction of today’s fees.

      Buckle up! It’s coming sooner than most of you can imagine.

      Show More

      Winson Ng

      I Started hearing about bitcoin only in November 2017. As a solo-preneur who has build around the Maverick Philosophy, I found bitcoin to be just the tip of the spear. I watched to see who was getting into it, some of the smartest entrepreneurs who has made their fortunes being the first movers allocated portions of their investment portfolios to Bitcoin. I studied and realized that if it worked, bitcoin was going to be the first global decentralized currency. And that has never existed before. Ever. I was Hooked!
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