Paying With Bitcoins

paulbohill

Hello,

I am wanting to use a site and they offer the facilities to pay by Bitcoin. Does anyone know how this works and do you have to find an offline retailer to credit your account?

I really dont understand Bitcoins, if anyone could give me a hand please? Does paying by Bitcoins make you anonymous and why do people use it?

Best Wishes

A_Lert

Strictly speaking Bitcoin isn't anonymous but pseudonymous. The sender and recipient are both identified by a "bitcoin address", essentially an account number, and in fact all transactions are public. But who owns an address is what can be kept secret.


(EDIT: An addition. Modern Bitcoin software works around this by generating new addresses as needed rather than always using the same one.)


Bitcoin was and to an extent still is an experiment - can these mathematical and computing techniques be used to make a digital currency without a central bank?


You can buy Bitcoins on an exchange using money you have, much like you could buy Euros or dollars using pounds. At this point the coins will be in the exchange's wallet and you can and probably should create your own wallet using software on your computer (a Bitcoin client) and transfer your bitcoins to your own wallet. You can then use the Bitcoin client to pay people.


Bitcoin became something of a speculative bubble so it's value fluctuates a lot, which arguably makes it poor for use as a currency. Bitcoin is still used by enthusiasts and it's usually computer and tech-related companies that accept it as payment, but also by speculators, and by criminals to help them hide their ill-gotten gains (there's also no way for the sender to reverse a Bitcoin transaction).


Keep in mind the fluctuations could cost you money. Buying Bitcoin to make a major purchase would be foolish.

sal_III

If you do not currently own bitcoins (which seems to be the case), there is zero benefit for you in paying with Bitcoins, unless this is the only payment option - in which case I would run as far away as possible from that website.

born_again

paulbohill wrote: »

H
I really dont understand Bitcoins, if anyone could give me a hand please? Does paying by Bitcoins make you anonymous and why do people use it?

Best Wishes

If you don't understand them, then stay well away from them.

I've seen far to many people invest in these, only to find that they lost a lot of money. As it's not a regulated market.

JuicyJesus

I can only echo again that if you don't already understand Bitcoin then you probably don't want it, and frankly even if you do understand it then you shouldn't want it.

Must be said also that places that ONLY take Bitcoin are... usually rather dodgy.

colsten

I do a lot of online shopping, for some everyday and for some more unusual items. Many sites look like UK sites but it seems they are in fact the shop window for Chinese manufacturing sites, and they do take forever and a day to ship your goods (but ship they do, and the goods are as described). I haven't yet come across one single site on which Bitcoin was offered as a method of payment. Where/what are you planning to buy?

born_again

colsten wrote: »

I haven't yet come across one single site on which Bitcoin was offered as a method of payment. Where/what are you planning to buy?

Neither have I.

So decided to google who might expecting to find no major retailers...

The most popular companies accepting Bitcoin payments worldwide today are:

Wikipedia
Microsoft
Expedia
AT&T
From Who Accepts Bitcoins in 2020? List of 20+ Major Companies
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin/who-accepts/

colsten

born_again wrote: »

Wikipedia
Microsoft
Expedia
AT&T

Thanks for that list. Taking each one in turn:


I didn't even know you can buy anything from Wikipedia - I suppose it's about making donations to them. I can do this with a debit/credit card if I want to.

Microsoft? Do I get a discount if I pay with Bitcoin? Oh, hang on, I don't need anything from Microsoft, apart from their OS on my laptop, and that comes pre-loaded. I'll pay for that laptop with a credit card , for section 75 etc etc etc


Expedia. You'd have to shoot me if I paid for my holidays with Bitcoin when I get complete insurance with credit card payment and none when I pay with Bitcoin

AT&T? Different part of the world, dunno whether they'd have anything of interest if I lived in the US. I suspect not.

Having said this, I have seen some industry giants like IBM claiming that there will be a consumer-ready version of Bitcoin sometime in the next 5 years or so. I'll check in again when the 5 years are up

Ergates

paulbohill wrote: »

Hello,

I am wanting to use a site and they offer the facilities to pay by Bitcoin. Does anyone know how this works and do you have to find an offline retailer to credit your account?

I really dont understand Bitcoins, if anyone could give me a hand please? Does paying by Bitcoins make you anonymous and why do people use it?

Best Wishes

If they offer Bitcoin as one of multiple different payment methods, but you're not really into bitcoin - just ignore it and chose one of the more standard options.

If they insist on bitcoins - run a mile. No legitimate business will *only* deal in bitcoins.

boo_star

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I can only echo again that if you don't already understand Bitcoin then you probably don't want it, and frankly even if you do understand it then you shouldn't want it.

Must be said also that places that ONLY take Bitcoin are... usually rather dodgy.

Well I had a couple of people dealt with and the sellers only took Bitcoin. They delivered, but not to my home address

Allegedly.

Chino

boo_star wrote: »

Well I had a couple of people dealt with

What does this phrase mean in English?