One thing we're going to need to embrace before "making it" is wallet-level support for matching all bitcoin spending with fiat to btc trades. This allows you to spend from a fiat source, use bitcoin in the transaction but to replace any used bitcoin to maintain a consistent bitcoin balance so that there's no capital gain of long term holdings happening except when intended.
This is what I do when I spend bitcoin. Folks can argue if tax laws actually allow this, but I'm going with the idea that it's reasonable that no capital gain takes place if net change in bitcoin is 0 or slight gain. (for me, always a slight gain, I award myself with spending by netting more bitcoin on my cover).
Tax law aside, it gives me the peace of mind that no spend is a 10,000 bitcoin pizza moment.
It's a very big hassle to do this right now and I only can sustain it out of principle. This needs to be a wallet supported feature.
I've heard there is some wallet support for Tether on the Liquid side chain being swapped on bitcoin payment transactions but there needs to be alternatives.
Ideal version of this would work with some kind of native bitcoin layer and involve a diversity of fiat denominated stablecoins one could choose to liquidate and balance to mitigate the risk of holding those.
I've been using an ETH layer 2+Metamask+hardware wallet and it has been a major hassle with the hardware wallet support timing out a bunch and requiring a browser close/open. The trades result in custodial BTC and semi-custodial tBTC which I liquidate eventually... A project like tBTC should get some of our support for distributing the custody (threshhold signatures etc). Would be better to work with something where the bitcoin was more native and easy to shift.
Direct merchant support is very important. A store of value is useless if there's no direct way to realize stored value down the line. It's not enough to have hope of adoption down the line, some folks don't want bitcoin unless they know there are spending exits from the start, otherwise bitcoin feels like a trap.
There are people who are not going to sign up for exchange accounts, bitcoin credit cards, visit gift card merchant pages or want to do peer to peer trades (at high spreads). They need bitcoin to be something that they take to the merchant and spend like cash. It's okay if the merchant uses a payment processor as long as that stays out of the way and doesn't add friction to the transaction.
This is not most people, but it's the people for whom bitcoin's censorship resistance and pseudonymity could have utility. A minority of people who get utility out of bitcoin are the base upon which speculation can be built. It's okay to HODL, but that belief has to rest upon the idea that there will be some people in the future exercising the utility.
All this said, the journeys to better wallet support (with automatic stable coin cover) and better merchant support are incremental ones. Keep blazing the path as best you can. There's no point in spending on things that don't meet your utility needs.
Staying humble and just stacking sats may or may not suffice to bring on the future. Eventually all the strong hand stackers could take the price to the moon and this will generate merchant interest, but there's a risk of not enough miner subsidy to secure the network against attack if this takes too long.
One thing we're going to need to embrace before "making it" is wallet-level support for matching all bitcoin spending with fiat to btc trades. This allows you to spend from a fiat source, use bitcoin in the transaction but to replace any used bitcoin to maintain a consistent bitcoin balance so that there's no capital gain of long term holdings happening except when intended.
This is what I do when I spend bitcoin. Folks can argue if tax laws actually allow this, but I'm going with the idea that it's reasonable that no capital gain takes place if net change in bitcoin is 0 or slight gain. (for me, always a slight gain, I award myself with spending by netting more bitcoin on my cover).
Tax law aside, it gives me the peace of mind that no spend is a 10,000 bitcoin pizza moment.
It's a very big hassle to do this right now and I only can sustain it out of principle. This needs to be a wallet supported feature.
I've heard there is some wallet support for Tether on the Liquid side chain being swapped on bitcoin payment transactions but there needs to be alternatives.
Ideal version of this would work with some kind of native bitcoin layer and involve a diversity of fiat denominated stablecoins one could choose to liquidate and balance to mitigate the risk of holding those.
I've been using an ETH layer 2+Metamask+hardware wallet and it has been a major hassle with the hardware wallet support timing out a bunch and requiring a browser close/open. The trades result in custodial BTC and semi-custodial tBTC which I liquidate eventually... A project like tBTC should get some of our support for distributing the custody (threshhold signatures etc). Would be better to work with something where the bitcoin was more native and easy to shift.
Direct merchant support is very important. A store of value is useless if there's no direct way to realize stored value down the line. It's not enough to have hope of adoption down the line, some folks don't want bitcoin unless they know there are spending exits from the start, otherwise bitcoin feels like a trap.
There are people who are not going to sign up for exchange accounts, bitcoin credit cards, visit gift card merchant pages or want to do peer to peer trades (at high spreads). They need bitcoin to be something that they take to the merchant and spend like cash. It's okay if the merchant uses a payment processor as long as that stays out of the way and doesn't add friction to the transaction.
This is not most people, but it's the people for whom bitcoin's censorship resistance and pseudonymity could have utility. A minority of people who get utility out of bitcoin are the base upon which speculation can be built. It's okay to HODL, but that belief has to rest upon the idea that there will be some people in the future exercising the utility.
All this said, the journeys to better wallet support (with automatic stable coin cover) and better merchant support are incremental ones. Keep blazing the path as best you can. There's no point in spending on things that don't meet your utility needs.
Staying humble and just stacking sats may or may not suffice to bring on the future. Eventually all the strong hand stackers could take the price to the moon and this will generate merchant interest, but there's a risk of not enough miner subsidy to secure the network against attack if this takes too long.