How do you use your sats? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

4958 sats \ 58 comments \ @cryotosensei 10 Jun 2023 bitcoin

I believe that with knowledge comes power. If people know the various ways in which they can use their sats, they will be more inclined to conduct various daily affairs with Bitcoin. Mass adoption will be facilitated as more and more people will be curious to try paying for products and services with sats. I did some research and found out that people use their sats in the following ways:

Use BTC to pay for VPN with Mullvad
Buy gift cards with Bitrefill
Use BTC to buy laptops with Newegg
Use the public toilets in Wales (25p per visit)
Pay to store all of your logins and passwords with Bitwarden
Use BTC to buy supplements at Steroidify.com for a 20% discount
Convert BTC into gift cards and prepaid Mastercards with Bitpay. They've announced they're also remaking their crypto debit cards so you can just load up their crypto debit cardsand spend anywhere that accepts Mastercard
Zap content creators on platforms like Nostr, Stacker News and Fountain
Send people tips with Lightsats

How do you use your sats?

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133 sats \ 21 replies \ @FrickFrickFrick 10 Jun 2023

Soon I will be living off Bitcoin entirely due to being unable to secure a job in the last ~6 months. It is not something I am looking forward to doing but could be worse. Already running into some challenges.

Like if I want to use a gift card to pay for groceries, Bitrefill's Walmart cards have limitations like 2 items per day. So I can't grocery shop on that. Are prepaid Mastercards the same way?

I would love to be able to pay my taxes in Bitcoin too. Right now I am in a situation where I owe but have no cash due to the job situation to pay it off. I can sell Bitcoin but that ends up getting taxed too. I don't know if its a great idea to get taxed on Bitcoin I am selling to pay taxes.

470 sats \ 2 replies \ @super_testnet 10 Jun 2023

Bitrefill's Walmart cards have limitations like 2 items per day

Yeah but other gift card sites don't have that limitation. Try these:

app.thebitcoincompany.com/giftcard
coincards.com
coinsbee.com
coingate.com
cryptorefills.com

All of them support lightning too

bitrefill, bitcoin company, coinsbee, and egifter also let you buy visa/mastercard gift cards, and all of them support lightning

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @FrickFrickFrick 11 Jun 2023

That is interesting I will check them out. I wonder why Bitrefill only has the limited walmart cards.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @super_testnet 11 Jun 2023

I have no idea so I'm gonna speculate. Most of the following is probably false.

bitrefill is probably the best known site for buying gift cards with bitcoin

bitrefill's card providers inform companies like walmart where their traffic comes from

regulators pressure companies like walmart to discourage bitcoin usage [this part seems unlikely to me so we're in conspiracy theory territory now]

walmart can show them they are taking efforts to discourage bitcoin usage by telling their card providers to limit purchases of their gift cards from bitrefill

walmart doesn't do the same to all btc gift card sites because they actually still want the business those sites bring them. They are just trying to appease regulators, and the easiest way to do that right now is to show them that they limit usage on the largest such site

Here's a theory that seems more likely to me:

bitrefill gets good deals on bulk purchases of cards by writing exclusivity contracts with some of their gift card providers

those gift card providers only get a certain number of walmart cards per month from walmart

walmart cards are very popular on bitrefill so if they don't limit them, their gift card provider won't be able to meet its obligations to other customers

and bitrefill won't just add a partner with more walmart cards because that would cause them to lose money since it would entail not renewing their exclusivity arrangement with their current provider, which is a very lucrative deal that allows them to buy cards at a discount but sell them at full price

52 sats \ 10 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 10 Jun 2023

Don't pay them, taxation is theft.

30 sats \ 2 replies \ @scottathan 10 Jun 2023

Be that as it may, civil disobediance is dangerous enough that you should only do it when you know it will have a positive impact. In the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, activists didn't just ignore every segregation law they saw. They broke specific laws in specific places in which their disobedience would make a social statement strong enough to help move the meter.

Your actions have consequences. Plan ahead, do cost benefit analysis, think about the impact things will have on those around you. Civily disobey when it matters, not just when the law shouldn't exist.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 11 Jun 2023

Defending your property is self-defence.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bitman 11 Jun 2023

Yep, Rosa is sadly downplayed as just too tired to go back of the bus - she did her homework, planned and knew just what she was doing.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @FrickFrickFrick 10 Jun 2023

You are smoking hella dick.

47 sats \ 2 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 10 Jun 2023

Paying taxes is smoking statist dick 😉

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @FrickFrickFrick 11 Jun 2023

Paying taxes is keeping me out of prison you stupid fuck

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 11 Jun 2023

Not with that attitude 😘

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chrono 10 Jun 2023

Don't pay them.

You can't escape death and taxes.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mudbloodvonfrei 10 Jun 2023

Great in theory, until the feds come to your door.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 11 Jun 2023

Secondamendment

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 11 Jun 2023

FYI with coindebit you buy digital visa cards that work with Apple pay

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @mudbloodvonfrei 10 Jun 2023

Technically, if you purchase something with bitcoin when its price in dollars is higher than when you bought it, you have to pay capital gains tax. At least in the US.

100 sats \ 4 replies \ @super_testnet 10 Jun 2023

Only if the gain you accrue exceeds $200. There is a "de minimus" exemption for foreign currencies, which bitcoin counts as, despite the IRS saying (in a non-binding opinion) that it doesn't

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @mudbloodvonfrei 10 Jun 2023

Whoa seriously? Do you have any links for further reading? Is there a limit on the number of transactions per year?

200 sats \ 2 replies \ @super_testnet 10 Jun 2023

Whoa seriously?

Yeah

Do you have any links for further reading?

The law that exempts foreign currencies from capital gains is here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/988

Look for the part called "Exclusion for certain personal transactions"

There's a bit of legalese to sift through. It calls foreign currencies "non-functional currencies" a lot because they don't function as currency in the USA. Also, the exemption only covers "personal transactions" which are distinguished in other parts of the law from e.g. business transactions.

Is there a limit on the number of transactions per year?

Re: "links for further reading" it is also worth pointing out the IRS explicitly says bitcoin does not count as foreign currency in its opinion:

Digital assets are not real currency (also known as “fiat”) because they are not the coin and paper money of the United States or a foreign country and are not digitally issued by a government’s central bank. source

But their opinion is not law. Taxpayers who judge that bitcoin is a foreign currency (e.g. because some foreign countries have made it legal tender) are perfectly allowed to treat it as such for tax purposes. If the IRS wants to sue you for that, they would have to prove to get a judge to agree with them that bitcoin is not a foreign currency and that you knowingly broke a law by treating it as such.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lumor 11 Jun 2023

This deserves its own SN post! 🤠

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mudbloodvonfrei 11 Jun 2023

Thanks!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 10 Jun 2023

I literally live paying for everything I need with sats from 2018.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 10 Jun 2023

My BTCpay Server is on LunaNode and I pay with ln. There's also a bagel shop near my house that offers 10% off when paying with BTC/ln

5 sats \ 5 replies \ @numbskull 10 Jun 2023

Don’t buy anything from Newegg, I ordered ssd for 500$ and when I opened package there were no drive inside. They refused to send another one or return money. So I lost 500$ ,stay away from Newegg scammers

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @FrickFrickFrick 11 Jun 2023

I built my first pc back in the early 2000's off Newegg. It was good for so many years.

Call your bank and let them know you need to reverse the charge because the merchant never delivered the product. A merchant cant charge you for a product that was not delivered as promised. Your bank may send you to the fraud department and you may also need to file a police report but they should guide you through the process.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @numbskull 11 Jun 2023

I did twice in a span of 5months, Walmart credit card fraud department will give you marry go round with their dumb antiquated claim system, you need to fax them all evidence (fax 2023?) and they give you 2 weeks do it. The interesting thing the paper form claim they send you takes exactly 2 weeks with mail delivery. The whole system is fraud. I switched to paying cash for everything now

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xmrk2 11 Jun 2023

at least you can pay for the fax with bitcoin: https://bitcoinfax.net/

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @chrono 10 Jun 2023

Don’t buy anything from Newegg

You didn't specify how you paid for the drive, so I'll assume you used BTC. Do you have documentation that proves you paid for the drive? Did you discuss the missing drive over the phone or email? What, exactly, was their reasoning for not sending another drive?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @numbskull 10 Jun 2023

It doesn’t really matter how you pay. Newegg are scammers, there are a lot of negative reviews about their practices on y tube. The reason they started accepting bitcoin is probably their business is going down the drain. Payed with Walmart credit card, which is another shitty product ( cancelled it after that incident). I did have all documentation, 2 months communication over email and phone . The reasoning was they told me that they weigh packages before shipping and weight of the package was correct. Everything was good about that package ,all original, even manual inside, except ssd drive was missing. That was internal ssd which weighs almost nothing.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @OriginalSize 10 Jun 2023

I like zapping and getting zaps. It's all small amounts but maybe I'll buy a Tshirt or something with my stackings.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Lux 10 Jun 2023

IVPN accepts lightning This tool was shared for paying Mullvad over LN https://vpn.sovereign.engineering/

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @anonfiles311 11 Jun 2023 freebie

I download movies for 100 sats each @ LightningLinks.to

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @02fa90fd41 12 Jun 2023

I use sats on sites like this, fountain and other websites that reward users for posting interesting and quality articles. I believe in supporting the circle economies that LN makes super easy!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @oraltosun 11 Jun 2023

It's difficult to exchange Bitcoin to fiat currencies in many countries. If Binance adopted LN then it would be much easier to exchange Bitcoin.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @faithandcredit 11 Jun 2023

I mostly donate to people online who accept it. For example if i read a news article i liked. I listened to a podcast i liked. I would use sats for more stuff but not many places support this kind of stuff.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bartoli 11 Jun 2023

For now I've put them in new lightning channels

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @criptopanas 11 Jun 2023

50% of the SATS earned on SN or doing random task I use them for onboarding newbies, giving away to my Youtube followers and donate to Geyser projects.

50% of the SATS go to my BTC saving wallet.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @smukuka29 11 Jun 2023

I keep sats for use at short notice maybe coffee or gift card. but then it feels nice also to stack them up. they will be valuable soon

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Maximux 11 Jun 2023

What I am currently doing with my Satoshis is Holding, because in my opinion selling some Sats now would be practically giving them away (considering the price of Bitcoin right now). I think than the BTC is really worth at least $100K USD. In the meantime, I would like to be able to invest to generate income, but there are many investment platforms on the Internet that are Scam or Ponzis (it's a lot of risk). For that rason I will continue accumulating little by little.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 11 Jun 2023

Easy i spend some I save some. What else is their to do?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Maximux 11 Jun 2023

deleted by author

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @shibe 11 Jun 2023

I pay for my email and my VPS in Bitcoin. I also realized I can pay for my phone bill through bitrefill recently too, so that's always nice to have.

A few years ago (2017 or so) I spent a bunch of BTC on Steam and Twitch. I kind of regret it, but at the same time I don't because I feel like I was early in terms of participating in a sort of BTC economy.

It's a shame both Steam and Twitch no longer accept Bitcoin though

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @shyfire 11 Jun 2023

https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin/who-accepts/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xtr 10 Jun 2023

I zap on nostr, pay for Mullvad, pay for Protonmail. I also generally pay with sats wherever it's possible but tbh I skip that if it's a Conbase checkout or similar, or if I'm not sure they actually appreciate the sats.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @scottathan 10 Jun 2023

Don't forget private and secure email, calander, VPN, and storage with ProtonMail. All of their paid plans can be purchased with BTC, no personal info needed

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @shibe 10 Jun 2023

I do the same but I feel the need to call out ProtonMail for still using legacy addresses in 2023. They could at the very least upgrade to segwit, or offer lightning payments

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @scottathan 10 Jun 2023

Hey, at least they accept it. I'm not gonna fault them for outdated tech if they recognise BTC as legitimate. Too few businesses do that

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @shibe 10 Jun 2023

That's true yeah, as far as I can tell they don't immediately exchange the BTC for fiat either. I remember them saying they've been holding Bitcoin for years

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @scottathan 10 Jun 2023

That's cool, had no idea they'd hodled that long

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 10 Jun 2023

Traveling out of the states and needed cell service. Used silent.link and paid in sats for an eSIM. Super easy, works like a charm.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @btcphoto 10 Jun 2023

Proton (email and vpn) accepts bitcoin (not ln) for premium plans.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 10 Jun 2023

Basically just number 8 for me

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 10 Jun 2023

I exclusively stack them right now

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @KwesiAngel 10 Jun 2023

sats is the reason why i own a laptop and a phone.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Monotone 10 Jun 2023

Doing some of the items on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this is the limit for now. In my country it is forbidden to accept bitcoin for payment directly. Therefore, sellers and small stores do not have that option to accept my sats.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Craylon_Tarvis 10 Jun 2023

Good suggestions, thanks 🙏

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @greggraham 10 Jun 2023

I've used BTC for purchases at Coinkite and Newegg, and I zap/tip/stream/boost on Nostr, Stacker News, and Podverse.