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So Strike announced last week that you could pay pay bills in bitcoin from their app. I signed up for Bitcoin Well for this very reason only to find out that you can't do it in the US yet, so I ready for the other shoe to drop when I tried it out with Strike. But that didn't happen today!

Background

I've been bitcoin only since ready Hidden Repression. It turned me from a passionate hobbyist into a radical psychopath with less than 0 dollars (through loans like my loan with Honda). I had around 800 credit for almost fifteen years and have body slammed that to the low 600s (it's recovered a bit) in my effort to short the dollar.

That said, it's been super stressful. My wife, who is actually even more libertarian than me, has definitely gotten pretty annoyed by how inconvenient it's been to not have any money easily accessible. I get paid via CashApp and PayPal a lot, so there's always this fear that a transfer won't get to the bank account in time. Almost all of the bitcoin is in multi-sig wallets, so there's no escape valve when things like this happen, and what I do keep in Strike takes EONS to transfer if you don't like paying fees, which I don't.

Now we wait...

So it worked, but...well OK, here's why I'm sharing / what may be good for you to know:

I had some bitcoin in Strike.
I had no dollars in the bank.
The bill was due on the 12th.
Today is the 11th.
I could sell my bitcoin at a fee and then pay an additional fee to make sure I can pay my bill on time.

...or use the bill pay, which I did. It worked...BUT nothing has been acknowledged in my Strike account yet. This is significant because my $493.89 car note was 493,555 sats at the time of payment, but I don't know yet if that's going to be what I'll actually be charged in sats. Will the conversion rate be different at the time of settlement? Could this be an arbitrage opportunity for savvy stackers? Will the fees from Strike just be so high that it all works out the same?

I can't find any documentation for any of this. I love the fact that Strike is just throwing something crazy up against the wall before they even have easy to find documentation for it¹. I'll let stackers know what happens with me. In the meantime, it's an experiment that I'm willing to take on and consider it a victory on at least one level no matter what.

Has anybody else tried this?

except this one sentence, which is informative but not really a comprehensive explanation of when all of this plays out - "Bitcoin price volatility: If your default balance is bitcoin, any price drops could leave your balance too low to cover a bill." ↩

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61 sats \ 5 replies \ @siggy47 11 Dec

Very nice! Is that Odyssey a Kiddie Mobile? Very reliable vehicle. I had one when my daughter was young. We had to pay our loan with fiat.

54 sats \ 4 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

You know it is! We actually totally regret it now that kid number three is out of the five point car seat. We want our cool Subaru Outback back. :( I'm sure the grass is always greener though. We can spread still out in the Odyssey.

11 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 11 Dec

Ha! My wife and I went from a Subaru Outback pre child to an Odyssey too.

93 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 11 Dec

Too many coincidences

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

54 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

I've been reading the @Darthcoin guides for my lightning node and the @siggy47 guides for my parenting purchases.

50 sats \ 3 replies \ @justin_shocknet 11 Dec

Scared me, you made a service payment.. didn't pay it off... I'll let Darth tell you why it'd be a mistake to pay off a subsidized note

The Strike ann didn't make any sense to me, it's the same as selling and doing an ACH transfer... seems they just made it one action in the app, not a material change, I like the spirit but way over-hyped.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

Yeah, I've been paying it off for the past few years with fiat. Now I can skip straight to selling the bitcoin and paying the bill all at once.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @jasko 11 Dec

I think the significance is in the automation: incoming direct deposit to bitcoin balance, automated sell / transfer / accounting for outgoing. So you wouldn't need to open the app or make any decisions related to selling.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @jasko 11 Dec

Some interesting implications for ACH transactions that get cancelled/returned/whatever other shenanigans are possible with ACH, not sure how they intend on handling those situations.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @LowK3y19 11 Dec

Wish u luck hope u get it paid with out having to break the bank

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

I've actually had it for close to three years. This was just the first payment I could do straight from the bitcoin I have with Strike.

0 sats \ 10 replies \ @Aardvark 11 Dec

It's something that I really want to look into, but that involves figuring out all of the tax implications and fees. If doing something like this will be beneficial to my ability to stack more sats, I'll jump on board pretty quick.

11 sats \ 9 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

Taxes simplified Setting your default balance to bitcoin means that when a bill is charged, Strike will automatically sell the necessary amount of bitcoin to pay your bill, creating a taxable event. However, setting your default to cash and paying bills from your cash balance does not trigger a taxable event. Come tax season, Strike will issue your annual tax document, summarizing all your bitcoin sales for bill payments so taxes are hassle-free.

Here's their rap on taxes. It is basically, "hey trust us, we'll send you some docs." I'm sure some more detailed info will show up at some point, but I'm ready to jump in to be a part of forcing the IRS's hand to make things easier.

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @DarthCoin 11 Dec

IRS is a joke. Consider doing more research into NOT paying any taxes. For example: https://www.losthorizons.com/BulletinBoard.htm

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

Have to admit, as much as I don't agree with taxes, I'm not sure I'm even there yet ethically (not paying them), let alone risking getting thrown in a cage over it.

I'll read this and your stuff below too.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 11 Dec

When you find out the truth there's no way turning back. Yet most of the people just go along not wanting to know the truth and live in a complacent slave life.

But you know what? Is their choice, not mine. I don't give a shit anymore. I am just laughing at the "tax payers".... let them pay.

11 sats \ 4 replies \ @Aardvark 11 Dec

I was literally googling how to not pay taxes last night 🤣

Have you had any personal success with beating the IRS?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @DarthCoin 11 Dec

Google will never tell you that. But if you read my guides ... you will find out

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark 11 Dec

10-4

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 11 Dec

You said that most of the time you are driving and is a good time to listen. Good, here inside this guide you have a list of things to listen (are YT videos but you can also just listen the audio). You will learn a shit ton of new stuff.

https://darth-coin.github.io/general/natural-law-bitcoin-en.html

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 11 Dec

Thanks man. I appreciate it.

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 11 Dec

Tax time is coming up pretty quickly so I look forward to an update as to how they handle it.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 11 Dec

Good for you. It will be great when more vendors take Bitcoin because essentially right now all Strike is doing is swapping back out of Bitcoin to pay in USD.

51 sats \ 0 replies \ @jasonb OP 11 Dec

Yup, and I'm sure they'll get their pound of flesh, but I hope it's not as much as if I sold (fee) and transferred (additional fee). At the LEAST, it's WAY more convenient if you're bitcoin-only.

One-hundred K, One-schmrundred K

I'm now paying off my Honda Odyssey with bitcoin!

Background

Now we wait...

One-hundred K, One-schmrundred K

I'm now paying off my Honda Odyssey with bitcoin!

Background

Now we wait...

Footnotes