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171 sats \ 3 replies \ @fiatbad 24 Jan \ on: How many of you here live entirely on Bitcoin, with no reliance on fiat at all? AskSN
At the start of 2025, I decided to try my hardest to boycott fiat-only merchants and to try to live on Bitcoin.
I used BTCmap.org and Oshi. Then, I tried to meet local farmers/ranchers via local Bitcoin meetups, The Orange Pill app, and local farmers markets.
I purposely chose Madiera and Roatan as vacation destinations, so I could get hotels and restaurants entirely with Bitcoin. I'm fortunate to have had a remote job, so I went on "vacation" and worked at the same time. I run my own LN node and manage my own channels. So, when I was half way across the world in Madeira, I could easily spend Sats from my node in the U.S. at the speed of lightning. Non-custodially.
I helped a few local businesses set up their own LN nodes so that I could buy their products without using fiat.
It was great for a time. But, toward the end of the year, I began to lose my resilience. I think it was the lack of community support. Bitcoiners I knew were not living this way.... in fact, they seemed to think I was crazy for trying to. In August, I read Roger Ver's "Hijacking Bitcoin", where Ver argues that BTC has lost its original vision of becoming "cash-like" to threaten central bankers and the fiat system. He argues Bitcoiners today only care about NGU and are apathetic toward the fiat system.
It was depressing... feeling like the only soldier in the war who cared about vanquishing the enemy... Surrounded by a bunch of soft-bellied, NGU fanatics.
I helped a local bar/restaurant get setup with a self-custody LN Node and then worked with my local Bitcoin meetup to move the meetup to this new location that accepted Bitcoin. People were excited to be having the meetup in an establishment whose owner was also part of our war. Until it came time to pay. Only 4 out of 100 people paid with Bitcoin that night. In subsequent meetups, the owner doesn't even pull out the BTCPayServer iPad anymore. Everyone just pays with fiat. EVEN at these massive meetups.
Suffice to say, it's technically better for my stack if I just use Fold, pay with fiat, and get Bitcoin rewards back. There's little incentive for Bitcoiners to actually use Bitcoin as a medium-of-exchange.... except for ending fiat, fighting slavery, and helping put an end to the greatest oppression the world has ever known. But I guess this doesn't matter to Bitcoiners. Using rewards cards and spending fiat first because it's cheaper and easier.... this matters more, I guess. I grew tired of being the only trying to make change happen. I've gone back to using my Fold and stacking Sats like a good little central-bank wage slave.
Thanks very much for sharing your story, very inspired by this. It needs a separate post of its own.
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It was getting pretty long already, but I forgot I wanted to end with a paragraph saying something like the following:
I think the incentives to use Bitcoin as a medium-of-exchange become exponentially stronger with each new person doing it. Take "Bitcoin Beach" in El Salvador, for example. In that town, if a merchant is not excepting Bitcoin for payment, they are hurting their business. This is because so many people there demand it. There is A LOT of support to help onboard new businesses. People in the US think Bitcoin and Lightning are "hard to use", but that's only because there aren't enough people doing it. It becomes easier when there is more support and usage. Lightning is amazing. We could be using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange TODAY, and it would be faster and cheaper than any alt-coin. And with Core upgrades such as CTV, it will be even easier, faster, and cheaper to use. But these things will only happen if Bitcoiners push it to happen instead of sit around passively stacking. It's not going to happen if Store-of-value is the only way it's used. The idea that Bitcoin might not be the end of central banks should terrify us. Bitcoiners should push for CTV and/or other small upgrades to help Bitcoin scale, and they should want to sacrifice a little by trying their hardest to use Bitcoin for payments more frequently.
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