Having money is only worthwhile if you have a way to use that money. With a digital currency, that fact is magnified. If you cannot use your Bitcoin, Ethereum, or whatever else you might be using, there’s really not a point in accumulating it. So, how do you use a cryptocurrency?
There are a few different steps here, but for the purpose of brevity, we will only be able to look at the main points, and we won’t be able to go into a ton of details. The bottom line is that you can use a cryptocurrency just like you would a credit card. Having this frame of reference as a starting point will help you to fill in a lot of the gaps on your own, especially as you learn more and more about cryptocurrencies.
Purchases
Think about what you use a credit card for on a daily basis. Maybe you are shopping for a few items on Amazon or maybe you are paying a bill. We use our credit cards all the time, often without even thinking about it. So many services have auto pay features now, that it can be really easy to forget that we even are paying for something.
Cryptocurrencies can be used in an almost identical way as credit cards. There are a few main differences, however. One, not as many venues accept cryptocurrencies as forms of payments. For example, not many grocery stores will allow you to walk in and send them some Litecoin from your phone in exchange for food. This will likely change in the future, especially as security becomes tighter and as the price of cryptocurrencies finds a greater stability. This might take a few years to achieve, but it is on the horizon.
Another big difference is that with cryptocurrencies, most places cannot accept an auto pay. This is a good thing because it makes you think about each purchase you make. Rather than buy something with just one click, there is a process that demands that you take responsibility for your money. In some cases, that simplicity is good because it speeds up your life. In other cases, it’s not good because it encourages waste. Using a cryptocurrency to help manage finances can actually make a lot of sense if approached correctly.
Anonymity
One of the main appeals of cryptocurrencies are that your transactions are harder to trace back. For those that have a general distrust of authority and for those that love their privacy, this is a big deal. If you think about a credit card purchase, you can look back at the records and find a lot out about where and when that transaction took place. Cryptocurrencies elevate your privacy. Not everyone is concerned about this, but for those of us that are, this is a huge benefit of using a digital, online based currency.
It’s worth repeating that cryptocurrencies are still growing in their usage. There has been a lot of bad press about them in the last few years, and that can be discouraging. However, these kinks have largely been worked out. Are all of the rough patches smoothed over? It’s not very likely. But thanks to the widespread press of the setbacks that Bitcoin and Ethereum (and others) have experienced, experts in the field have made security tighter, they’ve made wallets safer and more varied, and the blockchain has increased in complexity to help even out the price of all currencies. If you’re going to use a digital currency, be sure to follow the rules of common sense, just like you would with a credit card or any other form of payment.