Cryptocurrencies are all the rage these days.
If you’re socially active, you should know at least one person who wouldn’t stop talking about Bitcoin. And whether you like it or not, they’re not entirely to blame.
Thanks to Bitcoin’s expectations-shattering streak these past few months, people are jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.
Plenty of them doesn’t even bother to understand how cryptocurrencies work and why they have value. But hey — as long as it makes them money, what’s there to ask, right?
Of course, cryptocurrencies also see their fair share of skepticism, especially from people who believe that they have absolutely no backing. However, most of these critics overlook the single factor that can impact something’s value: sentiment.
Put simply; a cryptocurrency will always have value as long as people want it. Some may consider it as an investment vehicle, while others are interested in the transactions they can make with it.
And, by golly, there are tons of amazing, amusing, and straight up weird things you can do with cryptocurrency nowadays. Here are 18 examples:
1. Purchase a Property – Real estate developers in places like Dubai and Miami now accept payments in Bitcoin.
2. Pay for Parking – A handful of malls, airports, and other public locations around the globe are also embracing BTC-based transactions.
3. Settle Your Parking Fines –  If you learned about point #2 a little too late, don’t worry — you can easily settle your NYC parking fines with Bitcoin.
4. Purchase Airline Tickets – Still related to point #2, you can also use services like CheapAir to book flights with cryptocurrency.
5. Get a College Degree – Not only are universities offering degrees in digital currencies, some of them even accept tuition fees made in Bitcoin.
6. Watch/Do Crazy Stunts – Eristica, a “FunTech” startup, now allows you to win cryptocurrency via challenges that must be recorded on video.
7. Eat at a Restaurant – As the name suggests, bitcoinrestaurants.net can help you look for dining spots that accept Bitcoin payments.
8. Buy Stocks – Cryptocurrency investments are so revolutionary, you can convert them into stocks in certain online brokerages.
9. Charge Your Electric Car – Thanks to cryptocurrency, blockchain-powered charging stations for electric cars are slowly making their way into more countries.
10. Buy a Car – If you don’t have an electric car to charge, you can now purchase one with cryptocurrency — just like what Mason Borda didfor a Tesla Model 3.
11. Rent an Uber Car – If you’d rather use Uber than purchase your car, you can pay for your ride with a cryptocurrency debit card.
12. Get a Bitcoin Debit Card – About the example above, you can get your Bitcoin debit card from companies like Shift.
13. Crowdsource Electricity – A lot of people aren’t aware of it yet, but in some places, you can transact electricity through “MicroGrids” using cryptocurrency.
14. Authenticate Sneakers – Sneaker manufacturer, Mache Customs, is the first to use blockchain technology to discourage knockoffs.
15. Participate in a Marketplace – If you’re already a Bitcoin users, there’s a good chance you already know about free marketplaces like OpenBazaar.
16. Buy Pizza – Pizza for Coins— enough said.
17. Vote – In recent years, entities like NASDAQ and the government of Moscow tested the feasibility of blockchains for elections — an endeavor that can kick off the “e-voting” industry.
18. Buy a Casket – If you need caskets (hopefully, for decorative purposes), then Crescent Tide in St. Paul, Minnesota is willing to sell you some for Bitcoins.
Conclusion
The more innovators attempt to leverage cryptocurrencies or the underlying blockchain technology; the more optimistic people become with Bitcoin. With the examples above, there’s more than enough reason to believe that it’ll stick around for a long while.
Originally posted on December 20, 2017 @ 7:47 am