Bitcoin Q&A: Where Can I Buy and Spend Bitcoin? - YouTube

[ORGANIZER 1] I was actually surprised when last summer I went to Málaga, Spain,

... and in a shopping centre, there was an ATM machine. It said, "Get your Bitcoin here"

or "Get your money here for Bitcoin."

[ORGANIZER 2] So what do they actually give you?

[ORGANIZER 1] I didn't try. I didn't have any, so I couldn't try.

[ANDREAS] What the Bitcoin ATMs do is:

You hold up your smartphone device, which has a Bitcoin wallet, and it displays an address...

that can receive bitcoin. You show that to the ATM, and you put in some dirty old paper money,

It spits bitcoin to your smartphone. Done. Pretty straightforward. The best part is that the system...

is inherently secure because the ATM only knows how to send you money.

Just like if someone has your email address, that doesn't mean they can read your email.

That only means they can send you email. A similar principle to that.

[ORGANIZER 1] And it works the other way around as well?

[ANDREAS] Usually in most countries, it doesn't. Part of the reason for that is governments are terrified...

of the idea of creating a two-way network where you can change from bitcoin and back very easily.

Yes. As a result, most of these devices are characterized as vending machines...

that sell you magic internet money.

[ORGANIZER 1] Oh! That's fantastic.

[ORGANIZER 2] But it's often described as- The big problem with bitcoin is that if you were early,

cashed in early, and you have a lot of bitcoin, you might be a millionaire today in Bitcoin money.

But where can you spend it? How can you get dirty old paper money with your bitcoin?

There's a lot of banks that won't give you the old money for it. Like you said, they usually will only go one way.

[ANDREAS] Yes.

[ORGANIZER] So am I just gonna hoard all this bitcoin until I feel like a millionaire?

Are we going to see a big change there soon?

[ANDREAS] Well, when I first got into Bitcoin it was actually very difficult to buy anything.

The first thing I bought was a pound of coffee beans, which I bought from a small store somewhere...

in the United States. Based on my latest calculation, I paid $12,000 for a pound of coffee. [Laughter]

[ORGANIZER 2] Must have been some good coffee!

[ANDREAS] Nevertheless, those early moves help us build an economy. A lot of people think of bitcoin...

as something you buy and then sell, or invest in, and that's the wrong way to think about it.

I don't buy bitcoin. I haven't bought bitcoin since 2013.

I earn bitcoin. I got paid bitcoin to come here. I get paid bitcoin to do all of my work.

It's my primary source of income.

All of my contractors get paid in bitcoin. All of my employees get paid in bitcoin.

For example, this morning I sent my video editor a video that I recorded yesterday.

Pretty much similar to what we're doing here today.

They're in the Philippines. I sent them a bitcoin payment, which arrived in their bank account...

25 minutes later. You cannot do that with traditional banking.

My contractor, they don't know that I'm using bitcoin. In this particular case, they received Filipino pesos.

But that's not a problem. After a while, they pick up on what's happening.

They ask, "Can you just send me bitcoin directly?" The whole conversation changes.

We're creating a closed economy where you can buy and sell things directly in bitcoin: flights, hotels,

and things from Amazon. That's easy.

But eventually, you have to think of bitcoin a bit like foreign currency.

If you're on the internet as a tourist, you use bitcoin. If you're in Sweden, you use kronor.

When you go on vacation to the internet or you want to buy something there,

having a bit of bitcoin (the native currency) serves you well. Of course, there's many others.

You may find lots of different options.