Spend bitcoin at stores that accept it, please!

Before you downvote or post a negative comment, please read the post (or at least the TLDR below). “Spend bitcoins” seems to trigger folks so much that they fail to realize there’s a way to spend bitcoin without reducing your stack or paying capital gains.

I see a lot of folks that think they should never spend any Bitcoin - they’re going to save it forever. Cool, HODL your stack. But, please realize there is a difference between "taking profits" and "growing the network."

When buying stuff with Bitcoin, you can either "spend and replace" or you can use something like Strike. The latter being better. It seems like so many people in comments here have never heard of Strike or lightning, or they don't know what they do. Granted, some countries don't have access to Strike yet but I see plenty of negative comments coming from folks that could be using it.

For those that don't know about it, let me explain. You can connect your bank account and then deposit your dirty fiat into Strike. Whenever you want to send someone BTC (main chain or lightning) you just click “pay” and scan the QR code. Strike deducts your fiat and then Strike pays with BTC. Let me repeat: Strike pays with BTC. You never hold that BTC and so therefore you never have any capital gain issues. In other words, Strike lets you use the BTC network without holding BTC.

So, if Strike is available in your country, please do yourself a favor and figure out how it works before you crap on people's joy when a new store starts accepting bitcoin. If people will spend bitcoin then there's no reason for stores not to accept bitcoin - and there's no reason you can't keep HODLing your stack if you use something like Strike.

Finally, I see some folks that seem to think it's pointless for a store to accept bitcoin. I mean....is it not obvious why a store should? Sure, maybe a store instantly converts BTC to fiat, but (1) having them accept it is advertising for Bitcoin, (2) don't you think stores will start to realize that lightning is cheaper than merchant fees, and (3) who's more likely to HODL bitcoin - a business that accepts it or one that doesn't? And, as a bonus point, please realize there are people that would like to live on bitcoin (get paid in bitcoin) that would love to not convert it to fiat.

TLDR (by u/HumidCrispyCat) …if you dont want to pay from your personal bag, download the Strike app and use that. It allows you to send bitcoin to any BTC/lightning address, using fiat, for super low fees