Only a year ago, “living on Bitcoin” meant merely surviving.When Forbes reporter Kashmir Hill experimented by only buying in Bitcoin for a full week, she struggled to pay her rent and even to find food.Had Hill done her experiment today, however, she likely would have had a much easier time.See also: A Year In Bitcoin: Why We’ll Still Care About The Cryptocurrency Even If It FadesToday, you can live a life of luxury spending only your BTC.As of this writing, BTC payment provider Bitpay processes Bitcoin transactions for 35,000 merchants worldwide—up from just 1,000 merchants in September 2012.It’s not just Bitcoin miners and e-cigarettes anymore, either.You can buy a much larger variety of goods and services with Bitcoin than you could in the cryptocurrency’s early days.If you’ve got some bitcoins squirreled away from back when the hype was high, here are just a few of the well-known companies that will gladly accept them:Take your bitcoins and get out of town.Book your vacation surreptitiously through Expedia.

So far, the travel booking company only accepts Bitcoin payments for hotels, but plans to expand to flights, car rentals and more, a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.Need to book your flight (or Amtrak train, or hotel room) with bitcoins right now?CheapAir already has you covered.Need to get even farther away?In November 2013, Richard Branson announced that his space travel company, Virgin Galactic, will accept bitcoins.Buy bits and pieces with Bitcoin.Amazon, Target, CVS and other chain stores don’t accept Bitcoin directly.But with Gyft, you can use bitcoins to buy a gift card to any of these stores and get around that.And in good news for people attempting to live on Bitcoin, Gyft’s cards include chain restaurants like Burger King and grocery stores like Whole Foods.Looking to buy in bulk?Wholesale site Overstock claimed to be the first major U.S.retailer to accept Bitcoin back in December 2013.By May, the company said that customers had made $1.6 million worth of purchases using Bitcoin.Use Bitcoin to build your electronic world.Working your way through some ReadWrite tutorials?

Buy a new Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or any of their components and accessories at Adafruit.In news surprising nobody, major computer retailer Newegg announced in July that it will accept Bitcoin.Being that you could already buy parts on Newegg to build Bitcoin miners, the move makes sense for its audience.Pay for access to Bitcoin news with your bitcoins.nguon goc bitcoinThis May, satellite TV provider Dish Network claimed to become the largest company yet to accept Bitcoin.java bitcoin virusDish doesn’t know how many of its 14 million subscribers desired this payment option, but in July they’ll find out for sure.The Chicago Sun-Times became the first major newspaper to accept Bitcoin after it tested a BTC paywall in April.jenis-jenis bitcoinNow it receives 11% of new subscriptions in bitcoins.Have a good time with Bitcoin.Online gaming site Zynga now accepts payment in Bitcoin for some of its most popular titles, including FarmVille 2.The Sacramento Kings became the first professional sports franchise to permit fans to pay for professional basketball tickets and merchandise in Bitcoin.Live large with Bitcoin.dell bitcoin largest

Buy your next diamond with Bitcoin.Reeds Jewelers, a national jewelry chain, now accepts Bitcoin in all of its retail locations.BitPremier, a luxury Bitcoin marketplace, just celebrated its first anniversary.But even though you’ve probably heard of it, the company continues to push the envelope.wer nimmt bitcoinYou can now buy an $11 million yacht there.dc pos bitcoinIn March, BitPremier confirmed the largest Bitcoin purchase on record: a $500,000 villa in Bali.Last week, bitcoin payment processor BitPay announced a deal with Gyft, a seven-month-old Google Ventures-backed software app that lets users buy and upload retail gift cards to Android-based smartphones.The partnership will allow customers to use bitcoins to buy gift cards for stores such as Gap (GPS), Lowe's (LOW), Sephora, GameStop (GME), Burger King (BKW) and over 200 other retailers.While those stores won't handle the bitcoin transactions themselves -- that's done by Gyft and BitPay -- it brings the number of locations where customers can effectively pay with bitcoins from around 8,000 nationwide to over 50,000, according to BitPay co-founder and CEO Tony Gallippi.

"This really does open the door to retail use of Bitcoin," said Gallippi."I think it will drive adoption."There's no doubt that four-year-old cyber currency Bitcoin is attracting more mainstream attention.For evidence of that, just look at Bitcoin's soaring -- and volatile -- valuation.The worth of 1 bitcoin zoomed from $20 at the start of the year to $266 in April.It's now worth about $117.What's harder to say is if people area actually using bitcoins to buy stuff.One of the more prominent merchants to start taking bitcoins, blog hosting site Wordpress, is keeping mum on the matter.Wordpress' move to accept bitcoins "was fueled more by curiosity than by profit," a company spokeswoman told CNNMoney.She wouldn't say how many customers had used them, but she did confirm that at least a few people had paid with bitcoins.Online community Reddit, another high-profile acceptor of bitcoins, said about 5% of its premium membership sales are now paid via Bitcoin.At Stomp Romp, a New Hampshire-based online guitar retailer, owner Zach Harvey said that a growing number of people are paying with bitcoins, but he estimated that it's still less than 1% of his businesses.

He began accepting bitcoins in 2011.Harvey -- a die-hard libertarian -- remains bullish on the currency.Another company he's involved with is working to help roll out Bitcoin ATMs.He attributes his lackluster Bitcoin sales at Stomp Romp to the fact that "guitar fans aren't really tech geeks."Bitcoins have been a giant hit for at least one merchant: New York City bar EVR has logged more than $26,000 in Bitcoin sales since it started taking the currency just over a month ago.That's about 10% of the bar's overall revenue."I've been pleasantly surprised," said EVR co-owner Alex Likhtenstein.Likhtenstein said paying with bitcoins is easy.The servers present the customer with a bill on a tablet that has a bar code attached.The customer scans the bar code with a smartphone, and the amount in bitcoins is subtracted from their account.He likes the fact that he gets paid faster with bitcoins than with credit cards.Plus, the processing fees are lower."To a business owner, it has only positives," he said.