When bitcoin first hit the mainstream a few years ago, it was believed it could replace cash and credit cards as a way to pay for things.But its extreme price swings, and the fiddliness of a bitcoin transaction, meant that idea fell to the wayside.Bitcoin became more suited to the speculators who day-traded it.But new data suggests that bitcoin payments are gaining traction, as its volatility has fallen and its value has rocketed.One set of data comes from BitPay, a payment processor that helps merchants accept bitcoin payments.It broke funding records early on as investors rushed to capitalize on bitcoin payments.It has since been eclipsed by other firms that offer bitcoin trading or storage.But BitPay’s data speaks for itself: The rise in payment volume is more pronounced when shown in dollar terms, because bitcoin’s price has risen over time.Bitcoin’s now trading close to all-time highs, at $1,235.The more valuable bitcoin has become, the more people are using it to buy stuff.

“We have definitely seen a ‘wealth effect’ pattern when the bitcoin price increases,” says James Walpole, BitPay’s marketing manager.In other words, if you already owned bitcoin and it rose in value, selling some bitcoin would give you more dollars to spend.What are people spending bitcoins on?Walpole says about a third of BitPay’s transactions are going to prepaid services like Neteller, Skrill, and BitPay’s prepaid Visa card.Some 21% are going to gaming platforms like Steam.Fifteen percent of transactions go to digital services like domain-name registrations.The bitcoin “wealth effect” is also evident in the buying patterns of customers at CheapAir, which sells plane tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals online.CheapAir was one of the earliest merchants to accept bitcoin payments in November 2013, and founder Jeff Klee says his bitcoin customers are now feeling flush.“With bitcoin we tend to generate more sales in premium cabins like business class or first class,” he says.

“Certainly the average spend for the bitcoin customer is higher than a non-bitcoin customer.” CheapAir’s bitcoin payments have risen sharply over the last year and a half—a time when bitcoin’s price has risen sixfold.Klee won’t share payment volume numbers, but he says CheapAir will have processed over $15 million in bitcoin payments this month, since his firm began accepting the cryptocurrency.CheapAir’s bitcoin customers tend to be from outside the US, Klee says, which may also hint at why they prefer the cryptocurrency.Credit cards issued in some countries are often automatically flagged by merchants or payment processors to be high fraud risks, and prevented from completing a purchase, Klee says.“Legitimate buyers are disadvantaged,” he says.A bona fide customer could get around that by paying in bitcoin.But if bitcoin payment volumes only rise when the price rises, this suggests only existing bitcoin holders are spending their new wealth.People who bought bitcoin later, at higher prices, would have no reason to spend their coins.

BitPay’s Walpole says that his firm has seen volumes rise even when prices were low.He suggests that higher payment volumes are driven by bitcoin’s improving fundamentals.“Bitcoin [is being used] as a store of value, as a currency hedge, and as a payment method for economies without widespread credit card or banking access,” he says.If Walpole is right, bitcoin holders (or hodlers, as bitcoin slang has it) are becoming more willing to part with their digital cash.bitcoin cosa sonoGoogle the phrase “free bitcoin” and you won’t be disappointed with the number of results.bitcoin cooWhat you will be disappointed with however is the nature of the sites claiming to offer “free” bitcoins.bitcoin qr appAs the old saying goes: “Nothing in life is free.” What these sites actually do is require you to perform time consuming tasks for a few measly satoshi (0.00000001 Bitcoin) which you will probably never see in any useable form as the sites have payout minimums that are impossible to reach.bitcoin almak satmak

I decided to trawl through some of the top results for this search in an attempt to actually use them.First off this site is incredibly slow when browsing through the various tasks to earn bitcoin.It supposedly pays out every day if you have at least 10,000 satoshi earned on the site, which is around a measly $0.05 USD at the time of writing.But I could not confirm this as the only worthwhile tasks where surveys none of which would work.Watching videos only paid out around 3000 satoshi each, and there were only four available regardless.bitcoin current difficulty levelThis site has a payout threshold of 6000 satoshi.wer nimmt bitcoinI tried to complete one of their “tasks” which involved going to google and submitting to the site what recommended searching options I got for a particular search.ltc to bitcoin exchange

But the task was incompletable and I wasted 15 minutes of my time as a result.This site lets you earn Bitcoin by visiting a new webpage every five minutes between each you have to enter a captcha.The payout is 60 bits, and you get between 2 and 0.8 bits for each page.Not worth even the time you will spend entering the captchas.Simple, just enter your address.But pay varies between 100 to 500 satoshi for every submit which is limited to once an hour, so unless your time is worth nothing and you can enter a captcha every hour this isn’t worth your time.litecoin how to mineOn top of this you need 5500 satoshi earned to execute a payout.bitcoin test faucet“Shut up and give me my free bitcoins” That’s more like it!No more surveys/videos that don’t work right?This site screams sham.It has two badges at the top of the page reading “secure” and “genuine 100% trusted website”, but with no indication of who awarded these accolades.

The site turns out to be an elaborate ad for the Bitcoin faucet “coinbox.me” which your “instant bitcoins” are paid into.Apparently the faucet pays out when you get to 5500 satoshi but it appear that you only get 60 satoshi a day.Not worth your time.“Get BTC for free right now!”– Operative word being “now,” from my experience so far I am skeptical.Once I submitted my address I was met with a message that read “Soon bitcoins will be sent!”and the promise of a measly 5 satoshi.But your balance has to exceed 5500 satoshi before payout can occur.Also, you can only submit once an hour, which earns you about five satoshi.That’s approximately 1100 submits to the site which would mean coming back and re-entering your address every hour for approximately 46 days for the equivalent of just under $0.03 USD worth of Bitcoin.I don’t think there is a person on the planet whose time is worth that little.Basically, for lack of better words, these sites are bad and you should never waste your time even entertaining the thought of using them.