Cryptocurrency Shopping Guide: How To Shop With Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency markets are bursting with activity as the value of bitcoin, ether, alternative coins and initial coin offering tokens surge across the globe.

Many people think of cryptocurrency primarily as an investment. However, just like cash, cryptocurrency also can buy all kinds of products and services. Coinmap offers a global map of businesses that accept bitcoin from the jewelry franchise Reeds jewelers to NBA tickets to see the Sacramento Kings. These days, people even are buying artisanal honey, Steam video games and Dell computer products with bitcoin. Shoppers even can convert newer tokens like ether or dash into everyday purchases.

Read: PayPal Joins Dell, DISH, Expedia, Overstock To Accept Bitcoins As Payment

“We support almost all of the top 30 or 40 coins,” Erik Voorhees, CEO of the blockchain startup ShapeShift, told International Business Times. “We have something like 50 different assets that we support.” ShapeShift partners with the bitcoin marketplace Purse and the cryptocurrency wallet CoinPayments. Since most crypto-friendly vendors prefer bitcoin, ShapeShift converts alternative coins like dash and monero into bitcoin so shoppers can use Purse to spend their digital dough on Amazon.

Voorhees said he and his wife often buy their household products on Amazon with bitcoin. They’ve also used cryptocurrency to buy CheapAir flights and Expedia hotel reservations many times. “It’s pretty much everything I need other than food,” he said.

Rising bitcoin and ether prices haven’t put a damper on their liquidity. On the contrary, Voorhees said, even more people are shopping with their digital assets. “Whenever the price of cryptocurrency is rallying, people start spending a lot more. That’s been true since I got involved in 2011,” he said. “I’ve been through three or four of these bubbles. ... We’ve actually seen people spend way more when the price is rising. I think that’s just because people are wealthier. When people are wealthier, they are more willing to spend some of their money.”

Bitcoin shopping isn’t always a smooth user experience. The internet is full of bitcoin enthusiasts swapping horror stories when things go wrong with companies like Expedia. Many vendors accept virtual currency through a third party, like Coinbase in Expedia’s case. So when something goes awry, the corporate customer service staff often doesn’t know how to refund bitcoin or untangle crossed wires. CoinTelegraph reported Expedia’s bitcoin options no longer work well, even if the partnership with Coinbase is still officially on the books. Coinbase has been known to have technical issues since the bitcoin boom took off.

As one disappointed reddit user pointed out, companies often garner press coverage when they start accepting bitcoin but quietly discontinue the option without any announcement. One notable exception is Fiverr, which discontinued bitcoin options earlier this year. However, more businesses are choosing to accept bitcoin directly, like Bardo Farm in New Hampshire. Bloomberg reported Peach recently became Japan’s first airline to accept bitcoin payments.

Adam White, general manager of the Coinbase exchange GDAX, told IBT shopping with bitcoin is much easier than skeptics might expect. “You go through the checkout process. When you want to pay, if you go to Expedia or Overstock you’ll see the option. Do you want to pay with credit card, PayPal or do you want to pay with bitcoin?” White explained. “It’s just another form of payment the merchant can receive.”

Coinbase supports bitcoin shopping on sites like Overstock and Stripe, which works with Target, Lyft and Girl Scouts, just to name a few. That doesn’t mean you can buy Girl Scout cookies automatically with bitcoin. It means Stripe’s clients can choose to accept bitcoin. While pretty much everything on Overstock can be bought with bitcoin, from designer bags to shoes, it’s still up to individual Stripe merchants to opt in. There’s a long way to go until bitcoin shopping is mainstream. Sometimes even participating vendors don’t advertise that they accept bitcoin. Some bitcoin shoppers use cryptocurrency to buy Target giftcards as a workaround.

If merchants do opt in through Stripe, Coinbase takes shoppers’ bitcoins and gives the merchant U.S. dollars. Some businesses outside of the tech industry are still wary of unpredictable cryptocurrency markets. The Economist reported the “bitcoin bubble” is like a less volatile version of the dotcom boom. On the other hand, many bitcoin enthusiasts disagree.

“I’m much more confident with crypto than with banks or fiat currency because I can actually control it and the money supply is transparent, stated up front,” Voorhees said. “It makes online shopping a lot easier and a lot safer.” Users can just scan the QR code with their phones and connect automatically to their digital wallets without needing to enter personal information on the shopping site itself. “That stuff gets hacked all the time and people have identity theft problems,” Voorhees added.

These days, even a few hundred Etsy shops accept bitcoin. White said bitcoin shopping has the greatest benefits for mom-and-pop shops, like his favorite San Francisco ramen shop. “No card processing fees, no fraud, these are pain points felt especially strongly by smaller merchants,” White said. “Which don’t have the leverage to negotiate and don’t have big fraud prevention teams.”

Bitcoin shopping can be even faster than regular shopping, whether online or in person. The transactions can take just a few seconds, instead of a few minutes. ShapeShift in particular doesn’t even have accounts. There’s no sign-up process, so users can convert cryptocurrency kind of like using a vending machine. “You just tell it what you have, like bitcoin, and what you want, like Ethereum. You send in one and it sends out the other,” Voorhees explained.

In the past, bitcoin was widely associated with black market purchases like drugs on the digital Silk Road. Now websites like SpendBitcoins offer comprehensive directories of thousands of businesses that accept bitcoin. Companies like BitGive even specialize in nonprofit bitcoin donations, using blockchain to track how contributions are spent in real time. It’s never been easier to spend cryptocurrency.

Read: Bitcoin Price Reaches All-Time High, Continues Upward Trend In 2017