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Maybe some people here can help answer some questions I have: 1 - Where can you spend Bitcoin? 2 - What percentage of outstanding Bitcoins are used for trade?

Maybe some people here can help answer some questions I have: 1 - Where can you spend Bitcoin? 2 - What percentage of outstanding Bitcoins are used for trade? i.e. exchanging currency for a good 3 - People have been saying it could be used for illegal activities. I understand each transaction is recorded in the global public ledger using the ID. Is it possible to trace who is behind each transaction? Can it be used for illegal activities? If so what percentage of Bitcoin does this make up?

seppin 9y ago
1. almost nowhere 2. < .01% 3. yes, but there's nothing stopping you buying and selling through multiple currencies. still technically traceable, but very difficult
- mark024 9y ago
  you can spend it on steam, of travel to Japan and spend it everywhere.
VMG 9y ago
1) Here is a list https://99bitcoins.com/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companies-stores-take-bitcoins/ https://99bitcoins.com/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companie... -- a lot of stores indirectly accept bitcoin via payment providers like bitpay.com, but I could not find a list. 2) Hard to tell because of (3). But you can approximate it using the exchange volumes: https://bitcoinaverage.com/ https://bitcoinaverage.com/ 3) Unless you are doing a targeted search, mapping an individual to one of his addresses, it is very difficult to run an analysis. This makes it hard to answer (2). It successfully used for illegal activities.
- Blackstone4 9y ago
  Thank you VMG On 2) could one strip out speculators from the exchange volumes?
  - VMG 9y ago
    My answer is no, simply because even the definition of "speculator" is unclear.
deweller 9y ago
for #1 - Purse.io. I regularly get a 23% discount on Amazon orders for stuff that I can wait a week on. The other 2 items are very difficult to quantify. Here's an anecdote from my personal experience: I use Bitcoin to receive a salary for some development work I do every month. Our company pays some of our international developers in Bitcoin because international payments are much easier that way. There is a lot of speculation for sure, but there is genuine real usage.
mrb 9y ago
1- A big chunk of Bitcoin's growth is happening outside of the merchant-accepts-Bitcoin scenario: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228983 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228983
csomar 9y ago
1- Lots of bitcoin debit cards. Localbitcoin is also very liquid even in remote third-world countries. 2- There was a detailed blog post analysis about movement of bitcoin. I can't find the link but you can Google it. 3- I'm pretty sure it is close to impossible to know. You can move your bitcoins to yourself. No one will be able to predict the nature of that transaction. It could have been a P2P transaction between you and a friend. Crypto is a $100bn+ market at this point. It is really huge.

seppin 9y ago

1. almost nowhere 2. < .01% 3. yes, but there's nothing stopping you buying and selling through multiple currencies. still technically traceable, but very difficult

mark024 9y ago
you can spend it on steam, of travel to Japan and spend it everywhere.

VMG 9y ago

1) Here is a list https://99bitcoins.com/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companies-stores-take-bitcoins/ https://99bitcoins.com/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companie... -- a lot of stores indirectly accept bitcoin via payment providers like bitpay.com, but I could not find a list. 2) Hard to tell because of (3). But you can approximate it using the exchange volumes: https://bitcoinaverage.com/ https://bitcoinaverage.com/ 3) Unless you are doing a targeted search, mapping an individual to one of his addresses, it is very difficult to run an analysis. This makes it hard to answer (2). It successfully used for illegal activities.

Blackstone4 9y ago
Thank you VMG On 2) could one strip out speculators from the exchange volumes?
- VMG 9y ago
  My answer is no, simply because even the definition of "speculator" is unclear.

deweller 9y ago

for #1 - Purse.io. I regularly get a 23% discount on Amazon orders for stuff that I can wait a week on. The other 2 items are very difficult to quantify. Here's an anecdote from my personal experience: I use Bitcoin to receive a salary for some development work I do every month. Our company pays some of our international developers in Bitcoin because international payments are much easier that way. There is a lot of speculation for sure, but there is genuine real usage.

mrb 9y ago

1- A big chunk of Bitcoin's growth is happening outside of the merchant-accepts-Bitcoin scenario: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228983 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15228983

csomar 9y ago

1- Lots of bitcoin debit cards. Localbitcoin is also very liquid even in remote third-world countries. 2- There was a detailed blog post analysis about movement of bitcoin. I can't find the link but you can Google it. 3- I'm pretty sure it is close to impossible to know. You can move your bitcoins to yourself. No one will be able to predict the nature of that transaction. It could have been a P2P transaction between you and a friend. Crypto is a $100bn+ market at this point. It is really huge.