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It needn't provide an advantage in day-to-day usage, just some niche advantage that works at least once. For instance, buying metal bullion from a major online

It needn't provide an advantage in day-to-day usage, just some niche advantage that works at least once. For instance, buying metal bullion from a major online vendor such as APMEX, you can avoid credit card fees or long wait for a check/ACH/wire(faster than previous two but still takes hours) to clear by paying in crypto. It's basically <30min clearing for any arbitrary large amount. The closest you can get to that without crypto through most major bullion vendors is a wire, which depending on your bank is anywhere from free (rare) to $25+. Sometimes the crypto fees are waived, other times they're merely much closer to check price than credit price.

dehrmann 5y ago
If you're buying physical metal and can wait a few days for it to ship, you can wait a day for the ACH payment to clear. Bitcoin is also very volatile, so you can end up losing out on the spread, but not notice it.
- notch656a 5y ago
  > you can wait a day for the ACH payment to clear. It adds an additional 1-2 days at least to shipping. Do you enjoy having your money gone additional time without any underlying asset in hand, adding to your counterparty risk? This is one of the reasons why Amazon delivery logistics has succeeded, consumers LIKE to have their goods faster. You don't think it's valid that some people use crypto to get their goods a day or two sooner for in many cases essentially the same price (or if they already had crypto, cheaper because they didn't have to convert back to fiat themselves). >Bitcoin is also very volatile, so you can end up losing out on the spread, but not notice it. The price in BTC(or LTC, BCH, etc) is locked for 15 minutes when you check out. If BTC or whatever you're using gains value you could merely choose not to execute the trade; when I missed the window there was no penalty it just cancelled the invoice. There's no way you can possibly have an unexpected loss. If you have fiat on an exchange and you needed crypto, you can choose to buy it right then in that 15 minute window to make sure your price is locked in.
  - dehrmann 5y ago
    > locked for 15 minutes I wonder if there's an arbitrage opportunity, here.
mdoms 5y ago
Ok so first I have to incur the CC fees while obtaining the crypto, and then I can avoid them at purchase time (but still have to pay Tx fees / gas / whatever over the top). Cool cool really neat stuff.
- notch656a 5y ago
  LTC has a transaction fee of like 2 cents. Where I am locally you can sometimes find people dumping crypto for cash person to person, if you keep an eye out you can get it at cost. Or on an exchange like Kraken buy for spot + 0.25%. Not my fault you buy crypto in literally the most expensive way possible and then pick something like ETH which has some of the worst transaction costs.

dehrmann 5y ago

If you're buying physical metal and can wait a few days for it to ship, you can wait a day for the ACH payment to clear. Bitcoin is also very volatile, so you can end up losing out on the spread, but not notice it.

notch656a 5y ago
> you can wait a day for the ACH payment to clear. It adds an additional 1-2 days at least to shipping. Do you enjoy having your money gone additional time without any underlying asset in hand, adding to your counterparty risk? This is one of the reasons why Amazon delivery logistics has succeeded, consumers LIKE to have their goods faster. You don't think it's valid that some people use crypto to get their goods a day or two sooner for in many cases essentially the same price (or if they already had crypto, cheaper because they didn't have to convert back to fiat themselves). >Bitcoin is also very volatile, so you can end up losing out on the spread, but not notice it. The price in BTC(or LTC, BCH, etc) is locked for 15 minutes when you check out. If BTC or whatever you're using gains value you could merely choose not to execute the trade; when I missed the window there was no penalty it just cancelled the invoice. There's no way you can possibly have an unexpected loss. If you have fiat on an exchange and you needed crypto, you can choose to buy it right then in that 15 minute window to make sure your price is locked in.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  > locked for 15 minutes I wonder if there's an arbitrage opportunity, here.

mdoms 5y ago

Ok so first I have to incur the CC fees while obtaining the crypto, and then I can avoid them at purchase time (but still have to pay Tx fees / gas / whatever over the top). Cool cool really neat stuff.

notch656a 5y ago
LTC has a transaction fee of like 2 cents. Where I am locally you can sometimes find people dumping crypto for cash person to person, if you keep an eye out you can get it at cost. Or on an exchange like Kraken buy for spot + 0.25%. Not my fault you buy crypto in literally the most expensive way possible and then pick something like ETH which has some of the worst transaction costs.