Where are Bitcoins accepted? Which stores support cryptocurrency payments?

Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital alternative to traditional money. But so far, Bitcoin cannot compete with fiat currency.

RusCoins.info decided to find out what can be paid with bitcoins in Russia, how to pay with cryptocurrency, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using bitcoin as a means of payment, the future of cryptocurrency transactions.

Is it possible to live without fiat money?

In the summer of 2022, only the lazy did not talk about cryptocurrency. If previously Bitcoin was used on the darknet, paying for transactions for the purchase and sale of weapons and other illegal goods, then after the rate soared, people began to seriously think: could cryptocurrency revolutionize the financial market?

Just a year ago, 99% of workers would have twirled their fingers at their temples when asked to receive their salaries in cryptocurrency. But today many already receive bitcoin instead of the ruble for their work. For example, Evgeny Savelyev, CEO of Huston Digital, works outsourced and receives a salary in cryptocurrency. Evgeniy works with cryptocurrencies and provides services for preparing mining farms and writing programs for collecting information.

The CEO of the social network on the Golos.io blockchain, Sergei Simanovsky, lives similarly on cryptocurrency. There are many examples where employees receive salaries in Bitcoin or Ethereum, but the labor is associated with cryptocurrency and outsourcing. There are no cases yet where a salesperson at Pyaterochka receives a salary in crypto. The reason for this is the legislator’s attitude towards Bitcoin, the ban on its use as a means of payment. And the seller, most likely, would be against receiving bitcoin instead of rubles.

What is the advantage of using cryptocurrency - exchange for any currency of another country. What's the downside? Cryptocurrency has to be exchanged for fiat. Without this, it is impossible to fully use the money, since there are few services that accept Bitcoin for payment. Bitcoin is not accepted by the grocery store near your home, although the service is generally more common with individuals than with large companies.

Currency exchangers

But most of the services working with crypto are engaged in the exchange of fiat money for cryptocurrencies and vice versa. Only on the bestchange.ru service we counted more than 40 online exchangers that are ready to exchange your bitcoins for Yandex Money.

You can also select services that exchange other cryptocurrencies.

Let's summarize. All over the world, every day there are more and more establishments where you can pay with bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. In Russia, after constant statements from government bodies, the Central Bank, and Duma deputies about future tightening in relation to payments in cryptocurrency, such points, on the contrary, are being closed. For example, not so long ago in Russia it was possible to pay with crypto in three large pizzeria chains. Today they stopped accepting payments in Bitcoin. Therefore, Russians can only withdraw cryptocurrency to exchangers or use online services that are geographically located in other states, but also provide services for residents of the Russian Federation.

Payment with bitcoins in Russia, what goods and services can be purchased

Shopping with Bitcoin in Russia is not very developed. But if you want to introduce a couple of tenths of Bitcoin into circulation, you can find many areas of application.

Travel, hotels, air tickets

If you have Bitcoin in your pocket, you can easily fly to the other side of the world. Use expedia.com to book flights, accommodations and even car rentals using Bitcoin. A similar service will be provided by cheapair.com and travelforcoins.com. And if you need to fly from St. Petersburg or Moscow using bitcoins, use the air carrier AirBaltic.

Restaurants, cafes

Inspired by the story of Laszlo Hynex, who spent 10,000 BTC on 2 pizzas in May 2010, the guys opened the website PizzaForCoins.com, where you can order pizza for Bitcoin. Enter the city, select possible pizzerias, place your order, pay - and warm pizza rushes to your home by courier. You can eat for Bitcoin at Killfish, BurgerKing, the Valenok restaurant on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, at the Headquarters coffee shop and Coffee In.

Fitness clubs

You can pay for a gym membership at NanoFitness in Tyumen and St. Petersburg. True, the owners of the fitness club said that they had to face the prosecutor’s office after they added Bitcoin to the payment methods. Since cryptocurrency is illegal, the legislator sees money laundering and tax evasion in transactions with Bitcoin. It is worth noting that the owners of establishments are not against paying taxes and introducing cryptocurrency into the legal field, but it is easier for the legislator to ban an unusual means of payment than to find competent regulation.

Online stores

eBay, Amazon, FastTech accept cryptocurrency. From Russian stores you can pay with Bitcoin at Ulmart. If you cannot find any product or store that accepts Bitcoin, contact the gyft.com service, which sells gift certificates.

Other products and services

You can buy VPN, Microsoft software products and applications in the AppStore with Bitcoin. Using cpay.io you can transfer Bitcoin to your phone.

Oddly enough, cryptocurrency is very popular among individual entrepreneurs and private legal entities. Find out if your tattoo artist or manicurist accepts Bitcoin as payment. In small towns it’s unlikely, but if you live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, this situation is real. The reason for this is ease of use. There is no need to contact banks, write papers to provide a terminal, or enter into an agreement to open and maintain an account. To pay with Bitcoin you need a mobile phone and the Internet.

How to earn Bitcoin without investment

In addition to purchasing, there are a number of ways to earn Bitcoin. Let's start with those who do not require any investment from you (except perhaps time).

Cranes

A Bitcoin faucet is a resource that distributes cryptocurrency for free in exchange for some action or viewing an advertisement. It should be said right away that you can make significant money in this way only if you comply with a number of conditions: use 10-20 Bitcoin faucets at the same time, constantly monitor them, collecting profits, and actively use the benefits of affiliate programs, that is, attract referrals.

The faucet gives out a bonus every 5-60 minutes, and this bonus is equal to 5-20 thousand satoshi, that is, millionths of Bitcoin. Famous BTC faucets:

• FreeBitcoin
• Satoshihero,
• MoonBitcoin,
• BonusBitcoin
• Adbtc TOP and others.

For example, on the FreeBitcoin faucet, click “Roll” and receive Satoshi depending on the generated number. The minimum amount is 37 satoshi or 0.00000037 BTC. Winnings can be increased using additional sections: MultiPly, Betting, Earn BTC, Lottery.

Games

Such services also do not imply serious profits; rather, they are a way to relax and have fun, while at the same time receiving a small income. It is important to choose a game based on real reviews from users to determine the ones that actually pay.

Examples of games for 2022:

• Dice
• Chopcoin
• Coinbrawl

In some, the gameplay is quite monotonous, which makes them similar to faucets, only with a more pleasant interface. And some are actually fun to play. Try different options and find the best one for you.

Bitcoin games on Truecryptogames (Dice, Cockroach racing):

A selection of Bitcoin games (Bitcoin Dice, 4Clover Lottery, Alien Slots) on the SatoshiHero website:

Games on the Xether project:

Advantages of paying BTC for purchases

1. Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin transactions are protected by a consensus mechanism using cryptography.
2. Bitcoin cannot be counterfeited. Despite the high degree of security of paper money, cases of counterfeiting still occur.
3. Bitcoin is issued by miners in the quantities necessary to carry out transactions. You can’t just print cryptocurrencies and then carry out denomination and devaluation - there are no such phenomena in cryptocurrency.
4. Transactions with BTC are anonymous, the owner’s personal information is disclosed only in the case of withdrawal of the cryptocurrency into fiat.
5. Bitcoin eliminates the participation of intermediaries in the transaction. There is no need to pay interest on transactions to banks and payment systems. In the world of cryptocurrency, only exchangers and stock exchanges keep a percentage when converting currencies. And the internal percentage of the blockchain for carrying out a transaction is extremely small.

In other words, due to anonymity, Bitcoin allows you not to declare income. Transactions with cryptocurrency are more secure than with regular currency. Hackers carry out attacks on cryptocurrency wallets, but they are rarely successful.

Earnings with investments

If you decide to start working with cryptocurrencies at a serious level, then you need to know that you can’t do it without investments. They are often so impressive that they take several months to pay for themselves.

Mining

To keep the Bitcoin network working and users to continue sending and receiving transactions, mining was invented. It is the miners who, using their equipment, form blocks from transactions, confirming their authenticity. There is a reward for this procedure.

To earn Bitcoins by mining, you will need:

1. Bitcoin wallet on any convenient platform.
2. Equipment, which is described below.
3. Software.

Today Bitcoin has such a high mining difficulty that to mine it you need to purchase at least one, and preferably more, ASIC. This is a special device with very high power, designed to perform only one operation, but doing this operation as efficiently as possible. ASICs are expensive equipment, and investments do not pay off immediately. In addition, if the Bitcoin exchange rate collapses, then the device will not even be able to be sold; no one will need it.

Instead of buying expensive equipment, you can use cloud mining services. On such services you will only need to pay for a contract for the required amount of power. Cryptocurrency payments are usually made within 24 hours. Popular cloud services are: IQ Mining (recommended), HashFlare, Genesis Mining.

Exchange trading

In this option, you don’t have to buy anything material – but you need to invest in cryptocurrency on one of the exchanges. And then start trading, buying and selling coins at opportune moments and making money on the difference in rates.

Experienced traders say that there is no point in coming to the exchange with less than $1000. The use of platforms with margin collateral will help to significantly reduce this amount. However, it is still always a risk. It is very easy for a beginner to go broke, even if he studies the rules and nuances of cryptocurrency trading for a long time and persistently.

Disadvantages of using Bitcoin as a means of payment

1. Electricity required. This drawback also applies to fiat electronic money in plastic card accounts. In this regard, coins and paper banknotes will give a head start to any cryptocurrencies.
2. Transactions using Bitcoin are illegal. Most countries recognize their national currency as legal tender. The legislator of the Russian Federation followed this path when considering new bills on cryptocurrency, according to which Bitcoin and other coins are not legal means of payment. That is, transactions made using cryptocurrency are outside the legal framework and are not subject to the application of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”. If you pay for an item with cryptocurrency but do not receive it, it will be impossible to prove anything in court. This gives space for scammers, swindlers and dishonest people.
3. High volatility of cryptocurrency. Volatility is price variability. A striking example of volatility is the story of American Laszlo Hynex, who in 2010 bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC. At that time, the rate of 1 bitcoin was $0.5. Today, even taking into account the collapse of the exchange rate, 10,000 BTC costs $32,997,121.35. You can lose big on transactions using cryptocurrency or, conversely, win.

Bitrefill.com

Bitrefill.com is a worldwide service for refilling mobile operators with Bitcoin and Litecoin. In order to top up your account with Russian operators, go to the page

https://www.bitrefill.com/russia/

Here you can see a list of operators collaborating with the service:

By entering the phone number, we are taken to the pricing page. Replenishment is possible in an amount from 20 rubles to 15 thousand rubles. Prices on the website at the end of December 2022 are as follows:

• Replenishment of 20 rubles (minimum) - 0.000030 BTC – i.e. 26.41 RUB
• Deposit of 15,000 rubles (maximum) – 0.017600 BTC – i.e. RUB 15,494.32
• Replenishment of 1000 rubles - 0.001180 BTC - i.e. 1,038.82 RUB at the exchange rate as of December 27, 2017

Money usually arrives in your account within 5-10 minutes.

Russia and the rest of the world: comparing the availability of goods for bitcoin

To see how things are going with cryptocurrency in other countries, RusCoins.info recommends turning to the Coinmap.org service. It is a world map with geolocations of ATMs and establishments that accept Bitcoin. A similar service is provided by SpendBitcoins.com. A Bitcoin ATM will help you find the CoinATMRadar service.

In Europe and America, Bitcoin has become as common a means of payment as Visa or MasterCard. In Russia, unfortunately, not yet. The same goes for the neighbors. In Belarus in Minsk, Bitcoin is accepted for payment in an Apple equipment store, an automotive electronics store, an electronic cigarette and mobile phone store. Some private entrepreneurs accept Bitcoin as rent for an apartment for a day. In the regional city of Brest, Bitcoin is accepted at the Altair cafe.

However, in order for the payment to take place legally, the scheme is a little complicated: first, the owner of the establishment makes a card payment through the cash register, and the buyer already transfers the cryptocurrency from the wallet to the owner’s account. In small towns such as Molodechno and Baranovichi, it is possible to pay with bitcoin in cafes and online stores, but so far no one has expressed a desire to pay a check in cryptocurrency.

A striking transaction using cryptocurrency happened in Minsk in the summer of 2017. In the wake of cryptocurrency hype, an article appeared on the Internet that teacher Gennady bought a two-room apartment in the center of Minsk for bitcoins. While his peers were mastering “tanks” and other games, Gennady quietly mined bitcoins for his apartment.

Also in 2022, in Minsk they tried to sell a 4-room apartment for 30 BTC. We don’t know whether the owners of the apartment managed to find buyers, but the advertisement is no longer on the website.

Who accepts payments in Bitcoin?

Most view BTC as a commodity rather than a currency. Many use it as a tool for accumulation and speculation. In addition, there is not much information about companies where you can pay in bitcoins for a service provided or a product purchased.

There are several large companies that accept BTC as an official form of payment. Here are some of the major companies that accept cryptocurrencies.

• Overstock.com was the first major online company to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment back in January 2014. Overstock offers laptops, TVs and other electronic products. The online store has evolved over time and now accepts all major cryptocurrencies, including: Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Bitcoin Cash.
• eGifter is one of the most popular gift card sites in the world. The company has a mobile application that offers gift cards for Amazon, JCPenny, Sephora, Home Depot, Kohls, etc. Thus, you can use BTC to buy a card to other stores that do not support non-traditional payment methods.
• Shopify stores are the largest store on the list. This e-commerce company is known for allowing you to create your own online stores to sell products. Four years ago, Shopify introduced the system to accept payments in Bitcoin using the popular BitPay processing.
• Newegg, a major seller of gadgets, allows you to pay for purchases in cryptocurrency and also uses BitPay.
• Fancy.com is an online store that allows people to sell their products. The site offers many unique items, and you can pay for your purchase in bitcoins.
• Microsoft - Bitcoin can be used to purchase content for Xbox and the Windows store.
• Namecheap is a domain name registration platform that also accepts cryptocurrencies. It is also important for website developers to know that WordPress.com, Seoclerks.com, and many services with VPN and proxy servers have a similar function.
• Dating service Badoo, Japanese online market Rakutan, American delivery Foodler and others.

Nowadays, many small shops are introducing crypto payments to attract customers. Be careful, knowledge about Bitcoin does not promise a quality product.

You can work with many stores through https://purse.io/. For person-to-person purchases, message boards on social networks are popular; such flea markets can be found on VK and Telegram.

User reviews about paying for goods in Russia with Bitcoin

Users have different attitudes towards paying for goods and services with Bitcoin. Frequent review: “Cryptocurrency is a pyramid”

For example, user Anellena writes:

It seems to me, or Bitcoin is just another MMM type pyramid.

But, in fact, the currency is a pyramid that is not backed by anything.

Another user “britnispirzzz”, on the contrary, predicts the decline of fiat money:

The era of cash is coming to an end. Cash payment limits are being reduced. Switzerland is thinking about abandoning cash altogether. We will come to this in half a century. Cryptocurrency is a mattress bank, inaccessible to the gaze of the state.

Can Bitcoin replace fiat?

Whether people will be able to give up paper money is a moot point.
Money in material form has existed for more than 2000 thousand years. Paper bills and coins are easy for anyone to use. Cryptocurrency is complex and accessible to few. And we are unlikely to get to the point where it will be possible to pay with Bitcoin in a village store. For quite a long time, people refused to receive salaries in paper envelopes and got used to the introduction of plastic cards. Utility payments are now available from a computer or smartphone, but queues at banks have not disappeared. Cryptocurrency is the future, but not everyone is ready for it. Great article 2