One of the questions I often get is how to convert cryptocurrency like Hive, HBD, Dash or bitcoin to real money. Even on HIVE there are newcomers that wan to know ways to send their earnings to Venmo, PayPal or directly to there fiat bank.
To this I'd like to ask
What is money?
Money is a medium of exchange that people use to buy goods and services. It’s a system society agrees on to represent value, making trade easier than bartering. Historically, it’s taken forms like shells, metal coins, or paper notes—anything widely accepted as payment. Today, it’s mostly digital, stored in bank accounts or in the case of freedom-lovers, on blockchains.
At its core, money has three main jobs: it’s a medium of exchange (you give it, you get stuff), a unit of account (it measures value, like $3 HBD for a coffee), and a store of value (you can save it for later).
When it comes to fiat money, it’s also a tool for power and control. Governments print it, banks lend it, and debt keeps the system spinning.
Horror stories of fiat
You might have met a fellow Hivean named Jon Olson. I don't know all the details of his story, but I do know that he was operating an online business and accepting payment via PayPal. Well, one unfortunate day, someone at PayPal decided Jon no longer needed his money and proceeded to seize his hard-earned Benjamins. Just like that. No warning letter, no follow up email; nothing.
Or how about the Canadian truckers who refused to get vaccinated back in 2022? Do you know what happened to them? Well, they protested in Ottawa because it was a violation of their freedom of choice.
photo by Maksim Sokolov (Maxergon) - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The government decided that in order to keep people safe, they would enable an emergency act to freeze personal accounts of anyone linked with the protests. And just like that, without court orders or anything, the Canadian truckers had no way to pay for gas or food.
source: aa.com.tr
In fact, the government even punished restaurants that were selling or donating food to the protesters.
You can read the story on Without Papers Pizza here, a guy named Jesse Johnson was forced to shut down his restaurant because the city of Calgary froze his bank account.
He's since then filed a $3.6 Million law suit against the City of Calgary as well as Alberta Health Services (AHS) chief medical officer and I'm pretty sure he's going to win.
The banks, corporations and governments control fiat money. Why do you want to continue playing by their rules in their system, in their gilded cage that can shut the door in your face at any time?
We are witnessing the revolution of money thanks to ecosystems like HIVE, why don't you want to stay digital?
Stay digital, frens
Every day there are more and more businesses that are willing to accept freedom money like HIVE, HBD, Dash and bitcoin. Find those places and buy food there. Make an online business and accept decentralized digital currencies. Hire designers, virtual assistants and programmers. Pay them in decentralized digital currencies like $HBD.
Most important of all: build your stack.
In a few years, when cryptocurrencies like HIVE are worth $69.420, you won't have to exchange it for paper dollars, pesos or whatever your government calls its broken money. you'll be able to stay digital and rich.
We are witnessing the financial revolution. We are our own banks.
In the words of Andreas Antonopoulos
I'll use my digital currency directly without re-entering your system to which I was never invited.
Shut down the on-ramps, shut down the off-ramps and I will stay on board, I will stay digital. I won't touch your gilded cage anymore 'cause I don't need you, I exit”
-Andreas Antonopoulos
I use crypto as real money as much as possible. But when I can't, I buy gift cards with crypto, or I buy silver bullion that gets saved and turned into cash if need be.
I had someone from Bitrefill come to my studio and it seems incredibly easy to use. I just haven't had the need to convert crypto to fiat. I tend to use small amounts on coffee, beer and I did a flea market once to buy shoes. That was cool.
Not a ton of 'regular joe' kind of businesses here in the states accepting it unfortunately. The 3rd party payment processors and credit cards still rule here, so gift cards are the way I have to roll.
Good article (of course).
It's getting tougher to cash out to fiat. I know of just one route now but it changes, month to month.
There are credit cards that can be loaded with Crypto and used everywhere where VISA is accepted. That´s a quite simple way, isn´t it?
Do you know of any here in Sweden?
I use it since recently and so far it works smoothly. You can deposit with BTC, ETH, USDC and others.
This is a referral link, so in case I get anything from it, I would share 50% with you.E.g. https://url.hk/i/en/pmexp
Thanks for the quick response. I am definitely going to check this out. Hopefully, it will work here in Sweden, and I can get it going smoothly. I don't have the best luck. hahahah
edit update - speaking of that luck...
I think I have to have an Apple device to get the app to apply for the card. I will need to look more into this when I get some time freed up.
The company sits in Hongkong. If they were able to send a physical card to Austria, they should be able to do this for Sweden too. BTW, the virtual card costs one time 10$, the physical 100$ (it took app. 2 weeks to ship).
I just don't have any apple devices... iPhone or pad. Maybe there is another way around that. I am on my laptop mostly or android phone.
Yes, those too, I meant without having one. I don't.
Coin ATM Radar. Maybe there's one near you. Of course, you can also do it peer-to-peer.Sounds like a drug dealer. @thedessertlinux starts his live streams by mentioning his sponsor
@slobberchomps what do you need fiat for?
This is not a rhetorical question, it's a real one. And I assume you live in the UK, no?
The UK authorities take a dim view on crypto. All this talk about 'London - the European crypto-capital' by our government.., a load of shit!
Cryptocurrency is real money :)
It absolutely is :)
And it's becoming accepted at more and more places. HODL and wait. You'll be rewarded handsomely for your patience.
Or use it. I bought a new iphone earlier today, paying with crypto.
this post makes me glad that I don't receive any payments by paypal. I only used it to pay for things like antivirus and credits in splinterlands.
They can take your money and have been known to do so many times before.
Well, it didn't answer the question in the title though 😅
Anyway, if I manage to get paid for my services in crypto, it would be better to use stable coins like HBD, right?
Better for what?
If your risk tolerance is low and would prefer to get paid in a currency pegged to the US Dollar. That's fine.
If your risk tolerance is higher and would like to be exposed to volatility, you can choose something else, like HIVE or DASH.
So it depends on what's better for you.
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STOPYears ago, something like this happened in my country. There was a protest and the masses were supporting the movement financially. The government tried to block trace the sponsors but it was impossible because the big funds were released in digital currency 😅
What were the protests about? Is there a news story about this event? seems wild!