Yes, bitcoin fans have more places to spend their money every day. But can the currency sustain real, daily life, as opposed to — say — someone who’s looking for a unique Hogwarts library, reddit gold or the world’s smallest solar-powered car?
That’s what Forbes tech writer Kashmir Hill hopes to find out over the next week. As of May 1, she’s embarked upon a seven-day personal experiment to see if she can get by living by bitcoin alone, starting with five purchased with the help of Coinbase.
So far, the San Francisco-based Hill has had to walk the two-and-a-half miles from home to work (no bitcoins for BART), waited two hours for a bitcoin-enabled delivery of Indian food via Foodler, cheated a bit by using her Verizon iPhone and relied upon the free coffee at the office (no bitcoins for Starbucks either).
With four bitcoins remaining at the end of day one, Hill had already started to worry about a possible crash in bitcoin value. She closed her first day’s post with a bitcoin address and the message, “Will work for bitcoin for food. Taking tips here.”