Straight From Rebecca's Desk
Both @knarly327 and I have spent the last couple of days teaching people about blockchains, cryptocurrencies, fiat currency and Steemit. We've been meeting with our friends, whom we've learned to qualified in advance from our previous experiences when we've attempted to do this.
It's been tough, in that you just want everyone you care about to have the same life changing opportunities that Steemit provides. Yet, most aren't willing to change their habits, learn how to do something new or take a risk.
I must admit that it has been a little bit easier to hold a person's attention since the price of Steem has been staying over a dollar.
Now, I can confidently tell people and they can physically see that all the time that I have been spending on Steemit, creating, writing and reading have produced decent pay-outs. Plus, because I chose to park all these pay-outs and leave them in Steem Power, they fluctuate with the value of steem as it is increasing or decreases in value.
(Every time Steem goes up in value, so does the value of your account and vice versa.)
From time to time, people will ask me how I can use this "internet currency" and what it can be exchanged for?
So, let me just say, right here that: I do not think that exchanging your Steem is a good idea, at this point, unless you need to spend it in order to survive.
However, if a person did want to exchange their Steem or other crypto-coins for commercial goods or services, there are a few ways that you can go about this.
Typically most of the ways involve using an Exchange like Poloniex or Bittrex to convert your Steem into Bitcoin. Then, the Bitcoin can either be left in that form or converted into fiat currency. You can use the same Exchanges to buy coins too and there are transaction fees charged by the Exchanges for their services.
Besides converting Steem into Bitcoin and then Bitcoin to fiat currency, I know a couple of Canadian "forward thinking" companies who are accepting Bitcoin payments directly.
The first is a precious metals retailer named: Silver Gold Bull. https://silvergoldbull.ca/payment
They sell precious metals that they ship right to your door.
The second is a company called: Coincards. https://coincards.ca/
They sell gift cards from 100's of Canadian retailers and they accept payment in 40 different crypto-coins.
So, if you wanted to buy a $1000 Costco gift card for example, you could purchase it and Coincard would charge you in the crypto-coin of your choice, from their list of coins that they accept.
You'd pay the value of $1000 + $50 (There is a 5% service fee.) for a total of $1050 plus shipping if applicable.
They offer both physical and electronic gift cards.
Many days ago, @thearcanebear posted a video that they made using a mastercard credit card that they had programmed with cryptocurrencies just like a pre-loaded credit card.
If you missed it, you can view it here: https://steemit.com/steemtofiat/@thearcanebear/how-to-spend-your-steem-although-we-dont-recommend-it
Don't forget to follow them because it is really cool that they shared (with all of us) that these cards even exist. Then, how easy it was for them to use this credit card all the way in Central America.
I welcome your comments and I invite you to follow me on my journey. ;)
~ Rebecca Ryan