5 surprising ways how to use crypto in the real life
How many times you’ve already heard “it’s useless in the real world!” kind of stuff?
We've all been there – arguing with others about crypto. Ughhh, I know! Whether it is online, with colleagues, or even at home. No matter what, discussions of such nature usually spiral towards questioning the good old trio: volatility, security & utilization. This time, let’s tackle the latter one.
There are indeed a tremendous amount of ways to utilize your crypto, YES even in the real world, let’s browse through some of those that may surprise you.
1. Payments - get yourself a cryptoburger
The country of El Salvador, later joined by the Central African Republic are currently two countries accepting Bitcoin as a legal tender. Their bet on crypto lately had to face backlash due to the value of BTC dropping significantly since its adoption in said countries, though the innovation and overall sweeping changes towards digitalization among the public in El Salvador are still considered a great and ongoing success.
Understandably, not everyone feels like straight up moving to El Salvador or Central Africa, luckily there are still other ways to pay with your crypto, for example:
• Burger King and Pizza Hut in Venezuela accept all major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Tether and BNB in collaboration with south American provider Cryptobuyer. “Have it your way” indeed!
• using the middleman app as well, Starbucks lets you buy their products using Bakkt®
• it is possible to pay for your bills from AT&T via BitPay
• Wikipedia, the world’s largest open-source encyclopedia also accepts donations through BitPay
• Microsoft lets you top up your Microsoft account, the same is possible for PayPal
• you can treat yourself in thousands of places across the world whether it’s a slice from Helen’s Pizza (New Jersey), coffee from Paralelní Polis (Prague) or just paying for beers in Pembury Tavern (London), Old Fitzroy (Sydney) or The Pink Cow (Tokyo).
2. Events - meet your virtual buddies face-to-face
The general crypto public is quite exhausted from hearing about NFTs. Instances of scams, questionable practices and odd projects are nothing unheard-of.
Not only overhyped Bored Ape Yacht Club, but even the big corporations like Adidas*, Coca-Cola, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, McDonald’s, Mercedes, NBA and Nike pocketed some serious funding for their NFT projects and collabs. Of all these brands, Lamborghini at least brings a certain connection with reality, since token holders can only access their NFTs through the ownership of real physical keys.
A genuine real-world experience might be delivered through Fat Cat NFT. Each token holder is granted access to an actual physical location private members’ club. A grand total of 2,222 tokens are issued for a floor price of $15,000.
It is considered a gentleman’s club for ultra-high net worth and like-minded individuals with a passion for art, investment and technology, though some might reckon it is just an overly complicated way of getting together with your cigar buddies.
*in collaboration with Prada
3. Education - let the crypto fund your knowledge
Your crypto can even land you some education, believe it or not.
It is possible to pay tuition fees using cryptocurrencies (mostly with BTC) at these universities:
• Princeton University
• UC Berkeley of California
• University of Pennsylvania
• King’s College in New York
• Bentley University in Massachusetts
• University of Applied Sciences in Lucerne, Switzerland
• The University of Cumbria, United Kingdom
and a few more in Australia, Germany, France, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Vietnam.
Even some universities that didn’t fully embrace the crypto trend yet, like Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC and MIT nevertheless allow their students to purchase books and study materials in official university bookstores using crypto.
4. Travel - with digital currency towards real-life destinations
It was a banger of news within the crypto industry when travel agency giant Expedia announced in 2014 that it will allow its users to pay for their travels using cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, this feature has been discontinued in the year 2018.
Why the long face? A company named CheapAir.com lets you pay for your journeys using crypto even since 2013, long before Expedia made the news.
Heard about Travala? Another travel portal that allows you to utilize your precious BTC and ETH in exchange for some travel adventures. These guys in particular play no games, mainly because they are backed by Binance themselves.
A truly notable mention within the “travel” category is Richard Branson’s space project Virgin Galactic letting you pay in Bitcoin for your space flight.
5. Sports - no FIAT needed to see the game
US Billionaire & crypto enthusiast Mark Cuban's NBA team Dallas Mavericks has been accepting crypto payments for little over two years. Mavs fans can buy tickets and merchandise using various popular cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, USD Coin, Gemini Dollar, Binance USD, and even Dogecoin.
Cuban said the team had chosen to accept Dogecoin "because sometimes in business you have to do things that are fun, engaging and hopefully generate a lot of PR." The Mavericks also use the previously mentioned platform BitPay to process its all crypto payment options.
A similar approach of utilization has been taken by legendary Portuguese football team Benfica Lisbon.
Probinex project is a proud sponsor of famous football club Zbrojovka Brno, currently smashing the top ranks of the Czech national league. Are we about to witness some utilization of PBX in collaboration with our beloved team? It’s easier said than done, but never say never!