I have a client wanting to pay in Bitcoin. How do I spend that?

I got a e-mail earlier today which I felt deserved a blog post.

It’s funny you asked that, I’ve been discussing bitcoin for the last 4 days with a colleague of mine who was visiting for mardi gras who owns 25 percent of a bitcoin. He is of the mindset that it’s real currency, where as his girlfriend and my girlfriend don’t buy into it.

The exchange rate fluctuates daily so depending on if it’s Monday or Tuesday it will be worth more or less. I’m honestly a little on the fence about even being on possession of bitcoins in general since the arrests.

I’m wondering if the way things are going to go is that will turn into a “why do you have any bitcoins if you are not using them for something illegal?”

Although bitcoin usage is becoming more mainstream, people tend to forget it’s original main purpose, the silk road.

From wikipedia:

Silk Road is an online market. It is operated as a Tor hidden service, such that online users are able to browse it anonymously and securely without potential traffic monitoring. The website launched in February 2011; development had begun six months prior.[6][7] It is held to be part of the Deep Web.[8] Although Silk Road was an underground website,[9] sometimes called the “Amazon.com of illegal drugs”[10] or the “eBay for drugs,”[11] the site also sold apparel, art, biotic materials, books, collectibles, computer equipment, digital goods, along with dozens of other categories of merchandise.

To answer your question, you can spend it with anyone who accepts it. Many people have gotten very rich and many people have gotten very poor because of investing in bitcoins. point2point currently doesn’t accept bitcoins because we’ve never been approached to accept them. I’d honestly be weary of accepting it since receiving bitcoins you must immediately “secure” them on a computer offline in a digital wallet.

What would honestly worry me the most about receiving payment via bitcoin is I don’t know enough about it to even be 100% sure I was in ownership of it. I have enough colleagues who could help me but I wouldn’t feel comfortable without getting the assistance of someone to give it a once over and verify it.

In closing, I would basically consider it a investment. The future of cryptocurrency is…very gray. I think if someone offered to pay, it would depend entirely if I was willing to invest  in the possible future or if I needed the cash.