Despite the hype around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they’re still a long way from becoming a true replacement for cold hard cash. To discover the possibilities (and limitations) of using digital currency in day to day life, 24-year old Coinify employee Jack Nikogosian is on an experiment to live on Bitcoin for a full month in Copenhagen. After the first week of his test period it seems that surviving in this project one requires a lot of planning and willpower. Would you be willing to plan your life based on the payment system?
It’s clear that these new forms of payment are already reshaping the mechanisms for making secure and anonymous payments. Bitcoin proponents are pushing to make the cryptocurrency more mainstream and today you can already use bitcoin to buy anything from Dell computers to cup of coffee without using local currency. But on top of a limited amount of places that accept Bitcoin, there is a lot of volatility in online currencies which makes it tough to budget large purchases when you don’t know what the value is going to be the next month.
As Bitcoin has become a more and more popular payment method in Copenhagen, Nikogosian decided to have an ultimate test on using the system. He has decided to survive for a full month by using only bitcoin. This means Nikogosian even refuses to use Bitcoin trading markets to change his currency to cash or use bitcoin-tied cards.
Trying to find places I can visit that accepts bitcoin. @CoinMap #copenhagen pic.twitter.com/4xO3jOUBQl
— Bitcoin Jack (@LivingOnCrypto) 6. maaliskuuta 2015
Nikogosian started his experiment on the 1st of March. After the first week of his trial, his biggest problem seems to be relying on the patchwork infrastructure that allows him to pay for food or travel through bitcoin . While Nigosian was able to pay one of his biggest monthly expenses, rent, on Bitcoin, he has had problems for instance in getting dinner through the providers he relies on.
Though it seems based on Nikogosian’s experience that surviving only with Bitcoin might be problematic and it requires a lot of planning, there are already also some positive effects on Jack’s life due to this experiment. Based on his tweets Jack is not snacking that much during the day, he is eating at his parents’ house more and he has started to ride his bike to work instead of using the public transportation.
I lost 3 kg just by not being able to buy snacks.
— Bitcoin Jack (@LivingOnCrypto) 8. maaliskuuta 2015
During the past few years many people have tried to live only on Bitcoin, but while reading the blogs written around the world based on those experiences one can get the perception that livin’ on Bitcoin could be really viable for only seven to ten days. Well now Nikogosian is aiming for a full month and we can follow his ambitious project on Twitter and through his blog.
Jack is an employee for Coinify which works towards mainstreaming Bitcoins. So clearly one aim of this project is also encouraging new service providers to accept Bitcoin as a payment system in Copenhagen, but it’s a good test on where Coinify should expand its bitcoin payments infrastructure.
But as Nikogosian states it – he is doing this for the Bitcoin community.
