Private Bitcoin to Cash Pathway Discovered!
After 3 weeks trying to find a way to privately convert Bitcoin into cash, Crypto Lunch has a potential solution! The answer was staring us in our faces, until it suddenly dawned on me yesterday: PRECIOUS METALS can bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and fiat cash, without giving up the user's privacy or relying on centralized systems like banks or government. As a longtime silver stacker, advocate for physical bullion as savings, and former precious metals dealer, I should have clued in sooner, but I take solace in the fact that this puzzle has stumped everybody. In this post, I'll explain how it appears to work. With your help, I'll confirm and document the entire process!
Week 1-3 Recap
Last week, I used this currency flow image to visualize what was working and what wasn't:
I can move my crypto income into Bitcoin, which is more widely accepted and more useful, but that still doesn't get me the groceries I need to cook up the lunch I want, let alone achieve my ultimate goal: a pathway to privately spend my crypto income on things I need to live.
For 3 weeks, Crypto Lunch bemoaned the sad state of privacy in the crypto sphere:
"Crypto" MUST be able to function WITHOUT identifying the user (private) and without involving governments, corporations, or banks (decentralized). There's NO way to convert Bitcoin to cash without identifying oneself. I believe this is one of the main issues preventing mass adoption of cryptocurrency, and I think it needs to be acknowledged and solved ASAP!
Eureka!
Like many great ideas, it came to me in the shower. I was considering bringing a 10oz silver bar in to a local shop and selling it for cash, as I have some extra expenses coming up soon.
I then recalled seeing that some online bullion dealers are accepting cryptos as payment:
That's when it clicked: This is one solution to the Crypto Lunch problem! Buy bullion with crypto, and sell it for cash at a local dealer! Privacy retained, not too expensive, not too difficult.
Note that it says they might need to see your ID, and they'll email you if that happens. I think that's only for large orders, but we'll find out when I proceed with this method. There are other companies accepting crypto, so if this one doesn't operate the way I like, I can use others. I don't have enough in the lunch budget to make it happen quite yet, but here's an example of a possible order:
So for about 32 Canadian dollars I can get troy ounces of silver bullion in hand.
Note on shipping privacy: If you don't want the bullion company to know your home address, one workaround is a PO Box. Many towns (including mine) have businesses that accept cash in exchange for renting a mailbox. Some don't require you to identify yourself, so long as you pay up front. You receive a key, and can check for new letters and packages whenever convenient. Result: the bullion company only knows your shipping address, not where you sleep at night.
Local bullion dealers (and coin shops, pawn shops, even mall kiosks) generally pay cash for gold and silver up to at least $1000 (sometimes $3000) without looking at ID. Precious metals are unique in the tight (small) margins between buying and selling. What this means for us is there won't be much lost to costs at this step in the pathway. Using crypto to buy furniture, or diamonds, or electronics, and then selling that for cash, would result in massive losses and make this method impossible. Converting through bullion is relatively efficient, and simply becomes a % cost of doing business - the way you want to do it.
Now that I have a potential pathway, all I need is a little more capital! We have about $15 in cryptos thus far, but even a small test order of 3 ounces of silver will be about $100. I'm trying to step up the effort I'm putting into these Crypto Lunch posts, to attract Steem and Hive blockchain curators! Last week, I included details of a meal I made using some garden ingredients.
I was able to pull in a few bucks, and I'm thankful for that! But I can't help but wonder what I need to do, in order to bring in the kind of payouts my friends are getting for their posts about lunch:
That one is already at $21, and even a snapshot of some bananas or a sunset brings him at least $10, without fail. Not even my full length documentaries reach those levels.
Here, my friend shows off a table full of food she bought with recent post payouts. Her crypto lunch is now served! And that photo has itself already brought in another $7.
I am happy for my friends, but left wondering what my posts are missing in order to earn generous $10 and $20+ upvotes from the curators. That kind of income - if I can get it - could power a bullion purchase and lead to my crypto lunch! Suggestions gladly welcomed.
Lunch Budget
Last week's Hive post brought in $0.71 for the author, paid out as 3.23 HIVE. The Steem post brought in $2.23 for the author, paid out as 10.62 STEEM.
BTC: 0
HIVE: 17.15
STEEM: 14.48
CAD: 0
USD: 0
Thank you to those who pitched in with an upvote!
How to make Crypto Lunch happen
All are welcome to follow and enjoy the weekly adventure. But hopefully some curators also provide crypto to make the whole process happen! Here are a few ways to do that:
- upvote this post (on both chains if possible)
- send HIVE or HBD directly to my Hive wallet
- send STEEM or SBD directly to my Steem wallet
- send BTC directly (1NWGEhWfeg4kscoBUFNqzRT1UN7qjLgnVa)
- use a service like TipU
- send any kind of tokens to my Hive-Engine or Steem-Engine accounts
Thank you for reading and participating! There's no such thing as a free lunch, so I hope the crypto community feels I've earned one with this post. :)
The squash in my garden is growing - maybe it will appear in a future Lunch?! See you next Thursday for week 5.
DRutter
I am still waiting for the day when I can withdraw cash directly from my Steem account.
You have me seriously considering getting some precious metals with crypto! I've seen you talk about it before and found it intriguing, but I can think of plenty of good reasons to hodl some precious metals. They've stood the test of time, and may be considerably more valuable in the future. (That's not a prediction, I have no idea, just seems like a possibility with the way things are going.) Of course it would be great as well to have some on hand in case emergency fiat is needed quickly.
Great job on this post!!!
As far as picking up more curation, I can't think of any better ideas other than expanding the tag use. Even if some are off topic with your post, does it really matter if a curator finds it to be quality and votes it with a big vote?
The Steemcurator that's been voting you can only allot so much VP outside of the primary assigned community. Expanding tag use may help some of the other Steemcurators see your posts.
The lack of curation definitely is not due to lack of quality, because your posts are excellent.
Thank you man, I am going to look for strategic tag usage opportunities!
I'm glad you are thinking about a little precious metal. In my opinion, both gold and silver are excellent, but this very moment is silver's big chance. It appears that gold will continue to do well over the next few years, and in that case, silver will also move up, but likely in a much more dramatic fashion. Silver is known to be more volatile - it goes down more in pullbacks, and goes up more in bull runs. I don't see how it won't surge well past the old high of $50 during this bull move, and that's just for starters, which means it's going to at LEAST double. Now, I'm no investor, and I don't buy it to trade it. I'm just saying, for hodlers (aka stackers), now is a good time. Premiums (cost over spot price) aren't as high as they were a few months ago, and supply is reasonably good. Buzz has calmed. Now is probably a really smart time to make a little buy. Worst case scenario, you've got something of real intrinsic value, that can't go to zero, that is private and decentralized and in your hands. At under $20 per troy ounce it seems like a massive bargain considering how uncertain the fiat financial system is at the moment!
I'm more of a silver guy myself, so I like what I'm hearing.
I hunt for silver at thrift shops. I'm always finding old silver cookware. Like this knife:
Does it look silver to you, or silver plated? A guy at a pawn shop with a shoddy tester tried to tell me it wasn't, but I'm calling bs, because it's clearly silver plated at the very least, or I'm nuts. I've yet to take it to the jeweler.
That looks cool. My hunch based on where you obtained it and what it looks like, is that it would be silver plated. The handle looks large. If it's solid metal it would be pretty heavy. My guess is that the handle isn't solid, and the base metal is copper. Some really good silverware was (and maybe sometimes still is) solid metal, and not just plated. Even if it's just copper with silver plate, that's real metal, with intrinsic value, and it's in the shape of something useful and attractive. If you didn't pay a lot for it, then it's a good find!
0.05 Cents at a thrift shop!
Yes the handle is hollow. The entire knife is very light. I found a set there too for $20.00. Comes in a nice ornate box, and they are selling on Ebay for a few hundred dollars the last time I checked. (It's a plated set but still has some value) I look at the serial numbers and what ever manufacturing company logos/labels I can find and look up the items online. I know you don't like smart devices, (for some very good reasons indeed.) but that is one undeniable good use of them, being able to look up values while out treasure hunting.
You've motivated me to take some photos of the silverware set I have, and maybe I can get some better photos of the knife I just showed you. Those were taken with an older camera. I'll try to get around to it soon, been pretty busy lately too.
Oh, speaking of silver, I thought about you while making my lates video, which is a call to look into physical silver bullion now, while it's semi-available and the price is still super cheap.
But silver (to me) is mostly just a private form of hard money (with intrinsic value that can't be crashed to zero like fiat currencies). I don't buy it to make a profit, although to each their own.
In either case, might be an excellent time to save a tiny bit, in real money! Silver savings have saved my butt a couple times now.
This information is like GOLD! Thank you for sharing this amazing information with the Steem community. Keep up the great work!
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