In this lesson of the Relai 21 Bitcoin Basics, you will learn about the use cases of Bitcoin.

Buying Bitcoin With Euro Or Other Currencies

This one is pretty straightforward: To do something with Bitcoin, you must buy some. This can be done – you’ve guessed right – with a service like Relai. One aspect you might not be aware of is that you can buy tiny fractions of bitcoin. So you don’t have to feel intimated by the current price of 1 whole bitcoin. 1 bitcoin can be divided into 100 million pieces (!), and the smallest is called ‘satoshi’. In other words: 100 million satoshis (or ‘sats’) equal one whole bitcoin. With Relai you can buy bitcoin starting from 10 EUR/CHF per transaction.

Selling Bitcoin For Euro Or Other Currencies

Similar to buying, you can also sell your bitcoin. The same principles apply again: Theoretically, bitcoin can be divided into 100 million fractions (or satoshis), but it wouldn’t make sense to sell such small quantities – at least not yet. One interesting thing about bitcoin is that you buy or sell it whenever you want, 24 hours a day, 365 a year. This makes bitcoin a highly liquid, globally available, uncensorable form of money.

Storing aka HODLing Bitcoin

Many people who believe Bitcoin has a bright future don’t want to sell or spend their bitcoin. Instead, they buy it as a long-term investment. Judging from bitcoins past price movements and repeated parabolic rises, they believe that bitcoin could behave similarly in the future and therefore speculate on future price increases measured in fiat currencies like the euro, US dollar, or Swiss Francs. People buy and don’t want to sell bitcoin because they believe it’s a better form of money and especially a more reliable store of value in the long term because it can’t be debased like fiat currencies and technically has no counter-party risk. Whatever your reasons for buying bitcoin: Simply holding (or as Bitcoiners like to say ‘HODLing’) is one of the current main use cases.

Buying Things With Bitcoin

While everyone is busy Stacking Sats and HODLing, it’s easy to forget that the main idea behind Bitcoin is to be a ‘peer-to-peer electronic cash system’. So basically similar to physical cash, but digitally. Some obstacles to overcome to make this vision a reality, like a lack of privacy or non-instant settlement. However, both are being worked on by the Bitcoin community. Developments like the ‘Lightning Network’ aim to add a second layer to Bitcoin, allowing the network to settle smaller transactions instantly and for free. Of course, you can already pay with Bitcoin in some online shops and stores, and we expect that options in this direction will continue to grow as Bitcoin matures. 

Donating Bitcoin

Instead of spending it, you can also use your bitcoin for good causes and donate them. As a Relai user, you can even donate some sats every time you trade bitcoin by using the following codes:

• UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein (Code UNICEF)
• Rainforest Foundation (Code Rainforest)
• The Bitcoin Development Fund (Code HRF)

Takeaways:

• One aspect you might not be aware of is that you can buy, sell or send tiny fractions of bitcoin. So you don’t have to feel intimated by the current price of 1 whole bitcoin.
• Whatever your reasons for buying bitcoin: Simply holding (or as Bitcoiners like to say ‘HODLing’) is one of the current main use cases.
• Developments like the ‘Lightning Network’ aim to add a second layer to Bitcoin, allowing the network to settle smaller transactions instantly and for free.