Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin may seem enigmatic to some but there are a lot of people who use them to carry out financial transactions or to make investments. While bitcoins may be not yet by anywhere close to fiat currencies in terms of adoption and usability, there is a broad ecosystem evolving around cryptocurrencies that allows you to do more than purely transfer money and pay for goods and services. In this post, you will be introduced to five things you probably didn’t know you could do with Bitcoin.
Lend To Individuals using BitBond
You can earn high interest on your bitcoins by lending them out to individuals and small businesses via the Bitcoin peer-to-peer lending platform Bitbond. Bitbond operates solely on bitcoin and lenders do not require bank accounts to partake of the transactions. Some of the things you need to know are you should diversify by lending small amounts to different entities, loan only what you can afford to lose in case of a default and do not loan for very long durations of say, over six months.
Lend To Friends using Credible Friends
Credible Friends is a peer-to-peer lending app that allows you to offer bitcoin loans to your circle of trusted friends. Borrowers typically pay 25% annualized interest on loans. The lenders receive their share of the interest as and when the borrowers make the payments, typically on a monthly basis. Due to the risks associated with every loan, Credible Friends rides on the ethos of trust, thus enhancing its credibility. The idea behind Credible Friends is to reduce millennials’ reliance to credit card debt by borrowing from their peers instead.
Donate To Good Causes With Bitcoin
There are now several charitable causes that you can donate to using bitcoins. Many non-profit organizations now accept bitcoin donations to accommodate the people who are more inclined to donate in bitcoins as opposed to using fiat currencies. For example, a charitable project that accepts donations in bitcoin is TheWaterProject.org. The Water Project has been working with US-based start-up The BitGive Foundation. BitGive aims to leverage the Blockchain public ledger system to make donations trackable in a fully transparent manner to ensure all funds reach the intended recipients in full.
Micro Crowdfund using CryptoJar
You can effortlessly use a CryptoJar to ‘micro crowdfund’ for various different causes using bitcoin. CryptoJar is a mobile bitcoin wallet that allows you to create groups of acquaintances whom you can rally to crowdfund for projects or ideas that you want to actualize using the digital currency. Friends can send you bitcoins easily and cheaply from anywhere in the world to help you with your crowdfunding cause.
Buy Gold using BitGold
Since the launch of the company BitGold, you are now able to purchase gold digitally. BitGold is a platform for savings and payments in gold that has created a new way in which you can buy and sell the world’s favorite precious metal. If you believe that gold will continue it’s incredible price performance of the last 15 years then buying ‘digital’ gold would be an option. BitGold is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (with the ticker TSX-V: XAU) and has recently acquired GoldMoney.
