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There is nothing wrong with being frugal or liking a deal. I titled this the cheapskate’s way to stack bitcoin because today, there is an asymmetry to earn satoshis (what are satoshis?) or sats. All you have to do is adjust how you spend slightly, and the rewards over time are tremendous as we see bitcoin adoption increase. Rewards in bitcoin accrue value, while airline miles and cash back lose value over time. BIG difference and why this is even cooler.
First, the following resources should be checked out if you need to learn more about bitcoin. These will help you build my conviction that, eventually, bitcoin will become the world’s money of choice. If you consume some of all of the following resources, you will quickly become more educated than 95% of the people in the world. I’ve reached podcasts on this on my podcast HERE. For some of my favorite resources, check out the below.
- The Bullish Case for Bitcoin – Vijay Boyapati
- Gradually, Then Suddenly – Parker Lewis
- The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking – Dr. Saifedean Ammous
- Bitcoin First: Why Investors need to consider bitcoin separately from other digital assets
- Bitcoin Fundamentals
Second, let’s get down to how to earn bitcoin on daily living. I conservatively think you can earn 3,000,000 sats per year following what’s laid out below. That’s $600 USD – but if bitcoin eclipses gold simply as a store of value (low bar), that’s $15,750 USD*.
We all have somewhere we call home. The Fold Card allows you to make every spend you make eligible for bitcoin rewards. On the go and buying gas – bitcoin rewards. Paying your mortgage or rent this month – bitcoin rewards. Dining out with friends – cover the bill and have them pay you back (earn bitcoin). Pretty cool, huh?
The best part of the Fold Card for us has been the mortgage rewards – how else do you earn 2% back on one of the biggest monthly bills? This has been incredible to earn money back on that expense.
Strike is a fantastic tool to use the bitcoin network in various ways. First, it allows a user to easily take dollars and pay lighting invoices (bitcoin layer two for commerce and sub – $500 payments). Strike offers a user the ability to buy bitcoin (KYC – which is normal for most exchanges) with only a small spread of 0.30% or so – which is super handy. You can also establish a direct deposit and auto purchase for bitcoin via Strike, which is cool. Lastly, Strike is building a commerce platform for payments – working to lower the costs, be more efficient, faster, fair, and for all.
One big issue that you might have experienced prior is an owner chargeback– when someone pays a bill with a credit card and then claims it as a fraudulent payment or unknown. The story I’ve heard used was in Miami, a high-end tattoo parlor did $7,000 of work on someone from out of town – they left paid via credit card and then claimed the card was stolen and even though there was camera footage of them in the parlor. The artist had to eat the $7,000 worth of work – with bitcoin and the lighting network, this doesn’t happen. You can download the app, but it also does have a chrome browser extension. If you use code I0IASX when you sign up, it’s $10 for you.
Shopping online and online bill pay is the norm – no one is mailing checks in for bills (sorry if that offends anyone that is 😂). Pay with Moon is an awesome tool for being able to use/leverage a strike payment to pre-load a Visa debit card and earn 5% back automatically every time (the reward is deposited in your Strike account as cashback – can instant convert to bitcoin or just trim the $ off the purchase price). The reward is through an engagement with Strike and Pay with Moon – but anything online – bills, Amazon, pizza, or shopping it’s an awesome tool. I had had one experience with our local utility billing that rejected the Pay with Moon Visa – but outside of that, I’ve used it 20+ times and had nothing but success.
Bitrefill and Strike, to me, is the ultimate pairing of fantastic rewards and flexibility to leverage the lighting network and earn rewards. So Bitrefill’s mission is to live on Crypto – replacement crypto with bitcoin, and now we are talking. Bitrefill allows users to use bitcoin or lighting payments to buy gift cards and bill pay. So the bill pay feature, which is my favorite, allows users to pay their credit card off using bitcoin or lighting. Now there is a 0.99% fee, but similar to Pay with Moon – Bitrefill and Strike have an automatic 5% back when paying a lighting invoice with Strike(the reward is deposited in your Strike account as cashback – can instant convert to bitcoin or just trim the $ off the purchase price). So you can literally earn rewards for paying your credit card bill – GAME CHANGER – the same can be done for student loans. If/as they come back as a bill – image stacking bitcoin as you pay bills. That’s Bitrefill – also, to give you an example, at the moment, they are running a special on Lowe’s gift cards – 10% back at Bitrefill – which means that’s 15% when paying with Strike to do your home maintenance. This is a duo that’s hard to beat – this is likely the best tool I can recommend once you get the feel for it. The mobile app makes it super easy to be out and buy gift cards on the go at restaurants and stores. Not that I’ve been that guy or anything.
Lolli if you are familiar with Rakuten or Honey, same idea here with a twist. The mobile app can be connected to a credit card, and you can earn 10% + back – the one that is my wife’s favorite is the Starbucks connection. For those who might not be familiar with Rakuten or Honey, Lolli is a mobile app or Browser extension that allows you to earn rewards when shopping – and there are many stores and retailers out there. It does negate if you use a gift card – so you cannot double stack, but you could use Pay with Moon to double stack rewards. I use Lolli most for travel bookings – whether it’s flights/lodging/car rentals, it’s an easy way to earn rewards. There is next to no effort needed, so this is likely the easiest one to implement.
So how do I use the above tools?
Fold is for all spending out in daily life where there are no gift cards – think local places you love and pay my mortgage. If Bitrefill has your mortgage payment available – you might want to check that out, as your rewards might be higher and more consistent there. Strike and Bitrefill I use the most as this is for paying for any gift cards for purchases and spending, plus paying off my wife’s student loans (refinanced them – I know foolish), credit cards, and others. I use Pay with Moon – when/if it’s an online bill pay or purchase and I cannot get a gift card for it or if I want/can stack with Lolli (remember the reward is negated by the gift card usage). Lolli for me is travel mainly – the stores offered are not frequented by our family but might be some great options for gifts for you there.
Does the above feel a little gimmicky? Sure – I can appreciate that view, but I’m often able to be earning rewards on almost every spend. Often I can find a way to earn high single digits back on spending I’m already doing or never could earn rewards on prior. If you aren’t a dye-in-the-wool bitcoiner like yours truly – the Strike Bitrefill stack is great as the bulk of those rewards are back as cash and can then be withdrawn back to your bank. The only bitcoin rewards would be from Bitrefill. Also, the credit card payment makes this worth it!
What do you think what option do you like best and want to implement? Did you learn anything – jump in the Facebook group and let me know!
*The bitcoin price to eclipse gold would be $525,000 and have a market cap of $12 Trillion.