All done!
For those not following, this is a crazy experiment explained in this post. You can see all the posts under the monthonbitcoin tag, and weekly summaries under the summary tag.
I should also note, that I wrote a presentation I delivered at WAHCKon[1] in Perth just after the month ended. I have the slides available and a blog post about WAHCKon.
WOOHOO! I actually made it a whole month living only of bitcoin. So first lets just state what the rules were, and what they ended up being...
Original Rules
- I can use existing things I own, as long as I find some way of replacing them within the month
- I can't get a friend to buy all the things for me
- I can't just transfer bitcoin into NZD and use that...
- Health/insurance/pets/rent off the table (unless I find something!!)
- Any more that people suggest which sound reasonable
What I changed rule-wise
- I used a lot of stuff, for the first week I cooked home cooked meals, my intention was to replace most of it, but I couldn't find a butcher to accept, so my meat was breaking the first rule.
- After a while, I did use friends, but only with friends that didn't originally have any bitcoin (apart from one top up while I was in Taupo).
- I didn't transfer into NZD at any point, and the only NZD I spent was rent, cat food, and an accidental Google Play Music Subscription :(
- I should note that I did spend some AUD, but only on touristy things. This caused the internet to just hate. To all those people, have you even done anything close to what I've done? Food for thought..
- I also had a tab with a local pub in Wellington, I tried not to use that, and the tab actually disappeared when I went to pay for it... (kindness of the internet? I paid the guy what I thought it was anyway)
So what did I buy with Bitcoin?
- Limes
- "Pub" food (Pizza, Burger, Chips, etc)
- "Cafe" things (Sandwiches, coffee, juice, smoothies)
- Alcohol (Beer, Wine, Cocktails, Mead)
- Sauces
- Haircut
- Petrol
- Food found at a petrol station (via a petrol voucher shipped to me while in Sydney) ...
I couldn't find any health food, and didn't really have a steady supply...
Who did I meet?
Lots of cool people!
- The man behind bitpos in Australia.
- Friendly people at the Wellington Bitcoin Meetup
- Friendly people at the Beers4Bitcoin Meetup in Sydney
- A few random people off the internet, who turned out to be friendly and not knife weilding :D
- Nice vendors at Crafty Trout Brewery, The Owl House, Kereru Brewery, Mane Salon.
Will I do it again?
Not right away, but hopefully what I've done makes a difference. If not, oh well, I've done something I enjoyed.
Anything noteworthy?
I got around 0.8 BTC worth of donations. I asked in a previous blog where I should donate this to, and noone has responded, so I suggest Electronic Freedom Foundation, but other suggestions welcome!
If you would like to donate to this, either do it directly (link above), or send it via me, and I'll send it on (along with an email to this blog probably). My address is 155WivS5TdBdU1UMQVZNLodywzCUdLdBBk.