We’re not quite two weeks in to our 12 week journey. Some things have been easier than expected. Others harder.
Kashmir Hill, the Forbes reporter who lived for a week on bitcoin in the San Francisco area, said that her experiment would have been “near impossible without the data plan on [her]… iPhone”. We’re experiencing that firsthand.
It wasn’t all that hard to get a handset off of Bitmit.net, but the phone plan has been tougher. We’ve been in talks with several different providers, but so far, no mobile voice or data.
Here is the problem. In order to get local businesses set up with bitcoin, they need an explanation and a demonstration. It’s been pretty hard to show how a digital currency works without a digital interface. And for businesses that don’t have wifi, it’s a total no-go.
We think we’re going to get this figured out in the next couple days, but that obstacle proved to be a bigger problem than we first gave it credit for.
Some local restaurants have agreed to take bitcoin. None are fully set up to accept regular business with bitcoin… yet. Still working with them to fix that.
We filled up a tank of gas at a station west of the airport, 60 minutes from our home, where an associate there helped us fill up. Huge thanks to Furb, the Phillips 66 employee without whom we’d probably be completely without gas.
We found some food via BitMunchies.com. We’re still looking for a local grocery store to take bitcoin, but we won’t starve.
We found one insurance provider that accepts bitcoin, but we’re going to shop around to see if we can get a more local provider, and a better deal.
Progress seems to come in fits and spurts. We’re hoping having a data connection via a new cell phone will smooth things out a little.
As always, thanks for your support, suggestions, feedback, tips, and all the rest. We couldn’t do this without you.
Thanks for teaching us, so we can (hopefully) teach others.
-Austin