This post is written for people who believe Bitcoin is better than dollars. It's for someone who fundamentally prefers Bitcoin over dollars.
How it started - pre-2019
The main way that people for years have interacted with Bitcoin is to have a traditional checking account at a traditional bank where their direct deposit paycheck lands and their bills are paid out of. And then the surplus would be sent to a Bitcoin exchange in order to hold long term savings in Bitcoin.
2019 - Fold enters the scene
Fold disrupted this model in 2019 with the release of the Bitcoin rewards card. This breakthrough created a wave of exits from traditional checking accounts from people who enjoy managing their day to day spending on debit cards. For that personal finance segment there was now no reason to have their traditional checking account with a debit card that gave them no rewards.
2023 - Fold introduces bitcoin buying
Fold added the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin into the app in 2023 and this began a path of continuing to disrupt the old traditional checking account model again.
2024 - Fold introduces get paid in bitcoin
And with the addition of direct deposit to Bitcoin the disruption is complete for a wider segment of users.
An Underlying Current Shift Also Happened
Over this same time, very organically the Bitcoin community began to naturally hold Bitcoin for more and more short term liquid reasons. Bitcoin began being seen not just as long term savings but also medium length savings and certain users were pushing their USD checking all the way to $0.00 opting to keep all of their liquid money in bitcoin up to the minute they needed to pay bills.
This bitcoin personal finance current shift and the ability for users to be paid in Bitcoin at Fold led to credit card users now having just as much reason to use Fold as debit card users.
The reason for the timeline earlier was to make this distinction, Debit card users forever have been leaving their old traditional checking accounts for a Fold account because the Fold card is miles ahead of big bank debit cards.
Credit card users needed the buy and sell bitcoin built out and needed the mentality around Bitcoin personal finance to shift towards Bitcoin for more and more liquid monthly budgeting needs.
So now the flow is more clear, for credit card users it could look like this:
- Get paid in Bitcoin, direct deposit a regular paycheck to 100% bitcoin
- Put all your monthly expenses on your credit card like usual
- When the bill is due, push bitcoin over to USD, and pay the bill via the account/routing number
- Push bitcoin to USD for each of your other bills during the month and receive the benefit of holding BTC instead of USD for those extra days each month
For debit card users it could look like this:
- Direct deposit X% to Bitcoin, and X% to USD that you on average spend in a 2 week period
- Put all your monthly expense on your debit card like usual
- Push bitcoin to USD for each of your other bills during the month that don't let you pay via a debit card and receive the benefit of holding BTC instead of USD for those extra days each month
As a way to wrap up, imagine a world where everyone is doing this, to me that feels like hyperbitcoinization happening in real time. That feels like exiting from fiat money while staying backwards compatible with the parts that keep our daily lives running as is for our families.
This transition is the number one most exciting thing to me happening in Bitcoin at the moment.
For additional deep dive reading our good friend Sahil has a three part series titled Zero Dollar Manifesto.
The Zero Dollar Manifesto: Part One Upgrade All Dollars to Bitcoin
The Zero Dollar Manifesto: Part Two Tools To Upgrade Your Money Today
(Note Part Two was written back in February 2024 prior to Fold shipping direct deposit to Bitcoin, which continues to make the flow faster!)
The Zero Dollar Manifesto: Part Three A Vision for the Ideal
Write me on twitter and let me know any thoughts or comments @brainharrington
