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Can someone explain in easy terms how to pay with Bitcoin?

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My understanding is that Bitcoin is a lot like gold.
(1) it's not like "fiat money" (dollars, euros, krone) which is legal tender somewhere (well, I guess in El Salvador everyone has to take bitcoin).
(2) You have to "mine"it yourself, or buy it on an "exchange" for a fee added to the price.
(3) You have to store it somewhere (you store bitcoin in a supposedly free database, but of course to gain access and use it you have to pay someone's "exchange").
(4) If you stole "fiat money" to buy it, then it is harder to trace the stolen money, and as a crook (like North Korea) you have something you can sell.
(5) You have to sell at the right time for "fiat money" to come out ahead. Some people may take your gold (bitcoin), but usually they charge a premium to do so.
(6) A lot of the dealers are in jail.
(If you disagree with all this, please feel free to criticize it. I am always happy to learn.)
 
I'm not very knowledgeable about crypto coins, but here's what I understand of Bitcoin:

(Note that some of the details can differ between different implementations of coins.)

  • Unlike traditional currency, there's no central authority (i.e. bank, government, etc.) minting new money. You can create (i.e. "mine") it yourself without any help from others.
  • Despite having no central authority, anyone can validate Bitcoins using a mathematical algorithm. So, forgery is practically impossible.
  • Having no central authority is a point of debate. Some see it as a freedom from governmental influence; others see it as a danger because there's no authority to guarantee its value.
  • Mining a coin means running a program to solve mathematical problems. Those problems are time-consuming to solve but trivial to validate, so if you have an answer, it's easy to know that you actually spent resources (e.g. electricity) to get it.
  • Although it's easy to create (mine) a Bitcoin yourself, it won't probably be profitable unless you have a farm of mining machines. So, most people just buy them using traditional money.
  • If you want to exchange it with traditional currency, service, or trade it, you'll need to use various dealers or individuals whose credibility may vary.
  • There are only a limited number of Bitcoins that can ever exist.
  • You can store your Bitcoins in your "wallet " which is a file in your drive.
  • Despite Bitcoin being known to be often used for shady people, all Bitcoin transactions are transparently visible to the public ironically. You can trace any individual Bitcoin to see how it's been moved around.
  • That's why many people create a temporary "address" for Bitcoin transactions so that they won't be traced easily.
To answer the question, you'll need to purchase Bitcoin first (since mining would likely be impractical with your hardware). Find a trustworthy online exchange site to buy some coins (with real money). You can probably send Bitcoins directly from the exchange site to the wallet of the person whom you want to pay.

Alternatively, you can install a wallet program and transfer the coins from the exchange site to your wallet first, then send them to the recipient using the program's interface.
 
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