It isn’t quite how I envisioned it. . . I’d dreamed of taking out my cellphone and opening the camera. I saw myself change the settings to video and then hand it off to my daughter as I prepped to open the envelope. My dream had me talking on camera excitedly about the trip to the store I was about to make, then we hopped in the van and ran off to the store. My dream continued with me picking up a few items then going to the self-checkout where the camera’s video function was turned on again. I dreamed of that moment when I punched in the card’s PIN and pulled out the receipt, triumphantly announcing that I’d just bought groceries with my BTC debit card!No. . . it’s not going to be that way. Instead, in order to keep my HP Connect Instant Ink subscription going, I am needing to obtain a debit card that has a virtual number rather than strictly physical as is the case with the XAPO card I wanted to get. As of tonight, I have begun a slow transfer from freebitco.in over to the wallet of this virtual card. We’ll see how that went by morning. If successful, I’ll be able to order the virtual card tomorrow morning and then update my payment settings over at HP Connect Instant Ink to maintain my monthly subscription. Doing this makes the cost of ink so much more manageable and the printer gets used for everything from resumes to printing to music.
On the plus side, thanks to the meteoric rise in value of BTC, the faucet earnings I’ve accumulated since mid February’s experiment began will be enough to pay for at least two month’s worth of this subscription as well as fees for use of the card and exchange rates from USD into CAD. So it’s nice to know I have accumulated useful coin that can have a real-world benefit to this household even if it isn’t a bag of groceries at the store. Still looking at that keychain flashlight I posted about earlier as well, but ink is a little more important at this time.Hopefully, if all went well, I can post an update to my FB page saying HP Connect InstantInk is saved by the bright, shiny new world of Bitcoin!