I was a Bitcoin fan before it was popular. That means I had thousands of Bitcoins. It also means I sold my thousands of Bitcoins for less than $1 each. Still, the technology fascinates me, and although cryptocurrencies have risen and fallen, I'm still a fan.

There are several places to use Bitcoin on a regular basis. One of my favorites, which I've mentioned before, is the Humble Bundle. I've also ordered from Overstock.com using Bitcoin. I often look for places I can spend Bitcoin and try to shop at them when possible. Like most people, however, I usually end up buying things on Amazon.

Thankfully, with the help of Purse.IO, you can indirectly purchase items from Amazon using Bitcoin! I've been using Purse.IO for more than a year, but it seemed too good to be true, so I hesitated writing about it. The premise is this: some people have Amazon gift cards but would rather have Bitcoin. I have Bitcoin and want to buy stuff from Amazon. Using wish lists and an escrow system with Purse.IO, we trade. In fact, people are willing to give a discount in order to get Bitcoin for their gift cards, and so I can order items from Amazon and get a large percentage (sometimes more than 25%) off the retail price. I usually agree to around 13% off, and there are folks willing to send me things from Amazon. Once the items from my wish list arrive, Purse.IO releases the Bitcoin from escrow, and both parties are happy.

(Photo via )

I'm sure there are people who try to scam others by ordering items with bad credit cards and so on, but since you release the escrow only when the item actually arrives, the risk is pretty low. I don't think I'd want to spend vast amounts of Bitcoin via Purse.IO, but since I don't have vast amounts of Bitcoin, it works out quite well for me. If you have some Bitcoin and wonder what to do with it, check out Purse.IO. It's pretty cool!