Stop shorting bitcoin with Alby Hub and wavecard

“I’m never selling my bitcoin!” — a phrase you hear from many bitcoiners. On the surface, it makes perfect sense: they believe in bitcoin’s long-term upside and want to hold as much as possible for as long as possible. But here’s the irony: most are still shorting bitcoin without even realizing it.

How? By continuing to hold fiat. Whether it’s from a salary, leftover savings, or other sources, some of that fiat inevitably stays parked in a bank account. People keep it for different reasons: it feels “safer”, it’s convenient for paying bills, or simply because old habits die hard.
But as long as part of their wealth remains in fiat, they’re not yet fully embracing bitcoin as electronic cash and are effectively shorting it.

Why go long Bitcoin?

Eivydas, founder of wave.space, has a great answer:

"Those who seek freedom and recognise bitcoin as perfect money want to save their capital exclusively in bitcoin, including even their disposable income. Not only does this make rational sense in terms of increasing purchasing power (even on a monthly basis), but also more generally, why would you park your capital in anything that can be either inflated or confiscated away, especially when you have a solution on the table that is mathematically scarce and immutable?”

One might say that you have to hold fiat to pay all your fiat bills, because hardly any merchant, landlord or insurance accepts bitcoin. But do you really?

Use a Bitcoin payment card like wavecard

Wavecard enables Europeans to live on Bitcoin, designed for Bitcoiners by first principles.

1. Bitcoin-only - holds BTC until the last possible second

2. Auto Topup - connect wavecard to your lightning wallet, and spend from self-custody automatically

Leveraging NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect) Wave.space is pushing the boundaries to fully cater to the needs of bitcoiners. You only need to hold enough BTC on the card to cover a single transaction; no need to keep topping up your card manually. Anytime you pay, BTC will be pulled from your wallet. 

An example:
You have 250,000 sats on the card, as your target balance. You buy a meal that costs 35,000 sats, bringing your card balance down to 215,000 sats. 35,000 sats are immediately replenished from your connected Lightning wallet, refilling your target balance.

This means you can keep the vast majority of your spendable BTC in self-custody and you only hold BTC, never shorting bitcoin again.

How to pay my rent with Bitcoin?

Sometimes you still need to make bank transfers for rent, insurance, or other bills, which means you’ll occasionally need euros in your bank account.

Wave.space lets you sell BTC instantly from your self-custodial wallet into your Wave vIBAN and then send it to your EUR bank account. The transfer arrives under your own name, so your bank sees it as a standard EUR transfer between your own accounts.

How to pay online or buy groceries with Bitcoin?

You simply need a debit card that converts BTC at the moment of purchase like a wavecard. It lets you spend your bitcoin at over 150 million merchants worldwide. And by connecting your own wallet, you can keep most of your BTC in self-custody while the card automatically refills after every payment.

Alby Hub: your Center for Bitcoin payments 

Alby Hub gives you everything you need to use Bitcoin as everyday money: online, in apps, and in person.
Bringin is another card provider integrated into Alby Hub, letting you conveniently top up your card from your self-custodial wallet. And with Bitcoin Well you can pay even bills directly from your Alby Hub wallet. 

This is how Alby Hub becomes your central hub for bitcoin payments: Use one wallet with many apps, without spreading your BTC across different services. Manage everything in one place.

Living on bitcoin has never been easier.