Bitcoin’s adventure continues, with more ups and downs than a hike across a mountain range. With it being such a big player in the news at the moment, we thought we might explain how you're actually able to spend it.

Have a look at our picks for the best alternatives to Bitcoin.

Where can I spend Bitcoin?

You can actually spend Bitcoin in a surprising amount of places, and a number that’s only set to increase as time moves on and cryptocurrency becomes a larger part of everyday life.

Resources such as wheretospendbitcoins.co.uk gives you a list of businesses and retailers who will readily accept your crypto gold. Most places will display if they accept Bitcoin with a sign, as it’s still somewhat of a novelty – so if you’re wondering around and see a nice big shiny B outside of a shop, you’ll know what that means.

One way to ensure that you can use your Bitcoin to purchase everyday items and essentials is through Zeek. This website allows you to purchase gift cards and allows you to pay with Bitcoin among most other regular methods of payment. Considering the cast majority of gift cards are discounted, you’re getting more bang for your buck too.

How can I spend Bitcoin?

The act of directly spending Bitcoin can be a little more difficult, as the network’s transaction speed is notoriously slow due to a large amount of users. This is speculated to be fixed with the upcoming Lightning Network update, but until then you might have to use a slightly more roundabout option.

Shakepay is a wallet that allows you to transfer you Bitcoin into fiat currency (USD/GBP/EUR) on the fly. This makes it easy to transfer your Bitcoin into the more easily spendable fiat currency and then pay for your service.

While it is possible to pay for services with Bitcoin, the technology that it was built upon is struggling to keep up with demand placed upon it by the large influx of users. There are several other coins that are attempting to solve this problem, such as Nano (XRB) and LiteCoin (LTC), but none of them quite have the brand recognition of Bitcoin just yet.