Why Bitcoin Clicked for Me: Getting Paid Was Harder Than Doing the Work

I didn’t get into Bitcoin because of ideology.

I got into it because getting paid was harder than doing the job.

Back in 2017, my employer paid salaries from a DBS Bank account in Singapore. I was based in India. The amount wasn’t large, but the friction was.

Month One: PayPal

The first month, I tried PayPal.

Around 4–5% disappeared in fees — quietly lost to FX rates and charges that only make sense if you work at PayPal. No clear breakdown. Just a smaller number at the end.

“No explanation. Just less money.”

Month Two: The “Proper” Way

The second month, I tried a bank transfer. The proper way.

The money was sent on a Friday evening. It arrived two “working days” later — Tuesday morning.

DBS charged my employer for the overseas transfer. Kotak Mahindra Bank promptly froze the funds and emailed me asking for “pre-credit intimation” and “disposal instructions”. I had to visit the branch and explain who was paying me and why.

After that, they applied their own FX spread converting SGD to INR.

“Branch visits. Forms. Working days. Fees at every step.”

Month Three: Bitcoin

By the third month, my employer was tired too.

He said, “Why don’t we try Bitcoin?”

I asked what Bitcoin was.

He told me to find an Indian exchange. I signed up on ZebPay. Full KYC, manual approval — done in about 10 minutes.

I sent him a BTC address.

He sent Bitcoin equivalent to my salary in SGD.

It arrived in 10–12 minutes.

While waiting for his exchange withdrawal and confirmations on ZebPay, the price moved slightly in my favour. I sold immediately.

I ended up with a 3.824% gain.

I withdrew INR to my bank account for the equivalent of 27 US cents in fees.

The exchange paid GST on its fees, so the government got its cut from the business. I paid income tax on the INR credited to my bank account, so the government got its cut from the individual too.

Everyone got paid.

The Moment It Clicked

That was the moment it clicked.

Not “number go up”.

Not rebellion.

Just better financial plumbing.

No branch visits.
No “working days”.
No layers of fees pretending to be inevitable.

Banks lost their margins. Governments got nervous. A global, permissionless rail quietly did its job.

As I’ve written elsewhere about stablecoins and cross-border payments, most crypto adoption doesn’t start with belief — it starts with friction. People switch when something finally works better.

“Bitcoin didn’t feel radical. It felt obvious.”

That experience was my entry point into crypto with conviction. Money — and how it moves — was already changing. I had just experienced it first-hand.

Do you remember your first use case where crypto actually clicked for you?