Bitcoins

[Springal]

Where is the best / easiest / safest place to buy Bitcoins now adays? Just in small quantities for purchases, say.

 

[jgmcdee]

Where is the best / easiest / safest place to buy Bitcoins now adays? Just in small quantities for purchases, say.

If you want to buy them online you can try Bitstamp, which is relatively painless. If you prefer face-to-face you can search for people who are willing to trade locally at Local Bitcoins.

 

[jgmcdee]

There are a number of options and ways to buy. I must admit I got confused by the online purchasing sites I was looking at but I have details (somewhere) of a place where I go and buy them face-to-face...and crucially have a lot of questions answered.

Happy to answer questions if you have any.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Okay, interesting stuff, and I've not read every page but ....
Isn't this an open door to launder money? - Have I understood its anonymous nature correctly?
E.g. I rob / find a load of money which I can't put into my bank account as it will become traceable, so I buy bitcoins and with these buy stuff which can long be traced back to my untaxed earning.

Also, if I'm selling something and priced it in bitcoins, won't I need to keep changing the price with the rise and fall of the trading value of bitcoins to maintain equal value?

I'm struggling to see the real value of bitcoins to the honest everyday man in the street.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'm struggling to see the real value of bitcoins to the honest everyday man in the street.

To a degree, same with me. But, there are an increasing number of businesses using them here. I'm intrigued by the whole thing and this has the potential to challenge regular cash which I also find intriguing. At the end of the day regular cash is just scraps of paper and metal; why not do away with this and use these virtual bitcoin things which seemingly do not have all the crap regular money has attached to it?

 

[Springal]

If you want to buy them online you can try Bitstamp, which is relatively painless. If you prefer face-to-face you can search for people who are willing to trade locally at Local Bitcoins.

How does the face to face work ?

 

[jgmcdee]

How does the face to face work ?

They have full instructions at https://localbitcoins.com/guides/how-to-begin, and they provide an escrow service which helps secure your trade. You can trade without it, but it would be a similar to if you met someone and bought some gold off them directly and isn't risk-free.

 

[Jimmy's gonna get ya!]

Thanks for the heads up on mining. I've at least made a start by getting a "wallet". Correct me if I'm wrong but the current price for 1 x Bitcoin = £78 ($135) ish. This seems to be a fairly in the middle looking at the historical value??:

http://blockchain.info/charts/market-price?timespan=1year&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

 

[DanielT]

I was looking to flog a couple

 

[beorhthelm]

If you want to buy them online you can try Bitstamp, which is relatively painless. If you prefer face-to-face you can search for people who are willing to trade locally at Local Bitcoins.

is Bitstamp easy from UK? when i looked at it seemed one had to jump through a couple of hoops/other parties to get money in and out. for me, though localbitcoins might work, it rather defeats the purpose if its not online.

...At the end of the day regular cash is just scraps of paper and metal; why not do away with this and use these virtual bitcoin things which seemingly do not have all the crap regular money has attached to it?

but they have their own special crap attached instead. my biggest bugbear is failure to address the size of the blockchain, the massive download you need to run a wallet as a personal node, and more to the point the failure of the bitcoin community to recognise that this is even an issue. too many technorati who think everyone else has great internet connections. its not the financial messiah.

 

[DanielT]

If anyone does want to buy Bitcoin, PM me as I have a couple to sell.

 

[AZ Gull]

The reason they are becoming more and more popular is because of websites like this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)

I imagine they have little to no idea about Bitcoin. As was demonstrated at the last demos in London, in the world of varying social media their idea of mass communication is to still hand out leaflets.

The FBI has now closed down the "Silk Road" website and arrested the owner - FBI seizes 'Silk Road' black market domain, arrests owner

 

[jgmcdee]

is Bitstamp easy from UK? when i looked at it seemed one had to jump through a couple of hoops/other parties to get money in and out. for me, though localbitcoins might work, it rather defeats the purpose if its not online.

Last time I used them I needed a SEPA transfer but that was about it.

but they have their own special crap attached instead. my biggest bugbear is failure to address the size of the blockchain, the massive download you need to run a wallet as a personal node, and more to the point the failure of the bitcoin community to recognise that this is even an issue. too many technorati who think everyone else has great internet connections. its not the financial messiah.

Not at all, and in fact there are very few people running full nodes. There are various options out there for running lighter clients, including SPV and server-based wallets.

And no it absolutely isn't the financial messiah, it's a small group of people who have spent many years working on this with little to no reward. You are, of course, free to contribute your own time and energies.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The FBI has now closed down the "Silk Road" website and arrested the owner - FBI seizes 'Silk Road' black market domain, arrests owner

Whilst this site uses Bitcoins as it's currency the two are not linked.

 

[AZ Gull]

Whilst this site uses Bitcoins as it's currency the two are not linked.

I am well aware of that. I posted the news item because other contributors in this thread had previously mentioned the Silk Road website specifically, as ONE of the reasons that Bitcoin had grown in popularity. The fact that Bitcoin dropped in value by 8% on news of the site closure suggests that many must still feel that Bitcoin has a strong connection to the online black market.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I am well aware of that. I posted the news item because other contributors in this thread had previously mentioned the Silk Road website specifically, as ONE of the reasons that Bitcoin had grown in popularity. The fact that Bitcoin dropped in value by 8% on news of the site closure suggests that many must still feel that Bitcoin has a strong connection to the online black market.

I understand

 

[jgmcdee]

So did anyone purchase any bitcoins after the last discussion? Risen to around $190 per coin over the past month...

 

[The Maharajah of Sydney]

I guess a bit more transparency in seeking price discovery should be seen as a positive development for all you Bitcoin punters .

Coinfloor, a new Bitcoin exchange launching in London on Tuesday .

Coinfloor is being marketed as a forum for high-frequency trading in Bitcoin, will open initially only to customers in the UK and Europe .
Coinfloor will allow customers to swap British pounds for Bitcoin, competing with existing exchanges Bitstamp and BTC-E .
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has been monitoring the growth of Bitcoin but has decided it is not widely used and therefore does not currently require formal regulation .

More detail in today's FT .

 

[beorhthelm]

will be good to see a UK based exchange, if that means convenient transfer in and out. interesting comments about regulation and registration in the US, not sure that squares with the UK pretty sure theres stuff to do here too. hence why i cant just enter my CC number and buy some bitcoins in £ today. though i dont see how you can do "high frequency" with bitcoin, when you have to wait so long for a transaction to be confirmed

 

[Barrel of Fun]

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...orgotten-currency-norway-oslo-home?CMP=twt_gu

Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them, finds they're now worth $886k
Bought in 2009, currency's rise in value saw small investment turn into enough to buy an apartment in a wealthy area of Oslo