Bitcoin discussion and news

[spacemonkey]

Is it a good idea to buy one now and if so, where would I go?

You either have to go through a huge complicated referral process via 'mtgox', or use a service like https://bitbargain.co.uk/buy

However, you'll pay top whack using the latter. Cheapest available is £145 whereas mtgox is hovering around £87.

I previously used intersango, which was an excellent UK exchange, but Barclays closed their UK bank account.

 

[Belushi]

I can't help but remember that the people who made fortunes during goldrushes tended to be the ones who set up shop selling pickaxes and wheelbarrows at vastly inflated proces. If I were one of you clever computer fellas wanting to make money out of the bitcoin thing thats where I'd be looking.

 

[Santino]

I can't help but remember that the people who made fortunes during goldrushes tended to be the ones who set up shop selling pickaxes and wheelbarrows at vastly inflated proces.

That's one of those popular beliefs that I'd like to see confirmed or dispelled on QI.

 

[sleaterkinney]

It feels like a bubble to me because there's not that much useful stuff you can do with bitcoins, aside from buying drugs. Therefore why else would people buy them?

 

[Crispy]

It feels like a bubble to me because there's not that much useful stuff you can do with bitcoins, aside from buying drugs. Therefore why else would people buy them?

Precisely my thoughts.

 

[joustmaster]

It feels like a bubble to me because there's not that much useful stuff you can do with bitcoins, aside from buying drugs. Therefore why else would people buy them?

To buy drugs!

 

[panpete]

It feels like a bubble to me because there's not that much useful stuff you can do with bitcoins, aside from buying drugs. Therefore why else would people buy them?

hate to sound sick but what about all the nonces who go on tor and have to pay for their dirty hobbies?

 

[panpete]

And other black market stuff, like weapons etc, the black market will always be there.

 

[spacemonkey]

The UK desperately needs an easy-to-use exchange. There was a detailed post on reddit from a guy involved in Intersango. He said you'd need £250,000 to burn to even attempt it.

 

[panpete]

The UK desperately needs an easy-to-use exchange. There was a detailed post on reddit from a guy involved in Intersango. He said you'd need £250,000 to burn to even attempt it.

I just got told you don't need to spend more than twenty quid if you don't want cos you can buy fractions of bitcoins. That was on bitbargain uk chat

 

[spacemonkey]

I just got told you don't need to spend more than twenty quid if you don't want cos you can buy fractions of bitcoins. That was on bitbargain uk chat

Yeah you can buy fractions, the £250,000 was an estimate of the cost of setting up a currency exchange site in the UK, like mtgox.

 

[panpete]

Is bitbargain the best place in UK to buy online?

 

[sleaterkinney]

Is the price falling now?

 

[Idaho]

Bit bargain is expensive. I did some selling there, just to see. You can sell for 25% over spot and get punters all day. I stopped because to carry on I would have had to register for money laundering and started tax documentation, when all I want to do is sit on a stash and cross my fingers.

 

[panpete]

Is the price falling now?

someone on bitbargain said it had gone down to $116+

 

[panpete]

Just in the last hour that is
Dunno where they got info from tho

 

[camouflage]

It feels like a bubble to me because there's not that much useful stuff you can do with bitcoins, aside from buying drugs. Therefore why else would people buy them?

You can easily exchange between bitcoin and other currencies to buy your drugs and guns in the local coin if you like. Great for remittance payments, far better performing than a mattress, very good for internet click-payments etc. If I wanted to pay you some money I'd ask for an address to send it to, and that would be that. Here, you can send me your useless bitcoins and I will dispose of them for you:

1Q3Vb78c2mR62UQrhxNeSisDmkJp27J3QM

 

[spacemonkey]

Bit bargain is expensive. I did some selling there, just to see. You can sell for 25% over spot and get punters all day. I stopped because to carry on I would have had to register for money laundering and started tax documentation, when all I want to do is sit on a stash and cross my fingers.

Interesting, I could imagine the bank would start asking questions about cash flows in and out of your account! Wonder how the big sellers manage it.

 

[panpete]

When I try to go to mtgox it says "bad gateway"
Is there anywhere cheaper than bitbargain please?
Thanks, sorry for all the questions.

 

[spacemonkey]

You can easily exchange between bitcoin and other currencies to buy your drugs and guns in the local coin if you like. Great for remittance payments, far better performing than a mattress, very good for internet click-payments etc. If I wanted to pay you some money I'd ask for an address to send it to, and that would be that. Here, you can send me your useless bitcoins and I will dispose of them for you:

1Q3Vb78c2mR62UQrhxNeSisDmkJp27J3QM

One of my mates moved to Canada and closed his UK account and wired the money by BACS to me. I sent him the equivalent in bitcoin and it arrived seconds later. He cashed out over in Canada I believe. Bet he wished he didn't now.

You were one of the early adopters, did you make millions or cash out during a previous spike?

 

[camouflage]

100% reinvestment so no solid gold houses for now, I'm long.

Another trip to India with my partner this time is tempting though.

 

[panpete]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technolog...eaches-record-high-currency#start-of-comments
Does this mean a crash is conming?
Where else apart from bitbargain can I buy pls?

 

[Idaho]

Buying BTC is easy if you want large amounts. Then the transaction fees of getting money to exchanges don't matter. I wouldn't register on MTGox just to buy 1 or 2. To just buy a few, I would either go to bitcointalk.org or to the #bitcoin-otc-uk IRC channel and ask on there.

The price bounces around a lot. What's happening is that on MtGox you get a spread of asks and bids - standing offers to sell, and standing offers to buy. When someone comes online and ticks "Market Trade" and sells 100BTC, it will sell to the highest ask offer, and when that is fulfilled, will then sell to the next. So for example if the bids are:

10 @$133
3.5 @$132.80
42 @$132.20
7.2 @$131.95
3 @$131.50
34 @$130.02
12 @$129.40

A market sell order for 100BTC will eat up all those asks down to the last. Leaving the "last price" at $129.40.

Once a week, usually on a Weds or Thurs, you get a couple of big sell orders which do just this and bring the price down $20-30. The price then crawls back and a bit of heat is taken out of the market.

The opposite happens with a big buy. Take a look at bitcoinity to see the trades happening and how they are affecting the price.

One other consistent feature of bitcoin is people buying in, watching the price go up, then panicking when there is one of these price dumps.

 

[panpete]

Thanks. I will look at those places.
Do I need a 'bitcoin wallet', if so, how do I make one.
I tried reading how to on bitcoin wiki, but tbh they lost me with all the tech jargon, like key-pool etc?

 

[Idaho]

The easiest way is to go here: http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

BitcoinQT is the basic. You can install that on your machine, and it will give you addresses to send your bitcoin too.

These wallets will need to be opened and run, so that they synch with the "blockchain" - the list of transactions.

 

[Idaho]

Whatever price it settles back down at when the bubble bursts, which will be a significant fraction of the current price if things go the same way they did last time (yes I know )
EDIT: ie. not a "slight" drop, but a reduction to 10-20% of the spike.

You need to look at the bids list to see how much capacity there is to suck up big sells. So far, there has been a lot.

The dotcom bubble lasted 5 years. And even then, some value came out the other side. There is no way to really work out what internetable ready cash is worth.

 

[panpete]

The easiest way is to go here: http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

BitcoinQT is the basic. You can install that on your machine, and it will give you addresses to send your bitcoin too.

These wallets will need to be opened and run, so that they synch with the "blockchain" - the list of transactions.

Hi
thanks
I read the wiki on securing your wallet but its just got me more confused.
Please could you explain it in dummy's terms for me, as I think I need a wallet for buying bitcoins

Thanks

 

[slainte]

There was an easy way to buy in the UK it was blockchain.info ..however they have shut trading from the for the UK>....all I had to do was put so much sterling against it then see the equivalent bitcoins and send a variety of ways easy way was barclays pingit.....sigh another hit the wall like intersango..

 

[Idaho]

Hi
thanks
I read the wiki on securing your wallet but its just got me more confused.
Please could you explain it in dummy's terms for me, as I think I need a wallet for buying bitcoins

Thanks

Re-read it a few times. It takes a while to work it out.

The level of security you need depends on how much BTC you have, how paranoid you are, how poorly protected your pc is, and how likely you are to pick up trojans and other stuff from dodgy sites.

 

[slainte]

I use two factor autentication with Google authenticator from blockchain along with a lengthy password upper and lower case ...so ..hosted in a cloud on their servers..granted but ..pretty secure..very few offer this ..silly really considering the price and the fact many are trying to hack into wallets and empty these days...hmm