Buying bitcoins

OriginV · 29-11-2013 1:39pm

The last price I seen on Bitstamp was $1,065.00 euro per Bitcoin, Is it easy to sell at this sort of price?

srsly78 · 29-11-2013 1:55pm

Again: when you say "price" what do you mean? If it means current buy orders then yes. If it means sell orders then no. More likely the "price" you see is some kind of average in-between.

There is no "price", there are only buy and sell orders.

OriginV · 29-11-2013 5:55pm

Sorry, I am confused to how this works.
So the sell order's are which people are willing to pay?

srsly78 · 29-11-2013 5:59pm

Sell orders are people offering to sell at that price.

Buy orders are people offering to buy at that price.

This is not something specific to bitcoins, but rather how all real markets work.

For example: I could make a sell order, offering 1 bitcoin @ e10000 euros. Clearly this is much higher than the average price of the other sell orders so noone would bother with it.

Caliden · 02-12-2013 4:05pm

Also you don't to buy 1 entire coin to buy bitcoins. You can buy a fraction of one, 0.5BTC, 0.05BTC , even smaller if you want.

shanemort · 04-12-2013 11:38pm

if anyone here needs to get thier cash out and cant wait 6-8 weeks like mtgox are offering i can have the euros into your bank account or cash for you in 3-4 days from BTC Deposit

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Lenin Skynard · 05-12-2013 1:03am

Caliden wrote: »

Also you don't to buy 1 entire coin to buy bitcoins. You can buy a fraction of one, 0.5BTC, 0.05BTC , even smaller if you want.

It makes me want to smash my head in with a hammer. I bought five bitcoins for around the €100 mark a year ago and traded them. I think €100 would get you 0.20 bitcoins now and that's after there was a huge crash at the start of summer.

AtomicHorror · 05-12-2013 8:59pm

Lenin Skynard wrote: »

It makes me want to smash my head in with a hammer. I bought five bitcoins for around the €100 mark a year ago and traded them. I think €100 would get you 0.20 bitcoins now and that's after there was a huge crash at the start of summer.

Not even. About 0.14BTC. Still there seems to be great potential for 10x or even 100x growth from here. Or 0x, though with each "crash" and the subsequent recovery that seems less likely to me.

Komsomolitz · 09-12-2013 1:37am

Any way to buy bitcoins without having to go through all this verification crap like scanning in photo id and what not? Bit elaborate.. why cant i just use paypal or moneybookers etc?

srsly78 · 09-12-2013 1:40am

Anti money laundering rules is why you need to provide id etc, same as with any other kind of brokerage.

Paypal etc do not deal in bitcoins. The entire point of bitcoins is to bypass all these financial middlemen, so don't expect them to help

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup · 09-12-2013 1:56am

Komsomolitz wrote: »

Any way to buy bitcoins without having to go through all this verification crap like scanning in photo id and what not? Bit elaborate.. why cant i just use paypal or moneybookers etc?

loads of methods have been tried but nobody has figured out how accept credit cards or paypal simply because if the buyer does a chargeback, PP or the CC will always side with the buyer. so too risky for the seller.

Roonbox · 09-12-2013 3:23am

georgiecasey wrote: »

loads of methods have been tried but nobody has figured out how accept credit cards or paypal simply because if the buyer does a chargeback, PP or the CC will always side with the buyer. so too risky for the seller.

I used a Bitcoin ATM here in Vancouver, no ID needed. I think there are plans to have one in London too. If this whole thing doesn't fall apart at the seams there may be an ATM in Dublin at some stage.

pH · 09-12-2013 10:42am

Komsomolitz wrote: »

Any way to buy bitcoins without having to go through all this verification crap like scanning in photo id and what not? Bit elaborate.. why cant i just use paypal or moneybookers etc?

localbitcoins.com is probably your best bet.

Zascar · 19-12-2013 12:35pm

I hope its ok to start a seperate thread for this, but can anyone please give me a step by step guide to buying bitcoins? There seems to be so many ways and different steps involved. How do I get a bitcoin address? Which wallet do I use? Where should I buy them from?

Advice appreciated.
Thanks

hullaballoo · 19-12-2013 2:20pm

Zascar wrote: »

I hope its ok to start a seperate thread for this, but can anyone please give me a step by step guide to buying bitcoins? There seems to be so many ways and different steps involved. How do I get a bitcoin address? Which wallet do I use? Where should I buy them from?

Advice appreciated.
Thanks

Sorry, there are already quite a number of threads on bitcoins between the first couple of pages of the forum. This thread is probably best suited to your purposes.

spix · 19-12-2013 2:33pm

Zascar wrote: »

I hope its ok to start a seperate thread for this, but can anyone please give me a step by step guide to buying bitcoins? There seems to be so many ways and different steps involved. How do I get a bitcoin address? Which wallet do I use? Where should I buy them from?

Advice appreciated.
Thanks

Q. How do I get a bitcoin address?
A. By creating a wallet

Q. Which wallet do I use?
A. I recommend https://blockchain.info/wallet/new for beginners.

Q. Where should I buy them from?
A. Imo the best place to buy bitcoins in Europe are localbitcoins.com, bitstamp.net and kraken.com as they all allow cheap SEPA transactions.

pH · 20-12-2013 9:08pm

Zascar wrote: »

I hope its ok to start a seperate thread for this, but can anyone please give me a step by step guide to buying bitcoins? There seems to be so many ways and different steps involved. How do I get a bitcoin address? Which wallet do I use? Where should I buy them from?

Advice appreciated.
Thanks

Given you've posted this in I&M - I'm presuming that you want them as an "investment" ie to hang on to a bit.

One of the things people have a hard time "getting" is that bitcoins are not really stored in wallets- they're actually stored in the P2P network AKA blockchain.

Each bitcoin(or part of) is associated with a public key - you "own" that bitcoin by having in your possession the private part of that key.

So the simplest way to own/store bitcoins is just have a paper printout with the public/private keyparing on it - and then send (or pay people and get them to send) bitcoins to that key. You don't need a computer or a wallet until you want to spend/sell the coins - at which time you sweep the keys into a wallet or account and spend them.

So for example go here : https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/bitcoinpaperwallet/generate-wallet.html (or https://www.bitaddress.org )
Print yourself a paper wallet - to be absolutely secure you need to d/l the files and generate the wallet offline.

Now anyone with bitcoins can send them to the public address on the wallet - you can check the wallets contents using something like blockchain.info and as long as you don't lose/destroy/give away the paper wallet when you need to you use the private key to sweep the bitcoins into a software wallet (or indeed somewhere like mtgox)

As an aside - anyone who actually has bitcoins can use these paper wallets to make for example 0.1 BTC or 0.01 BTC "gift vouchers" to give as novelty xmas gifts for the techies in your life!

Stuxnet · 31-12-2013 12:13am

Whats the purpose of bitcoin wallet sync if I download it.....it takes a very long time to sync.....I understand its processing all transactions that ever happened, but for what purpose would I need it ?

I can still buy and transfer BC without this app...what's its purpose

fergalr · 31-12-2013 12:15am

Stuxnet wrote: »

Whats the purpose of bitcoin wallet sync if I download it.....it takes a very long time to sync.....I understand its processing all transactions that ever happened, but for what purpose would I need it ?

I can still buy and transfer BC without this app...what's its purpose

So that when someone sends you coins, after you buy them, you know that they haven't already been sent to someone else.
Because, if they had already been sent to someone else, your client would have processed that transaction, as it was 'processing all transactions that ever happened'.

Does that make sense? You don't strictly need to sync up to send coins, but you do in order to receive coins, and be sure that you have really received them.

srsly78 · 31-12-2013 2:30am

If you download a preprocessed blockchain you are trusting someone else to do the verification bit for you.

pH · 31-12-2013 12:23pm

srsly78 wrote: »

If you download a preprocessed blockchain you are trusting someone else to do the verification bit for you.

Yes, but at the end of the day you're still just "trusting" the software you just downloaded, unless you write your own verifier or check the source code involved and compile it yourself.

For the vast majority of people using bitcoin in the future having the entire blockchain "live" on their computer isn't going to be a option, most will be using a wallet that "trusts" someone else to check the blockchain for them.

Something like multibit should be enough for all but the most paranoid who want a wallet to store a couple of bitcoins.

https://multibit.org/faq.html

Worztron · 08-01-2014 10:40am

Saw in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cBeye7BuOo

Has anyone used http://www.gunkfood.com?

It seems like a scam. The above site is not found.

Roonbox · 08-01-2014 8:00pm

Coinye all the way

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/01/coinye-west-kanye-themed-cryptocurrency-takes-aim-at-bitcoin.html

Worztron · 10-01-2014 11:25am

spix wrote: »

...Q. Where should I buy them from?
A. Imo the best place to buy bitcoins in Europe are localbitcoins.com, bitstamp.net and kraken.com as they all allow cheap SEPA transactions.

Of those 3 sites, can anyone who has used them post their experience. Which one is best?

windowlicker · 10-01-2014 12:59pm

i've used kraken and found them great. i've used mtgox and bitcoin-central in the past also and found kraken to be the best.

the only problem with them is that the volume traded there is quite low so if you want to buy a lot of bitcoin (> 100 BTC), then you would need to look elsewhere.

both deposit and withdrawal from kraken took about 3 business days.

Worztron · 10-01-2014 4:29pm

windowlicker wrote: »

...if you want to buy a lot of bitcoin (> 100 BTC)...

That would be near €67000. :eek:

That limit is plenty.

Worztron · 10-01-2014 8:49pm

Has anyone used localbitcoins.com?

Is a passport or other ID required to buy bitcoins via SEPA?

AtomicHorror · 10-01-2014 8:50pm

Worztron wrote: »

Of those 3 sites, can anyone who has used them post their experience. Which one is best?

Can't speak about the others but Bitstamp are good. Quicker than Mt.Gox to get users verified. Deposits go off without a hitch, and the price of bitcoins is lower on Bitstamp than on Mt.Gox.

srsly78 · 10-01-2014 9:02pm

Ehhh so just buy on bitstamp and sell on mtgox, arbitrage alert!

AtomicHorror · 10-01-2014 9:34pm

srsly78 wrote: »

Ehhh so just buy on bitstamp and sell on mtgox, arbitrage alert!

Fees will kill you unless you have a lot to spend, also long delay in withdrawing from Mt.Gox. Overall, I reckon there's probably profit to be made, but only if you plenty to spend?

srsly78 · 11-01-2014 2:56am

Transferring bitcoins or money into mtgox is really fast, it's just cashing out takes time. This would not be an issue in this situation - just delaying your profits.

Worztron · 11-01-2014 12:03pm

spix wrote: »

Q. How do I get a bitcoin address?
A. By creating a wallet

Q. Which wallet do I use?
A. I recommend https://blockchain.info/wallet/new for beginners.

Q. Where should I buy them from?
A. Imo the best place to buy bitcoins in Europe are localbitcoins.com, bitstamp.net and kraken.com as they all allow cheap SEPA transactions.

Is a scanned passport and other form of scanned ID required for kraken.com and localbitcoins.com? I know it is for bitstamp.net.

How safely kept is this personal info?

Worztron · 12-01-2014 10:51am

Has anyone used https://www.coinmama.com to buy bitcoins via Western Union?

Gryffindor · 13-01-2014 1:13am

Hi there, so my question I'm sure sounds very silly but if someone could explain it I would be very grateful.

Say you buy a small-ish amount of bitcoins, maybe 10, how exactly do you go about selling them? And how much of a fee would have to be paid?

srsly78 · 13-01-2014 1:47am

You sell them the same way you bought them, via a broker. The fee involved depends on the broker used.

PrzemoF · 13-01-2014 5:16pm

Gryffindor wrote: »

Hi there, so my question I'm sure sounds very silly but if someone could explain it I would be very grateful.

Say you buy a small-ish amount of bitcoins, maybe 10, how exactly do you go about selling them? And how much of a fee would have to be paid?

Go to bitcoin.de
Open account
Add you real bank account & verify it (takes a while)
Buy & sell bitcoins (use your bank account to pay for them or to receive payments)

More info here: http://bitcoin.travel/listings/bitcoin-de/

pH · 13-01-2014 5:33pm

srsly78 wrote: »

You sell them the same way you bought them, via a broker. The fee involved depends on the broker used.

Well that's not strictly true!

Basically you give someone money (or something of value) and they transfer bitcoins to your wallet (or vice versa). It really really really isn't any more complicated than that!

Bitcoin has no more "need" for exchanges or brokers than "cash" does - yea it makes some things easier but they're in no way necessary.

So ... how to sell a bitcoin .....

1/ Find someone who wants the bitcoin and is willing to pay for it.
2/ Accept payment
3/ transfer bitcoin to their wallet.

Anything more is just noise/complications.

srsly78 · 13-01-2014 5:35pm

Well why not just skip step 3 and not bother transferring the bitcoins? Trust is the issue.

pH · 13-01-2014 6:01pm

srsly78 wrote: »

Well why not just skip step 3 and not bother transferring the bitcoins? Trust is the issue.

That's like:

Someone asks "how to sell a fridge ..."

Someone explains how to sell a fridge ....

You come along and say "why no skip giving the guy the fridge?" - bitcoins involve no more or less "trust" than any sale.

srsly78 · 13-01-2014 6:21pm

Sure in theory. But in reality most people buy and sell bitcoins using a brokerage. The alternative is to use the localbitcoins.com and meet someone in reallife for cash exchange. Which is all well and good but entails some additional risks which you conveniently ignore. Maybe some people are not comfortable with carrying large amounts of cash and meeting strangers in car parks for example.

Roonbox · 13-01-2014 8:16pm

srsly78 wrote: »

Sure in theory. But in reality most people buy and sell bitcoins using a brokerage. The alternative is to use the localbitcoins.com and meet someone in reallife for cash exchange. Which is all well and good but entails some additional risks which you conveniently ignore. Maybe some people are not comfortable with carrying large amounts of cash and meeting strangers in car parks for example.

I suspect there will be an ATM in Dublin within a couple of months

Suryavarman · 15-01-2014 7:45pm

Roonbox wrote: »

I suspect there will be an ATM in Dublin within a couple of months

A group called BitVendo are aiming to have one running by the end of the month.

alb · 15-01-2014 7:57pm

Suryavarman wrote: »

A group called BitVendo are aiming to have one running by the end of the month.

great news! I hadn't heard about this.

Worztron · 18-01-2014 10:36am

Has anyone here used these? Are they safe?

https://www.bitquick.co
http://www.belgacoin.com
http://www.bitcoin-services.co.uk/sms-to-bitcoin.php
http://www.btctrade.org/002new.html

inireland · 19-01-2014 4:23pm

do u hear any thing about joining group of people and try find free bitcoins using ur PC or laptop?

jamo2oo9 · 19-01-2014 5:02pm

inireland wrote: »

do u hear any thing about joining group of people and try find free bitcoins using ur PC or laptop?

You mean bitcoin mining?

nxbyveromdwjpg · 20-01-2014 9:16am

Worztron wrote: »

Has anyone here used these? Are they safe?

https://www.bitquick.co
http://www.belgacoin.com
http://www.bitcoin-services.co.uk/sms-to-bitcoin.php
http://www.btctrade.org/002new.html

Why not just stick to the bigger more reputable exchanges?

http://www.bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/EUR.html

milltown · 20-01-2014 9:23am

Fun Fact:

MtGox was originally set up as a trading card swap site.
MtGox = Magic the Gathering online exchange.

PrzemoF · 20-01-2014 1:23pm

inireland wrote: »

do u hear any thing about joining group of people and try find free bitcoins using ur PC or laptop?

Forget about it unless you're ready to spend money on buying asic hardware that might never pay itself back (I'm waiting for someone to prove me wrong).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/17/ten_bitcoin_miners/

FuzzyCraic · 21-01-2014 3:05pm

Hey guys,

I m a dutch belgian guy living in ireland.
I would like to buy some bitcoins...
I found a site where i can pay from my Dutch bankaccount.
The only problem is that i don t have a dutch bankaccount.
I ve been in ireland for about 7 years.

Is there anyone anware of options we have in ireland ?

Paypall and creditcards don t work to buy bitcoins

Buying bitcoins

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