Buying bitcoins

cnocbui

scamalert wrote: »

one more question,how do i calculate fee ?since by default on etherum wallet i see fee is set to 10% slider in the middle ,and also if sending amount does the fee come out of the sent amount.since theres few mentions in docs to increase fee in case it gets stuck etc,but whats appropriate rate when sending sub 100$£e amounts,to make them pass smooth.

For fees - look at the price in BTC per KB and apply that to the size of your transaction:

https://btc.com/stats/unconfirmed-tx

Looking at that, I wouldn't be in a hurry to pay more than 0.00130 BTC per Kb. Really, you don't want a fee with a big chunk of grey in it.

The fee comes out of your remaining balance, not the amount you send.

Grumpypants

What are folks thoughts on Ethereum? With the cost around buying and selling bitcoin you need to spend a lot to make a small return on a volatile currency.

But ETH seems to be tracking along nicely and is still relatively cheap.

I spend €100 on 10ETH in Jan, and today it just passed €40 a nice €300 profit in a few weeks. It has also been much more stable than bitcoin too and is the currency the majority of big business seem to be looking at due to the tech.

Thinking I'll just sell my half a bitcoin and buy €500 ETH.

zulutango

Where / how do you buy it?

Grumpypants

zulutango wrote: »

Where / how do you buy it?

I just used coinbase.

I set up the account to buy bitcoin and noticed they trade ETH too. Didn't know much about it, at the time it was about €7. So I went off to spend a few days reading up on it. In that time the price went up around 20% so I bought 5. A few weeks later it was still tracking along nice and stable so I got another 5.

It was very much a small gamble on this being the "next Bitcoin". I said I'll stick €100 worth in the wallet and leave it there, in 5 years if it is worth €1000 I'll be delighted if not I haven't lost much.

Because it isn't yet another crypto currency that would boom and bust, but rather the focus is the underlying tech there was a good chance it would tip along long term.

Start of March it shot up and went from €12 to €40.

scamalert

Grumpypants wrote: »

I just used coinbase.

I set up the account to buy bitcoin and noticed they trade ETH too. Didn't know much about it, at the time it was about €7. So I went off to spend a few days reading up on it. In that time the price went up around 20% so I bought 5. A few weeks later it was still tracking along nice and stable so I got another 5.

It was very much a small gamble on this being the "next Bitcoin". I said I'll stick €100 worth in the wallet and leave it there, in 5 years if it is worth €1000 I'll be delighted if not I haven't lost much.

Because it isn't yet another crypto currency that would boom and bust, but rather the focus is the underlying tech there was a good chance it would tip along long term.

Start of March it shot up and went from €12 to €40.

its obvious after btc success that people want to create alternatives and have same success as with btc,while dont imagine btc being whole cypto curency future think all the flaws and good it has,will be used as main background in creating perfect currency at some stage in time.That said dont think btc will go anywhere soon since it has its market,as in where people accept it as means of pay,and are able to change it to fiat when needed,thus foundation is there.As for buying other crypto currencies its low risk,since eventually people might want to diversify,so think theres potential for other currencies to have its own space,thus if you can spare some money and not be worried for foreseeable future then why not,since its clear you made some profit already thus,as per my years of being wrong you'd never know if it will amount to nothing or will be next best thing you could made your decision on.

makeorbrake

@scamalert: low risk? Surely other cryptos are just as risky /volatile as btc?

What do people see as the up n comming cryptos and what advantage do they have over btc?

RealistSpy

makeorbrake wrote: »

@scamalert: low risk? Surely other cryptos are just as risky /volatile as btc?

What do people see as the up n comming cryptos and what advantage do they have over btc?

If you have Coinbase I would highly recommend ETH. You can also trade ETH for BTC and BTC to Fiat. I would also recommend staying away from anything else due to how easily they can be exploited as a programmer you cannot go wrong with the ETH and BTC underling technology. ETH should be E60 - E80 and BTC E1700 - E2000 (Might actually deep to < 900 with the current turmoil with BU and Roger) by the end of the year due to scaling and availability.

DeSelby83

Do you know of anywhere else to buy Ethereum? I have been waiting almost 2 weeks to get my coinbase account verified and after many support emails I am still waiting.

pro_gnostic_8

DeSelby83 wrote: »

Do you know of anywhere else to buy Ethereum?

www.poloniex.com is the "go to" exchange for buying/selling/trading all altcoins -- including ethereum. Straightforward and easy and fast to set up an account.

pro_gnostic_8

Grumpypants wrote: »

What are folks thoughts on Ethereum?
I spend €100 on 10ETH in Jan, and today it just passed €40 a nice €300 profit in a few weeks.
Thinking I'll just sell my half a bitcoin and buy €500 ETH.

There's no doubt that the world has a few more millionaires this morning due to the humongous increase in Ethereum price. Not only ETH, but Monero, Dash and all the major altcoins have experienced massive spikes. But has the price already peaked, I wonder? Have people who have not bought-in over the past week missed the train?

There certainly has been some outflow ofmoney from bitcoin and into the other crypto's. But is it all a bubble?
Over on r/ethtrader it is like tulipmania.

RealistSpy

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

There's no doubt that the world has a few more millionaires this morning due to the humongous increase in Ethereum price. Not only ETH, but Monero, Dash and all the major altcoins have experienced massive spikes. But has the price already peaked, I wonder? Have people who have not bought-in over the past week missed the train?

There certainly has been some outflow ofmoney from bitcoin and into the other crypto's. But is it all a bubble?
Over on r/ethtrader it is like tulipmania.

Poloniex or Gdax - At one point Ethereum was over 100% I had cash in my profit and start the run again. It was a fantastic week

scamalert

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

There's no doubt that the world has a few more millionaires this morning due to the humongous increase in Ethereum price. Not only ETH, but Monero, Dash and all the major altcoins have experienced massive spikes. But has the price already peaked, I wonder? Have people who have not bought-in over the past week missed the train?

There certainly has been some outflow ofmoney from bitcoin and into the other crypto's. But is it all a bubble?
Over on r/ethtrader it is like tulipmania.

well we all know what happened to tulip mania,but this seems more like diversification ,specially those who hold btc ,when i mentioned low risk,as in if one has money be it 100-500 whatever floats in ones pocket and they dont mind taking risk,since for some such amounts usually result spending in single weekend out and funding paddy power,thuis putting some cash into different crypto and forgetting,is no more then taking small risk.

Now im not familliar with all the cryptos floating around,but if going deep web seems its already possible to do transactions with it,thus if theres someone taking it as cash this does create market,and given current price is relatively low,it might be hype or more people wanting to get on the train in case it picks up like btc.

Sabre Man

Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/17/bitcoin-price-blockchain-fork-ethereum.html

cnocbui

Sabre Man wrote: »

Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/17/bitcoin-price-blockchain-fork-ethereum.html

Typical financial pundit ascribing a market event to another possibly related event and firmly concluding that one caused the other.

My amateur financial punditry is guessing that it's equally possible some large scale investors have judged there to be likely more upward movement in Etherium than Bitcoin and are switching horses to catch the wave.

Wouldn't surprise me to see them bail out at the top and back into Bitcoin, which will be cheaper than when they switched.

Rinse and repeat.

makeorbrake

My understanding is that Monero's U.S.P. is that it is truly (??) anonymous whereas bitcoin (whilst it started out to be suggested to be anonymous....) is far from it. If that's true, then I'd imagine it's likely that Monero will become more popular on the deep web....but then, that's a limited arena - and it's professed (whether accurate or otherwise??) that Bitcoin has outgrown dependency on that type of use - with a shade more of general adoption.

What U.S.P's have 'dash' and 'ethereum' got? Bitcoin has first mover advantage. In order to catch up (and/or surpass), the other crypto's are going to have to present a decisive advantage/improvement.

I'm at a loss to understand what that advantage is. Does anyone have the knowledge?

cnocbui

The touted advantages of the alt coins at this point seem to be just theoretical, with no real world application or use of the claimed advantages. It seems to me the alt coins are riding on a lot of hot air.

jobless

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

www.poloniex.com is the "go to" exchange for buying/selling/trading all altcoins -- including ethereum. Straightforward and easy and fast to set up an account.

i set up an account here but how do i actually buy it?

makeorbrake

cnocbui wrote: »

The touted advantages of the alt coins at this point seem to be just theoretical, with no real world application or use of the claimed advantages. It seems to me the alt coins are riding on a lot of hot air.

If that's the case, then (in my very limited knowledge) it sounds like to me that they won't get the better of BTC. I have (what is to me...) a significant holding in BTC. One of my main fears is that it takes a wrong turn (fork, etc.) and/or that an alternative cryptocurrency offers a practical advantage.


I guess I'm not the sharpest knife in the box - as I struggle to make sense of all of this sort of stuff - but from what I had read about ETH, apparently, it offers greater advantages in the world of smart contracts rather than taking on btc in terms of currency/store of value. However, I really don't fully have a grasp of that - the extent of it - or the relevance of it. Anyone here care to have a stab at it?

pro_gnostic_8

jobless wrote: »

i set up an account here but how do i actually buy it?

Jobless, you need to first deposit some bitcoin ( or fraction thereof) to your account. Then click the "Exchange" tab, and proceed to the altcoin you wish to buy or sell.
Poloniex is a peer-to-peer Exchange-- a facility for converting bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies and vice versa. Fiat money -- euro sterling or dollars -- is not a constituent of its infrastructure.

pro_gnostic_8

makeorbrake wrote: »

I have (what is to me...) a significant holding in BTC. One of my main fears is that it takes a wrong turn (fork, etc.)

Yes indeed, a hard fork is a real concern to me also.
Such a happening would be very bad for bitcoin, but I fear it is inevitable; it just doesn't seem that a consensus can be reached seeing as ( currently) 30% of nodes are signalling for SegWit and anther 30% for Bitcoin Unlimited. It 's nothing short of a cluster**** of epic proportions. All this going on whilst transaction times and also transaction fees are steadily increasing, and the scaleability and malleability issues are reaching crisis point.

I can't see myself getting back into Bitcoin holding for the foreseeable future.

jobless

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

Jobless, you need to first deposit some bitcoin ( or fraction thereof) to your account. Then click the "Exchange" tab, and proceed to the altcoin you wish to buy or sell.
Poloniex is a peer-to-peer Exchange-- a facility for converting bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies and vice versa. Fiat money -- euro sterling or dollars -- is not a constituent of its infrastructure.

Oh right thanks... I'm at the stage where I'm trying to buy my first bitcoin

jobless

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

Yes indeed, a hard fork is a real concern to me also.
Such a happening would be very bad for bitcoin, but I fear it is inevitable; it just doesn't seem that a consensus can be reached seeing as ( currently) 30% of nodes are signalling for SegWit and anther 30% for Bitcoin Unlimited. It 's nothing short of a cluster**** of epic proportions. All this going on whilst transaction times and also transaction fees are steadily increasing, and the scaleability and malleability issues are reaching crisis point.

I can't see myself getting back into Bitcoin holding for the foreseeable future.

What would a fork mean? Two versions of bitcoin? ... Thus devaluing the original?

pro_gnostic_8

jobless wrote: »

What would a fork mean? Two versions of bitcoin?

Precisely!
But both versions would each have less value than before. You would have Bitcoin Unlimited supporters selling their "old" BTC because they don't support it anymore and to drive down its price; then you would have Bitcoin Core supporters (SegWit) selling their "new" bitcoin-unlimited bitcoins for the same reasons. A war of attrition and a race to the bottom.

Also,of course, in the outside world a hard fork would cause major upset -- which version would merchants/businesses decide to accept? And for the ordinary Joe who has enough trouble already trying to understand Bitcoin, he would now have to figure out this added confusion of "two differet Bitcoins". It would/will be very bad PR for the Bitcoin brand.

RealistSpy

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

Precisely!
But both versions would each have less value than before. You would have Bitcoin Unlimited supporters selling their "old" BTC because they don't support it anymore and to drive down its price; then you would have Bitcoin Core supporters (SegWit) selling their "new" bitcoin-unlimited bitcoins for the same reasons. A war of attrition and a race to the bottom.

Also,of course, in the outside world a hard fork would cause major upset -- which version would merchants/businesses decide to accept? And for the ordinary Joe who has enough trouble already trying to understand Bitcoin, he would now have to figure out this added confusion of "two differet Bitcoins". It would/will be very bad PR for the Bitcoin brand.

This to my believe is why many investor are diversifying into other crypto currencies like Ethereum.

I also personally believe BTC is the best way to go instead of Bitcoin Unlimited (BTU) especially the fact that BTC developers are said to be more competent than BTU. BTU is also said to have higher chances of being exploited.

The big problem is the moving of money from BTC to BTU so my suggestion is to wait till after the hard fork or buy now and hold. This would be the second attempt at forking Bitcoin, if anyone remembers the failed Bitcoin Classic now re-branded to BTU.

pro_gnostic_8

RealistSpy wrote: »

This to my believe is why many investor are diversifying into other crypto currencies like Ethereum.

I also personally believe BTC is the best way to go instead of Bitcoin Unlimited (BTU) especially the fact that BTC developers are said to be more competent than BTU. BTU is also said to have higher chances of being exploited.

I fully agree with all the above!
Bitcoin Unlimited is driven by Chinese miners motivated by profit alone. It is contentious, has vulnerabilities and could be the beginning of the end for decentralization of the bitcoin network.

Some good and some bad news this evening. Twenty bitcoin exchanges have issued a statement that they expect a hard fork to come and have put in place contingency plans for this eventuality.
The good news ( seems to me anyway, reading the report) is that when the hard fork happens that they (these exchanges) will list Bitcoin Unlimited as an altcoin, thus denying BU the kudo of calling itself BITCOIN. This is a blow to the Bitcoin Unlimited pushers which may make them rethink their plan to force BU on the world.
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-exchanges-unveil-emergency-hard-fork-contingency-plan/

scamalert

anyone know it btc unlimited or some other form was implemented would mining level go back to default for new coins,since think asiics would have a field day in such case.

pro_gnostic_8

Maybe at the start it would be easier to mine, but then the blockchain automatically readjusts the level of network difficulty to target a new block generated every ten minutes.
The difficulty level is adjusted every 2016 blocks, so after a week or so, yeah, the miners would find it as tough as is now to grind out new blocks.

pro_gnostic_8

RealistSpy wrote: »

The big problem is the moving of money from BTC to BTU so my suggestion is to wait till after the hard fork or buy now and hold.

But you won't have to move money from BTC to BTU or vice versa. In the event of a hard fork you will have equal amount of coin on both blockchains. Say you have ten bitcoins right now in your wallet, then post-hardfork you will have ten BTC and also ten BTU. You will have double the quantity of coin you have now ......... but NOT DOUBLE THE VALUE.
(The value of your BTC will be dependent on the value assigned by the market to BTU -- the more value your BTU has, the less value will your BTC have).

The Cuban

Who controls bitcoin? who is it that makes the decisions?
I have a very poor understanding of the whole thing, I bought 500 euros worth of Dash last year mainly on my infatuation with Amanda Johnson ,
its now worth 10k. I think it Tullipmania now but what are the Tax implications of selling again? I read that cryptos are not recognized currency, and I am wondering how this is handled tax wise?

cnocbui

If Revenue think it's fair and reasonable for them to charge you tax if you sell your own possessions, even though you paid income tax and USC and VAT on the money you earned to buy them in the first place, I doubt it matters one whit if crypto's aren't considered currency.

If you sell your cryptos, they will be expecting you to pay CGT of 33% of your profit. Someone has to pay for the privilege of having multinationals paying next to no tax.