Buying bitcoins

lawred2 wrote: »

reading quite a bit of probably partisan material predicting the arse falling out of Ether... Should I be looking to hedge over to BTC?

hah, depending on where you source your material the same could be said for btc. Trying to find impartial material is very difficult to near impossible. Both sides are trying to influence the market.

Regarding btc, are you aware of the potential fork that might happen on Aug 1st? No one knows what the fallout could be. The exchanges will most probably freeze btc transactions around that time and BTC would most likely drop in value. What that means for other coins is hard to predict. Most will follow btc with a large drop, whether ETH follows or picks up the slack is anyone's guess. But the market will be nuts in August... not that it isn't already.

Right now ETH is increasing in value because of ICO's (these ICOs are hoarding their ETH) and people dumping BTC for ETH because of the potential fork. There are some big ICOs coming up soon, so the arse is not going to fall out of ETH for a while yet.

reading quite a bit of probably partisan material predicting the arse falling out of Ether... Should I be looking to hedge over to BTC?

An amount you can afford to lose seems best, I'd go with 50/50 BTC/Eth

Eth for growth potential (has gone up 300% in the last month), they partially seem to hedge against each other, and BTC has stood the test of time and is the common denominator for all other alts (aka everyone needs it to trade)

6 months or a year down the line, if there are profits, then will be easier to validate further investment with the extra knowledge of the market - feels much less of a gamble

callaway92

I don't think I'd have the heart to put big money into Bitcoin. Was toying with the idea of five figures but it's too volatile.

Still like the idea of a small sum to leave for 6 months (a long time in this market).

cnocbui wrote: »

If banks are truly suspicious of illegal activity, they can and should report it, but activity involving cryptos is not automatically illegal activity and they should pull their heads in.

It's best to keep proof or records of when and how you obtained your coins (legally) This is the information they are most interested in.

Banks are cautious enough of risky national currencies (e.g. NGN, ISK), it's only reasonable that they are cautious of something that isn't even a recognised currency

Also a lot of people who are successfully cashing out large amounts seem to be checking with financial advisors first

cnocbui

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

I can tell you from experience that banks are not enamoured with regular in-and-out transfers to/from bitcoin-related entities on your bank account.
It is not hard to understand why, I suppose, as bitcoin is seen by them (banks) as an existential threat to their financial hegemony.

They have no legal or moral right to raise objections. Investing is not illegal. Investing in Cryptos is not illegal, just as betting on the hoses, stock market, or price of gold are not illegal. In Australia, the banks seem to have indeed felt under threat, as you have suggested, and have closed people's accounts. They are currently being investigated for this practice. I hope they are fined and forced to pay some compensation to those affected, not just another fine going into government coffers.

If banks are truly suspicious of illegal activity, they can and should report it, but activity involving cryptos is not automatically illegal activity and they should pull their heads in.

pro_gnostic_8

lawred2 wrote: »

Kraken/Poloniex will allow you to do your typical range of exchange orders..

Yes, just put in a buy or a sell order at a price-level of your choosing.

But there is a definite risk involved !
If (or, most likely when) an exchange "goes down" during a period of high volatility and high customer demand, or if subjected to a concentrated DDoS attack, then your sell order will be executed without you being able to cancel it. For example, if you have put in a sell ETH order for $300 and then the price starts collapsing down to, say, $200 you might not be able to cancel manually.
This happened in a catastrophic way only last month at Kraken. People lost fortunes.

davidclayton wrote: »

I've seen lots of people mention these 2 companies together in recommendations - do they offer the exact same service & features, or do they differ?

well with Kraken you can fund using fiat currencies, you also have a smaller subset of currencies to trade - poloniex has a much wider set but funding can only be done via crypto transfers

dabofoppo

lawred2 wrote: »

Kraken/Poloniex will allow you to do your typical range of exchange orders..

I've seen lots of people mention these 2 companies together in recommendations - do they offer the exact same service & features, or do they differ?

davidclayton wrote: »

Very new to cryptocurrency and having a bad time with coinbase right now, which got me to thinking... Is there a website that lets you set a value to buy and sell your ethereum, and how much to buy/sell?

For example, if ETH dipped below €300, buy €100 worth, or if it exceeded €400, sell €200. So you don't have to check it constantly and manually buy/sell.

I know that coinbase has a notifications feature (although it doesn't work very well), but this would still require you to manually buy/sell.

Kraken/Poloniex will allow you to do your typical range of exchange orders..

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

It is not hard to understand why, I suppose, as bitcoin is seen by them (banks) as an existential threat to their financial hegemony.

Bitcoin is seen as risky, which it is. Banks are very risk adverse.

If a customer engages in illegal activity, without the banks knowledge - the bank can still be blamed for not detecting it or performing due diligence. Can result in reputational damage, can result in fines, further down the line it could possibly affect a bank's rating with the rating agencies (which can affect it's ability to get sufficient credit and do business)

It's not just Bitcoin, they are other currencies and types of transactions that may trigger red flags and attract a compliance officer's interest.

dabofoppo

Very new to cryptocurrency and having a bad time with coinbase right now, which got me to thinking... Is there a website that lets you set a value to buy and sell your ethereum, and how much to buy/sell?

For example, if ETH dipped below €300, buy €100 worth, or if it exceeded €400, sell €200. So you don't have to check it constantly and manually buy/sell.

I know that coinbase has a notifications feature (although it doesn't work very well), but this would still require you to manually buy/sell.

pro_gnostic_8

seanino wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Do most people use credit cards or sepa, do the payments look dodgy on the bank statement?
Cheers,
seanino

I can tell you from experience that banks are not enamoured with regular in-and-out transfers to/from bitcoin-related entities on your bank account.
It is not hard to understand why, I suppose, as bitcoin is seen by them (banks) as an existential threat to their financial hegemony.

seanino wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Ive been procrastinating about buying some bitcoins/ethereum. Had bitcoins ages ago but the sites etc have changed a good bit since.
is coinbase the best place to buy ethereum and bitcoin? Coinbase is now down. I can buy bitcoin on blockchain either but might hold off now as its dropped a bit. Just wondering if you had a decent amount in your wallet and you want to get rid quick. How do you do it? The whole buying and selling seems very slow when you would want it to be quick!?
I see kracken mentioned also but its 7% fee!

Do most people use credit cards or sepa, do the payments look dodgy on the bank statement?
Cheers,
seanino

SEPA is cheaper, less fees. Plus it's pretty quick, if I send a transfer in the morning, it is usually there around lunch time.

Not sure what you mean by dodgy, you are just transferring money to/from another account. Their account is based in Estonia.

discombobulate

seanino wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Ive been procrastinating about buying some bitcoins/ethereum. Had bitcoins ages ago but the sites etc have changed a good bit since.
is coinbase the best place to buy ethereum and bitcoin? Coinbase is now down. I can buy bitcoin on blockchain either but might hold off now as its dropped a bit. Just wondering if you had a decent amount in your wallet and you want to get rid quick. How do you do it? The whole buying and selling seems very slow when you would want it to be quick!?
I see kracken mentioned also but its 7% fee!

Do most people use credit cards or sepa, do the payments look dodgy on the bank statement?
Cheers,
seanino

There's a 4 percent levy on card deposits on coinbase so i'd go with SEPA. Usually arrives in account the next day. I bought my originals on Coinbase and now have them spread between there, Kraken and Poloniex. eToro is another trading platform option. Your not dealing in actual coins though there.

discombobulate

jester77 wrote: »

Mobile is working, so you can buy and sell there while the site is down

Can see here whats up and down although mobile not working for me. I reckon they knock it down themselves and then allow people with larger balances to access through mobile as you need to be authenticated

seanino

Hi everyone,
Ive been procrastinating about buying some bitcoins/ethereum. Had bitcoins ages ago but the sites etc have changed a good bit since.
is coinbase the best place to buy ethereum and bitcoin? Coinbase is now down. I can buy bitcoin on blockchain either but might hold off now as its dropped a bit. Just wondering if you had a decent amount in your wallet and you want to get rid quick. How do you do it? The whole buying and selling seems very slow when you would want it to be quick!?
I see kracken mentioned also but its 7% fee!

Do most people use credit cards or sepa, do the payments look dodgy on the bank statement?
Cheers,
seanino

Aspiring wrote: »

Anyone here use the Coinbase API? Does it work when the website says it's unavailable at times like this? I know the Kraken API continues to work even when Kraken is unavailable so I was just wondering. Could be worth writing a small piece of software to buy at times like this. It's quite annoying not being able to buy when you want to.

Mobile is working, so you can buy and sell there while the site is down

Aspiring

Anyone here use the Coinbase API? Does it work when the website says it's unavailable at times like this? I know the Kraken API continues to work even when Kraken is unavailable so I was just wondering. Could be worth writing a small piece of software to buy at times like this. It's quite annoying not being able to buy when you want to.

Supercell

Ripple and Stratis next whilst ETH takes a breather..IMHO STRAT looks cheap though XRP has being trying to break out last few days, worth keeping a close watch on, the ETH profit takers will invest in something else as always.

Got some at 320 before everything went down... ah well, it will fall much harder in the not too distant future.

150 million for Bancor, ridiculous

machiavellianme

TiltedBrain wrote: »

I'd like to get some more Eth during this dip but coinbase have timed their shiitshow very well.

Couldnt sell as the cliff started, cant buy at the valley. Disaster.
Going to look elsewhere after this.

Supercell

ETH bouncing back, the buy wall is massive still, there will be retrenchments, but I can't see any crash just yet. Time to take profits from the last few days rally imho and wait for the next bull run.

SteelyDanJalapeno

I'd like to get some more Eth during this dip but coinbase have timed their shiitshow very well.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Bit of a price correction going on, theres been a massive dump in the past hour

Thargor wrote: »

Coinbase only sells BTC, ETH and LTC though?

I use to fiat on balance to buy BTC at Coinbase (am lazy), send the BTC to Poloniex or Bittrex.. wait 10 agonising minutes for it to arrive.. then try to elbow my way in and scavenge some bargains

Thargor

Dohnjoe wrote: »

Yeah market diving v hard now

I left fiat on coinbase for this type of moment, to buy up cheap alts, but that's down too

Coinbase only sells BTC, ETH and LTC though?

Yeah market diving v hard now

I left fiat on coinbase for this type of moment, to buy up cheap alts, but that's down too

KilOit

Big crash was needed in fairness