(04-15-2015 10:47 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(04-15-2015 02:37 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-15-2015 02:36 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-15-2015 02:00 AM)megadeth Wrote:  

(04-14-2015 12:35 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  I must admit that I am reading a lot of discussion of sub $200 BTC, and some people are predicting as low as $100.. Personally, I really have few ideas about the power of big money to drive down prices, if that is what they want to accomplish.

Additionally, there may be various resistance points that cause an inability for big money to drive down the price more than a certain amount.. such as $180 or $160? I am NOT sure about where those resistant points might be, and probably we have to see the markets play out to understand where the resistant points may be. For example, there could be some powerful players that want to buy up BTC at $201 and will NOT allow the price to go below $201? Surely, I am just speculating, too, but I find troubles understanding when some guys talk in terms of "certainly" this is going to happen or "certainly) that is going to happen when it comes to BTC prices.

Reasoning: personal speculation based on watching the charts 24x7.

I have NO issue with personal speculation when such speculation is framed as such. Your initial post (in this string) did NOT elaborated and only stated the matter as a kind of certainty.

By the way, sometimes I get a little anxious, and currently, I am thinking about buying a little... hahaha... which could cause the price to go down further...

lol I was thinking the same thing. I've been waiting for a dip down to about $220 however it seemed stuck at like 250 so I picked up about 13 coins at $240 or so. I just checked coinbase and see price is down to $221 at the moment. I did the same thing last time, I bought at $220 thinking that was the bottom and it continued fallling to $180 or so but then came right back up to around $300.

I forget if that Bitcoin ETF already rolled out or is rolling out soon but I kind of expected to get a little bump when that opened up.

As many of us realize (especially those of us who have really been watching BTC over the longer term), the past 1.5 years have presented us with a lot of very positive developments for Bitcoin in a whole hell of a lot of ways, yet it has also provided a lot of financial vehicles in which big money has been able to more easily short bitcoin and to bet against bitcoin, which causes considerable abilities to artificially suppress BTC prices.

Many would argue that having these various sophisticated financial vehicles for BTC, including ETFs allows BTC prices to be more in-line with real market forces / value - and surely there is some truth to those kinds of assertions. Accordingly, I have NO real problems with providing financial vehicles in which bitcoin can be put up against other asset classes, and investors/speculators are able to compare and contrast ways in which they are able to invest their money.

My main beef with these various kinds of traditional fiat-related financial vehicles for bitcoin involves the possibilities that various speculators can use such financial vehicles in ways that denigrates the value of BTC and removes it from its various block chain advantages (of BTC transactions being on such a public ledger). When more financial vehicles are in place that allow NON public BTC transaction (off of the blockchain), then BTC is NO longer distinguishable from other fiat investment vehicles that tend to involve corruption and manipulation.

Accordingly, when financial transactions and betting regarding the value of BTC occur off the blockchain, then this seems to increase possibilities for fractional reserve practices, stealing of bitcoin and NOT having the bitcoin that entities claim to have and to use in bets to denigrate BTC prices (with NON-existing bitcoin).

In fact, it seems likely that if BTC transactions could only occur with real and existing BTC and through the blockchain, then BTC's value would skyrocket in considerable respects.

In several regards (though NOT all regards) BTC financial institutional practices seem to be moving further and further away from taking place on the blockchain, which denigrates bitcoin, its advantages and its prices in various ways.

Hopefully, as BTC financial vehicles continue to develop, we are going to witness more development of decentralized exchanges and the continued development of various BTC financial vehicles that allow for blockchain transactions and allow for the credibility of the blockchain to give greater value to those who hold REAL BTC rather than paper BTC.

(04-15-2015 11:23 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  In fact, it seems likely that if BTC transactions could only occur with real and existing BTC and through the blockchain, then BTC's value would skyrocket in considerable respects.

In several regards (though NOT all regards) BTC financial institutional practices seem to be moving further and further away from taking place on the blockchain, which denigrates bitcoin, its advantages and its prices in various ways.

Hopefully, as BTC financial vehicles continue to develop, we are going to witness more development of decentralized exchanges and the continued development of various BTC financial vehicles that allow for blockchain transactions and allow for the credibility of the blockchain to give greater value to those who hold REAL BTC rather than paper BTC.

1. Buy, hoard on your own private keys.
2. Wait for the "paper BTC" liquidity crisis
3. ???
4. Profit

I'm still waiting for Bitstamp's failure after that hack, but if it took Gox two years to die...

(04-15-2015 12:18 PM)BBinger Wrote:  

(04-15-2015 11:23 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  In fact, it seems likely that if BTC transactions could only occur with real and existing BTC and through the blockchain, then BTC's value would skyrocket in considerable respects.

In several regards (though NOT all regards) BTC financial institutional practices seem to be moving further and further away from taking place on the blockchain, which denigrates bitcoin, its advantages and its prices in various ways.

Hopefully, as BTC financial vehicles continue to develop, we are going to witness more development of decentralized exchanges and the continued development of various BTC financial vehicles that allow for blockchain transactions and allow for the credibility of the blockchain to give greater value to those who hold REAL BTC rather than paper BTC.

1. Buy, hoard on your own private keys.
2. Wait for the "paper BTC" liquidity crisis
3. ???
4. Profit

I'm still waiting for Bitstamp's failure after that hack, but if it took Gox two years to die...

Surely, Bitstamp lost some market share over its nearly two week shut down, that took place last fall; however, Bitstamp does NOT seem anywhere near to MTGOX in regards to its transparency and its attempts to rectify the problem that it experienced. The bitcoin market is a much different and varied place from the days of MTGOX shenanigans between 2011 to 2013 and into early 2014....

I'm NOT suggesting that a MTGOX situation will NOT occur again, but there is a considerable amount of competetiveness these days and there seems to be a bit more pushing for transparency from the bigger players (even though they are playing some hide the ball at levels that seem to be less than GOX).

Maybe watch some of the chinese exchanges with some of what appears to be fake volume?

Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

(04-19-2015 04:19 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

JayJuanGee can you post links to some of these sites for buying/selling bitcoin or a site that are you are successfully using?

(04-19-2015 05:22 PM)Moreless Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 04:19 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

JayJuanGee can you post links to some of these sites for buying/selling bitcoin or a site that are you are successfully using?

The buying and selling sources that people use will likely vary from country to country.

I am in the USA, and so far, I have used Circle.com, Coinbase.com and Localbitcoins.com for buying and selling. I have concluded that Circle seems to be the best bang for the buck, as long as you do NOT go over their weekly buy/sell limits. However, strategically, some people may be able to use some of the other sources to get better buy/sell advantages.

I have also used btce.com for trading (because they have a lower trading fee .2%).

Some people may also want to consider various bitcoin meet-ups that may be in their local area in order to buy and sell through the local bitcoin meet-ups.

I have heard about some other sources for bitcoin trading and/or buying, but so far, I have NOT attempted to use any of them.

(04-19-2015 04:19 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

I've tried. It's a huge pain in the arse trying to buy them. Especially in England. The ones where you can buy them (after submitting 50 pieces of ID) are charging massive spreads (12%+).

Interesting collection of Bitcoin related research and resources from the Crowdability team:

http://startupmanagement.org/2015/03/03/...landscape/

(04-19-2015 11:15 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 04:19 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

I've tried. It's a huge pain in the arse trying to buy them. Especially in England. The ones where you can buy them (after submitting 50 pieces of ID) are charging massive spreads (12%+).

Well maybe some other British guys can chime in here... because I was of the impression that there are various buy/sell avenues in a large number of countries, including England.

For example, Coinbase charges 1%, and Circle does NOT have a fee - even though their prices seem to be about 1% or so higher than Coinbase.

In essence, the fees for buying and then selling again would amount to about 2% in fees in order to get back into fiat after purchasing the BTC. On the other hand, if you buy the BTC, and then you use them for some kind of purchase, then there are various resources in which you could receive a discount for using BTC (such as around 3% - on Gyft and there are other places too, that provide financial incentives to transact with BTC).

Personally, I am NOT much of a BTC transactor, because I am a bit worried about the tax ramifications to engage in such; however, I am of the understanding that if I buy BTC in the USA, and then I use them while traveling, then I would NOT have to report and/or account for any capital gains that I may have made in such transactions.

(03-03-2015 03:46 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-09-2015 06:26 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  My last post here was on page number 50, just checked in bitcoin price at 220$, and wondering who actually is in profit since the beginning of the thread?

Who cares? Are we running some kind of competition or contest to show who's right and who's NOT?

Believe it or not, I actually care about your profit, or the profit or any other members here for that matter. Thats why I was one of the few voice advocating to "be careful" with bitcoin even when it was at 1000$.

Thing is, you have to choose between 2 options: do you want to gain profit (usually substantial) through trading, or do you want to conserve your purchasing power.

One of the best trade to gain profit with any type of asset is to use small positions, with a sizable leverage, and a good risk/profit ratio. For example I bought some Russian Rubles after it crashed. Not a lot, but because of my leverage, and the fact it was so cheap, I made a substantial profit. If I was wrong, I would loose only a small amount.

If you want to protect your capital, then its another different trade. If we look at last year, Gold is the only thing that didnt loose value against the USD. All other currencies (CAD,AUD,JPY,EURO) dropped as much as 30% against the USD. So in fact somebody sitting on USD cash doing nothing has now the most purchasing power.

Thing is, I just dont see how Bitcoin can be used for either of these 2 options. Thats what I was trying to bring to the table since I first posted in this thread.

(04-26-2015 12:25 AM)LÉtranger Wrote:  

(03-03-2015 03:46 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-09-2015 06:26 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  My last post here was on page number 50, just checked in bitcoin price at 220$, and wondering who actually is in profit since the beginning of the thread?

Who cares? Are we running some kind of competition or contest to show who's right and who's NOT?

Believe it or not, I actually care about your profit, or the profit or any other members here for that matter. Thats why I was one of the few voice advocating to "be careful" with bitcoin even when it was at 1000$.

Thing is, you have to choose between 2 options: do you want to gain profit (usually substantial) through trading, or do you want to conserve your purchasing power.

One of the best trade to gain profit with any type of asset is to use small positions, with a sizable leverage, and a good risk/profit ratio. For example I bought some Russian Rubles after it crashed. Not a lot, but because of my leverage, and the fact it was so cheap, I made a substantial profit. If I was wrong, I would loose only a small amount.

If you want to protect your capital, then its another different trade. If we look at last year, Gold is the only thing that didnt loose value against the USD. All other currencies (CAD,AUD,JPY,EURO) dropped as much as 30% against the USD. So in fact somebody sitting on USD cash doing nothing has now the most purchasing power.

Thing is, I just dont see how Bitcoin can be used for either of these 2 options. Thats what I was trying to bring to the table since I first posted in this thread.

If you don't mind my asking how did you buy rubles? Electronically or cash? Thorugh a broker or just a run of the mill currency exchange?

Most currency exchanges near me charge upwards of 15% if were talking a company like travelex. Even with larger amonts they may come down to 8% but on volatile currencies they tend ot be even higher spreads.

At those rates you figure 8 on the front end, 8 on the backend, you have to see a 16% gain before you even see any profit.

I thought about doing the same thing but couldn't find a good way to buy rubles.

(04-26-2015 12:25 AM)LÉtranger Wrote:  

(03-03-2015 03:46 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-09-2015 06:26 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  My last post here was on page number 50, just checked in bitcoin price at 220$, and wondering who actually is in profit since the beginning of the thread?

Who cares? Are we running some kind of competition or contest to show who's right and who's NOT?

Believe it or not, I actually care about your profit, or the profit or any other members here for that matter. Thats why I was one of the few voice advocating to "be careful" with bitcoin even when it was at 1000$.

Thing is, you have to choose between 2 options: do you want to gain profit (usually substantial) through trading, or do you want to conserve your purchasing power.

One of the best trade to gain profit with any type of asset is to use small positions, with a sizable leverage, and a good risk/profit ratio. For example I bought some Russian Rubles after it crashed. Not a lot, but because of my leverage, and the fact it was so cheap, I made a substantial profit. If I was wrong, I would loose only a small amount.

If you want to protect your capital, then its another different trade. If we look at last year, Gold is the only thing that didnt loose value against the USD. All other currencies (CAD,AUD,JPY,EURO) dropped as much as 30% against the USD. So in fact somebody sitting on USD cash doing nothing has now the most purchasing power.

Thing is, I just dont see how Bitcoin can be used for either of these 2 options. Thats what I was trying to bring to the table since I first posted in this thread.

I agree that there is NOTHING wrong with accounting for whether the price of any asset is currently depressed and making your projection based on those kinds of factors.

Facts remain that BTC has a very considerable upside potential; however, nobody should invest more than they are willing to lose, whether that be for short-term speculation or long term retention of asset value.

The fact that BTC prices have been down-trending for about 15 months or more and floating in the $200 price territory for more than 3 months does NOT now indicate that BTC is a bad investment or even an investment that will NOT hold (and increase) in value in the longer term 1 to 5 years.

Surely, the price of BTC looks fairly bleak at the moment, and it appears that BTC prices could be in these lower $200 territories for several more months (and even 1 to 2 more years); however, despite the current BTC price point, there remains considerable upside potential and even the potential that BTC could double, triple or quadruple in value in the next 6 months.

No matter what you say, L' etranger, there are NOT too many people who could have predicted that the dollar would do so well in the past year and a half or so, especially given some of the ridiculous political uncertainties, including the late 2013 US government shut down and some other USA policies that could have undermined confidence in the continued value in the USA dollar.

For me, I personally have about 90% of my various investments in dollar related assets, and I do NOT really mind that the dollar has been doing well. On the other hand, I consider my various investments in BTC to be a hedge against the dollar, even though there may be some other potentially equally good or even potentially better hedges against the dollar.

(04-26-2015 09:33 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(04-26-2015 12:25 AM)LÉtranger Wrote:  

(03-03-2015 03:46 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-09-2015 06:26 PM)LÉtranger Wrote:  My last post here was on page number 50, just checked in bitcoin price at 220$, and wondering who actually is in profit since the beginning of the thread?

Who cares? Are we running some kind of competition or contest to show who's right and who's NOT?

Believe it or not, I actually care about your profit, or the profit or any other members here for that matter. Thats why I was one of the few voice advocating to "be careful" with bitcoin even when it was at 1000$.

Thing is, you have to choose between 2 options: do you want to gain profit (usually substantial) through trading, or do you want to conserve your purchasing power.

One of the best trade to gain profit with any type of asset is to use small positions, with a sizable leverage, and a good risk/profit ratio. For example I bought some Russian Rubles after it crashed. Not a lot, but because of my leverage, and the fact it was so cheap, I made a substantial profit. If I was wrong, I would loose only a small amount.

If you want to protect your capital, then its another different trade. If we look at last year, Gold is the only thing that didnt loose value against the USD. All other currencies (CAD,AUD,JPY,EURO) dropped as much as 30% against the USD. So in fact somebody sitting on USD cash doing nothing has now the most purchasing power.

Thing is, I just dont see how Bitcoin can be used for either of these 2 options. Thats what I was trying to bring to the table since I first posted in this thread.

If you don't mind my asking how did you buy rubles? Electronically or cash? Thorugh a broker or just a run of the mill currency exchange?

Most currency exchanges near me charge upwards of 15% if were talking a company like travelex. Even with larger amonts they may come down to 8% but on volatile currencies they tend ot be even higher spreads.

At those rates you figure 8 on the front end, 8 on the backend, you have to see a 16% gain before you even see any profit.

I thought about doing the same thing but couldn't find a good way to buy rubles.

Online brokers for leverage, IB being the most famous and stable. I live in easteurope so i also physically opened a bank account with sberbank in ruble. Difference is, with a trade (short USD/RUB), you get to cash-in the swap (interest rate difference between currencies) every midnight. Since the USD is lower than 0.25% and the Ruble was around 17-18%, I was making a pretty hefty sum just by holding my position. This could also be called a carry trade.

(04-20-2015 03:30 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 11:15 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 04:19 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(04-19-2015 02:23 PM)dreambig Wrote:  Anyone looking to cash out on some bitcoins? I'd like to buy some. PM me if interested.

Well-repped members only. Thanks.

Dreambig,

I am NOT responding to your specific inquiry because I tend to be a buy and hold kind of bitcoin investor.

Yet, I am wondering why you don't just buy on an exchange or some other regular on-line bitcoin purchasing service? Bitcoin has become very liquid in the last year or so, meaning that there are a lot of avenues for buying and selling and some of those avenues have fairly competitive or low fees.

Is there any real reason or advantage in buying directly from someone and taking some chances on the sending of dollars to someone that you are NOT meeting in person, unless you are just talking about saving a few percentage on various exchange fees?

In my thinking, with the frequent fluctuation in BTC market prices, there seems to be no real motive and/or incentive to buy directly from someone (that is NOT in person, unless, for example, you are merely thinking about saving a few percentage and/or maybe buying in bulk or working out some other private deal - but even that seems like NOT too great of an incentive given some of the potential risks of dealing outside of in person transactions?

On the other hand, I understand that there has been some work on the use of third party intermediaries for conducting non-personal to person bitcoin transactions, but it seems that you are NOT referring to that, especially since you are soliciting "well-repped members."

I've tried. It's a huge pain in the arse trying to buy them. Especially in England. The ones where you can buy them (after submitting 50 pieces of ID) are charging massive spreads (12%+).

Well maybe some other British guys can chime in here... because I was of the impression that there are various buy/sell avenues in a large number of countries, including England.

In England I have been using Bittylicious, I dont think I provided any documentation until I wanted to buy over 5 coins, (this may have changed) with localbitcoins they all want ID, no thanks. They are more expensive, the lowest I've been able to buy has been £153.

The spread for Bittylicious is around 12% above market rate which is beyond ridiculous. The extensive ID requirements are also very silly. No way Bitcoin will become a mainstream currency in the UK until these issues are sorted out.

(04-29-2015 02:47 AM)dreambig Wrote:  The spread for Bittylicious is around 12% above market rate which is beyond ridiculous. The extensive ID requirements are also very silly. No way Bitcoin will become a mainstream currency in the UK until these issues are sorted out.

Did you try http://kraken.com/ ?

(04-29-2015 08:36 PM)Satoshi Wrote:  

(04-29-2015 02:47 AM)dreambig Wrote:  The spread for Bittylicious is around 12% above market rate which is beyond ridiculous. The extensive ID requirements are also very silly. No way Bitcoin will become a mainstream currency in the UK until these issues are sorted out.

Did you try http://kraken.com/ ?

Maybe I am a bit out of touch with reality, but I find a hard time believing that the best spread that anyone can find is around 12%, when in the US of A, I can buy and sell with a spread of about 2% (1% on each end).

Further, localbitcoins is an entity that allows for people to directly connect. Surely, it is possible that there is some kind of ID requirement, but really is that ID being entered into any system, if someone is meeting up with someone after being connected through localbitcoins.

Additionally, I had mentioned various kinds of local meet-ups, and in terms of local meet ups, it is up to the parties concerning what they want to charge, no? and then extent to which they feel that they need to identify the other person?

Maybe it is true that there are regulations that require identifying oneself beyond the requirements of cash, and in that regard, I would be in agreement that these kinds of requirements may be serving to hamper the progress and the utility of BTC in several regards.

Going to try out a BTC ATM in my city in the next couple days. Might not go through with it depending on the rates.

(06-12-2015 11:11 PM)rdvirus Wrote:  Going to try out a BTC ATM in my city in the next couple days. Might not go through with it depending on the rates.

In recent times, I had been thinking that bitcoin ATMs were NOT very successful in part because they had fairly high fees and NOT very good exchange rates, yet I suppose that they could be a quick an easy way to get ahold of bitcoin if a guy happens to be nearby one.

Are we getting any feelings about BTC prices?

Some decent upward movement in recent days...

also 6 months in the $200s, seems like prices may be ready to trickle up... possibly into the $300s.... we gotta see... maybe even see if prices can stay above $250 for a week or so?

Any thoughts from guys following BTC and maybe active in BTC circles?

What is your current take on the bitcoin market?

I am a totally newbie in the bitcoin field. I have read this thread in the past, however I have not taken any action until yesterday.

Somehow, I got the feeling it is a good time to start with bitcoin, I might be totally wrong, however I invested only an amount which I can loose without any significant impact on my life.

I am based in Europe, therefore I decided to trade on bitcoin.de. On average, I bought BTCs for 214 Euro.

Let's see where the market goes.

(06-17-2015 08:04 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  Are we getting any feelings about BTC prices?

Some decent upward movement in recent days...

also 6 months in the $200s, seems like prices may be ready to trickle up... possibly into the $300s.... we gotta see... maybe even see if prices can stay above $250 for a week or so?

Any thoughts from guys following BTC and maybe active in BTC circles?

I'm indifferent. Holding for the long term with equity in a few of the surviving older ventures. I would not be sad if we stay in the $200 to $300 band until the next halving.

I'm very active on the #bitcoin-assets IRC channel and there's a near consensus in the big holder circles that much of the present price depression is a natural effect of poor information on actual trades. Most bitcoin are never touching BitStamp, the Chicom exchanges (especially Bitfinex), or the new American wave of exchanges.

Limited arbitrage opportunities exist, but they quickly exhaust on the sell side if you want any quantity of BTC. It is hard not to suspect that substantial "paper BTC" is being traded on the "major" fiat/btc interfaces.

(06-21-2015 05:14 AM)Ray Carlton Wrote:  What is your current take on the bitcoin market?

I am a totally newbie in the bitcoin field. I have read this thread in the past, however I have not taken any action until yesterday.

Somehow, I got the feeling it is a good time to start with bitcoin, I might be totally wrong, however I invested only an amount which I can loose without any significant impact on my life.

I am based in Europe, therefore I decided to trade on bitcoin.de. On average, I bought BTCs for 214 Euro.

Let's see where the market goes.

The first thing you want to do is keep your private keys removed from internet connected machines. Especially keep it off of web based services if you want to hold instead of day trade.

If you want to learn about how things work and support the network I recommend running a full network node. The best software for this purpose is available here: http://thebitcoin.foundation/

The software releases there are strive for maximum commonality with Satoshi's code and they will in many cases outperform the current crap shitgnomes keep trying to pass off as "BitcoinCore." Works beautifully on any number of unix like operating systems including Mac OSX, most linux, and most BSD's.

You challenge if you really want to get into bitcoin is developing a familiarity with how unix like operating systems work and learning to understand a bit of C/C++ code after reading. Now don't fret. This isn't like getting your swole on, you don't need to become some sort of superman. What you want though is to develop some level of literacy to the point you can understand which parts of your workflow involving Bitcoin could be dangerous. It also isn't monetarily expensive. Get a cheap used machine or find one you have and set it up to run bitcoind 24/7 participating in the greater network.

What you don't want to do is keep the equivalent of several thousand dollars on a Windows machine with a bunch of browser toolbars that could swiftly send all of that value to some douchebag in Nigeria.

Thank you for your input.

What would you recommend for storing the bitcoin? I am not into day trading, so I am looking for a save storage solution for the long-term.

Ray

(06-22-2015 02:16 PM)Ray Carlton Wrote:  Thank you for your input.

What would you recommend for storing the bitcoin? I am not into day trading, so I am looking for a save storage solution for the long-term.

Ray

Generate a wallet on an offline computer and keep the private keys safe. Bitcoin-qt is probably fine (But not bitcoin-core) the light Electrum client also does offline wallets rather well. You just have to remember that when electrum retrieves your transaction history from a server it shares a bunch of addresses connected to you so if you want to use electrum with some privacy you will have to set up your own electrum server.