Bitcoin Forum

Granted I live in Ohio, but I've never met a single person who has bought bitcoin. I haven't seen a store that takes it, and everyone I talk to thinks it's "risky" (which I don't agree with). Anyway, I'd love to hear if other people have met anyone in the real world who owns bitcoin (or any alternative currency) and if so, where do you live?

I live in NYC. Aside from myself, I have met two persons in the real world who have purchased bitcoin.

Probably somewhere between 200-300 people...

https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/Justus_Ranvier/?ch=105

http://www.meetup.com/Dallas-Bitcoin-User-Meetup/members/

http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinAustin/members/

No, but it's still early days. Cryptos have only just really started to break through into mainstream media and still only get little coverage, but they're waking up. Ask 100 people on the street if they've heard of bitcoin and I'm betting only around 20% will have. That figure will hopefully be well over 50% next year.

It is 'risky' to a certain extent, but what investment isn't? People also often think it's risky because they don't understand it fully, and the way it's described to them often sounds like a scam or pyramid scheme: "Hey, let me tell you how I made 7X my money by sitting in front of my PC" blah blah blah.

Wow, Austin sounds like the place to be!

We're having a Meetup right now and so far we're at 35 people

I live in NYC and know 6-7 people who have bought bitcoin.  I haven't been to any bitcoin meetups or any places that accept them yet though.

no

I tried to, but Coinbase didn't do the little "we deposit dust in your checking account and you tell us how much" thingy.

Just as well, eponomously speaking.

I think age is a huge facotr, age and tech savy people. I have not met anyone and I am 48. So I expect to meet no one. I don't work in the field. Hell, I still don't know how to use the one I have pending. I won't use it either. I will just sit on it and hope for my number.....

One thing about being old is I have seen things like this before. Not exactly like this, but at some point when the value is too high and the price falls backwards for a continuos 2 weeks to 40% down. No one will sell you one, because they wont be able to buy one to sell you. Up n up... then its over.

As I asked about coinbase and someone said they buy it when you buy it. But what if there seller doesn't sell to them ? What then, do you think Coinbase will be able to buy one at your rate or lower ? No one is going to take a loss. That is what everyone is missing.... Kind of the beuaty of it too. I know no one is going to take a loss. So as long as new buyers continue joining in it will continue going up... LMAO.... It seems no one has noticed this...

I also think once this one is tapped out another one will follow it up and then tap out and so on..

Well yes. Speaking that I have a wide ring of friends many of us you BTC as a payment processor for items on Tor.

I'm in my early 30s, and this all reminds me of when the internet started catching on. If I were older back then, I hope I would have had the foresight to buy a bunch of domain names. I met a lot of people in Florida who are essentially living off the sale of domain names they gobbled up during the mid- to late 90s... I think bitcoin could present the same sort of opportunity. If it catches on and serious investors (outside of the Winklevoss's) start using it as an inflation hedge, I think it'll really grow fast -- especially if the Winklevoss's get their bitcoin ETF approved.

Hello Ohiofarmer,
I am an OhioSmallBusinessman.
Being in the backwaters of the state (Toledo) I hadn't run into anyone who had bought bitcoin (although I am pretty much at work or home almost all of my waking hours).
At any rate, I wanted to see if there was any local interest so I placed an ad on localbitcoins a week or so ago (the closest listing on localbitcoin was 45 minutes away) I got my first response and met at a Tim Horton's a mile from my home. Turns out the 2 gents who showed up owned a local retail outlet and were there to buy their first coin. We ended up talking for several hours. Had a fun time. I am looking forward to meeting others. I don't really want to sell the coin I have but I figure that it is easy enough to buy more on an exchange. You might try doing the same. Help expand the universe of bitcoin.

I'm from a small city in Manitoba, Canada.

Never sold any BTC here in town or met another user here.
I have however met a person through friends that lives in a town 3 hours away that buys BTC off me from time to time.

Cheers,

KLYE

Great idea. Good to hear from someone who lives in the same state and has some bitcoin! I'm in the Dayton area. Maybe I'll do that. I have seen some posts from a guy who lives about 30 minutes away who sells coins through Localbitcoins...

Three hours away. That's dedication!  :)

It is incredibly risky. The price of Bitcoin could crash to near zero at any moment and it's far from certain that it would necessarily recover. I think Bitcoins are a pretty good investment (though now is a particularly dangerous time to buy) but to deny that it's very, very risky is madness.

i got someone i know into bitcoin.. told him about it last week, and he's already talking about buying a mining rig  :D

Agreed. I guess I meant that they think it's too risky to even dream about getting involved with... like it's snake oil or something.

Hopefully you're there to talk him out of it

Tell him to take all the money he would spend on the rig and just buy coins.  Much better investment.

already told him that, but he has his mind set on mining BTC.. he wants to use the rig at work to mine for the coins, so he doesn't have to pay electricity. i told him to be careful of that.. you could easily lose your job if the employer finds out  :D

It's only as risky as you want it to be:

1) Accepting bitcoin using BitPay or Coinbase and having dollars deposited to your account: Cost 1%. Risk of loss due to fraud/BTC exchange 0%
2) Accepting credit cards: Cost ~3-5%. Risk of loss due to fraud or chargeback: additional 1-3% (avg, US)
3) Accepting bitcoin for gold bullion with zero confirmations in a dark alley in eastern europe: "very, very risky"  ::)

I live in Europe and I personally know 2 people (friends of different nationalities) who have bought BTCs. One of them even got a pretty expensive mining rig and is now reaping some sweet reward!

However, I still have to see a "physical" shop/store accepting it

I've bought from Coinbase but CB takes a couple days to get in....our Social network site bitofunity.com has a AD section with a specific part for bitcoin buy/sell and other crypto currencies...has anyone heard anything about bitinstant other then they were being sued?

Seems like more and more people are signing up for the exchange to buy BTC.  Businesses are start to accept BTC as just like another credit card by using Bitpay and other payment gateway services and coding on the shopping cart.

Private Taxi and Limo in NYC takes BTC for the fair via smartphone. 

I know a couple, all in it for investment opportunity. Really wondering when they will cash out, never really discussed this. Have to try to convince them that using it as a currency might preoduce more long term returns than sitting on it...

Convince me of that.  Sure, people in general need to spend it more to make it go up in value.  But the selfish ones that hold on will make more than the ones who spend.  So in reality, this is a hard thing to convince.  The "Hey... if everyone had that attitude, bitcoin would be worth nothing" is not good enough of an argument to get me to spend.

Honest question, would you accept BTC as Taxi driver? It is such an instable currency and accepting it as a pay - on which your livelyhood depends - is  quiet a risk. Exchange rate might have dropped 50% by the time you get home to cash out (or doubled, ofcourse)

You're absolutely right mate. You're putting your finger on the sore spot, and the flaw of bitcoin at this moment, as long as it is a purely speculative currency its real value is zero, and the bubble has to burst. Maybe we need a scenario like this, where after the crash the value is so low that it is not worth it cashing out, but people will start buying pizza with it.

simple. hold onto the coins you want, and for anything you would have spent fiat on, convert it from cash to BTC.

But the opposite is also true. Bitcoin is rising in value daily and could skyrocket any time. The risk may be worth the gamble to them.

What beet says.  I think that any job I had, I'd prefer to be paid in bitcoins, given that I had a decently easy way to change it to fiat to pay for my basic needs.  And there are semi decent ways to do this.  Funny thing is though, normal jobs can't pay in bitcoins, because how would that work?  You sign up for a  job, at 4 BTC a month (lets say BTC is 1k a coin when you start).  Next day BTC drops to 200 a coin.  Easy, you quit xD

What if the next day BTC go up to 10k a coin.  I stay and smile, and employer goes bankrupt o_0

Hey ohiofarmer,

I'm right next door in the fine city of Indianapolis.  Not only to I mine bitcoins but accept bitcoins and litecoins as full payment for any service I conduct. Nearly all my comrades are familiar with bitcoins and I know a few dozen people actively involved with them.

Come over for coffee sometime :) you are right next door. :)

~ Leneous

You could be paid in bitcoin, but the salary number would obviously still be in EUR/USD and you'd get the amount of bitcoins paid according to some conversion rate.

If that's the case, i'd prefer to be paid in fiat.  Keep the fiat that I need, the rest spend on bitcoins.  Much easier than trying to change bitcoins into fiat, getting the fiat, putting it into bank, blah blah. 

So it doesn't work, either you quit or the employer quits. I'd rather get paid in cash, convert whatever I have left at the end of the month to BTc.

I'd rather talk it over with my employer. For each pay period, we could agree on a certain amount of fiat and a certain amount of BTC and change the ratio over time depending on the circumstances.

Awesome. I'll let you know if I'm ever headed that way. I'm impressed so many people are involved with it there... I think there's a Cincy bitcoin meetup, but nothing in Dayton yet. Maybe I should start one!  :) I'm too busy having fun learning about this stuff, though.

Very good point... I think I'll start a thread to see if people are actually buying anything with their bitcoin or if they're just holding it as an investment. I've been buying alternative currencies with mine...

I know literally hundreds of people that use Bitcoin regularly and have met many of the big names in the community at several of the conventions. I’m from the SF Bay Area though and people are pretty tech savvy and trendy here so maybe that doesn’t count.

Yeah, I figured SF would have a huge community relative to the rest of the country. We need to find a way to spread those vibes outside the cultural epicenters faster!

FYI: I guess I can now claim to have "bought" something with bitcoin since I created a bunch of paper wallets, and I'm going to give bitcoin to friends and family for Christmas. I'll now know lots of people who have bitcoin! Hopefully some of them will buy something with them.

I've had a couple of people phone me asking for help buying bitcoins, which was a bit annoying because last time i spoke to them about it they basically dismissed the whole thing; but now it's all over the news they want in.   I was reluctant to recommend they buy in now because i suppose they would blame me if the price fell. but yea, the good word is definitely spreading that's for sure.

no one holds BTC, no one has heard of BTC yet.

 ::)

I know only 3 individuals, although my country is behind with these things.

I unfortunately do not know anyone who bought BTC in the real word (yet).

I talked to a friend of my brother about bitcoin and he was interested in knowing a lot about it. 2 Days later I get a skype message from him telling me he bought a few. Also my gf has some coins. So yes, I know some people bought BTC in the real world :P

I know "someone" who bought a subscription to Bitcoin Magazine in 2012 for about 15 btc...

Seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. Oh well, I suppose it was still a bargain compared to that $10M pizza.

haha yes, but that will always the the case. but you have to spent coins. dont look back.

Philly has a bunch of people into it, check our facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/502905429783475/). and I've personally given out at least a $1 to at least 30 people.

Lately, I've been offering to tip people in bitcoin. A few have taken me up on it!

I know a 17 year old who bought a bunch of bitcoin when it was 14 cents. I knew about them in passing but didn't bother focusing on them until they were around 10 dollars each.

I speak to him probably once every 2 weeks. He won't tell me how much he owns, but he got in some trouble with his parents about a few purchases he made on silk road.

My mum bought one, fair enough I convinced her to do it and I actually sorted it for her. But, if a 63 year old woman can be convinced of the value, it looks good to me.

I checked localbitcoins earlier and for the first time, there is someone in my city selling.

I heard about them over 2 years ago bit struggled with the exchanges so only started about 6 months ago. The change we have seen in these few months surpasses anything I thought was possible.

3 people i work with own bitcoin. 1 guy (the architect) got in early and still has his. The other guy sold at $190 after it jumped $60.

I bought some together with friends, its cool to talk about them and speculate!

bitcoin itself is risky, but cryptos as the new workable class of money. No. The idea is out, its not going back. If bitocin finished tomorrow, another crypto would soon be out to takes its place, and stronger/better, or bitocin can fork to overcome issues.

never before has money supply been able to be unpgraded all at once

Not a single one in real life. How surprising is that!

Crazy isn't it? It amazes me how conservative people are...

There is pretty site: http://fiatleak.com/
You may track in real time, who and where buy bitcoin.

However, I'm too, never meet such folks...

maybe i should convince the guy i converted over (he wants a mining rig though), but i don't think he would buy it... he prefers spending $3.5k on the mining rig.