Bitcoin Forum

I'm starting to get frustrated/discouraged by my inability to just dip my toes in the world of Bitcoin or find any reliable, easy-to-understand answers.

I've been reading up and watching videos and tutorials for 2 days straight on Bitcoin, trying to figure out how to mine or buy my first fraction of a fraction of a Bitcoin, and I'm totally lost. All these Youtube videos and Bitcoin enthusiasts say "It's fun! It's secure! It's easy!" but there is nothing easy or intuitive about this (as in, I see a soda for $1.25 and I hand the cashier a $1 bill and a quarter, or I see gas for $3.50 a gallon, I pump 10 gallons and my balance on the credit card I swiped goes up $35)

But to get Bitcoin, I apparently (emphasized because there's no clear-cut answer) have to set up a wallet, then get a dedicated computer (or several dozen), then reprogram its/their graphics card(s) to mine, then I have to start generating hashes, then I start cracking hashes, then I have to start chainblocking, verifying transactions and maintaining ledgers and etc etc etc.

All that or I have to wire money to some shady-looking website in Europe along with photo ID or proof of residence; I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to be anonymous. Why do I have to tie my personal info to Bitcoin transactions?

Am I missing something here? Am I too stupid for Bitcoin?

Check out LocalBitcoins.com and you can buy bitcoins anonymously

or contact me ill explain everything

localbitcoins can be anonymous for you.. and if you are in the U.S., you can use coinbase.. but you'd still have to wire money from your checking account.

first download electrum wallet and look up the tutorial.

Its gets easy after a while, trust me. :)

yeah man. the first 6 months i was interested in bitcoin i was convinced it was all a scam. ironically, the legitimate businesses are hard to find and difficult to get setup with. here's a list


campx.com -- bitcoin/usd exchange, USA

coinbase.com -- bitcoin/usd exchange, USA

bitdazzle.com -- basically like an amazon for bitcoin. site looks nice, but lacks functionality. they are rebuilding it to be more amazon like easy to use.

namecheap.com -- domain names and webhosting. the second most proffessional bitcoin business.

bitcoinstore.com -- electronics and technology. the hands down most proffessional bitcoin business, excellent customer support. i'm a repeat customer lol

wtcr.ca -- sells random goods, and bitcoin mining equipment.

gyft.com -- trade bitcoins for giftcards

cryptsy.com -- buy/sell altcoins for bitcoin. altcoins are siginificantly easier to mine than bitcoin.

coinex.pw -- altcoin exchange like cryptsy, but less volume.

there was a site called bitmit.net which was like ebay for bitcoins, but it got closed down due to compliance issues/hacking or some shit.

hope this helps

after my first few btc transactions, i started to become more and more comfortable with the system.. just get your feet wet and you'll feel more confident in what you're doing.

post your address. i'll send you some bitcoin.

Sorry; do you mean wallet? I haven't been able to set up a Bitcoin wallet because I haven't been able to find a reputable, easy-to-setup/use wallet service.

Youll get used to it!
buy using an exchange or in person!

get electrum.. it's easy as it can get. if you have any questions, i can answer them for you. an easier or less secure way of getting a wallet is by going to blockchain.info ... it's as simple as registering for a gmail account.

The problem is that I also followed a few discussion posts from people that seemed to know what they were talking about... and I ended up (involunatrily) lending an unreputable crypto trading site over $200 which they no doubt bought BTC with... TOLD me for the past several weeks I held 1.02 BTC worth over $1000 today... and then suddenly reimbursed me the $200 & took away my BTC.  I'm down about $900.  And there's nearly nothing I can do about it.

A couple of weeks later after spending DAYS online I was able finally to open a wallet and after working out an elaborate cash deposit through a credit union network - an option I don't think exists any longer for Cash Into Coins, the service I used (they turned out to be honest) I finally own about 1.5 BTC which I obviously paid more money for.

I also have almost 7 LTC, which I wanted to buy at about $2.50 & which had hit $28 by the time I figured out how.  In the final stages of actually obtaining LTC when I had gears in motion it went from $9 to $30!

I consider myself of slightly above average computer savvy-wise, and I've been scammed in one of three crypto buying attempts thus far, and it's taken WEEKS to figure out how to participate once I did decide to buy.

The honest BTC community has to figure out how to let average people participate with some confidence or this will never be better than an asset class for rich institutions, IF that much.

http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
Electrum is probably easiest. I prefer Bitcoin QT.

For ease of use, consider getting a wallet at https://blockchain.info/wallet but remember that it is less secure than a desktop wallet, is more prone to exploits due to use of javascript, etc. But it is very easy to set up. Don't keep much funds on an online wallet, though. And stay away from 3rd party hosted wallets like Coinbase -- you don't control your bitcoins with them.

As you get into Bitcoins, first secure your wallet. Use a dedicated computer if at all possible, or be sure to run virus scans frequently and don't be downloading music from Limewire (hehe, 2008) and make sure you encrypt your wallet and don't forget your password. Online wallets are generally less safe, so I'd recommend Electrum or the Satoshi Client, but keeping a reasonable amount of coin in the Blockchain wallet with a secure password and the before mentioned security, you will be alright. Second, trust no one with your Bitcoins. Think about the law of the wild west, and then remove the shootouts and fist fights, and your adversaries are hundreds if not thousands of miles away. If someone steals your money, chances are they are going to get away with it, so don't give them a chance. After your wallet is secure, you can get by just knowing how to send and recieve transactions. Make sure you set a transaction fee, and double or triple check all addresses involved before sending or recieving payment.

You will get the hang of it, what you can do for now, is get the basics down to prevent financial loss due to not knowing.

Also, always ALWAYS backup your wallets. Get a 1 GB flash drive or something, copy your wallet.dat onto it, and store it in a safe place. If you are going to be holding a lot of coins, more than one copy is advised, as long as its in a secure place.

best idea for start with BTC

just open free easy to use online wallet id on https://blockchain.info/wallet
anyways do not put too much money in online wallet

you always free to create more then 1 wallet for keep money in different wallets NOT all in one

thanks

I can't afford a dedicated computer; I can only use the one I already have.

I set up a blockchain.info account and created a wallet there; my address is 1MDDLKpLhtx8nnmbD3xE8Aqb6Rtxs5FtZJ

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 1.80 GHz Intel Celeron processor; it runs at ~5%-10% during idle time. How much money can I make if I find a reliable mining program?

What's the difference between the Address and the "Hash 160"

My blockchain.info account has 2 long lines of numbers and letters

by driving the price up, all you are supporting is giving money to drug dealers who accept bitcoin.
remember this is a currency not an investment tool

Tldr yes.

Bitcoin can be anonymous, but these exchanges need photo ID and proof of residence because you wire money there and they have comply with antilaudering laws.

Photo ID and proof of residence require banks and gambling sites as well when dealing with money

Well I can't yet pay for food, gas or rent with Bitcoin, so until then, what other option is there?

Some very good replies here.

Honestly, using an online wallet sounds like the absolute stupidest idea anybody could conceive.

Imagine that there are no actual banks, instead you can go into a dark alleyway, and there's a shady guy in a trenchcoat standing there, with a tattered sign which says: "checking accounts".
And you can go to him, tell him your name, "open an account", and give him your paycheck. Which he'll "transfer to your account".

Really now.

And would you pay for food now with the difficulties exchanging USD to Bitcoin? It needs time, first is make the exchanging USD to Bitcoin much easier...

Well lol. What kind of currency is it that buys a chocolate bar one day, and a used car a week later? I've seen derivatives less risky.

In order for bitcoin to settle down, it needs non-speculative volume. Currently I'm estimating 95% of users are just exchanging bitcoins for dollars and vice versa. It's not a currency, it's a collective gambling platform.

A user-friendly, foolproof locally installable wallet / client, as well as an automated merchant platform (just as idiotproof) would be paramount in order to get any meaningful activity.

EDIT: ...and some reputable dealers. Names like JPM Chase or Deutsche Bank or Lloyds or Fidelity or whatever.

you are not stupid , just buy bitcoin and hold then you are clever :)

Nothing. Forget about mining. You can only profit from mining bitcoin if you use expensive ASIC devices, such as the KnC Jupiter. GPU mining is dead (and CPU even deader). Most people who are interested in bitcoin agree that it's a better investment to just buy some BTC and wait for the price to go up.

It looks like you already have a wallet and receiving address at Blockchain.info. That's good, but as others have said, online wallets are much less secure than desktop wallets. You can have more than one wallet, and each wallet can have (and does have) multiple addresses. You can have a wallet at Blockchain, but you should also have a desktop wallet on your laptop, and Electrum is probably the easiest to use.

Your laptop wallet will be only as secure as your computer. I have a Win7 laptop that I dual-boot with Ubuntu Linux. My wallet is on the Ubuntu side because the general consensus is that it's more secure than Windows.

In any case, make regular backups of your wallet file (wallet.dat) and keep those backups in a different location from your laptop. I'd suggest putting your backups in a TrueCrypt container for additional security.

As for mining, unfortunately you won't be able to mine with that laptop. Yes, you could mine and get about 10 M/h, but laptops aren't designed to handle that kind of load and heat. You'd burn out your fan, or worse. Plus, you'd actually lose money since the electricity required would cost more than ~10 MH could return. You could buy shares on online mining, or get a dedicated box and GPU mine for alt coins. Or, you could spend a ton of cash and get one of the newer ASIC devices (which you could run from your laptop), but who knows when it would be delivered.

It is because buying BTC is hard. If people get paid for their work in BTC, they will spend the BTC instead. Long way there, but possible

when is it EVER gonna be used for anything besides drugs, illegal things??

Such a machine has not enough computing power to be used for mining. You claim that you watched hours of youtube videos about bitcoin and mining, obviously you selected the wrong ones if they did not tell you that mining will not work for you.
You always need to consider that miners compete for a limited daily amount of bitcoins (currently 25 per block, at 6 blocks per hour that's 3744 bitcoins per day).
Statistically, your computer would get a fraction of this amount that is proportional to your mining power in relation to the total worldwide mining power.
Actually, the mining work is nowadays mostly done using specialized hardware that is thousands of times faster than an ordinary computer (for mining, not general purpose computing).
So forget about mining. If you want to get bitcoins, you have to buy them, sell stuff for them, or work for them.

To handle bitcoins (whether with an online wallet or a wallet on your computer) you need to have a computer that is virus-free, and you need to use it in such a way that it stays virus-free. If you aren't sure that you can do this, forget about bitcoins altogether - sooner or later you will come here complaining that your bitcoins have been stolen.
Your best bet might be to buy a reasonably powerful computer to replace your laptop for regular work, do a fresh re-install of the operating system on the laptop (or install linux, might be safer), and use the laptop for bitcoin wallet management only.

I would generally prefer a local wallet over an online wallet - there are so many reports of bitcoins stolen from online wallets that I feel it's safer to keep everything on your computer.
The bitcoin-qt wallet works but is a bit dated and requires the download of the complete blockchain (and you need to keep the blockchain up-to-date), Electrum or Armory are more modern and don't require the complete blockchain as far as I know (but don't take my word for it). Whatever you use, make sure you keep a proper backup of your wallet and store it in a place where it can't be stolen.

Onkel Paul

People can buy lots of things in stores that specialize in BTC, albeit, most of those are tech-oriented products. The good news is that I read about such-and-such a store is "now accepting Bitcoin" in the news on almost a daily basis. The outlook keeps getting better.

In fact SR is closed and I believe majority of transactions are legal and not much different legal/illegal ratio from other payment methods like banks

The only way you can learn about bitcoin is to use it.

Download a wallet app on your phone, download Bitcoin qt, and another wallet like Electrum, and set up a wallet at blockchain.info.
Spend some time playing with these.

Buy a small amount of bitcoins and then send them to one of these wallets - then send them from that wallet to another wallet and watch the transaction confirm.

Go to HumbleBundle.com and pay $1 for a couple of computer games - see what happens and how it works.

You'll start asking the right questions naturally as you use it.

Is encryption possible?
Can I make backups of the wallet?
Do I need to be online when I receive a payment?
Why is Bitcoin QT taking so long to synch?
What is a paper wallet?
Why do I need to pay fees?
etc

Just buy some bitcoins ($20 would be enough to start) and play around with them.
Don't worry about doing anything complex just for a few dollars - once you are confident you can buy more bitcoins and explore ways of storing them securely.
But you need to just jump in and try it.

QuizmasterChris  you express my feeling entirely-


"The honest BTC community has to figure out how to let average people participate with some confidence or this will never be better than an asset class for rich institutions, IF that much"

I'm exhausted trying to understand it all. I've just about managed to create a wallet but its taken me the best part of a day. I've come away feeling this is just a game for the tech savvy.

Definitely not a user friendly experience for the average woman in the street with only basic computer skills! A long way from being currency for the masses.
 

 
  
 

+1 this comment.

maybe the topic starter is to lazy but he is not to stupid. so there is hope.

the solution is: come back in a few years! everything will be easyer & safer and you can buy 0.1 BTC for just 1000 USD.


 ::)

You can't HONESTLY think that with Silk Road down, the bitcoin black market has suddenly evaporated. That's like asserting that since they demolished the Kowloon Walled City, crime has disappeared from Hong Kong.

It hasn't. :P

Anyway, black market is a market too, and it should help stabilize the bitcoin economy.