Bitcoin Forum

I keep seeing people claiming to be well under 18 and claiming they have made a decent amount of Bitcoin yet how can they? They can't purchase from any excahnge because you need to be 18 in order to sign a legal contract and buy from any exchange.

So they are lying unless they sell services but they have no experince in most things sorry for the rant but its annoying when people claim to be young and have enough experince to make well over 50 Bitcoin in such a short period of time without buying from a exchange.

I'm pretty sure that it is also against the law to be using Bitcoin under the age of 18 in some countries?

They just mine any alt-coin then trade them for BTC.

They are 100% lying. I used to lie all the time before i turned 18. No one knows and no one cares. It's really not a big deal.

Thought as much I don't think they would make a big profit with selling alt coins and converting them into Bitcoin.

When you're under 18 "big profit" has a different meaning than when you have adult revenues (and expenses) ;)

That's a good point that I never actually considered also under a certain age you do not need to pay taxes or as much taxes which in a way they could benefit from I guess.

They mine. Buying Btc is not the only way to get it you know. Some might have done it long time ago, others mine alt coins and exchange for btc. They won't be able to change those btc to fiat until they are 18 that is for sure.

How would under 18's with no jobs be able to afford mining equipment that sounds a little unrealistic to me.

Some under 18's have rich daddy.

And how could a currency be illegal under 18?

If they are using a exchange to withdraw Bitcoin to usd or what ever fiat currency then that would illegal and I should imagine their parents could get into big trouble.

Surely they're father would do it instead of a inexperinced minor.

Services like QuickBT.com use a debit card to pay for purchases - in Canada you can be as young as 9 with a debit card.

Many exchanges only require a debit card and I bet a lot of under 18's use these services.

99% of DogeCoin users are kids using daddy's credit card to buy billions of Doge.

Any rich kid have a dual GPU R9 290X in his gaming computer to mine.

You can easily buy BTC off ebay or make them by selling stuff or partaking in a signature deal.


You can mine some altcoins on laptops or standard computers. Under 18s can also have jobs.

Most under 18's have jobs maybe not maximum wage but they have jobs and can pay for thenselves mining equipment is very cheap for mining alt coins and then selling on even signature advertisements are the eqiuvivalnt to real time jobs in the 1st world countries.

I have 10 BTC and I'm only 15, lol.

Yes, why not?

Also, localbitcoins is a thing

What the hell are you guys talking about, being illegal?  It is NOT illegal.  They could have mined it.  And they can sell on localbitcoins, without needing to be 18.

Craziness ITT

Most altcoins can be mined on CPU (at launch) or cheap GPUs. If you have time on your hands to, you can be there early.

McXNOW does not require ID for trading.

There are some smart under 18s out there.

Maybe, parents verify on an exchange and they operate the account.  I would use my ID etc to help my kids if they were interested.

Nothing wrong with kids being interested in finance.

Exactly, I've learned a lot about finance and security working with Bitcoin for the past two or so years.

I would be willing to open a account for my kids if they were interested in Bitcoin and limit them how much they can invest so they don't lose it all.

How the funk?

How?!

How not? Kids with gaming PCs + parents paying for electricity + 2012 = 10 BTC

Why can't minors use bitcoin, it is money.  The only reason minors can't really get contracts for stuff is because they can basically sue for all their money back, so noone wants to issue them stuff.  Yes, its not that simple but you get the point.  
Anyways i'm sure we will soon here a story about some 14 year old spending all his communion money or some other bullshit on bitcoin and losing it from dumb trades, then bam public outcry against bitcoin.  

I said I "have" 10 BTC, I didn't say how much I "had" :D

So under a year you have made 10 Bitcoin? nearly 6000 dollars? Shame you can't withdraw yet unless you get your parents too..

he could always go to McDonald's or Starbuck's and trade it with a cop

probably spend it on games and women.

Why would they buy? Lol. There are enough people out there with enough knowledge to create websites and stuff. Simply accept Bitcoins and a payment and voila.

And damn all these fucking trolls in this topic.

To be honest most teenagers are more up to date than me with technology and I always get taught by them on how to do things.

Bitcoin is like cash. Anyone can use it.
It's a parent's job to keep an eye on their children's financial situation and decide if they should be allowed to trade/buy/sell.. just like cash.
A lot of parents should keep an eye on their electricity bill though:)

All my children have bitcoins and use them.  All their bitcoins they have earned with their business or trading (no allowances and free handouts in our family).

The two teenagers use exchanges (mcxnow is a favorite right now), trade stocks, mine, buy things for themselves, have sold for cash a few times P2P, and given out loans (small amounts in all these categories).

The bulk of all their savings and transactions are done with btc.  About the only thing they use cash for is when I need to borrow some from them (and they charge me interest payable in btc if I don't pay them back quickly).

They also know our their CPA and have met with him in his office on occasion.  We aren't rich or anything, just that they need to learn this stuff if they want to be independent, functioning slaves members of society.

There is a lot of parental involvement, but they are pretty much on their own.  Like when I get home from work one of the first things I sometimes ask is "how was your trading today?" or once a month I might ask "are those miners still running?"

My favorite thing about bitcoin is that it has pricked their interests in tech stuff and now when I have an IT question I can just ask them instead of calling someone.

I like you :D

You really are a awesome guy/gal for doing that for your children good job.

Bullshit.  I trade BTC with anyone - except cops trying to do a sting.  There is nothing preventing my 5 year old from owning, buying or selling BTC.  In fact I gave her a few physical BTC for her allowance when they were about $5 and, wisely, she put them in her savings and has held on to them and still has them.

We have taught her to split her allowance into three parts:  savings, spending and sharing.  On her own she decided to do 25% sharing (donations to the things she believes in), 25% spending (candy, barbies, etc.) and 50% savings (she says "for college").

Who really cares what someone says they made or didnt make.  Don't worry about others too much.


With that said,  it wouldn't be hard at all to get bitcoins if youre under 18.  It's like saying "how the hell are all these kids under 21 drinking beer?!!?!"  :) .  If there's something like an exchange where you need ID or to be a certain age, it's not that unthinkable that many kids have parents, relatives, or friends that would help them get an account.  I know I had an account on a sports gambling site when I was teenager thanks to having older brothers who were fine with me gambling my own money away.

How can they? Register a 3rd party account with their bank account and info.
Nobody has to know.

This is most perplexing. There are so many teens with entrepreneurial spirit, most definitely capable of putting together a website or 3.

Just one example: Zhou Tong. Made truckloads out of Bitcoinica, and has moved on to domain registration and other businesses. Some people may hate him, but you can't deny he made tons of money before his 18th birthday.

You just use  ;D its not big matter no rules on it

There is going to be a "Kids Panel" at the Texas Bitcoin Convention.  Don't have all the details on that yet, but one of my boys will be on the panel.

http://texasbitcoinconference.com/schedule (http://texasbitcoinconference.com/schedule)

Now he is trying to figure out what type of government ID he needs to have for the plane ride since he just realized his passport is expired.

anyone regarldless of age should be able to use bitcoin. fuck regulations.

Every way we get them other than exchanges. Mining, localbitcoins, forum exchanges, etc. Or just have parent sign up for exchange and use the account

I'm 17, I just arrange wire transfers with people via localbitcoins  :)

I beg to differ. Being under 18 means nothing. If you have a talent it is easy to sell a service such as web designing, art, etc.

Wost thread ever.

Not even kidding when I say changing the topic to the text below would make more sense:

"How are people over 40 getting a hold of Bitcoins when none of them know how to work VCRs???"

To which the under 18 crowd would say "What is a VCR?"

Why would it be illegal for minors to own bitcoin? What a ridiculous thought.

Also, there's a difference between what is illegal and what will actually get you in trouble. Having your parents use their identification to help buy you bitcoins isn't getting anyone in trouble and while legality is questionable, there's literally a 0% chance of it being a problem.

Of course, minors shouldn't be gambling bitcoins, but that's another story.

Remember, all of these laws are to protect minors. A minor who is signing a contract isn't doing anything wrong - the person who is having him sign it is the one who is the "bad guy." It's important to help minors turn into successful businessmen (while still protecting the ones who need protection) instead of turning them away.

I cannot believe people think they need an exchange to buy or cash out of bitcoin. I generate bitcoin by mining as well as buying low when I have the opportunity.  I then either put an add on Craigslist or localbitcoin.com and I get all the buyers I could possibly want willing to meet me at the local Starbucks and pay in cash face to face. After the mtgox problem I would not use any exchange. Just my e wallet on my cellphone. I also visited the open bitcoin pit on monday night at 40 broad street in new york city and sold some in the open bidding pit. Cash in hand on the spot. Exchanges are to risky and not private at all.

I had to close many accounts recently because in the pasts the entered age or details were not correct.  :D

How stupid is this post?


Like everyone else? Thread has no point, 0/10

The OP, Baitty, must be living in a parallel dimension where people live in prison until they are 18.

Or he's just annoyed to see under 18s doing better than him/herself.

;D
People under 18 have almost no limitations in Bitcoin operations. World does not circle around exchanges :)

I've been trading bitcoins for about 2 years now, and never once used an exchange. Usually trade in person with cash.

I also buy and sell things with Bitcoins.

I wish I was 18 again  ;) , but now I'm in my thirties, and I don't think I'm unusual.

+1
Anyone under 18 with the foresight to see the monetary future should be encouraged and admired, not admonished. Kudos to anyone under 18 on these forums.

 :D

LOL

In any disruptive technology revolution, expect the tiny tikes to know more than YOU! The very fact that you think BTC revolves around an anitquated CENTRALIZED concept, the exchanges and that it's impossible to legally own BTC without using them is a tell on your age. BTC is the concept of DECENTRALIZED banking. Even without exchanges, BTC will increase in adoption exponentially simply by people spending BTC. I bet you 1BTC that many kids probably own more BTC than you and know more about BTC than you or me.

This kinda reminds me of when I owned the world's first desktop computer. I nagged my parents for months incessantly until they bought it for me. They finally relented even though they had no idea what they were buying. Then, I had no money to buy sofware (much like these kids today have no money to buy BTC), so I posted an ad in a computer magazine (this was before there was an internet) offering to trade copies of software. Hundreds of people called to swap software. I'll bet you these kids probably mined their BTC two years ago when it was easy or if they're doing it now, they're mining alt coins for free with their parent's electricity then swapping them for BTC. There's a good chance the webmaster for this very forum is a 13 year old kid working on this site for BTC. You know, Bill Gates wrote his first million dollar software before he turned 18. He hid behind a corporate entity and hired adults in suits to do all the negotiations so people won't find out that he's just a kid.

You and I are probably still skeptical of bitcoin. I half expect the value to go down to zero. Our discomfort stems from our gut feeling that this is not "normal". However, kids have no preconceived notion of what's normal YET. So, if they're smart, they'll adopt the new "normal", Bitcoins. Their adoption feels comfortable because they have no other point of reference (central banking) if their first financial transactions are in Bitcoin and not dollars, which is likely because you cannot mine dollars but you can mine bitcoins, litecoins, and dogecoins. To these kids that grow up on cryptocash, pieces of paper with dead presidents seem "abnormal". Why are you using a medieval technology in the 21st century?!

So? I Created a kraken account just last week and I'm only 14. Even though I have nothing in it, I'm making a bank account in the summer and going to start trading :P. Right now, I just need 1 more mBit so I can transfer funds from blockchain to play2win sites like Primedice.

Yeah. It is definitely not illegal.

Thanks Starfish! :D

I thought it was common practice for 18 year olds to save up for their first car.

3000-8000 USD

So why the hell is it so strange that they might have amassed that much value in bitcoin?
 i mean, shit, kids get allowance, birthday money, etc. graduation presents. and its def not illegal for them to hold, spend, or trade btc. hell, ive given my younger sister in law btc for most of the gifts ive given her of late (birthdays, her high school graduation)

what you aren't considering is that a smart 18 year old, having no bills/ recurring fiscal responsibilities, would find it incredibly easy to actually KEEP the btc (because I know mine provides a roof/food for me and others). The problem usually isn't making the money for most; thats easy in America. Just go trade some time.

Keeping said money, however, with insane tax rates and an unsustainable cost of living, is another story..

~Green

For me, I don't see anything wrong with minors using Bitcoins and transacting with it. There is no law that prevents minors from carrying and holding cash (in fact to do so would be ludicrous); so the same should apply to Bitcoins.

That being said, I will say, that it is quite possible that a lot of minors in the U.S. that perform dealings with BTC have probably done something illegal. If my interpretation of the law is in line with the current application, a minor that has mined an alt-currency is fine; same thing with mining BTC. The problem arises when trading from one cryptocurrency to another cryptocurrency. I can't speak for all exchanges, but I know a lot use Cryptsy. According to the terms under section 1c, users may not be on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Denied Persons List. Now this is slightly muddy waters, as this list is specifically for national security purposes. But since it is on a federal statute, this implicitly means that this excludes "restricted parties." According to the federal government, minors are a "restricted party." So unraveling everything, it can technically be said that minors are not allowed to use Cryptsy. Whether this is the current application of this interpretation, I do not know. Likewise, whether this type of ToS extends to other sites, I do not know.

However, some sites have already set precedents for these types of transactions. For example, it is against Coinbase ToS for minors to use their services. As for localbitcoins, I do not believe that is against the law, but I think those are also muddy waters.

As is pirating copywrited music and movies and smoking weed, but kids are doing both those things in abundance.

These laws are stupid, obsolete, unenforceable nightmares. Like the drug laws destroying young lives every day in Amerikkka.

Nothing is forbidden. Cryptocurrency does not belong to the older generation, those controllers.

Bitcoin belongs to the youth.

Guys there are a lot of successful people under 18, please don't be jealous :)

I do get his point that some major transactions / exchanges need a legal adults ID or whatever, but there are
many ways to obtain / use bitcoins.

Wow, I came here expecting to see 4 pages of discussion on how the next generation are starting to use crypto currency, how they view it, and all manner of interesting things.

So sad that is not the case.

Haha I was thinking the same thing :)

Depends on how young you count the "under 18's" to be. Most 16 and 17 year olds at least should remember the vcrs,
altho I guess the 14 year olds probably don't.

I view it as the currency of the future. That is it. It's not some shitty ponzi scheme, some pyramid scheme, some investment. It has a future. It does have some problems, but it can be solved.