Bitcoin Forum

Dear gentlemen,
I am currently unable to deposit any kind of money (euros actually) on various exchanges. They all ask for confirmations to "verify my account" that will last several days, and the deposit itself will also take days and days...
Examples? On bitcoin.de, I can't tell, because the verification process with Sofort simply doesn't work. On BTC-E, I am redirected to Okpay, that redirects me to other sites who promise nothing but high fees and long delays. Mtgox wants a verification + asks a delay of 7-10 days for a deposit. And so on.
This is much too long. This is dysfunctional and shady looking. This is infuriating. I just want to deposit my money quickly and trade... Any solution, any site to do this faster than a week or more?

Try to find a local seller... That would be the easiest way. I use Coinbase (https://coinbase.com/?r=527e8d15a55949a1d3000182&utm_campaign=user-referral&src=referral-link) here in the U.S. (not sure if they take Euros). You can verify your account the same day you set it up by linking it with your bank account, but it does take a couple days for your buy order to go through.

Localbitcoins, but it can be problem to find BTC seller, or the price might be too much over spot

I am in the exact same situation.

It's been 1 week since I wanted to enter the bitcoin market, but getting even 0.1 BTC seems like an uphill battle.

I had the same issue with bitcoin.de not managing to validate my account because my bank is not in contract with their's.

OkPay is the same, I can only put money in their via bank transfer but that can take up to 4 days...
I tested one other site specific to my counrty, but they did'nt validate my bank account either in one full week, not sending any email related to the process.

The fastest and easier way to get in that I found, is on localbitcoins, trading with a verified user via a SEPA transfer, and overpriced of course.
Except that it's not something that the online manager of my bank permits... So I just changed bank to be able to do it without calling my banker for every little transfer.

I'm really starting to wonder how bitcoin's value could ever skyrocket when you have to wait like 2 weeks to get at least for 500$ worth, or is it my country only ?

It's not shady, it's actually to protect you and them from fraud.  Given the recent price jumps, the idea of getting money in and out before someone could even verify that you legitimately have funds in the original account is too tempting for scammers.

The easiest way is something like coinbase.  I just bought my first tiny bit of bitcoin through there and they verified my bank account pretty quickly.  Some banks have faster verifications than others.  At least that way, you can get locked in at a price while waiting for the trading account to get verified.

If you were from Canada there's a few places that sell BTC instantly from your bank account!

Using the currency exchange section on forums is the fastest way to buy BTC. You can put money into a Paypal account using a bank account to do exchanges.

Thanks for your replies. I'm still not trading (and obviously the prices can't stop rising... what a pity), but I will try what you said...

And, as expressed by someone else above, the huge rise we're currently seeing leaves me rather dubious, when you realize how hard it is to inject real money in the system.

The barriers to entry are still high, definitely easier to receive coins than to purchase them.
I have taken several routes and Coinbase has performed as advertised,
generation of coins via a pool is working sloooowly
and BTC-e has apparently stolen my ( and quite a few other peoples' ) money.
DO NOT send money to BTC-e, they are thieves, check the amount of 'btc-e' and 'fraud' and
'stolen' and whatnot in these forums.

Try localbitcoins, Use coinbase, find a member in this forum who can exchange btc with other currencies.

As I live in a big city, Localbitcoins is by far the fastest way to obtain BTC... But it's ridiculously expensive and they often want to trade large volumes. Moreover, I'm new to this market and I never sent or received any bitcoin in my life, so I don't even know if my wallet "works", if it's really secure, or things like that... It's annoying to be forced to trade big sums when you ignore if everything works well.
I'd like to trade with someone on this forum, at least a small amount to begin with, but who will trust me? I'm unknown and I can only post here.

(Edit: regarding BTC-E, they indeed look dodgy and I'm not surprised. How shall you trust a site located in Russia that asks you to pass through various unknown sites to deposit money?)

For US based individuals I'd suggest using coinbase, they can do normal ACH withdraws and deposits. Most of the exchanges require a wire transfer.

Coinbase can be pretty annoying, for the most part they seem to be linked to Bitstamp's price, but if Mt.Gox pulls way ahead of Stamp, they will start using some sort of weighted average inbetween.  If BTC-E gets close to Stamp's price, the sell price on Base will be the lower of the two.  Right now as I am typing this, BTC crashed on the exchanges a bit, now Coinbase seems to be using Gox's prices for buying and selling.

It also seems as if the equation itself for calculating the cost of buying coins from Base changes frequently.  So if you are trying to buy from Coinbase and their buy price seems to be the average between Gox and Stamp, it is worth it to try and refresh the page several times, and you might be able to catch the price at Stamp's price instead of an average between the two.  Whatever is the most profitable for them is what they seem to use.

I tried buying bitcoins locally using LocalBitcoins last week, I was unable to find any willing to sell coins, due to the fast price increase.  It seems as though all Localbitcoin sellers use Gox's price.

That's what I thought too. Not really the right moment to trade coins with cash, as the market is unstable.

Anyway, I admire bitcoin's philosophy and theoretical ease of use. But bitcoin will probably never "go mainstream" (as an investment or as a currency) because it is too hard for regular people to buy them, at least in a convenient, "normal", reassuring, non-overpriced way.

Too many fishy sites fly around the whole bitcoin world, normal investors can't buy confidently. Withdrawing too looks more or less dubious, on many exchanges... Too bad because I personally have massive investing potential - up to seven figures. But if I can't even deposit 500 euros to begin with, I'll just keep my money and invest in the classic stock markets.

how I've made a shitload (at least in todays stndards) of bitcoins by exploiting virwox, gambling 1/2 and keeping 1/2 in a wallet and thend cashing out every time I triple my money. Personally, I think that if you double your money you should probably bet higher for a couple rounds. As long as you have a buffer zone of 20 low-wage max lines rolls, you can swing out of some pretty shitty situations (i've gone from fucking 10 to 1k with some retarded roll I still don't understand). When it doubt though, use roulette and remember there is a very valuable 0 on the table. yoou have a 50-50 chance in roulette, and that isn't even counting multiple buys and combos.

I started with $20 today, went up to $400, put about 190 aside, and fucked around with the rest. Just make sure you're either doing it in cash or you vigilantly watch your bank account. Do not get sucked in to paying $100+ dollars to piss your live away gambling video money

I have throw probably 300 dollars into bitcoin gambling in the past month. prrrrooooobably enough for now. but it is a fast way to make money as long as you don't bet the bank over and over again (plus if you add it all up really i've bought special items with bitcoins that are rare and exotic, which can be worth its weight in gold :D

Thanks for the strategies, but apparently no one wants my money in the first place... The bitcoin idea promises anonymity, speed and efficiency. The main exchanges provide the contrary - slowness, weird questions about your privacy (this is for you, Coinbase!), etc.

If you really want to make bitcoin, sell legal things on darknet. You'd be surprised how many people just sell completely bogus and weird shit, and then the weirder people come out to buy it.

There are even legal, relatively safe, drugs and supplements you could sell without getting in any trouble whatsoever unless you get caught up fucking around with the people doing illegal things. There are books. You can learn to do things that people want you to do. You can set up a streamlining system to help people buy cheap bitcoins (you'd be surprised how many people would jump at the chance to buy in the least public places possible. Get a working account on bitstamp or some quicker exchange site and move your shit quickly. If you promote yourself you should be able to clear 50 an hour, though you'll want to invest in that so that once you have around ~20 you're not having to wait for escrows to clear.

There are tons of business models you can use that aren't schmoozer pyramid schemes, you just have to use your imagination.

Apart from that, unless you randomly buy virwox money like I do and sometimes gamble the shit out of it to 20 times its value (but am still broker than I was before), nobody is going to just hand you over a thousand dollars and say "hell ya mang share the wealth".

You don't understand... I already have a lot of money. I could invest 100,000 euros right now in cryptocurrencies... but I'm not even able to deposit 50 euros on the exchange sites, just to see if it works.

I don't want to use my imagination, I simply want to pay, trade, and withdraw quickly with benefits. This seems impossible in the current bitcoin economy. Mtgox and other exchanges may be the only places in the world that are unwilling to swallow my money! Hence I question the reality of the current bubble.

I don't think you're alone, which is why I think BTC is going to go up even faster once it's easier to acquire.

Hey Infuriating... calm down. You have good points and I agree that you're experiencing what is problematic with the whole thing, but it doesn't make it not viable. In fact it slows the momentum enough to make for a very interesting dynamic, as far as bubbles go. This is a bubble, but exactly because of these inefficiencies and assured scarcity, the bubble may yet be very young in regards to how far it has to run. You are still a mile ahead of a million other people who will be a week or a month behind you stuck in the same queue. BTC is up 900% since I started noticing it.

I have only been following BTC for a few months with any real focus. I have been primarily a commodities trader, broker, and advisor to a few institutional investors for the last~20 years, my whole adult life. I am not a Wall Streeter but have worked with that crowd (too) closely for a long time. The fact that I am just now showing up to the party means they will be coming around soon enough, whether to kill it or eat it, I don't know.

What I wish to do, has been done elsewhere already but again, this is early enough that to move quickly will capture market share and it addresses many (not all) of your issues in a way that would appeal to a broad public sector of players who want in without knowing what a hash is. The existing sites are not well designed for outside players so there is huge potential here.

Simply stated, a binary options platform, where traders position a trade based on where BTC will be tomorrow/next week/next month. Binary options are very simple, they pay or they do not. It is a way for owners of BTC to hedge downside risk and speculators to buy long positions without full cost of BTC out of pocket.

I know markets, better than anyone. What I know above all is transaction business is long term far more lucrative than speculating, especially in a bubble. You don't go to a gold rush to dig for gold, you go to sell shovels. Or if you prefer, going to a casino and owning a casino have very different odds.

By market making and providing initial liquidity on a binary option market, where people like you can just send money in and take money out, and position ahead of the tuna run headed this way.

I would like to partner with a person or maybe 2-3 persons who would be interested in such a project, if you or anyone here is interested drop me a line or reply... and if anybody wants to rip on it feel free, I know my sandbox pretty well.

cheers...

Coinbase, at least in the US, is the fastest (though it's incredibly expensive), but I ended up going the Virwox route:

Buy SLLs using a Credit Card or Paypal, transfer to BTCs. As a new account, though, it'll take them a couple of days to approve the transfer. There is, however, a buy limit on Virwox, and since you seems to have a lot of money to burn, a bank transfer to one of the reputable exchanges is probably the best bet. I wasn't aware of the BTC-E problems, but maybe MtGox has a better reputation?

I used Coinbase and I'm in the US region. I think is a pretty good service so far....

How is coinbase incredibly expensive, especially when compared to virwox? Coinbase is having a no fees thing tomorrow too but it's a little late to get on that unless you use a credit card which is supposed to be instant.

Either way he's in Europe, I hear bitstamp is pretty good although I've never used them since I'm in the US.

I am in Japan so anyone has a suggestion how to buy it ? Thank.

Mine alts and trade into BTC  ;D

Kraken. I was up and running with funds in a couple of days.

coinbase or bloodsucker too much fee
maybe interresting if you live in usa

virwox less fee and better for eur