Bitcoin Forum

Bitinstant: How to turn your cash into Bitcoin (https://vimeo.com/44849463)

Very nicely done!
Thanks for making this!

this is a long process,

all i do when i wana buy bitcoins is:

1) Send money to Virtex using pay-bill (like paying for any bill, using online banking  ) 0.00% fee for sending them money...
2) wait 48 hours (most of the time more like 12 hours)
3) BUY the bitcoins!

 :D

The whole process took about 15 minutes. And think about it, if you're new to bitcoin, this is the most logical way to buy bitcoin--with cash. We all have to admit, learning about bitcoin can be a tough learning curve. ('whaaat, a currency with no gold backing? well where does it come from then?') Bitinstant is powerful because it trades something that people understand, with something they can learn a ton about (and change the world with) It's an excellent starting platform for people.

Dont mind us spoiled Canadians...

:D


Its the easiest way for an american to purchse bitcoins in a reliable way, through a common source..

Its no longer a learning curve then zip zap itself...

How much did Charlie pay you to make this video? lol

Why does it matter? (legit question here). Besides, I said in the video that blockchain is the wallet *I* like to use, this isn't a video about the official bitcoin client...

Sure, bitcoin-qt is most reliable, secure and stable (add whatever you want here) form of storing bitcoins, and I don't like the idea of online wallets. However with usage of bitcoin-qt the average time of newb purchasing bitcoins will be 15 hours instead of 15 minutes. Ideal compromise would be advising some light client. But again, this is not about the wallet. It's about a process of buying the coins.

Nice video, btw.  :)

 :D
Regardless of how much the sexy LadyBytes got paid, let me see if i can get the math right:

$3.95 / $20 * 100 = 19.75% fee to get 20$ in Bitcoin = "Pretty cool" according to the video and BitInstant?   :D

Truly fiat must grow on trees in that wondrous land of the USA!  ;)

As far as Charlie running "a legal business", is it really legal in the United States to transfer fiat through it under a fictitious name and contact info, as this video suggests?  :o
 

I did this video on my own accord, and I had no contact with Bitinstant or Charlie prior to launching the video. I place a high value on people's privacy and anonymity, and that's why I felt it was important to narrate the video this way. However, there are edits coming :)

Bitcoin is so geekoid and shady, that particularly an independent endorsement of it, BitInstant, and ZipZap by a beautiful, young woman is worth at least a few % fee to you from the 19.75% the latter two will get from such transactions...  ;)

Yes, i certainly hope that the evil-doers in the US government do not capture you for coaching people to circumvent their KYC/AML laws. We have few women in the B world, and some of the ones we do have might be wannabes...  :D

Speaking of physically attractive Bitcoin women, so far, all we've had are geeky guys as the major media face of Bitcoin.

Seems that it would be useful if we had an annual contest for the female face of Bitcoin, or whatever that's properly called. She can be chosen by the forum poll, receive donations for her activities, etc...  ;)
What do you think?

The video requires a password?

Yes we indeed run a legal business and put in alot of resources and effort to run it so.

We had nothing to do with this video. One of our biggest fans made this tutorial video for us!

However, we had requested from her an edited version of the video after consulting with the legal team.

https://vimeo.com/44849463

If you have any questions regarding compliance, or such. Feel free to contact me!

-Charlie

...i stand corrected, because i didn't get the math right:

After the Bitinstant 3.99% fee, one only gets $19.20 worth of Bitcoin. So,

100% - ($19.20/23.95 * 100%) = 19.83% fee to BitInstant and ZipZap cabal.

Is that right?    :-\

If so, it makes banks and credit card companies look like charitable organizations! With this kind of "cool", the governments will not even have to ban Bitcoin or launch any kind of network attacks on it. Its use will just continue to be relegated to IT and financial geeks, freaks, and criminals...  :D

A convenient way for the governments to track their financial activities, which are, of course, kept completely "private" by Bitinstant, as long as government agents don't show up and force the likes of Charlie to disclose them... "Pretty cool" after all, as LadyBytes said!   ;)

It's a flat 3.99% and on some orders using zipzap there is a $3.95 convenience fee by them, obviously the fee is alot less the more you deposit.

On a $1000 transaction, the extra $3.95 makes your fee go from 3.99% to 4.38%.  

Look, your more than welcome to not use our services. We make it easy to buy your first Bitcoin by walking down the block to your local 7-11. There are alot of middlemen who need to be paid in a transaction like this, Bitinstant being the last one. There are cheaper and slower alternatives to use. As our volume goes up and the high risk natures lessens, our fee's can go down. Don't forget, we need to pay these 'evil merchant processors'

We are always working on cheaper ways, including being able to buy with your bank account in about 18 counties within a few weeks.
If you have any actual comments, constructive criticism, suggestions, please feel free to email us and we can work on it and not in this thread.

If your hating on me or Bitinstant right now for a specific reason, please let me know.

Thanks

Charlie

Thank you for your honesty. My point in this thread and others is that Bitcoin was intended to eliminate "alot of middlemen".

Instead, we are just changing one lot of middlemen for another, in the process eliminating all of the privacy Bitcoin offers, and giving up the protections government fiat offers...

In my experience, new services online start out being free or virtually free, at least for small users. Then, as their popularity increases, they start to introduce or increase fees.

Bitinstant and the like are doing the opposite - laughably high fees from the start for the smallest users, with the possibility of lower fees when the popularity and size of your business grows.

To me, even as a proponent of Bitcoin, that makes the whole Bitcoin system look like a get-rich-quick scheme for a select few, perhaps, a front for government agencies, etc...

Another highly advertised potential for Bitcoin is micropayments. I know over there in New York and
Wall Street, 20$ is considered a micropayment,  :D but it's not in most of the world or even on American Main street.

So, even here, we are back to the banking status quo - those who can afford to make large transactions have lower percentage fees.
Those who don't have a lot of money, get to pay the highest possible percentage, or have to go to other services, which are slower or not a "legal business" as Bitinstant is, and so on...

These are "actual comments" in a public forum regarding the facts as i see them. The Bitinstant threads here are not your PR or support portal... I am not hating on you or Bitinstant. It's just business facts as i see them, rather than some personal affair. :D

I certainly will avoid using your service again at current rates. So glad i got my first Bitcoin, before Bitinstant arrived to "make it easy".
At 19.83% or even 4.38%, i doubt i would have taken the chance on something so uncertain to even survive, let alone displace entrenched competitors...

Gauging from the speed of Bitcoin adoption among average consumers, i suspect i am not the only one with that view...

Ladybytes is the queen of /b/itcoin

Yes, she definitely seems to be on top right now!  ;)

However, wouldn't it be best to have a new Bitcoin queen every year? After all, as that American saying goes, "Show me a beautiful woman, and i'll show you a guy who is tired of...  ...her being his queen."  :D

Without the possibility of being able to get your first Bitcoins from the local store down your block, I say a big % of Bitcoiners wouldn't have gotten into Bitcoin since it was too difficult to buy them.

The point of Bitcoin is once you have them, your free to do what you want. There are no middlemen in Bitcoin, but there could be an opportunity for middlemen to help first timers get Bitcoin.

Without the dozens of startups within Bitcoin, it would be no where where it is today. Bitcoin is not just a currency, and your selfish for saying that, Bitcoin is an economy. Bitcoin puts food on the tables of our employees and their families. Bitinstant gives salaries and jobs to dozens of people around the world, all because of Bitcoin.

There is something you keep missing and Im having to repeat myself. We have costs and fees associated with transfers. On a 4% transfer, we are paying over 3%. Do you want us to close up shop? I don't think so.

Sure, my current business model may not be the ideal for what Bitcoins ultimate goal is, but for now we need to get Bitcoin into the hands of as many people as possible and Bitinstant has sold over 200,000 BTC in the past few months.

Even for me it's impossible to miss the giant "costs and fees associated with the transfers" through the chain of middlemen you terminate.  :D

BTW, if we are going to split hairs, rather than Bitcoin putting money on your employees table, it's your customers taking food off their own table and giving it to your chain of middlemen.

If there is one thing the recent years have shown, it's that financial middlemen (banks, credit companies, et al) have little regard whose table they clear of food or whose shop they close, as long as they make their quick buck "for now..."

Just saying that, since you mentioned being selfish, in a business that is all about selfishness...  :D So, you'll have to excuse my lack of empathy for your industry in general...

You stated that "big % of Bitcoiners wouldn't have gotten into Bitcoin" without middlemen like you. If that's true, as opposed to your self-serving PR, my simple point remains:

"a big % of Bitcoiners" have simply xchanged the traditional, expensive middlemen chains for even more expensive new middlemen chains terminated by BitInstant, et al...

Why do people like putting their face in tutorial videos. No offense, but the first thing I think of while watching this "ok why do I need to be looking at you and not the computer screen right now"

People always have a choice to buy bitcoins from bitinstant or somewhere else.  There are many options.  bitinstant is just another way to get bitcoins really quick at a premium.  Some people are willing to pay the 3-4% to get bitcoins really quick.  What's their motto?  "Time is money".

In fact, you could even start a bitcoin business selling bitcoins and no one is stopping you.

In fact, indeed! Here is your big chance to promote some competition, Charlie, which is reported to be so beneficial to any business sector!  :D

Do tell jimbobway how many of those "many options" are "a legal business" such as yours...

Please tell us how easy it is to "start a bitcoin business selling bitcoins" in your case in America, which is what you call "legal", how low the cost of entry is, and how no one will be stopping you for any reason...  :D

He does not need to tell me.  Anyone can do the research to find out how to get bitcoins.  I prefer to buy mining hardware to get bitcoins.

Oh look, a real sheeple, out in the wild!