I get more of them all the time. They purport to be from Google or something, but often have a return email of chuk @ freeemail.com or something else that makes no sense. Never click links in email!

That is the problem. You may need to have a lot of trust in the counter-party to do this.
But say you have a seller. S/he will need to be paid via some other route. Cash, a certified check, something. That will be the hard part because fiat currencies are hard to move and have a million rules. If you can pay them they could then honor their part of the agreement by sending you a private key as a text message. Look at the Base58 format example below and you will see that the key is just a text string.

Example: 5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF

That key could be imported into a wallet and spent. If it is intercepted or the sender is dishonest the money could be stolen, so I highly advise not doing this. By far the best way to buy bitcoin is at a legal exchange in your country. Anything else is fraught with danger.

I think it's weird how bitcoin is more capitalistic than any other currency, yet everyone is so concerned about the actions of a totalitarian communist nation. 

It would be profoundly risky, but you could send/receive a private key via SMS.

Yeah. I guess some people think that when someone else makes a profit and they do not, it's manipulation.

So the lesson should be that sitting on your ass while others do something will leave you with less economic power. That is why China is the center of gravity in bitcoin. Not because they did something to you, but because they did something. Something you could have done but didn't.

I would keep in mind that, despite what Mr. Trump thinks, you are not a smart guy when you avoid paying your taxes. You are a deadbeat who thinks someone else should pay your bills.

Well.... that drop is actually totally normal for bitcoin. It has dropped like that many times before.

They invested more in infrastructure and bought more coins. What did you think would happen? They earned their way into this position.

I think it's funny that there is a popular vote. What is that going to do? 
This is how we determined that the earth is flat and witches cause disease.

If you simply read and learn about bitcoin it is obvious that anyone with a funded private key controls those funds. No one on the network can do anything about your money and you can't stop anyone or force anyone to do what they will with their money. That's the idea.

It is certainly true that a Chinese mega mine operator has greater influence over the bitcoin economy and even the direction of software development. But that is because he did more. Bitcoin rewards investment in things like infrastructure, capitol, participation (i.e. running a full node), and risk taking. It also is inherently favored where energy costs and regulation is low.  In the early days north America dominated bitcoin but times have changed.

There is absolutely nothing stopping any other country, group, or individual from going bigger than China. It would cost a lot because the Chinese put up a lot themselves. They risked their money when bitcoin was not so certain to succeed and now they are reaping the rewards. So no one should be whining about someone else's success when they are in a fair contest with them. 

If you want your people, whoever that may be, to be a check on concentrating the network in China then do something about it. Meet with your government representatives about bitcoin and tell them you want the local economy to be favorable. Ask the businesses you use to take bitcoin and shop at the ones who do. Run a full node. Organize with others and start a bitcoin related business. You can do something to get something.

Hi Mike,
I would use cold storage for larger amounts that you do not plan on spending soon. There are various ways to keep your coins safe and cold storage is at the safer end of the scale. I think of security in terms of a balance between amount, threat level, and convenience. So I might sacrifice security and keep a few bucks in an app based phone wallet. But I would not store an amount worth more than the phone.

As to the second part of your question, can I suggest you consider spending your money rather than paying to have it downgraded to dollars? You have bitcoin now. You can buy from places around the world with greater security, speed, and value than any other payment system.
Consider this true story:
I recently wanted to buy a weather station for use by my gun club. We need all sorts of weather data for long range shooting. I could have risked sending some bitcoin to an exchange then paying some money to convert back to dollars then waited for the funds to arrive into my bank account. Then I could buy online by transmitting all the information about my credit card identity and storing it with people I don't know. A fundamentally unsafe thing to do.
What I actually did was find a place that takes bitcoin and just bought it.  Like many retailers who accept bitcoin they offered a discount for using it. The seller saved 3% , which is the ridiculously high fee the seller pays when you use a credit card, and the saving was passed on to me.  When I checked out I paid on the bitcoin network. The seller does not really know it was me who paid, but also does not care. The seller has cash confirmed in minutes not days and can ship right away. And no information was provided by me that risks my other bitcoin.

There is a reason why bitcoin is disrupting money transmission and you are missing out on the utility of it when switching back and forth between currencies.

Cheers  

Wow, That was definitely not FUD. You have a clear argument there. Much more than the “Ponzi tulips falling to negative numbers!!” type post. I’m not as concerned as you about the two points you make, but I think they are valid. 

Achieving consensus on any protocol change has proven super hard to do. But that is a way of keeping the hands of special interests away from tinkering with the network. So it has an upside. It also seems to kick problems like scaling down the road. Which is not optimal. My guess is that when things really start interfering with the utility of bitcoin a consensus will occur, as it is in nobody’s interest to allow a collapse. But it is an unanswered question and worth thinking about as a risk.

Your second point is also worth considering, IMO. Over time the anonymity of bitcoin has/is lessened. Not because of changes in the protocol but because more people understand how to establish relationships between addresses and new tools to automate blockchain analysis. For me this is not a concern. It is still far more private than any other medium of exchange. Unlike cards, checks, etc. Identity and money are not linked and if I wanted to I could receive/send payment without a path back to me.

Privacy is a big deal and growing in importance. There are many parts of the world with crooked leadership and anonymity offers help to the oppressed. But bitcoin was never anonymous. I prefer the word “private”.  It allows payment that does not require identity. However you are correct in that a future bitcoin user may have to take all sorts of additional steps to hide from a totalitarian dictator who wants to control their economic power. Perhaps there is a business opportunity for software to address this?

I have made most of my money on the fear of others. It really is my main strategy. Buy when there is "blood in the streets", sell when everyone is celebrating a rally. 

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/contrarian-investing.asp

Thanks for bringing this up, it is important. Even if you are not old you could be in a coma tomorrow. Will anyone be able to use those coins then?

So Duck is predicting a "dramatic decline". I for one am shocked. LOL

I have challenged him numerous times to place a bet for money on his predictions. If you can't put your money where your mouth is then your not worth listening to. After we all put our money up and frick'n crushed it!

It is a feeling I am also very familiar with. 
You should see me stumble around tying to figure out my car. You proubly know a million times more about cars than me. Even if you know very little about cars.

I suppose if you wanted to compare gold an BTC you could maybe tell something from the calculation below.
The total available world supply of gold has been estimated at 165,000 tons. The total supply of bitcoin is 21,000,000. So that is about 0.000007857 tons per bitcoin. There are 32,150.75 troy ounces in 1 metric ton so that is  0.25Oz. per BTC...
Wait a min. is bitcoin 4x more valuable than gold? Or am I doing the math wrong?

It's not you. It's just that so many PP sales end in a scam that no one likes to use it. You don't want to mix an irreversible payment with a very reversible payment. You are likely to have your money taken.

Normally a BTC / PayPal transaction goes like this:
The buyer sends paypal, the bitcoin is sent to the buyer, the buyer reverses the transaction and is never heard from again.

But sometimes it goes like this instead:
The buyer sends paypal, the funds are moved and the seller is never heard from again.

After fixing it up a bit it looks a lot less attractive.

Not to rain on the parade... But a whole bitcoin is an arbitrary amount of bitcoin and an ounce is an arbitrary amount of gold. So that does not mean bitcoin is worth more than gold.