"Paper" is just an expression. I prefer to keep mine in the form of encrypted JPG files, but some people have been known to engrave the 26-character alphanumeric keys into metal.

Do you use asbestos paper to store the seed words for your Trezor or Ledger?

No ID required. To maintain a daily limit for the purpose of AML laws, they require a cell phone on which you can receive text messages.

To sell coins, you enter your cell number and they immediately text you a code number to enter into the ATM. This unlocks the ATM and allows you to do the transaction. After you have specified the amount of the transaction, it displays a QR code to scan with your mobile hot wallet.

It then tells you to wait for the transaction to be confirmed by the network. I always include a priority fee and it has always been included in the next block. After it has been confirmed, it texts you and tells you to return to the ATM and tap "redeem".  They then text you another code number. When you enter that number it immediately starts spitting out $100 bills.

The time it takes for the whole process depends on the time it takes to confirm the TX. It has never taken me more than a half hour.

The cell phone I use is an anonymous pay-as-you-go Speakout flip-phone from a 711 store. I have several of them (all free from promotions) in case I ever need to exceed my daily limit. Because Speakout allows free texting even when the time has run out, they cost nothing and are always available.

The Android device I use for the Mycellium wallet to sweep a paper wallet and send the coins, is a cheapie Blu phone they were giving away for free for buying an air-time top-up in a holiday promotion a couple of years ago. To get Android to boot up I had to insert a SIM card but I found that a non-activated card worked just fine. The SIM card was also free in a promotion and fully anonymous. I connect to the network via free wifi from a donut shop next door. Of course the Android phone has never been connected to my home wifi nor been associated with my identity in any way.

Needless to say, I never connect to Google or Playstore. I installed Mycellium from an APK file downloaded on a Windows PC from the Mycellium website.

Buying coins is even easier. You simply tap "buy", scan the QR code for your paper wallet's public key, and start feeding in cash. No phones or devices required.

I'll never understand why people have a problem with paper wallets. They're easy to use and and offer the ultimate in security.

I prefer the security and anonymity of OTC and ATMs.

I learned my lesson with MtGox. Lost 50 coins. Never again.

When I acquire coins, they go straight into offline cold storage, mostly paper wallets, although I do keep a small amount (less than 5 coins) in a Trezor for convenience.

I don't ever want to expose my coins to the internet. I also resent nosiness. Anonymity is the cornerstone of freedom.

Yes, ATM fees are usually higher than exchange fees but when you consider the cost of transferring fiat currency and the total lack of anonymity of online exchanges, it's a small price to pay.

Whenever I have the chance to acquire coins for cash, anonymously, it's a bonus. I've met other Bitcoiners at meetups who I only know on a first name basis. I've also bought coins from storefront gold and coin dealers without divulging my name. They get their cash, I get my coins, no names required.

Actually, the buy fee didn't come down at all at my closest ATM.

The price didn't really dip enough for my liking anyway. Dipping to where it was just a few short days ago isn't usually enough for me to buy.

Between the high fees and the shallow dip it wasn't worth it for me.

A couple of other machines offered better fees, but one is is a sketchy location and the other is too far outside my neighborhood. The cost of a cab would have negated any buying advantage considering the limited amount of fiat cash I have in hand at the moment.

Even if I had more cash and raced over in a cab, I might have been too late anyway. The price has already come halfway back up.

If it dips further and goes below $15k, I might be tempted to reallocate some funds to buy some more. For now however, I'll just hold.

Long time no see bro. We were wondering if you were ok.

Some of us made sporadic attempts to keep your bullish news thread alive.

Welcome back.

Annoying as phuque.

Kept going to cloudflare, kept retrying, kept getting that annoying "another reply has been posted you may wish to review" message, finally find out I'd posted the same message a half dozen times.

I then wasted almost as much time deleting the extraneous messages.

Perhaps Theymos should consider disabling that annoying message during DDoS attacks or other periods of stress on the servers.

Good morning Bitcoinland.

I see we had another massive correction all the way down to where we were on Saturday... currently $17868USD/$23010CAD (Bitcoinaverage).

Meanwhile altcoins are up so our old coins are worth $20515USD/$26413CAD each (Coinmarketcap).

Calm before the storm?


Post of the year. I couldn't have said it better.

Cheers.

2017 could very well come to be remembered as the year of the altcoin fad, the year of "ICO"s and token-mania, the year leading to fortunes lost on dreams of rival cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin will live on.

The real question is: when will people start to realize that this is not a bubble?

Calling Bitcoin a bubble is like calling the internet or smartphones a fad.

Congrats indeed.

It's hard for newer Bitcoiners to even imagine when there were no exchanges or even an accepted monetary value to Bitcoin, when Bitcoin's value wasn't measured in units of fiat currencies but in its value as a disruptive technology.

We've come a long way baby.

We've also got a long way to go. Some day we'll look back at today's block size debates and tx fee angst as being as quaint as paying 10kBTC for a couple of pizzas because no one had ever applied a dollar value to Bitcoin before, or gaining an unprecedented mining advantage by using the massive parallelism of GPUs instead of the mere single, dual or quad core capabilities of CPUs. Will FPGAs even be remembered?

What will the future bring? Obviously Satoshi foresaw that mining block rewards would, after a few halvings, be totally insufficient to support the network. Likewise he must have forseen the need for scaling solutions. One must wonder what he foresaw as future replacements.

One thing that must be conceded is that Bitcoin has taken on a persona and will of its own, that it will continue to evolve organically and that people can contribute and participate, but no one can control Bitcoin. It is a truly world-changing phenomenon.
_____

Thanks for posting those links. What a contrast. Genesis block... difficulty 1. LOL 

A wee step backward for everything except the British pound sterling.

Coiling for the next jackpot. Go Bitcoin go.

An extra late good morning Bitcoinland. I had to rush out at the crack of noon for an appointment and just got back.

I see we're still consolidating in the $18.3k-$19.2k range... currently $18742USD/$24116CAD (Bitcoinaverage).

Forkcoins are up so old coins are now worth $21265USD/$27359CAD each (Coinmarketcap).

After last week's rapid gains, a day or 2 of consolidation is welcome. We don't want this lovely smooth extended uptrend to start becoming a bubble.

We don't want the price to double in a few days and then come crashing down. I'd rather see doubling every few months with 20-40% corrective dips scattered in along the way. Slow and steady wins the race.

Go Bitcoin go.

Oh noes.



edit: Is my image not showing? (My bitcoins are only worth what they were worth yesterday.)

Another jackpot with milestones at 19kUSD, 24kCAD and 2.2mJPY.

Not bad for a day with a red daily candle.

Go Bitcoin go.

ATH Stamp $19k

Are you serious? There's no way I'm selling any my precious bitcoins for a mere $20k. If anything, I'll buy more if we get a deep enough dip.


What newcomers should be made aware of is that nobody can see into the future. The price is as likely to continue rallying as it is to take a significant fall.


That explains a lot. Sounds like you sold and you're talking your book.

Watch out for wishful thinking. Your little dream of lower prices might not be as much of a sure thing as you seem to think.
________

Damn, now we're up past $18.1k.

It doesn't look look I'm going back to bed.

Go Bitcoin go.

Spoiled rotten.

Seems that arguing over altcoins, and fussing about online exchanges, block sizes and tx fees are needed to fight off boredom while Bitcoin keeps marching slowly but steadily to new heights. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the usual bear trolling about some mythical "big dump" or other such hogwash.

Totally spoiled.

Anyway, the rally seems to be slowing down after running into the predictable resistance at $18k.

I'm going back to bed. See you at noon.

WTF?

My bladder alarm wakes me up for a new ATH which also happens to be a milestone.. $18kUSD at Stamp, and none seems to care?

The nom-noms won out.

That's enough correction for now. Let's at least at least get solidly over $18k before we go down any more.

I agree that a little resistance is good but we've had plenty of that in the past week.