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I learned something about Bitcoin in Oct or so, 2013.

First spent BTC on gold in Dec 2013 (goldsilverbitcoin.com).

In 2014 I have bought gold and platinum with Bitcoin (providentmetals.com and amagimetals.com).

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Nice thing about buying gold, silver or platinum (or BTC for that matter) is that I feel like I am buying and saving at the same time...

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I could not find the other thread on this (or similar) general topic from awhile back, and since things have changed (!) I open this topic as I am interested in other BTC related investments.  That other thread listed several companies, but I believe all were not listed (on exchanges) or were otherwise hard to invest with.

Currently I am mostly cashing-out my BTC for gold, as the glitchez have caused me time and work to resolve (but just one financial loss in a scam I wrote about elsewhere).  I will keep some BTC, but not as many as I thought I might, say, a month or two ago.  The GLITCHEZ (apparently rickety systems) have bummed me out, and I have dropped the idea of putting, say, 1% or more of what I own into BTC...

Maybe if I get a Trezor that might change, an easy-to-use and secure hardware system might mean I could feel better about just a "Buy and Hold" strategy for BTC itself.  (Comments also welcome re Trezor for beginners & BTC investors)

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OK, I do see that the Winklevoss COIN (ETF) will be coming, presumably, soon.  But, is that just a play on BTC price?  That would appear to offer no (or few) advantages to just buying BTC...  Am I wrong?

OTHER legitimate BTC investments seem to be hard to find.  One BTC service provider notes that they accept investments, but the amount is pretty steep, and when I inquired, I was told that they were NOT accepting investors at that time (this was perhaps a month ago).  That is too bad, it looks like that company that might work out, and I have found their service to be impeccable.

So, I invite suggestions as to where to put some risk-capital into quality companies working with solid ideas.

Greater acceptance of Bitcoin likely means that not only would BTC prices rise, but the Bitcoin Ecosystem Quality Service Providers™ would gain even more...  For the benefit of not only me, but for the bitcointalk.org community as a whole, please explain (even if just a little) why any candidate company would be worth an investment.

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Yet Another Interesting bitcointalk.org Thread ("YAIBT"),,, 

franky1 is right about BTC being its own asset, really its own asset class.  I am more of a gold guy than BTC guy (but have a decent holding of BTC), so I agree that there is no real basis for "comparing" the two.  To the extent that anyone can hold both, you should!  Diversification, fishez!

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Re above comments on the super-rich buying up (and maybe then crashing) BTC price, ahh, my guess would be that BTC ownership would prefreably be like gold's ownership: the more who own some, the better off everyone is and the more stable the price (and probably higher price through time).

Imagine if one guy owned all (or almost all of) the gold.  Gold would then be illiquid, and few would want/use it for trade or investment.  It would be hard to value.  For the moment, I believe this would be similar in the case of BTC if Bill Gates bought most BTC (LOL)...

Further, if a 0.01%-er (a mere ordinary member of the 1% is not going to matter ZIPPO) did try to buy all the gold (or BTC), just that fact would start driving up buying prices as the buyer accumulates...  Remember the Hunt brothers in Texas some 40 years ago, ran the price of silver to $50 (for one day!) as they tried to corner it.  Then POW!  They lost it all...

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As a non-expert, I have found hardly ANYONE I know to be in BTC.  There DOES seem to be a LARGE LEARNING CURVE (or level of awareness) that must come for BTC to make a big difference.  Will it?  My guess is yes.  Holders of, say, 5 BTC or more will do just fine.

Those who do NOT hold Bitcoin (same for gold, I believe it has a HUGE potential, think $55,000 per oz) may face a "new wealthy elite world order".  And they, as FOFOA writes (from his inspiration "FOA"):

"Those who hate the current financial system will hate the next one too."

Very long and complicated, but worth it to anyone who closely follows gold: fofoa.blogspot.com (I started with his late 2009 pieces), HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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NO ONE can predict the future (and I have tried).  Explaining the present is difficult enough (as many of you have written and I also have tried in other fora).  While the comments and back-and-forth on this thread have been most excellent and informative, most people (80%, 90%?) are not aware of the profound problems of QE and the corrupt TPTB/TBTF/TBTJ playas.  I follow all of this closely, have for decades, and yet I cannot explain the weird state of our financial system.

Other than to say we should be on Red Alert.

"Something wicked this way comes."

"Corruptisima republica, plurimae leges"

There is too much debt and too much malinvestment in the world.  China and Brazil have just been shown to be in deep excremento...  That is fairly clear as well here in the USA (most of the blame goes to .gov and the banksters), but who elected our leaders?  Hmm?  We all share some blame...

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I further believe that everyone should hold a reasonable amount of gold (and/or some silver and/or platinum) as well as plain old FRNs (CA$H) along with whatever more conventional investments (stocks, bonds, real estate or even fine art).

And BTC is without doubt a "core holding", even if only 1% or less of one's net wealth is in crypto...  Although I am certainly no expert (many experts here can attest to that), my belief is that for at least sometime Bitcoin is (will be) far superior to the other cryptos, certainly to the amateur (people like me).  More adept crypto enthusiasts can probably work the alt-coins mining/trading to get more, but that approaches professional level knowledge.

And despite the fact that debt might be attractive in a hyper-inflationary scenario, again NO ONE can predict squat, avoid debt as you are able.

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In my year or so of membership here, I have been most pleased with the quality of the threads I follow.  The excellence I see in just this thread matches or exceeds most of what I read at Zero Hedge (possibly ZH has gone downhill).

2015 promises to be "an interesting year" (perhaps interesting in a bad way fairly soon).  Preparation for a hard-landing is just smart!

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year to all.  But, in case my wishes to you are all for naught, best be prepared as you can...

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Ah, almost all of the mixers had uniformly good reviews there, that makes me almost suspicious...

Also, there have been complaints about at least two of them advertised there.

Mixers not charging ANY fees make me wonder as well.

I suggest that anyone considering mixing to do their own due diligence.  bitcointalk.org is a good place to start.

Another suggestion: start very small (small transactions).

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Webmaster (@BitcoinMixers.com)!  The correct spelling at your website is "ADVERTISE" (not "ADVETISE").

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I have never used either bitlaunder nor bitcoinfog so I comment only on my experiences and observations from comments above.

1) I have had great luck with bitmixer.io, over 30 transactions.  I had but one glitch, which was resolved successfully.  Just follow instructions and you should be fine.

2) With sharedcoin.com I have now had THREE glitches (and ONE with blockchain.info's own wallet service too), all have been resolved, but my observation would be that blockchain.info seems to have continuing problems as they work on their software (maybe they are under constant attack?) that their services are glitch-prone...

3) Follow instructions !!!

4) With Fog and Launder, ahh, why use them if they have such bad reviews?  Perhaps people who have had GOOD EXPERIENCES with Fog and Launder might care to offer their experiences...?

5) Note that I have no experience with TOR so cannot make a useful comment.

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I believe that freedom and BTC mixing are complimentary!  Use any services that work well for you.  It is a step we can take for liberty.

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@ CoinCube, anonymint and contagion

I should not have stayed away from this wonderful thread for so long, my compliments for the excellent back and forth.   Bravo!  + $55,000

 

Discussion of your ideas is critical for those of us who merely want to protect our freedoms and wealth (whatever we have...).  Your thoughts here, and on the other (linked) threads are on a very high level.

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On a lower and more immediate level I offer up some thoughts too.  All assets have problems of one sort or another.  Diversification is the one key to having the best shot of preserving (and growing) what each of us has.

-- Gold is excellent as the proven wealth preserver throught the ages.
-- Bitcoin (and similar) has some advantages for preservation and (some) anonymity, also portability is an important feature!
-- "TEOTWAWKI" hard assets (farmland, guns & ammo, a water well, etc.) for those who can and can deal with them
-- Quietly held assets OUTSIDE the USA
-- Useful skill sets (I note many here have impressive skills)
-- Certain small businesses may offer up more stability than others.
-- Physical, mental and spiritual preparation all are important.  Stay healthy physically, mentally and spiritually!
-- I would suggest staying out of debt where possible, although in a hyperinflation debt is less dangerous (but who knows what will happen...).
-- Staying in touch with events, and staying nimble, will likely be good skills too...

Having the above and doing what you can are all good.

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Although maybe not useful to many here, I value the conversations re the role of God and interpretations of Him.  I have found most useful to me Emmet Fox and in particular his study of the core part of Matthew in his book The Sermon on the Mount.  Highly recommended!  Fox does not subscribe to the scary & fearmongering views of Christ and our Father.  The same book offers up the only real study of The Lord's Prayer, a remarkable 20 pages or so, I had *NEVER* read anything like that before...

I am over-generalizing and over-summarizing in this remark, but Fox makes a very convincing case that Jesus is speaking in a kind-of code, a technical language that really it is the state of consciousness (via prayer -- MUCH more powerful than most believe) and the work put in (quality and quantity of prayer -- letting yourself be in the Presence of God) that leads to everlasting life in His House.

The book is revolutionary yet easy to read.  It helped save me from alcoholism.  Fox showed me that God is with you always, all you have to do his open your door to Him.

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trucoin fees are high.  But, if you were to drive somewhere local (or "local") to buy in person, and if he wanted 5% (like one guy I did business with), well then trucoin is not as high, relatively speaking.  "Time value of money"

You do not need to hold them there (an "account") either.

Plus they are drop-dead easy, which is important.  And fast once you are set up, a transaction now takes me less than 2 minutes.

I like them.

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I have bought in person at Starbucks (good neighborhoods), maybe four times.  My experiences have been excellent.

Buying in person for cash also has the virtue of being reasonably anonymous, fewer tracks...

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I too would buy more.

But, I would probably be feeling mighty stupid were BTC to drop to $100, so it would be hard to do....  I would find a way though.

 

 

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Update, my experience only.

1)  I was able to disable (via a form of theirs (blockchain.info), they did it in an hour) the Google Authenticator 2FA.  At their wallet home page I went to "Settings", they have a cool way of offering a second password that is required if sending BTC out -- it is cool because you do not type in the p/w, you click it letter-by-letter on a virtual keyboard that they show on-screen.  So, I do have 2FA of a sort, if someone tries to take the BTC, it is harder.  Fair enough.

2)  I have another wallet using SMS texts as a 2FA process.  This just worked OK, but I limited in the number of SMS texts I can get/use (maybe my cell plan, I don't know).  I could probably use THIS wallet as a "Savings Account", to be accessed relatively rarely (say, less than once per day or once per week).

Bottom line is that I have reasonably functional 2FA using both techniques mentioned above.  I wanted to experiment with 2FA because of the horror stories and as a pre-emptive defense againt keyboard logger programs (etc.).

I appreciate the replies!  Thanks!

 

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Thank you, repliers.

blockchain.info just released my wallet from 2FA, and I can access it now.

But, I think that I will wait a bit before I hook Google Authenticator up to it again.......

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(please feel free to move this if in the wrong thread)

Yesterday I opened a (new) blockchain.info wallet and set it up with Google Authenticator so I could better secure BTC with 2FA.

It worked "OK" yesterday.  Now it is not working at all.


Is there a big & noticeable problem there at blockchain.info re 2FA wallets?

My normal (non-2FA) wallet works OK.

Thanks!

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Our business makes wire transfers to Korea, Japan and Asia to buy our goods (our company imports ball bearings and similar).  Each transfer costs our company $25 - $50 depending on amount transferred, and the banks in Asia take a cut of the amount that arrives.  So each time we would be able to pay by BTC would save some $50 or more.

And fewer people (competitors, bankers) would be able to see what we are doing.

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bitmixer.io and  sharedcoin.com have both worked well for me on many occasions.  I have used both at least 25 times each.

However, sharedcoin only works with blockchain.info wallets I believe.

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Yes, ZeroHedge is a very interesting site.  Very opinionated replies, but many ZH-ers are knowledgeable and connected in finance.  They tend to be libertarians.  There is lots of love for gold.

Many of them are not very friendly to BTC however.  Which is curious.  Also curious is the Putin man-lover there.

Nonetheless, ZH is required reading for anyone wanting something that differs (a lot!) from the MSM/CNBS party lines...

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simonbtc

Simplicity!

 

Yours is an introductory paper.  Save the more complicated material for Part Two...

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simonbtc

That is a very interesting paper.  I pretty much believe that FreeGold will happen more-or-less as envisioned by FOFOA and others (fofoa.blogspot.com).

Here are a couple of suggestions for your paper (make up some simple examples):

1)  You might put a diagram or schematic in to illustrate a Bitcoin Asset and/or a Bitcoin Gold Asset

2)  Similarly, show us an example of a wallet tied to, say, a 1/10th oz gold coin (this is a common small sized bullion coin)


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yayayo

I completely agree.  Au and BTC complement each other, they are different kinds of assets.

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trucoin.com allows you to buy BTC in about 90 seconds once you are set up.  I have not recently checked, but it should not be hard to set up an account with them for a credit card (also debit card).  trucoin charges a little bit more than I would like (but some people I have used via localbitcoins want a lot higher price than "spot" -- also you may have to drive over to meet, etc.).

I have used trucoin several times.

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Drop off a comment at my blog (even an old post): http://tinyurl.com/9hlvzdx, then delete your comment if you are "concerned about privacy".  I will STILL get an email from Blogger.  Put in your email addy in the comment, then just delete it.  I'll get back to you.

Prove who you say you are!  Maybe there is a way to resolve your issue, but you have to have the right info available, and be nice, professional & courteous...  And patient!

Remember, the Infrastructure of Bitcoinistan™ is clunky, "stuff happens".......  Mix less than, say, 2 BTC at a time.

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Despite my moniker (name) in CAPS I am not affiliated with bitmixer.io, other than being a happy customer.  Good luck.