A lot of people I talk to about Bitcoin always bring up the point that Satoshi is gone/AFK/dead/missing.  I could bet Apple Pay is big only because of the consumer confidence that the Apple brand generates.

The majority doesn't want to invest in something where the creator doesn't stand behind their idea/product and they understand that others (not the founder) are leading the development.  They feel that Satoshi abandoned it for some specific reason, even though they know nothing about Bitcoin.  I'm not sure if it's investors intuition or just the fact they don't have any consumer confidence for Bitcoin, even though it may be incorrect for them to think that way.

Same, what a great story!   

My package was properly taped and was not excessive at all.  Had to be a fluke I would say as it was quite easy to open.  

The coins came extremely fast and were well packaged, thanks!   

Damn, some states don't have any yet.

Thanks, I will send you a PM about pricing.

This post helped me find out my coins address as I was having the same issue. 

"ERROR: unknown (Most likely my bitcoind stopped working or this page is too large/complex.)"

Are these coins still for sale & has the price structure been modified?

Thanks,
digicoinuser

That is what I suspected, thanks for the information and I'm looking forward to the kit!   

Serp,
I received one of the DIY2 coins assembled from a seller today (was labeled as DIY so I assumed it was going to be a kit), unloaded with the hologram already over the Private Key which does not allow me access to the Private Key unless I take off the hologram.  I do have access to the Public Key which was provided with the coin.

I plan on buying another from your site (since it seems to be a DIY kit) so I can put the item together myself since I have done this for coins before but I am wondering if I should consider this coin insecure since I did not assemble it myself?

Thanks for your advice,
digicoinuser

Gotta bump this image, merry christmas!

Sounds like a vision.

How does one "buy it through blockchain"?

Do they sell any physical goods you can purchase with BTC or just digital?

Translation?

Yes, I will definitely look further into that board as I noticed it looked like a place where individuals are trading.



Checking account was an in person interview after making sure to have all the correct information alongside me.  Other than that, I believe I was able to use the account immediately provided I had loaded the funds in before I left the bank with my temporary card that day.  It took near a week to receive the physical card.  I am not sure if FDIC insurance has anything to do with this process.

Western Union, I have not utilized that service yet.

You bring up quite a good point with PayPal as it was near the same complexity to set up my initial PayPal account many years ago but I wasn't viewing the places to acquire bitcoin via fiat at the same level as PP.  I think it is near the same process for a CC as it is a bank account with the verification of multiple small deposits into the account.


The good news is that circle did work out and I was able to load the small amount of funds into my account.  There was a manual verification required (not sure what happened as I didn't need to provide any extra information) and it took a little over 7 hours.  I did put a phone call into customer service to try and get this sped up as well.  I guess it wasn't too bad of a timeline considering a PP account would take 2-3 business days but again, I didn't see it as highly regulated as it currently seems.  Definitely not a bad thing, but it could be off-putting to some people.

I have just responded to your PM a few minutes prior.

It took me a little bit of time to go through all the previous posts and check out some of what everyone was talking about but I am glad I took the time to write the initial post in such a way that it fostered great community responses.

Elwar,
Thanks for the info.  I checked out localbitcoins and it looked alright except some of the postings looked similar to this:

I don't feel the Government ID would be necessary for an individual on a localbitcoin trading site but having previous trades would help in those situations I assume.

I gave Circle a call a bit ago and spoke to a nice lady on the phone and am seeing if Circle will work as intended for a single purchase.  I didn't inform them of my purchase size as it was never asked (I thought they would ask) and they said they will "follow up" if more information is needed from me.  I'm not hooking up my bank account though, so I'm not sure what other information they should really need for me to complete a single 0.25 BTC transaction.

Oh and I forgot, there were security questions as well that I had to create when I made my account and then re-verify on the phone.  I agree with ya, it does go on and on.  I believe politically exposed means that you would be connected to some major political party member or someone in high authority and could possibly tarnish a reputation if affiliated with "something" in the wrong light.



I am going to avoid trying anymore of these places than just Circle as multi-level forms are heinous inventions. 

Like the gift card idea for ease of purchase but not for the centralization!



I saw that but I can't surely trust anyone quite yet, but trust can be earned. 



This one looks very promising on the site, but I would have to get some more info before making a decision on that.  The sales pitch was pretty good and I'd have to see what their "processing fee" is.  Does anyone else have experience with trucoin?



Mid East Coast, USA.  This would be true if I knew people personally who had bitcoin.    Unfortunately the people I mentioned it to recently thought it came out this year.  I read this small book about bitcoin that I will be sharing with some friends but it is a little advanced for a few of them I believe.  Any exposure would be good exposure though.



Thanks for all the other responses.  I am still awaiting the confirmation of whatever needs to happen on the sites end, but hopefully that works out shortly.

I can see why it is so difficult and am still researching some of this related to purchasing as I didn't expect to hit this type of timeline based roadblock for a sub $100 purchase.

I am looking to purchase a crypto related Christmas gift this season for some people I'd like to spread the crypto to and the seller is only accepting payment in BTC/LTC/DOGE.  The problem lies in the fact that the item I want to purchase is ~$75 shipped (yes, the price is given in USD) but I cannot pay with my USD and must somehow convert my fiat to crypto if I want this specific crypto related gift. 

Now the timing sucks because I am finding out all these places to do this want some sort of crazy verification that takes multiple days, I need to take a picture of my passport, residency documentation, etc.  Time is of the essence (yes, late holiday shopping!) and I don't feel I should need to do that for such a small amount.  I have amazing eBay and PayPal records (over 1000+ at 100% positive and yes, I do sell items quite often) but I see there really isn't a good way to buy it on eBay either as it seems sketchy.  Some people are asking for $500+ for a BTC delivered directly to my wallet and the weird instructions I get in the description about doing some sort of micro-transaction process over the course of multiple days is pretty awkward.  Nonetheless when I'm essentially trying to get 0.25 BTC, or ~$85 worth (as of this posting), I'm not sure why the hassle is turning out to be so great and I may not get to use BTC for a Christmas gift this year.

I actually have BTC/LTC/DOGE that I mined, but between the 3 combined I have less than what I need to purchase the item and still feel good about my mining efforts.  I wholly understand that the seller is choosing to only accept crypto as I asked if I could pay via PayPal as an option but dang it is tough.

In light of me joining the BTC forum very recently (I've been reduced to a newbie - for now!) I figured I'd share my first experience trying to acquire a small amount of BTC for a purchase. 
I made an account on Circle.com since it "seemed" the easiest, got through all the steps and entered the information listed here:
===========================
1. Email, Full Name & Address
2. Phone number for verification
3. Birth-date and last 4-digits of my SS#
4. Debit Card/Credit Card Information, exactly the same information I made to purchase something substantial a couple weeks ago at an online retailer
===========================

And it didn't work. 

I was pretty disappointed when I couldn't add funds as I am an avid internet user and understand I just handed over a ton of PII and they wouldn't let me follow through on my purchase of 0.25 BTC.  I am stuck on "We are working on connecting your credit card." when any other online retailer would have said OK and processed my payment.  If it was a large enough amount I understand I would have gotten a phone call to the home number that is attached to my Bank Card for verbal verification.  I have waited over 2 hours since landing on that page with nothing to show except for a waiting message and I'm a little frustrated that I may not be able to make a BTC Christmas purchase as I don't want to turn this circle.com thing into a 24-48 hour ordeal for a $75 item.  I will not be hooking up a bank account to that site, I was just willing to use a Bank Card but now I am contemplating dumping the whole idea and having that "account" deleted. 

I need to live up to my name of digicoinuser and freaking obtain some BTC to use but it's very difficult right now from my perspective.  I like the whole anonymous idea behind bitcoin, but feel that sites like the aforementioned devalue that whole train of thought.  I didn't trust cex.io to go through the process they have and don't plan on signing up on any more websites that require a level of information where I'd want to keep tabs on that site/system due to having a high level of PII filed for me.

Is there a safer and easier way I could get 0.25 BTC from a trusted source and start my journey purchasing items with BTC? 

Sincerely,
digicoinuser (hopefully an official one soon)

Eh, what?

Why do you think it would rise if the mining was to stop?