I actually held about 0.5 BTC back in like 2013 when the price was about 300 USD and I'm kicking myself now for not holding onto it or even buying more. Now that same amount only buys like 0.01-2 BTC.

I appreciate the feedback and will have to think about creating something worth paying for, if even just a little microamount.

One guy at work seems to think that the US government can shut down Bitcoin with the push of a button. Every time he says that I explain to him that that is impossible because the network is distributed. They would have to shut down most or all of the nodes to cripple the network even just temporarily. I don't really think that the government has a move here other than to get on board with it.

I figure the only way they could discourage people from using Bitcoin would be to use the IRS to go after people for not paying taxes on gains.

Well, in all honesty, if I were to get any kind of considerable amount, I would pay off debts like car and student loans that my wife and I have. While I don't have any service or product to offer, at least yet, I'm viewing this as a sort of experiment. I was fascinated at the response to the guy who displayed a sign on ESPN and another who put his address on a legal pad behind Janet Yellen at a Fed Reserve hearing or something. And I think that everyone is fascinated (and some are skeptical) about the meteoric rise of Bitcoin. At any rate I've set my expectations low, but I haven't spent much on the website or anything and I'll probably let it got for a year and see how where it goes.

In the meantime, I'm learning more and more about Bitcoin. I've had an account with Coinbase and bought and sold small amounts, but I'm exploring wallets outside of exchanges. I kind of feel like the idea of having to pay a fee in an exchange is counterintuitive to the idea of Bitcoin. I've made a paper wallet, which is the one I'm using for the website and everything. Anyway, I plan on blogging about it over the next year, if there's anything to blog about!

I've always been kind of a outsider as far as Bitcoin goes and I'm new to this community and haven't had anyone to talk to about it. I appreciate everyone's feedback.

I've been curious how much Bitcoin I could get donated just by exposing my shared address. I've seen stories where people get their address or QR code onto TV and people actually send them Bitcoin! I think that's wonderful. I'm traveling to NYC in a few weeks and am thinking about getting a shirt with my QR code on it and maybe getting some stickers printed to leave around town. I was also thinking about putting one on the back of my car, but around here I'm not sure how popular it is. Anyway, I also made a website, www.himomsendbitcoin.com to see what the experience would be like collecting Bitcoin in this way say for a year. My coworkers cannot understand Bitcoin and think that I'm crazy for being so passionate about it. I hope that I can show them that Bitcoin is a powerful idea and network that is changing the world as we know it.. Maybe it's a waste of time and money, only time will tell.

-Mike

I think it will reach $10k before the end of the year.

I guess you could use an exchange, like Coinbase or Blockchain.info, which offer Bitcoin for USD and also manage your wallet for you. There are fees of course. Probably the simplest way to get into it.

I think I understand a little better now after several of the inputs and some further reading. So, basically, these online wallets and exchanges and such manage your private keys and usually you don't encounter the private key but are only shown the public key (key and address essentially being synonymous, especially when talking about the public key and instructing someone where they should send the Bitcoin). By contrast, if you create a paper wallet you have access to both the public and the private keys and you maintain only the one set.

Yeah, I don't know, I was looking through the Wiki and it seemed like in an ideal world you would use a new pair of keys for each transaction. But perhaps that's not the realistic and practical scenario.

I see. Everything that I had read made it seem like address reuse could lead to privacy and security issues. Both of those replies offered good insight. I understand a little better now, thanks.

Mike

Bitcoin is not news to me, but I've never really looked into precisely how it works. I've been researching Bitcoin for a few days now and came across the idea that transaction addresses should only be used once. However, I have also noticed that some developers that have websites which provide services like QR code generation DO have the same address listed for donation. Apparently it is feasible to have a script that generates a random address for each donation. So, is it just that these individuals do not care about the potential downside of reusing the same address to take donations or is it a non-issue for donations??

Thanks Mike