To many newbies, you are probably still an early adopter to others around you - most people have only (if at all) hear about Bitcoin. So should you buy or should you mine? IMO, buying is better from an effort/profit perspective unless you can get a hold of ASIC miners. Mining is better to support the Bitcoin economy (we need miners). Buying GPUs at this point seems a bit pointless, and FPGAs are hard to come by and are probably unprofitable soon. If you want to do GPU mining (or god forbid, CPU mining), pick another Bitcoin derived currency like LTC.

Another 2 cents from me,

  Kjakman

I first regretted not ordering a BFL mini-rig in July 2012 when I meant to, and now I don't. Having lost 96 BTC to BitLC.com (Jim Nelin, step up!), I don't want to be screwed again. That said; to all of you who claim that BFL must be a scam because "why would they sell a machine when they could mine for themselves", look at Yifu Guo and Avalon: That's for real. And he's not the only one who wants Bitcoins to survive. MtGox could also just steal everybody's money, but they didn't (yet?). I don't think they will; there's a lot of us out there who'd rather see Bitcoin make it,than get rich quick. And in the long run, we'll all be fine anyway. So heads up BFL customers, you'll probably be fine. I was worried Intersango would screw me, and they didn't (thank you Patrick Strateman and Amir Taki)

Another lousy 2 cents from a non-rookie trying to get posting status on this forum.

  -- kjakman

As somebody who briefly studied and keenly read about economics, but cannot claim to be an expert, I'd like to say this:

- A fiat currency that is widely accepted and can be printed ad infinitum may be useful as a medium of exchange, but limited as a means for saving.
- A virtual currency that is inherently deflationary but not widely accepted is neither useful as a medium of exchange or saving, but Bitcoin has a few great potential advantages:
1) It has a potential to become widely accepted due to several qualities, for example: a) low transaction cost b) more anonymity c) more transparency (sounds contradictory, i know) d) more borderless = less biased towards western economies, like "hard" currencies. e) more digital/internet-age friendly f) more certainty (less chargebacks)
- If Bitcoin takes off, its value will go up a lot - perhaps a thousand fold over the next 10 years (= 2x every year). This kind of price change will probably lead to a lot of speculation, leading to many "bubble bursts", which is a challenge to the credibility of Bitcoin as a store of value and medium of exchange. Exciting times ahead.
 
  -- Kjakman

I'm not a newbie - I'm pretty much a veteran by now, mining, buying, holding, believeing since May 2011. But I'm a lurker, not a poster, and I have to post a few messages to leave newbie status, so here goes:

You're new to bitcoin; should you buy one?

Bitcoin might very well lose all its value, so don't buy more than you can afford to lose.
I'm confident than in 10 years, there will be something like Bitcoin around: cash on a wire.
It might not be Bitcoin - perhaps Lightcoin, or something else (Bitcoin 2.0)
If it is Bitcoin - a decent chance - they collectively have to worth in the 100s of billions to be useful.
If so, each Bitcoin will be worth 10s or 100s or thousands each.
If not, it's probably because they're worthless.
To help BItcoin, don't just hoard, but use them.

My 2c.

  -- Kjakman

Hi,
What I can say is this: I'm a computer programmer myself (and do not work for Intersango, and I do not know them.) I'm not a rich man, but invested some money (significant to me) in 2012. The very day Bitcoin hit 266, somebody asked me "do you trust Intersango". On that day, my BTC with Intersango was suddenly about enough to pay for a year at Stanford, so I got worried. I tried to withdraw a few bit cents, and then a rather lot more than that. A few hours later I had the cents, but a day later, no Stanford tuition kind of money. I've already lost about 100BTC due to theft (BitLc.net), and after Googling "Intersango Scam", I got really worried.

With surprisingly little effort (a bit of google, youtube, etc), I found Amir Taaki's number (well, his old number.). Somebody picked up the phone and gave me Amir's new number. Amir picked up the phone and was friendly, not defensive (and I tried my best not to unfriendly or offensive.). He told me that Patrick Strateman now lives in my old hometown, and is a decent guy. I found him with ease in the phonebook, half expecting to have to resort to my very convincing lawyer friends in that city.

Instead, I first called him at home, late at night. His wife picked up the phone, and I apologized for the inconvenience. I then got Patrick on the phone, who never for one second tried to dodge his role or responsibility. Instead, he spent more than half an hour on the phone with me, explaining the following things, all very believable:
1) my withdrawal request was *way* more than what they keep in their hot wallet (sensible)
2) he's the sole remaining guy "working for" Intersango. (They're basically defunct, taking no new customers. Try opening an account on their site.)
3) Everybody's coins and deposit are safe.
4) (Crucial): They stopped because it ended up being tons of people work, no real money. I totally believe this. In the end, they made (dollar) cents on me, and I made a lot (if Bitcoin doesn't crash.)

I'm very grateful for their effort, honesty, and service. I offered to give them 5% which I never did (and he never asked.) But I stand by it. What I don't want to do, is publish their numbers so 100s of people will call/write to get their cents back. I can imagine that withdrawing real currency is a nightmare for them, especially small amounts internationally, given the fees and scrutiny from government.

My advice would be to use your balance to buy Bitcoins and then withdraw your Bitcoins. In a few days, you'll have them. If not, contact me, and then we'll talk.

Thanks,

  Kjetil
 

Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that I was very worried, reading all about intersango being a fraud, since I had a considerable amount of coins sitting there. After 24 hours, I had no luck getting my coins out, so I got more worried. I managed to track down Amir Taaki (no longer involved) by phone, and then Patrick Strateman (the only one involved.) Patrick helped me and sent me all the coins.
Thanks, Kjetil

Nice job, "Søta bror" ! Sending 1.3 GHash your way, 4 more 6990s + 6 5870s coming soon. Finally a pretty site too