Thank you for the kind words.

So it all boils down to never risking more than one can afford to lose.  As sensible strategy for a lot more than just BitCoin transactions.  Also, I looked into the prisoner's dilemma.  Quite an interesting bit of social commentary to be made there.  For you literary pleasure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma

Thanks again for the information.

-cheers

Hello everyone,

I have a question regarding best practices when using MoneyPaks.  I have noticed that the grown-up forums have a lot of people looking to buy BTC with MoneyPak.  Is there some kind of best practice or escrow system when conducting such transactions?  As I understand it, giving someone the code on the back of the Pak is the same as giving them cash blindfolded in that you have to hope that they will come through on their end.  Likewise, any seller who offers to send the BTC first is taking the same risk.  So, how is such an exchange usually handled from a procedural standpoint?

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything regarding how the transaction itself is handled.

Thank you in advance for your help.

-cheers

I used get-bitcoin for a MoneyPak -> BTC conversion before they stopped accepting MoneyPak (due to changes in the way MPs are being processed by them).  The experience was very smooth and I would definitely use them again.  I had heard about so many scams involving stolen MPs that it was refreshing to see an honest vendor doing legitimate business.

-cheers

I have been too lazy to do any mining of my own, but I would wager that everything is summed up in the following line:
Are you certain that you have all of your directory paths set correctly?  If it is a command line utility, beware of spaces in directory names.  Use "s around any path that contains spaces and see if that helps.  good luck.

-cheers

So, I suppose I should make the obligatory intro post.  New to BitCoins and digitized currencies in general.  Seems to be quite the new flavor for something that has been around for so long (currency, that is).

-cheers