i was too late for the .2 btc promotion, but i bought the trade bot anyway. i received the bot and got it running without a problem... making a profit gain with it is another story. With the RSI-30 set on default settings, the bot was buying at the high point, and selling at the low (trying to sell, the block trade stopped it). has anyone else experienced this? what am i doing wrong?

i have a blockchain.info wallet. it allows me to use bitinstant > mtgox > blockchain wallet. But mtgox and bit instant are down right now. i wouldnt want to use them to buy anyway cause their spot price is $124, while btc-e, bitstamp, and bitmit are $60.
You can always buy coinage on ebay for twice the price of spot.
Btc-e says they accept paypal buy i cant get it to work

The only way you can anonymously get bitcoins is to mine them. if you buy bitcoins anywhere online you will need a bank account.
i got my wallet at blockchain, and bought my coins from them. printed out an invoice from their site, went and payed cash at a Moneygram plac,e and had my bitcoins in my wallet 2 hours later. I think they have a $500 limit per perchase. its easier than buying from an exchange if you dont have a bank account. Blockchain doesnt require ID but Moneygram does.

keep in mind that bitcoin started out at 1300 BTC = 1USD. every year bitcoin dramatically gains (and retains) its value. this is not the first "bubble". The value of bitcoin has gone up more than 1000% every year. If the price does go back down, it wont stay there very long.

one of the biggest issues preventing it from going "mainstream" is the technological gap in the average persons understanding. My mom refuses to use a computer or get a smartphone, im forced to send her a paper letter snail mail, cause she dont have an email address, so she will never use bitcoins, im sure she is not alone in that respect.
there is also about 2 billion people in this world who do not have electricity, cell towers, or internet, yet these people do have/use money, (of some sort) granted not much.
i can deal with payments not confirming right away, i got to wait 3 days for one to clear using the governments funny money.

Arbitrage is a natural and legal practice that can be used in any market.
My question is:
how do we know that the buyer and seller is not the same person?
If BTC is trading at $100 and someone puts in a sell bid for $105, what stops that same person from also being the buyer with a different account?
this practice could be carried out for a long time and artificially drive the price up or down.
Am i missing something?

i understand the purpose for restrictions. Im not going to bash the moderators for making them, but it sure does lead to alot of usless post...much like this one.

Trust and confidence is the underpinning of any currency. If trust cannot be established somehow, then  i doubt bitcoin can succeed as a viable alternative to fiat money.

Hello all,
Btmstr here. Yeah, im a newbie.
Really excited about bitcoin, not so excited about the restrictions for newbies.