I've been having a difficult time with Dwolla...I mean, I just can't seem to go anywhere with the money in their account.  I got it when it became--at the time--the best way to get dollars into TradeHill.  And then somewhere in there, bitinstant got into the equation, to protect us from scammers...then TradeHIll went under, and after a few weeks of a bunch of us making noise on here, I finally got my old TradeHill money back from bitinstant, but I had to open an OKPay account just to accomplish that.  It all seems so .. so ... "Fly by Night" I guess is the term I'm looking for...seems like whoever you trust today, turns into a bit a nightmare tomorrow.

I've been attempting what seems a simple enough action: to transfer $500 from Dwolla to MtGox.  I've an account in MtGox, and Dwolla, obviously.  But it's not enough...Dwolla seems to be sort of 'non grata' with these places so you have to verify.   But I upload images, and haven't heard a thing...then trying to go thru bitiinstant, instead of being easier, seems like now even Dwolla wants 'verification' even tho they've been dealing with me a long time  (in bitcoin relative terms, of course)

Well, my money's still in dwolla, not doing me much good.

We

Best advice I've read on here!

It's getting *so* bad, I mean, one of the attractions--I thought--of using bitcoins, was so we could have a bit of anonymity...instead, now, it takes more id to get btc than it does real cash.  And I have total sympathy for poster...once you start down their 'verification' rabbit hole, it's gets truly spooky, as people don't seem to understand: they often don't *accept* your uploaded pictures, but don't really tell you that, so you end up in a sort of limbo with your own money.

This very thing started happening to me, so I did try to upload some pictures of driver's license, voter reg, all stuff I'd be frightened to get publicized...and after I uploaded???  Well...nothing happened to be honest...did they accept them, did they refuse them...are they 'thinking' about it?   I don't know...do you?   

See, MtGox holds all the cards, even when you try to do what they want...and then, worse nightmare, I figure, what the hell, I'll just go thru bitinstant to mtgox, I'm tired of this...and then I initiate that, u know, dwolla>bitinstant>mtgox ...ready to do just about anything to get my $500 out of dwolla--where it's useless--and in to somewhere I can get btc...

But then, in the middle of btc transaction, all of a sudden up pops a screen saying I'm not verified enough with--get this--*Dwolla!*--who I"have been using since, well since TradeHill days...and so I do the same thing on Dwolla, uplolad these pictures of vital docs...and they say, well, it'll be two business days...or something like that....

Well, here I am, a couple days later, no progress, but worse yet, how *unprofessional* all this is, and how rude these different places are with us...I mean, sure they have their defenders, and on good days, I've defended them too, but honestly, btc, the buying and selling of it, has become such a seller's market, and they treat us all as if we were gangster ripoff artists, rather than simply people who actually bought into the notion of a new currency not subject to all the repressive rules and regulations the 'old' currency was...but the party's over...I'll just take my lumps, put my dwolla money back in US currency, and be done with this madness...too bad, too sad, was a good idea when it started, but just progressively got worse and worse in its realization....

Yep... BTKOIN ... beware: a total ripoff joint.  They're signing up incessantly at Silk Road...looks like a DDOS combo, or something like that...every other post, hell, *every* post is a new phishing ploy from these crooks....bad english too, if you notice...

edit: they stopped on SR ...for a while it was every post...bad people...

Trying to sort all that out myself.  I signed up with okpay when tradehill started having all their problems, and I just wanted to get my money out...and bitinstant was also not communicating,  and was personally feeling like I might get ripped, and since dwolla was no longer available for anything either, okpay was who was left.

After a few more days of wondering if I was ripped or not, they finally sent my money to okpay.  Then to this amount of money, I had to give up all my bank account info and stuff.  The whole was pretty irritating, and I never figured I'd use them again.  I do use btc regularly however, and ven't yet decided how to go about purchasing them, tho I've used a couple of smaller vendors meanwhile, I might sign up with cryptoxchange or mtgox...it's still way too complicated, but I guess we still need an intermediary with our own banking systems...dwolla fit the bill, and bitinstant does and now I guess okpay fills some kind of need also, but with all the little hassles they've all had I'm a bit gunshy...sometimes, when I look at all the fees, I'm better off just buying and selling with some of the private vendors I know, tho the area I"m part of has had it's share of ripffs too....we'll see...

On SR, btc is just a currency: many of us do not immediately change it back to our local money, but keep it stashed, either on SR, or in some other online site.  Takes a bit of research to figure it all out...my suggestion is to get on SR forums, and study up a bit, before doing anything else...all these sort of bitcoin questions have been discussed at length.  Again, SRforums have plenty of stickies and there are friendly members who will help out.  I wouldn't do any transactions on main site until going there.  But there have been ripoffs, of drug and bitcoin buyers, both, so study up a bit...it's considered part of 'paying your dues,'...best wishes...

I didn't want to post right away, cuz I was pissed, but I finally got my money returned, thru OKPAY.  So it wasn't total rogue, just a terrible inconvenience.  And OKPAY was just about as bad, in the amount--and  way--they requested 'verification' of who I was.  They kept wanting me to verify this, then verify 'that' and god help me if they ever go bad, as they have enough information on me to steal my id without breaking a sweat...why they needed pictures is beyond me.  And I still blame it all on TradeHill, who during all this, wouldn't send us checks anymore, and OKPAY and PAXUM were it...

BTC were just a currency to me and many others who are forced to use the underground economy to get the medicines we desperately need to function.  To to the U.S.'s ancient and undefensible insistence upon governmental control of the drugs we use, we have to go outlaw.  But most transferable currencies are traceable.  BTC are not, or not 'easily' anyway.  But still, TradeHill had a meltdown which many of us suffered through, but by not mailing us our withdrawal amounts, it defeated our desperate need for anonymity just to get our money back.

In any case, I got mine finally, notified my friends on other sites how to get their money, in exchange for way too much info to another flybynight outfit...but anyway, hope everybody else finally got theirs, and didn't loose too much in the process...

I had gotten mine finally, but it was way too much unexplained problems for me.  To me, and others, we are not wealthy, and to not only have my funds tied up, but to not receive any email replies, was undefensible. 

By opening an OKPAY account, I was able to get my money, but OKPAY itself was way to flakey with the amount of date they requested, including uploading pictures of my bank balance, and all too much information, just to have my money transferred.  I was a big promoter of TradeHill on other forums where we move large--and need--large amounts of bitcoins, but no more, this is just too risky.

I'm glad and appreciative that TradeHill didn't go totally rogue, as some of the bitcoin 'holders' have done...but for those of us who need some forum of useful *anonymous!* currency in the underground economy, it's no longer as vital and valuable as it once was.   Fortunately, I wasn't a speculator, so the actual value of btc wasn't as important as the simple fact that it had one: a value that we all agreeed on...but we need a for of bank that isn't so dependent on human error...

I had over $1100 U.S., and was pretty freaked out about the whole deal.  All I could see was to open an OKPAY account, and withdraw most of it to there.  I didn't like doing it, for the simple reason that OKPAY needed way too much personal information from me, before they would 'verify' my account: god help me if they ever go bad...but anyway, eventually I got my money back...

I appreciate the fact that TradeHill wasn't totally outlaw, as I'd feared for a while, but simply IMO, in over their heads...new for of currency, to
be expected, I guess, but it was pretty nervewracking to me...I hope all the other people waiting, have gotten their funds reimbursed by now...took a couple weeks for me, and to accomplish it, I had to give OKPAY all too much info and pictures and stuff...now it looks as tho you can get a check sent, as they used to, which is a plus...

I've been over a week trying to get my money out in dollars.  I opened an OKPAY account, since withdrawals no longer show that they will send check...got all that done, but I've received no money...mine is too 'in process.'  Around $1100.  I got hopeful yesterday myself, but now I just feel worse, and I personally think they could have gotten off their butts and at least answered email.  To have to come here, to get the occasional update is ridiculous.  I've notified Silk Road and other sites where in the past we have promoted TradeHill.  But anyway, no change on my payment.

The issue is I want my money back, and they won't give it back.  We get nice excuses, but I personally feel ripped off.  A lot of us don't want to say that, hoping beyond hope that it will be returned if we 'play nice' but that is total BS.  It's been a week, I've requested my funds be sent to OKPAY, and they don't do it.  They don't answer email.  We get this friendly spokesman on here, but I don't want nice words, I want my money released.

No change at all on the Tradehill forum.  Now going on seven days where my money has not been returned to me.  I've notified other forums that use bitcoins of this.  Interesting that TradeHill doesn't seem to have a problem with funds going *in*. 

Since the Jan 11th, at noon, when I initiated withdrawal of $1100.  Nothing.  No email--and of course I've sent several.  Bad business.  I've notified other forums I'm on.  What an ugly mess this will turn into.

Still: at the very least you should answer emails on Tradehill.  To have to come here and wonder where my money is is not correct.  I've been to other sites to notify people that this is happening, but I'm not an official representative of TradeHill and this is very discouraging.

Well, I mean, yes, that's somewhat comforting, but the simple fact is that by not answering email, and by not letting us know--on Tradehill, not here--that there is a delay of days, not hours, it's still fairly unnerving.  I appreciate you letting me know that I'll get my money 'eventually' but it's still a very uncomfortable situation. 

I tried withdrawing my $1100 3 days ago to OKPAY.  No movement, and no email answer either.  I kind of figured this might happen eventually...feel like a total fool.

Three days ago I tried to withdraw my funds--around $1100 US--to OKPAY.  They have neither moved the funds, nor do they answer email. Tell me again why I'm not supposed to feel ripped here?

I sure seem to be having problems getting my money out of TradeHill into OKPAY.  Sure seemed easier getting it in to TradeHill than getting it out.  Once I sold a portion of my btc for USD, I read elsewhere I can get a check sent me, but that doesn't come up on TradeHill, just Paxum or OKPAY. 

So I opened an account on OKPAY, and tried to get my money sent there--around $1,000--and it just doesn't seem to be happening.  After 24 hours had passed, I sent them both emails asking what was up.  Haven't heard anything.   And once my money is in OKPAY--assuming, of course, that eventually it will get there--what kind of hoops do I need to jump through to get my US dollars out of there?  Do I have to verify my identity which seems a serious pain? 

It's nice that I finally was able to make a few bucks with bitcoins, but for them to be viable, it shouldn't be so difficult to obtain my own money in dollars back into my possession. 

I started with TradeHill thru dwolla, and just got tired of the lengthy process...next went to exchangebitcoins.com, which was an excellent and useful and quick site...many people I know loved them...but they closed one day, refunded money, and that was that...

The up popped get-bitcoin.com .... to me, they have the same approach as exchangebtc.com and are easy and fast.  You can deposit cash in their accnt in any Wells Fargo or Bank of America branch...or just send online from your bank accnt instantly for no fee...

Doing the cash deposit, then emailing photo of receipt, has never taken me over a couple of hours, usualy quicker.  The answer all emails I've sent them in a freindly manner.

My only worry is they'll fold, but I'm hoping they don't...only downside--for some--is that you don't have an actual account there...so you get leave funds, like dollars, in your account, and change at another time....no, what you do is click on 'buy' fill out online form, with email addy, they reply with account info you will need, then I trot down to bank, deposit cash, and email receipt...

for me, within an hr or so they reply with another email, tell me the going rate they exchanged funds at, and btc are on their way...account info they send you, before deposit, is good for 24 hrs...just remember to write transaction # they assign you on receipt...but again, very helpful, very easy way to get btc.  I just have them sent to an instawallet somewhere, for those of you who like to keep it 'in the cloud' as much as possible...no need for wallet on pc anymore...for me anyway, some like keeping their funds close...

Nice operation

Since nothing else seemed to work, computer would just slow down and stop, whenever it would get around 100,000 blocks, so I tried downloading latest blockchain from http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/.

Went to my bitcoins folder, and deleted  everything but wallet.dat, and began extracting/opening the blockchain I'd downloaded to this folder...at 31% extracted, I got this message: data error in "blk0001.dat".  File is broken  Happened several times.  This was all done on same computer that's has been giving constant problems.

What I'm trying now, is:

1) Made copy of wallet.dat
2) Opened up debian(linux) computer, which is much faster.
3) Installed bitcoin, put original copy of wallet.dat in .bitcoin folder (Made sure, of course, bitcoin was off, and deleted anything but wallet.dat, then replaced wallet.dat with original version I'd copied here.
4) Started bitcoin app.  It's zipping along nicely, within an hour or so  I'm now at 111000 blocks.  Only 8 connections, which at this point is alright...perhaps I need to open a port on the firewall, but I'll research up on that...this is first time using btc on linux, and I'm going thru my usual 'learning curve' confusion, but sfsg ....

--Any advice/criticism is welcome and appreciated...this is all over 25 btc, but I also like the learning I'm doing...