Why is it so hard to get Bitcoins

[hstlmn]

These are suppose to be completely anonymous but yet on MT you need to do bank statements for most things. Why are there not easier ways to fund and get bitcoins?

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[thep33t]

you can get them peer to peer. Otherwise, if you go through a central banking authority, you will have to jump through some hoops.

[hstlmn]

yes but where do I fund these, what funding options are there, how do I protect myself from not getting scammed.

[daemol]

You can mine bitcoins anonymously  

[newman_justin40]

You can mine bitcoins anonymously  

^ unfortunately with the increase in mining difficulty it seems like pennies per hour instead of a real profit most people probably thought they'd be getting.

[jarsugar]

You can mine bitcoins anonymously  

Exactly

[Fiyasko]

http://bitcoin-otc.com/ <-Definitly the best P2P exhange, I use it ALL the time for ALL of my buying/selling
http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php <- And this is how we trust people

[daemol]

Why is it so hard to get Bitcoins

It is always difficult to exchange bad money for good money.

Bitcoin is not bad money.

[Severian]

Why is it so hard to get Bitcoins

It is always difficult to exchange bad money for good money.

The Answer. ^

[Anon136]

because none of us who are holding bitcoins want your stinky fiat

[UncleMeat]

Why is it so hard to get Bitcoins

It is always difficult to exchange bad money for good money.

Bitcoin is not bad money.

Which is why it's so difficult to exchange EUR/USD/GBP/RUB/JPY/etc for it.

[TiagoTiago]

yes but where do I fund these, what funding options are there, how do I protect myself from not getting scammed.

"These" as in peer-to-peer? That means you go to a person that wants to sell their bitcoins. How you fund them? It depends on personal taste, but there are many that can be you can fund by handing over fiat notes...

[Hyperbolical]

These are suppose to be completely anonymous but yet on MT you need to do bank statements for most things. Why are there not easier ways to fund and get bitcoins?

I guess it's because of the risk of chargebacks. In a way it shows a strength of bitcoin (transactions can't be reversed). You could use other exchanges like Virwox (though their exchange rates are extremely high).

[Whale]

It's hard to get them because it is more secure

[DannyHamilton]

These are suppose to be completely anonymous

Whoever told you that lied to you.  Bitcoin is not "completely anonymous".

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, and with significant effort you can maintain anonymity while using bitcoin, but most people either aren't aware of the effort required or don't care enough about anonymity to bother.

but yet on MT you need to do bank statements for most things. Why are there not easier ways to fund and get bitcoins?

Bitcoin transactions are not reversible.  Other forms of electronic payment are.  Nobody wants to take the risk of giving up something irreversible for something that might be reversed a few days later.  If you want true complete anonymity, and you want something that is irreversible, you have to offer something irreversible in exchange (such as physical cash).

You can mail me some cash along with a bitcoin address, and I'll happily send you some bitcoin (after keeping a reasonable transaction fee for myself).

[Gabi]

Because, if doing transactions between people was easy, safe, reliable and cheap, we would not need bitcoin. But our current system is made of tons of expenses, tons of frauds and slow transactions. This is why bitcoin was made, to solve all this.
Buying bitcoins with credit card? It would be a chargeback fest

[dmod]

I understand the challenges, but the ease of "buying into" bitcoins is prohibitive for this becoming mainstream. The average person would find most of the ways you buy bitcoins too complicated or very shady. I personally use dwolla -> campbx, but that takes a few days for the transfer to go through, so it's frustrating if you wanted to buy coins right away.

Once someone can come up with a safe, reliable way to sell coins to an average consumer, then we will really start to take off.

[niteryder]

I understand the challenges, but the ease of "buying into" bitcoins is prohibitive for this becoming mainstream. The average person would find most of the ways you buy bitcoins too complicated or very shady. I personally use dwolla -> campbx, but that takes a few days for the transfer to go through, so it's frustrating if you wanted to buy coins right away.

Once someone can come up with a safe, reliable way to sell coins to an average consumer, then we will really start to take off.

Okpay works for me.

[Trongersoll]

Have not you guys heard yet? There is a relatively easy way to get good money, besides trying to exchange bad money for it.

1. Provide goods and services.
2. Get paid in good money.
3. Keep some or all of good money and exchange the rest for goods and services you wish to consume.

If only.

If you do #1 how do you insure #2 happens? Commerce with Bitcoin is difficult to say the least. With Bitcoins it is either Pay first and hope you get goods or services, or transfer goods or services and hope that you get paid.

[DannyHamilton]

Have not you guys heard yet? There is a relatively easy way to get good money, besides trying to exchange bad money for it.

1. Provide goods and services.
2. Get paid in good money.
3. Keep some or all of good money and exchange the rest for goods and services you wish to consume.

If only.

If you do #1 how do you insure #2 happens? Commerce with Bitcoin is difficult to say the least. With Bitcoins it is either Pay first and hope you get goods or services, or transfer goods or services and hope that you get paid.

But isn't the same true of cash?  If you pay someone with cash, how can you be sure that they will deliver the service or merchandise purchased?  If you provide goods or services to someone who will be paying with cash, how do you know that they will pay?

Bitcoin as a payment network protects merchants from fraud, theft, and chargebacks as long as the seller receives payment.  But bitcoin as a currency has the same problems as all other currencies in that there is a level of trust necessary to engage in a transaction.

Other currencies deal with this problem with trusted third-party services that handle the exchange and reversal of transactions.  Eventually bitcoin will likely also have such services.