New to this. some questions.

[ebay007]

Hello.
im new to the bitcoin world and i have some questions.
i know they were probably asked before but there is so much to read (i did read) and so much info its hard to keep track. and my english is not so good so...

1. is there a straight foreword guide that i can learn from?
2. what is the current value of the bitcoin in dollars?
3. is it a good investment to buy bitcoins, let the value rise and then sell them?
4. do you use it to trade/buy/sell or as a way to make money?
5. i didnt fully understand the mining thing.

ill keep reading and i hope you can answer me. 
thanks.

[marcovaldo]

Hello.
im new to the bitcoin world and i have some questions.
i know they were probably asked before but there is so much to read (i did read) and so much info its hard to keep track. and my english is not so good so...

1. is there a straight foreword guide that i can learn from?
2. what is the current value of the bitcoin in dollars?
3. is it a good investment to buy bitcoins, let the value rise and then sell them?
4. do you use it to trade/buy/sell or as a way to make money?
5. i didnt fully understand the mining thing.

ill keep reading and i hope you can answer me. 
thanks.

1) read those forums.
2) depends on the exchanges, you can check bitstamp price ( https://www.bitstamp.net/ 128 usd / btc) or mt.gox.
3) yes, if you think that the price will rise.
4) make money.
5) read about it, but it is not profitable to mine btc now, but you can try altcoins

[neilcoleman78]

5. i didnt fully understand the mining thing.

Mining is profitable, it depends what hardware you use to mine. GPU are not suitable for bitcoin anymore, read about ASICs.

[marcovaldo]

If you start investing now, you might never be able to pay back your investment.
Or maybe never received what you ordered

[ebay007]

5. i didnt fully understand the mining thing.

Mining is profitable, it depends what hardware you use to mine. GPU are not suitable for bitcoin anymore, read about ASICs.

i thought i can buy and sell them when the value rise. i guess thats not the way you guys make real money.
i still dont get what the mining is. it involves some computer stuff right?  
so what is it and how do you do it?

[marcovaldo]

i thought i can buy and sell them when the value rise. i guess thats not the way you guys make real money.
i still dont get what the mining is. it involves some computer stuff right? 
so what is it and how do you do it?

it's complicated but basically, the network is creating new blocks every 10 minutes.
Each new block contains the new transactions that people makes (and got validated by the miner).
Miners are people who keep validating transactions by using their power capacity.


It is not possible to mine a block alone now. Block reward is 25 block now, and will decrease over time.
So, people are mining in "pools": they share the power, and when the pool find a block, they will split the reward through everyone who contributed (might be thousands of people). So basically, you have a smaller reward, but a constant one. And of course it depends about the power you bring to the pool. The more power you have, the better reward you get.

But you need specific components (ASICS) if you want to have enough power now to get anything.

[ebay007]

so i read some more and i also saw this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7opj5-32hw

it explain's kinda good right?
it looks simple...
and so mining is only worth if i buy a super computer. and then its a stable income or it requires lots of time of doing things that i dont know about? 

[stanwich]

Even then it is not a stable income. The difficulty rises every two weeks or so. That essentially cuts down your "stable income" by at least a third.

[marcovaldo]

But still, you don't have to do much about it, just keep sure that it is still on and mining.

[ebay007]

how much would the components cost? and what do i need?
i saw this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/In-Hand-BITCOIN-USB-ASIC-MINER-BTC-Work-with-Raspberry-Pi-/200958265755?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eca0bc99b

is that whats needed to start or i have to upgrade my computer internals?

[ebay007]

so after reading allot i think ill start with buying a BTC or two and buy&sell. cos the low price miners are not so profitable and i dont have 1500$ to spend on it...
thanks for the answers.

[zwanzig20]

so after reading allot i think ill start with buying a BTC or two and buy&sell. cos the low price miners are not so profitable and i dont have 1500$ to spend on it...
thanks for the answers.

i think that is the smartest option. MIners take a while to get your investment back. But you can try alts and second hand miners( prefferably with warranty)

[FanBitCoins]

Hello ebay007,

Like you I'm new to this Bitcoin thing, only in the last two weeks as well. 

I have read lots of information about Bitcoins from hundreds of websites on the internet.  Most of them are very good and tell you lots about Bitcoin.

The best one I have found is a video course about Bitcoin, and it gives you information about the whole Bitcoin world out there!
From Buying/Selling/Mining/Trading and earning Bitcoin.  The course is quite long, but I can recommended it to you 

https://www.udemy.com/  And search Bitcoin, it will tell you all you want to know about Bitcoin 

Happy coining!!

[cyclops]

Read, read, read, read. Thats the best you can do.

[mprep]

Read, read, read, read. Thats the best you can do.

Research, don't forget research. He does have to have something to read.

[Equus]

You have probably figured out the current value of bitcoins in dollars by now, but I find a useful site to view the recent prices for several exchanges is:

bitcoinity.org/markets

It will let you see the price at several exchanges (MtGox, Bitstamp, BTC-e) and in several currencies.  You can also see the recent price changes, which have been pretty exciting.

As you buy your first few coins keep in mind that they have doubled in value in the past two months, and they could easily double again or drop back to where they were before Halloween.

Happy reading.

[Keldel]

5. i didnt fully understand the mining thing.

Mining (more precisely hashing) is just a something needed to maintain the decentralized bitcoin payment network. You don't need to mine to use bitcoin. Don't go into mining (hashing) unless you absolutely want to.

Happy reading! Bitcoin is not easy if you want to understand it fully. You don't need to understand bitcoin to use it though Most people don't understand money anyway.