Best exchange as of right now (Oct 2013) to buy bitcoins?

[Elwar]

I have been using CampBx for the past few months to buy bitcoins. Then I had some problems and after a month of trouble tickets and messages they finally resolved it. I mainly went the CampBx route because of Dwolla and they have lost that advantage over the other exchanges.

So...I am shopping for a new exchange.


I have an ING account and Wells Fargo. Most likely I will need to wire from Wells Fargo.

My purchases will be several thousand dollars every few weeks.

I liked that I could use CampBx without submitting my life's story if I kept transfers to $1,000 per day.

So far what I am seeing:
MtGox...not a chance.
CampBx - willing to lock up your money with no response for almost a month
CoinBase - requires a lot of verification
BitStamp - starting to require a lot of verification
BTC-e - I have used them but transferred BTC to them, never fiat, curious about their credibility
Bitfinex - used them as well, but again only with BTC
Bitcoin-Central - would need to pay to convert my dollars to euros, not sure how their new setup is

Any suggestions? Am I way off on anything?

I would use localbitcoins if there was anyone local. There is not.

[justusranvier]

I would use localbitcoins if there was anyone local. There is not.

I bet if you do some digging around on LocalBitcoins you'll find people willing to do cash deposit to bank account sales with high enough limits to accommodate the volume you are talking about. A bit of asking around is necessary because frequently those kinds of ads are not public - they are only shown to buyers on the seller's "Trusted" list.

Otherwise, just bite the privacy bullet and use Coinbase.

[tvbcof]

I would use localbitcoins if there was anyone local. There is not.

I bet if you do some digging around on LocalBitcoins you'll find people willing to do cash deposit to bank account sales with high enough limits to accommodate the volume you are talking about. A bit of asking around is necessary because frequently those kinds of ads are not public - they are only shown to buyers on the seller's "Trusted" list.

Otherwise, just bite the privacy bullet and use Coinbase.

Can a guy even sell BTC on Coinbase?  The web site is lite on info (par for the course in Bitcoinland) but I wish to neither 'buy' nor 'use' nor 'accept' Bitcoin.  I wanna sell the fucking things...though with the price rising so drastically I'm in even less of a hurry.

Coinbase is one of the few outfits who I would not be terribly opposed to giving an identity theft kit to since I vaguely know and moderately trust at least one of the main dudes.  These guys probably have the potential at least to not get hacked by some script kiddie and lose my documents.

[justusranvier]

Can a guy even sell BTC on Coinbase?

Yes. I don't sell there, but the Sell tab is right next to the Buy tab.

[Elwar]

I guess I do have a Coinbase account already linked to my bank account. But the price there is just under MtGox and I see no way to set low bids.

[justusranvier]

I guess I do have a Coinbase account already linked to my bank account. But the price there is just under MtGox and I see no way to set low bids.

Coinbase is not really an exchange, it's more like a two-way Bitcoin vending machine connected to your bank account.

[tvbcof]

Can a guy even sell BTC on Coinbase?

Yes. I don't sell there, but the Sell tab is right next to the Buy tab.

 - helpful image -

Hey, thanks!  May I beg a few more questions.

 - Does it have a means of signing messages with a sending key?

 - Is there any indication of a limit to how much one can sell?

 - Is one forced to use 2-factor auth?  (I detest it because normally I am out of cell range and my Android phone gets hacked regularly even from a full wipe and even though I don't use it almost ever and install no apps?!?  I don't even check my primary mail with the f-ing thing anymore.)  I've yet to have any account anywhere hacked by just using a decent and unique username and password.

It's to bad that I cannot get answers from the web site before going through the hassle of signing up...if even that is sufficient.  I probably should look for a thread on the forum here I suppose.

[justusranvier]

Does it have a means of signing messages with a sending key?

I've never seen such a feature. I don't recommend that people leave their bitcoins in the custody of third parties anyway - you should be doing that kind of thing from your own wallet.

- Is there any indication of a limit to how much one can sell?

It's based on your verification level (time + identity docs). Max is 50 BTC per day.

Is one forced to use 2-factor auth?

Yes.

It's to bad that I cannot get answers from the web site before going through the hassle of signing up...if even that is sufficient.  I probably should look for a thread on the forum here I suppose.

Expect to have problems with orders getting randomly cancelled for being "high risk" because you tripped some kind of anti-fraud trigger until you talk to somebody who can get your account whitelisted.

Expect official communicate through their email support channels to take 1-2 weeks between replies, or within a few hours if you PM Olaf through this forum.

[tvbcof]

Does it have a means of signing messages with a sending key?

I've never seen such a feature. I don't recommend that people leave their bitcoins in the custody of third parties anyway - you should be doing that kind of thing from your own wallet.
...

I appreciate the helpful info a lot.

I'm partially through the sign-up process.  Is 'instant varification' of a checking acount _really_ giving up one's login to their on-line checking!?!  I find that hard to believe.  It's nuts!  Anyway, I choose the method of making small deposits.  I've got a wheel spinning in a pop-up for the last 10 minutes after hitting 'start verification', and a suggestion that they will e-mail me in a few days.  Whether it is a coding bug or just piss-poor UI design is unknown.

---

The reason I don't do much from 'my own wallet' is that I don't run bitcoind any more.  Just downloading the block chain one time would eat up my download quota for the _month_.  Satellite connection.  I'm going to have to find a VPS or some such before I can run it again realistically, and even then I only run code I compile myself and it sucks to get the graphics shit working so I only use bitcoind.

I won't run any Java shit either which nixes the client-server model of Bitcoin (I don't recall the name of the client.  Oh ya, 'multibit', and as you may remember from our various arguments I detest being forced into that approach which I don't agree with.)  And as I mentioned earlier I don't even check my real mail from my Android phone (or Windows laptop either) much less do any financial stuff from it.

My coins are in deep deep dark storage except for a relatively small percentage which I have distributed among various on-line accounts.  I make all my BTC payments (few) through blockchain.info at this time, and they have a usable means of signing messages.

[tvbcof]

...

Is one forced to use 2-factor auth?

Yes.
...

Blech.  This sucks.  One can use a land-line each time one logs on.  And one can, apperently, set a cookie for 30-days which is at least a little nice, but...

...I wouldn't mind being able to log on from the road, so using my cell phone for 2-factor would also be necessary.  But I'm out of cell range.  In order to get into cell range I'll be miles from my land-line which I need to log in.

I guess the solution is to break out my secure travel laptop (vs. my porn-surfing Windows laptop) then log in and save a cookie.  Then if all the planets are aligned maybe I could log in from a coffee shop in town and get my cell phone verified.

Lord what a hassle.  Every system designer should be forced to live somewhere besides Silicon Valley for at least a few weeks so they could conceptualize various difficulties that could arise (aka, do their jobs correctly.)

 - edit:  Oh ya...another thing is that my land line and cell phone have the same last two digits by shear coincidence.  Anyone want to guess whether Coinbase has coded around this potential issue?  I won't know the answer until if/when I get my cell phone inserted into their system.

[justusranvier]

Is 'instant varification' of a checking acount _really_ giving up one's login to their on-line checking!?!  I find that hard to believe.  It's nuts!

Just change your bank password immediately after completing the verification.

[aynstein]

...

Is one forced to use 2-factor auth?

Yes.
...

Blech.  This sucks.  One can use a land-line each time one logs on.  And one can, apperently, set a cookie for 30-days which is at least a little nice, but...

...I wouldn't mind being able to log on from the road, so using my cell phone for 2-factor would also be necessary.  But I'm out of cell range.  In order to get into cell range I'll be miles from my land-line which I need to log in.

You can set up a google voice number and use it anywhere you can connect to the nsawatchesusnet and use it as your verification method. It's free to make or recieve calls with app's like talkatone. Also, spoof card will allow you to fake your cid, which is probably what they use to verify, but it won't work if they check your phone nid(I can't remember the initials but there is a way to trace calls besides cid that is much more difficult to fake). Finally, you could set up call forwarding.

Just Syaing....

[cyclops]

Trying the new kraken exchange, low volume but good looking

[tvbcof]

...

Is one forced to use 2-factor auth?

Yes.
...

Blech.  This sucks.  One can use a land-line each time one logs on.  And one can, apperently, set a cookie for 30-days which is at least a little nice, but...

...I wouldn't mind being able to log on from the road, so using my cell phone for 2-factor would also be necessary.  But I'm out of cell range.  In order to get into cell range I'll be miles from my land-line which I need to log in.

You can set up a google voice number and use it anywhere you can connect to the nsawatchesusnet and use it as your verification method. It's free to make or recieve calls with app's like talkatone. Also, spoof card will allow you to fake your cid, which is probably what they use to verify, but it won't work if they check your phone nid(I can't remember the initials but there is a way to trace calls besides cid that is much more difficult to fake). Finally, you could set up call forwarding.

Just Syaing....

From:  http://bitcoinmagazine.com/6728/introducing-the-exchanges-coinbase-part-1/

  '[coinbase]...started out with a simple mission: make Bitcoin as easy to use as possible..."

FAIL!

A certain fraction of us are perfectly capable of maintaining a secure system of access.  Simple username/password schemes are perfectly fine as long as the provider has the ability to protect their database and make it robust.  For those of us in that category, using 2-factor auth which requires phone data transmission systems, phone operating systems, and a whole bunch of complexity is a significant regression.

Secondarily, I only expect to entrust an amount of value with Coinbase as I would with any other provider...the amount I am able to easily lose.  That is but one of the reason why I find it jaw-dropping that anyone would give them the username and password to one's on-line checking account (if I read that right when I, obviously, declined.)

I set up a checking account specially for anything Bitcoin related.  I will keep about $50 fiat in it and transfer higher values in and out as needed.