Best way to start with bitcoins

[highwave]

Hey everybody,

I've been reading a lot about bitcoin (actually I started reading about it almost a year ago when it was £5 per coin but stupidly I didn't invest some money in it when I had the chance) so now i'm trying to figure out the best way to invest in it.

Buying bitcoins seems like the easiest, most straightforward way of getting started so I'll be buying my first bitcoin very soon.

I also thought about buying a rig and solo mining but I lack the knowledge and experience to do it successfully.

Cloud mining sounds like a better option for me as I don't have to mess with the installation/cofiguration of the rig - just pay the company and get bitcoins but the price per GH seems pretty high compared to the next option.

shared mining - just like the previous option, only this time you have to trust 1 person who buys a rig and sells shares for GHs.
usually the price per GH is lower than in cloud hashing but you take the risk that this person will run away with your money...

CEX.IO - buying GH for bitcoins and getting bitcoins+altcoins seems like a nice option but the big question is: will it still be profitable in the near future when difficulty rises and your GHs are not worth as much as when you bought then ?

I'm thinking about trading a small portion of my first bitcoin with altcoins like PPC or XPM and using the what's left in CEX.IO or buying some shares in shared mining rigs.

so what do you think should be my next move in order to see some profits in the future ?

[bathwater]

i like that idea (investing in other v.coins because bitcoin is too high) but other coins would have you waiting longer for growth, ... but the loses in them would seem to be a safer bet, while the positive gains would/could be enormous. there seems to be a lot of coins out there that could just as easily see big gains in grown as bitcoin did. but i personally would try buying litecoin or devcoin.  litecoin has a larger following and i hear about more often than any, and devcoin because athought its said that 90% of the mined goes to the foundation and only 10% to miners, it would seem to be that there is funding for a stronger support system to be build and at least SOME incentive for its investors.

this also has me thinking about who is buying bitcoin, if $1000 usd is the rate. early investors and spectators is who im thinking. both who will be unwilling to sell which could keep the price only at a certain rate. yeah? if no one is actually using it, it would likely only be affordable to those price range persons. the incoming market would more likely be the lower working class looking for something more affordable.

best of luck. let me know the price you buy at.

[highwave]

Litecoin seems like a good future investment but the fluctuation in its price scares me a little - one day it's almost $50 and 2-3 days later it's $25.

Devcoin is a mystery to me - I heard about it but not enough to get me curious. I will certainly check this one out.

I think the people who buy bitcoins @ $1000 are the late adopters (like myself) for trading it with altcoins or those who believe it will rise in value so they keep it.

btw, if China will really banned bitcoin I wonder what kind of effect will it have on the coin's value and the entire cryptocurrency economy ?

[FiatKiller]

Best option is to buy Bitcoins(maybe 50%), Litecoins(30%), and 20% on another good alt(requires alot of research) OR that 20% on mining equipment. Just HOLD your coins and don't sell for at least 3 years. MANY people wish that had not sold when they were at 1000% profit.

[highwave]

I thought about keeping 50% as bitcoins but the "China bans Bitcoin" news scared me off this idea because of a potential drop in value.
Litecoin is indeed a good investment as long as you keep buying low and selling high in its current state of fluctuation (or keep it for 3 years as a long term investment like you said).
Not too keen about mining solo so might invest 20% on shared mining - I just need to find a reliable person to buy shares from which can be quite a hard task...

[balanghai]

If you got some decent gpu, mine altcoins and you'll get at least BTC0.01 and I would only suggest cex if you really know what you're doing. Be ahead and look at the charts and trends. Know when to sell and when to buy. Don't get too attached.

[highwave]

Well I don't have a decent gpu. I guess I can buy one but the problem is I don't know how to configure the system to mine and whether it will be profitable considering the electric bills.

What is there to know about CEX other than the obvious (pay for GHs for mining and sell them for bitcoins) ? could you please give some pointers to a newbie like me ?

[FiatKiller]

I thought about keeping 50% as bitcoins but the "China bans Bitcoin" news scared me off this idea because of a potential drop in value.
Litecoin is indeed a good investment as long as you keep buying low and selling high in its current state of fluctuation (or keep it for 3 years as a long term investment like you said).
Not too keen about mining solo so might invest 20% on shared mining - I just need to find a reliable person to buy shares from which can be quite a hard task...

nah, laws limiting banks don't matter as much as laws limiting citizens. price is already recovered to $1100

this is a long-term investment and extremely volatile - just ignore the ups and downs and HOLD

[PenAndPaper]

Buy bitcoins and forget about mining. Especially cloud mining. Things are moving way to fast atm in mining and you can't find any good deals around.
If you feel like speculating you may invest some money in alt coins but remember that bitcoin is the real thing