[2013-12-09] Bloomberg -Twelve Days of Bitcoin: How Hard Is it to Buy One?

[lumierre]

Once in bitcoin, you can never go back.

[solex]

I just watched the 2 videos of Matt, and his genuine interest is phenomenal publicity for Bitcoin.

Some people forget that this is early days, one bitcoin is (just) <$1,000 because the technology is still developing. In, say, 5 years by the time everyone can use it easily the value will be $100k.

[PenAndPaper]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

[seriouscoin]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

[jones31]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

It hard to buy bitcoins even in the rest of the world.
And don't tell me that making a wire transfer waiting for it , sending verification papers to Japan or Slovenia is a easy way.
Not even mentioning localbitcoins , newcomers do have it tough.

[seriouscoin]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

It hard to buy bitcoins even in the rest of the world.
And don't tell me that making a wire transfer waiting for it , sending verification papers to Japan or Slovenia is a easy way.
Not even mentioning localbitcoins , newcomers do have it tough.

BS,

I can buy and sell bitcoins thro local exchange... localbitcoins is easy. Where do you think those miners sell their coins? most if not all wants to avoid tax so they like local cash deal. Exchange is too risky for them.

[jones31]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

It hard to buy bitcoins even in the rest of the world.
And don't tell me that making a wire transfer waiting for it , sending verification papers to Japan or Slovenia is a easy way.
Not even mentioning localbitcoins , newcomers do have it tough.

BS,

I can buy and sell bitcoins thro local exchange... localbitcoins is easy. Where do you think those miners sell their coins? most if not all wants to avoid tax so they like local cash deal. Exchange is too risky for them.

Are you sure that there is easy to buy bitcoins on localbitcoins in every country?
You should consider the number of people selling / buying  in some areas.
There are only two people selling bitcoins in cash in my city and it's a two million city in the european union.
And the price? Best is 6,7% above bitstamp right now?

[seriouscoin]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

It hard to buy bitcoins even in the rest of the world.
And don't tell me that making a wire transfer waiting for it , sending verification papers to Japan or Slovenia is a easy way.
Not even mentioning localbitcoins , newcomers do have it tough.

BS,

I can buy and sell bitcoins thro local exchange... localbitcoins is easy. Where do you think those miners sell their coins? most if not all wants to avoid tax so they like local cash deal. Exchange is too risky for them.

Are you sure that there is easy to buy bitcoins on localbitcoins in every country?
You should consider the number of people selling / buying  in some areas.
There are only two people selling bitcoins in cash in my city and it's a two million city in the european union.
And the price? Best is 6,7% above bitstamp right now?

6% is not bad. But you can always bargain down. There will be some miners that need money to cover cost and sell at exchange rate.

Consider the extra as a fee for being anonymous.

Think if you say its hard for a newcomer now, then that means bitcoin is still cheap. When it gets world wide adoption ( exchanges in every country), it will be well over $10k per coin. We will have to use mBTC

[jones31]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

It hard to buy bitcoins even in the rest of the world.
And don't tell me that making a wire transfer waiting for it , sending verification papers to Japan or Slovenia is a easy way.
Not even mentioning localbitcoins , newcomers do have it tough.

BS,

I can buy and sell bitcoins thro local exchange... localbitcoins is easy. Where do you think those miners sell their coins? most if not all wants to avoid tax so they like local cash deal. Exchange is too risky for them.

Are you sure that there is easy to buy bitcoins on localbitcoins in every country?
You should consider the number of people selling / buying  in some areas.
There are only two people selling bitcoins in cash in my city and it's a two million city in the european union.
And the price? Best is 6,7% above bitstamp right now?

6% is not bad. But you can always bargain down. There will be some miners that need money to cover cost and sell at exchange rate.

Consider the extra as a fee for being anonymous.

Think if you say its hard for a newcomer now, then that means bitcoin is still cheap. When it gets world wide adoption ( exchanges in every country), it will be well over $10k per coin. We will have to use mBTC

In my opinion price has nothing to do with accessibility.I don't see any correlation between how something who never heard of bitcoin before can get one and the price it is right now traded for.
Fact is , I only have two cash traders in a 2 mil city , and only 4 doing national bank transfer in my country.
Only one of them has some kind of feedback on localbitcoin , 3 of them have a big 0.

[NewLiberty]

6% is not bad. But you can always bargain down. There will be some miners that need money to cover cost and sell at exchange rate.

Consider the extra as a fee for being anonymous.

Think if you say its hard for a newcomer now, then that means bitcoin is still cheap. When it gets world wide adoption ( exchanges in every country), it will be well over $10k per coin. We will have to use mBTC

In a rising market 6% over exchange is an AWESOME BARGAIN for fast coins from localbitcoin or bitcoin-brokers.org.
There are many weeks in which the price has risen far more than that in the time between when money could be sent to an exchange until when it appears in your account and you can buy the coins.  It can go up 20%-100% some times depending on the market movement and the delay of the particular exchange.  6% can be a steal.

Even if you don't care about anonymity, fast coins can be worth much more than slow cheaper coins by the time you get them.

The result of this was not lost on Matt Miller when he noticed that the day  he bought his bitcoin it had risen in value.  What may have been missed were the implications of that, and the peer-to-peer merits of "I know a guy who knows a guy".

[hacknoid]

Usually having a hard time  buying bitcoins is a fact. Especially for newcomers. I mean you don't have to be against bitcoin to know that 

One of the hardest aspects to grasp about Bitcoin is how you get your hands on it.  My wife who is technically savvy but not into Bitcoin, when she saw me looking at the charts, asked if it the price was from the NASDAQ.  Reasonable assumption for a newcomer, given that it's something tech.  Another friend of mine who is just discovering Bitcoin was surprised when I told  him that you could buy them - he was under the impression that the only way to get them was to mine them.

Remember, we are dealing with a whole new infrastructure that goes against the norm.  You can't buy them on Amazon or at Wal-mart, and the exchanges are definitely not the traditional markets. 

[eurgbp2011]

Matt Miller's BTC Address 1BbAisaqKdkKddwu53a7GfJCmh2f7V2yDX
Keep donations coming, people.
Good PR for BTC

[CoinCidental]

The older people miss a basic conseptual inside , my 13 year old brother and my7 17 year old sister do have.
My parents miss it too , and this is exactly why it will take them over.

why do ppl have to think "oh i missed ... it "

Cant they stop looking at bitcoin as an investment?

Its a technology  and it WILL move forward. They just use it for what it is.

when people are buying lamborghinis and telsas from a currency that was worth $0.00
just a few short years ago they want to profit themselves   ie investment etc
its still cheap at $1000 a coin compared to where its going to end up imo
this guy explains it pretty well  for people who are unfamiliar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHUPPYzzZrI

[stompix]

Btw, i would love to send Matt an escort for a night. Is there any escort service in US accepting btc yet? If not, its SO needed. No more hiding CC bills from your spouse.... if you know what i mean

Yeah , no more hiding the bills.
She can check the blockchain to see what you're up to .

[notthematrix]

Btw, i would love to send Matt an escort for a night. Is there any escort service in US accepting btc yet? If not, its SO needed. No more hiding CC bills from your spouse.... if you know what i mean

Yeah , no more hiding the bills.
She can check the blockchain to see what you're up to .

with creditcards/bank she can! with bitcoin she cant!

At the blockchain you dont see anything usefull at al.
its only usefull if you know the context

You dont see diffrence between a buy from multile adresses , or a return of funds for some other reason
F.E when you try to sell some bitcoins and payment was not on time (trading windows)

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

He is one of us now.  There is no turning back:

for those of you familiar with my 12 Days of Bitcoin'' experiment'' on BTV, you may have heard i called in sick yesterday, on Day 5. it wasn't cancelled, i didn't get busted on darknetmarkets, and i didn't sleep at Webster Hall thursday night (though it was awesome!). i did play 10 hours of Xbox One'sNeed for Speed: Rivals'' and i now have a Porsche 911 GT3! it rules.

For those of you unfamiliar, I am a reporter from financial news station Bloomberg TV in New York, and last week i decided to buy a bitcoin and basically try and live off of it for two weeks. i should point out that, not only was i a total newb, but i literally do nothing on the web except tweet and google stuff about cars and motorcycles all day (aside from the obvious). and now i'm on Day 6!

i have been paying for almost everything on bitcoin this week and it's actually been a breeze! i say almost, because the big-ticket items that are already connected to my fiat bank account like mortgage, car payment and phone bill are still going that route. but things like Gyft and foodler have made my life way easier, as have the people here at reddit and the guys i met at the meetup on thursday.

this morning i bought a round-trip plane ticket to spain, and i'm about to go to a dogwalker who takes bitcoin to drop off steve, then to a (supposedly) BTC grocery in brooklyn, before getting beers at the EVR bar in manhattan. all bitcoin! (it's just so damn easy, i wish everyone would take it!)

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1svb3k/bloomberg_is_still_here_and_buying_stuff/

[Reece523]

It's such a pain (in Canada at least) that one has to go down to the bank to make a cash deposit / wire and that many sellers on Local Bitcoins refuse to accept or charge very large premiums for the privilege of paying with Interac e-transfer... The large backlog of accounts requiring verification across the exchanges motivated me to use Local Bitcoins so I could get some (fractions of a) Bitcoin immediately. I ended up paying a hefty premium over the going rate (much more than 6%) but it was nice to have a little bit of Bitcoin without having to wait 2-3 weeks. It's so nice to have an irreversible payment method in Bitcoin and I look forward to the day eBay starts accepting payment in Bitcoin and I can sell items to zero feedback members worry-free unlike at present...

[westkybitcoins]

He is one of us now.  There is no turning back

We are Bitcoin.

Resistance is useless.

You will be assimilated.

[EnderHf]

I remeber the first time I was trying to buy some btc it took me a week to finally get some cause of fees and waiting times

[NewLiberty]

I'm very pleased with Matt's ability to pick up enough to be able to explain it to his cohorts.
He is a bitcoin novice, but finance expert (which can really get in the way of learning for many folks).
Watching his daily learning and adventures is heart warming and endearing.
I always enjoyed watching him on Bloomberg, and am very glad he got this assignment.  (Bloomberg and CSPAN monitors are on in my office most all the time).  Of all the Bloomberg folks, he has the curiosity and sense of adventure that let him convey the spirit of this project.
He has also fallen down the reddit hole so is getting a strong dose of the culture.  Kudos to him.