Why is it so hard to buy coins?

[norti]

Hi Guys, yes I am new to the whole subject.
I wanted to play around with cryptocoins a little bit and decided to buy some different kinds in order to get a feeling for the technology, the wallets, the communities.. everything sourrounding it basically.

Now it was fairly easy to buy BTC via a marketplace. Bitcoin.de seems to have a good reliable system there, working easily with SEPA bank transfers.
Afterwards I wanted to buy other currencies in Euro directly. So I had a look at kraken, btc-e, vircurex etc. and nowhere is any convenient way to buy coins directly in Euro using established money transfers (e.g. paypal, credit card payment, SEPA, etc). Always you had to lay out all kinds of personal information to sites I barely knew or trust. Sometimes even sketchy voucher systems and so on are in place in order to have some way to exchange Euros for coins.

I don't really want to go via BTC purchase first all the time I want to buy altcoins.
Also I have not yet tried to sell an altcoin again. I imagine it will be the same, first I need to trade to BTC and then I can sell BTC for Euro.

I wonder why is it like this? Why does it have to be so unconvenient? For me this is destroying the concept of the altcoins quite heavily because you are fully dependent on BTC.

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[BlockChainLottery]

Because it is hard to set up an exchange, I imagine. And with already having an exchange in place (with Bitcoin), you can easily use it as an medium to trade Euros for alt coins.

[pand70]

You are describing exchanges problems. It's not a problem of alt coins per se.
Also you better get used to giving personal informations to exchanges because it will become mandatory sooner or later to every exchange.

[Skeptikos]

Exchanges that operate solely on the basis of crypto for crypto trades, say BTC/LTC, are far easier to maintain because for now governments don't regulate them nearly as much. A BTC/USD exchange on the other hand needs to register as a money service business with, in the US, FinCEN, for example, and I'm sure other countries carry similar regulations.

Also, it's really not that complex or cumbersome if you do it once. BTC-E and Cryptsy are both exchanges that require a minimal amount of personal information, at least for me in the EU. BTC-E also carries a few alt coins vs. USD pairs.

However, you are right in that it presents some difficulties if, for example, you intend to trade alt currencies. You are continually running Bitcoin-volatility-risk and cannot trade (most) alts independent from Bitcoin. This is a weakness for alts, but only as long as they stay small. Something like Litecoin is slowly getting its own services, but it remains to be seen whether it can actually get a function ancillary or as a replacement to Bitcoin.

[hilariousandco]

Buy them from the marketplace here; just use a reputable seller and escrow agent.

[Azarah143]

Agreed... I just want to buy some other coins cuz I can not afford to invest in btc and its such a pain in the ass. So ive made this account to be able to contact people that are trading in the market section on this forum but now I need to post like a billion times to even be able to pm.

So sadness, so sadness.

[Authentic]

Basically because each altcoin does not, yet, have the volume enough to setup a dedicated EUR/USD exchange for them (at least most of them don't). So you have to use BTC to exchange them.