New User - Problems Understanding Bitcoins Validity

[JackSprat]

Please help me understand where I went wrong.  

Bought $200 USD of Bitcoin for online gambling. Used debit card. "Simplex" appeared online banking account. Bank account immediately blocked. Forced to talk to bank representative to remove hold. Questions about WHY I was using Simplex. It was obvious the bank knows Simplex = Bitcoin.

After this hassle (never-mind setting up the wallet with passwords) I payed a 30% commission for something called a "mining fee". This took 1+ hour to receive. Missed my bet. Wanted to put more money on gambling (UFC MMA fighting) last night. Used same bitcoin broker for another $200 USD. This time they demanded copies of my passport or US Drivers license!


1) That's an invasion of privacy.


Privacy invasion defeats the purpose of bitcoin yes?  I was told that Bitcoin is an anonymous form of currency with better rates then the bank.  There is no privacy with a debit card let alone a passport or Drivers license. I paid 30% mining commission to use my bitcoins! It look 1+ hour to deposit in my wallet!

1)   Less privacy than the bank
2)   Insane 30% commission
3)     Longer wait to get your money



What is the point of using Bitcoins with huge privacy invasions? And a 30% commission mining fee?


Is there something I'm missing here ?

[Charles-Tim]

I understand how you feel, but it is because you do not understand about bitcoin, how will you pay 30% (transaction) mining fee and it takes more than 15 minutes for you to receive your bitcoin in your wallet, this is not possible. Instead of banks, you can buy bitcoin using p2p exchange if you need privacy.

Know that bitcoin is not anonymous, but it is pseudonymous, it can work in a way no one will be able to link your bitcoin transaction to your identity. You can try and buy bitcoin using mycelium wallet, there are many p2p exchanges you can purchase without kyc. You can then send from mycelium to your betting site of your choice. Youu can send as low as $0.1 or less as fee if well planned.

It is just because you are getting things wrongly about bitcoin.

[mk4]

It honestly just looks like you've been using crappy services.

1. 30% "mining fee"? What the heck is that. I'm guessing transaction fees but definitely not 30% of $200. Look for better exchange services available to your country. Or better yet, use P2P services like Bisq[1] and HodlHodl[2].

2. Use NitrogenSports.eu instead. It's a bitcoin-only betting site without KYC/AML(at least for now).

[1] https://bisq.network/
[2] https://hodlhodl.com/

[coupable]

Bitcoin is almost anonymous.
30% mining fee is a surprise for all of us here. Impossible to be truly happened even it's technically possible.

Oh yeah Bro, you are missing everything.
Before to resume how you got a bad experience, you should tell us:
- What exchange did you use to purchase the bitcoins. And if possible, provide more details about why you Simplex was blocked then unlocked.
- What wallet did you use to receive the bitcoins. Did you send them directly from exchange to the gambling platform?
- And what exchange platform you use.

The suggestions mentioned in above comments are your best options + use this forum every time before to use any service you don't know that much about it. There is a dedicated board for gambling here, but better to ask and DYOR before trying.

[Twentyonepaylots]

What I see is a non-competitive services that you got there, you should have done it more popular way with more popular services provider to avoid the hassle that you went through. I never use a card whenever I'm dealing with crypto, I don't really want to connect centrally with the banks or government, as much as possible I want myself covered from any light though I'm doing legal activities. You should have just created a bitcoin wallet and deposit to make another deposit to the gambling platform.

[thesmallgod]

I understand your grievances but you should have done a little research on exchange platforms that accept bitcoin buying using a credit card and compare their fee and prices. You can use bestchange to check the list of exchanges that offer this and decide on which is the best for you. Most exchange platforms require KYC if you are buying using the card in order to ensure you are not trying to use stolen or card that does not belong to you. They want to protect their business also

[joniboini]

You have to separate between currency and business do their business. Bitcoin is a currency. You should not hate it because some services are doing horrible things to you. You can just ignore them all together, buy some coins from P2P trades and you probably just need to pay less than $1 when the mempool is free.

If you don't want all of that kyc, find a gambling platform that does not require you to do so, and buy bitcoin from P2P and don't use your card. It's obvious that if you use your card then your bank can fuck you up.

[fiulpro]

Please help me understand where I went wrong.  

Bought $200 USD of Bitcoin for online gambling. Used debit card. "Simplex" appeared online banking account. Bank account immediately blocked. Forced to talk to bank representative to remove hold. Questions about WHY I was using Simplex. It was obvious the bank knows Simplex = Bitcoin.

After this hassle (never-mind setting up the wallet with passwords) I payed a 30% commission for something called a "mining fee". This took 1+ hour to receive. Missed my bet. Wanted to put more money on gambling (UFC MMA fighting) last night. Used same bitcoin broker for another $200 USD. This time they demanded copies of my passport or US Drivers license!


1) That's an invasion of privacy.


Privacy invasion defeats the purpose of bitcoin yes?  I was told that Bitcoin is an anonymous form of currency with better rates then the bank.  There is no privacy with a debit card let alone a passport or Drivers license. I paid 30% mining commission to use my bitcoins! It look 1+ hour to deposit in my wallet!

1)   Less privacy than the bank
2)   Insane 30% commission
3)     Longer wait to get your money



What is the point of using Bitcoins with huge privacy invasions? And a 30% commission mining fee?


Is there something I'm missing here ?

Hello
I do think you have to understand the whole concept of bitcoins , it does take away the middle man as a whole , therefore if you do have someone asking for a 30% commission to deposit some bitcoins in a place where you can gamble online.

You have to just set up your wallet , after that just deposit the amount in the gambling site , most of the times if you look clearly for the right site , you would be able to see there are sites with even gives you bonuses on the deposit.

Find the right site for you
Handle your own bitcoins
Get started on a Bitcoin wallet
Don't worry about banks , just worry about laws in your country if it's legal then I do think you have nothing to worry about and neither does the bank does have any right to block the account like this.

You can even do P2P transactions , make your local community where you guys can buy/sell bitcoins with people you know locally this have helped me a LOT. I did not give any commission or anything like that and it was really good for the community + for me personally.

Put Government has been heavily controlling the bitcoins and therefore I don't think you will be able to get away with submitting the personal documents.

[rexxarofmoknathal]

All your issues spin off from the fact that you used a crappy system to buy BTC. This has ended up in you disclosing personal information, lost a lot in insane fees and had to deal with the hassle.

All you did wrong was being too hurried in buying BTC and choosing the wrong platform. Instead, you need to first understand how this crypto world operates so that in the future you won't be mugged off like that again. One way you can have safe and anonymous transactions is by using p2p exchanges rather than banks. Or if you want to use banks just deposit onto known platforms first like Kraken and then send your money to elsewhere.

[webtricks]

If you don't want all of that kyc, find a gambling platform that does not require you to do so.

Yeah! There are tons of Bitcoin Gambling platform that don't require KYC for amounts like $200 or even more. I have gambled 10 times the amount on casinos like SportsBet.io and Stake and didn't have to face KYC drama at all.

Please help me understand where I went wrong. 

Is there something I'm missing here ?

Simplex is shit service. Don't use such services which provide instant buying using Debit/Credit Cards. First, they charge insanely huge fees. Second, they connect payment to card services like VISA/MasterCard (not directly to bank account). This may cause serious problem if your bank has limitations on foreign remittances.

It is better to use either Local Exchanges from your country where you can easily buy bitcoins with bank account and fees is less than 1% on such platforms. Alternatively to maintain complete privacy, you can use P2P Exchanges as suggested by many above. In P2P service, seller sends bitcoins to Exchange which is acting as an escrow. Then, you send money to seller's bank account. Seller confirms that he received the payment and finally Exchange releases bitcoins in your account. No one will know the purpose of sending money to seller's account.

[hatshepsut93]

1)   Less privacy than the bank

An exchange is not a part of Bitcoin's network, it's just a tool. When you used a centralized exchange, you still didn't leave the bank ecosystem, which is why you got blocked. To avoid this problems you should buy Bitcoin on p2p platforms, or look for a bank that is more tolerant of crypto.

2)   Insane 30% commission

Bitcoin has fees, but they are not implemented as percentages of the transaction value, they are tied to the size of transaction's data. So, the fee can be a few cents or a few dollars depending on how busy the network is, regardless if you are sending $1 or $1,000,000. But you can check the mining fee only if you use your own wallet, if you are sending from an exchange, they will typically overcharge you for this.

3)     Longer wait to get your money

If you pay a high enough transaction, you'll on average have to wait 10 minutes. But it's true, this is really long compared to banks that have instant transactions nowadays.

[davis196]

What the hell is "Simplex"?Is it a payment processor?How can a bank assume that Simplex=Bitcoin?
Can you tell us the names of the crypto gambling website and the bank you were using?
30% "mining" or transaction fee is a ridiculous percentage.Perhaps you got scammed.
It's perfectly fine to have difficulties as a crypto newbie.There's always a learning curve involved
(sometimes it can be costly,if you don't do your research before trying to buy cryptocurrencies).

[Midas111]

Please help me understand where I went wrong.  

Bought $200 USD of Bitcoin for online gambling. Used debit card. "Simplex" appeared online banking account. Bank account immediately blocked. Forced to talk to bank representative to remove hold. Questions about WHY I was using Simplex. It was obvious the bank knows Simplex = Bitcoin.

After this hassle (never-mind setting up the wallet with passwords) I payed a 30% commission for something called a "mining fee". This took 1+ hour to receive. Missed my bet. Wanted to put more money on gambling (UFC MMA fighting) last night. Used same bitcoin broker for another $200 USD. This time they demanded copies of my passport or US Drivers license!


1) That's an invasion of privacy.


Privacy invasion defeats the purpose of bitcoin yes?  I was told that Bitcoin is an anonymous form of currency with better rates then the bank.  There is no privacy with a debit card let alone a passport or Drivers license. I paid 30% mining commission to use my bitcoins! It look 1+ hour to deposit in my wallet!

1)   Less privacy than the bank
2)   Insane 30% commission
3)     Longer wait to get your money



What is the point of using Bitcoins with huge privacy invasions? And a 30% commission mining fee?


Is there something I'm missing here ?

bitcoin is garbage with all the fees and crashing. Just use a real casino that is regulated, the online casinos mostly exist to steal your bitcoin

[so98nn]

So many guys here are calling bitcoin as bad choice and still on the bitcointalk forum, lolz God knows that's best sarcasm ever.

Anyways, OP seems to be troubled with lot of services which were not right choices in the first place.

Why would anyone go real banking if bitcoin is not legal in their zones. I mean their is local bitcoin, or P2P services where you can exchange money with real people without even contacting them. You have to verify your account but only for that platform and your privacy won't be hampered at all.

Why make so much buzz if you have so many anonymous options out there.

I mean come on they have invented bitcoin mixer as well to hide the original and recipient addresses.

[pixie85]

What the hell is "Simplex"?Is it a payment processor?How can a bank assume that Simplex=Bitcoin?
Can you tell us the names of the crypto gambling website and the bank you were using?
30% "mining" or transaction fee is a ridiculous percentage.Perhaps you got scammed.
It's perfectly fine to have difficulties as a crypto newbie.There's always a learning curve involved
(sometimes it can be costly,if you don't do your research before trying to buy cryptocurrencies).

We don't know the whole story. Maybe this simplex doesn't do KYC and it's a requirement with your bank so the bank blocks all Simplex transfers. They can't know what Simplex did with the money but they can assume simplex is a scam.

I had my bank send me a warning when I received money from a bitcoin exchange. They explained that they do not deal with crypto exchanges due to money laundering problems and ask me not to receive money from them or they will be sent back. They accepted that first transfer and did not block my account. I guess OP's bank is very strict.

[wack slacker]

Simplex is an intermediary company that allows credit card users to purchase cryptocurrencies. When buying through Simplex, users will be charged a fee of about 5% higher than other companies. I tried to buy bitcoins via simplex on Binance exchange and I found it quite complicated. In a web guide, they force us to declare KYC information before the transaction is confirmed. With a 30% fee, it sounds crazy. I'd rather not buy them.

[Haunebu]

Who told you that Simplex is the best way to purchase BTC op? There are far better options like LocalBitcoins etc where the TX fees and time are drastically lower. Also, the mining fees were probably on the higher side because you chose the fastest TX speed.

bitcoin is garbage with all the fees and crashing. Just use a real casino that is regulated, the online casinos mostly exist to steal your bitcoin

Guess you don't understand the pros of BTC and cryptocurrencies in general and you are probably a BTC hater spewing nonsense here and there. Improve your brain-power.

[jrrsparkles]

You are the one to be blamed here, because you bought bitcoin by using wrong service.There are lot of platforms offers crypto to fiat trading for 1% of fee like localbitcoin and the withdrawal fee is should be the current recommended fee not should be a fixed one.

To use bitcoin you don't need anything other than bitcoin address so there is no invasion of your privacy here, better get the knowledge before using the things.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

30% for mining fee? That's absurd. What bitcoin broker? You can simply have a bitcoin address then deposit it to the sport bookies you wanted to place your bets. You really had to understand how bitcoin fees work so that your transaction can be quick. As far as KYC goes, there are crypto platforms that are mandated by law to ask for it, either exchanges or gambling sites.

[Wexnident]

Look for proper ones instead of whatever ones you can just find anywhere. Just a simple look up of notable exchanges is more than enough for you to find proper ones that can actually give you what you need and want. Bitcoin is invasion of privacy? It's not if you know how to use it. And you're basically using debit card, why even bother with it's anonymity, you just basically gave away your personal info already. If you're planning to buy BTC anonymously, use other methods instead of credit/debit cards. You're title already says it, "New User", so instead of ranting and rambling about how BTC is bad because of your first transaction, check out why your first experience became like that and look up for other ways to make the rest of your experience with crypto better.