How did people buy bitcoin and other cryptos back in the old days?

[yat97]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

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[thecodebear]

I started buying in late 2013 and there were major exchanges then, wasn't any harder than it is today. Was probably harder back in 2011. I think Mt Gox did the majority of the global volume back in 2011 so basically you'd just go use Mt Gox I'm guessing.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

I started buying in 2014, I used a UK site called www.bittylicious.com for the first year of buys. I then moved to www.localbitcoins.com before Coinbase & Kraken.

People used MtGox before I started buying. Google the story behind MtGox.

[masterzino]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I remember most of the time deals were in person, for P2P transfers, through sites like LocalBitcoins, forums, and local exchange sites. I also used to use Kraken and CEX back then.

It wasn't that easy as it now

[target]

I started buying in late 2013 and there were major exchanges then, wasn't any harder than it is today. Was probably harder back in 2011. I think Mt Gox did the majority of the global volume back in 2011 so basically you'd just go use Mt Gox I'm guessing.

I wasn't here yet back in 2011. I'm sure it's harder for someone in a country where there is yet no online banking.
The currency exchange forum is already active during that time, those who have thought of buying BTC could just be using Paypal. It's what brought me here in the forum actually since I heard so much about Bitcoin so I head over here to try it and then learn to join a campaign.

[dothebeats]

I started my buying in 2014, and back then there are already a lot of exchanges catering to bitcoin and other crypto that either went broke or went exit scam mode. It was relatively easier to purchase to buy bitcoin back then IMO since not much checks and KYC was happening, but you can still get your crypto provided that you fund your account good.

The forum itself, too, was an excellent buy and sell platform that only a few people utilized. Used to buy Steam gift cards for bitcoin in here for $20 denominations and most went smooth.

[notblox1]

Back in 2010 member dwdollar created his own Bitcoin Market for purchasing and selling Bitcoin from person to person or using Paypal, but he closed it in June of 2011 .
In July of 2010 Mt.Gox posted first message on forum and it was later sold to Mark Karpeles.
Then the story goes on with other exchanges but I guess people exchanged Bitcoins for fiat and other stuff p2p since the very beginnings.

Hi everyone.  I'm in the process of building an exchange.  I have big plans for it, but I still have a lot of work to do.  It will be a real market where people will be able to buy and sell Bitcoins with each other.  In the coming weeks I should have a website with a basic framework set up.  Please bear with me.

Hi Everyone,
I just put up a new bitcoin exchange.
Please let me know what you think.
https://mtgox.com

[pooya87]

There weren't really "other cryptos" back in early days like 2009 when bitcoin was created and the first altcoin which I believe was Namecoin came out on April 2011, same as Litecoin which is about 2.5 years later.

In early days (ie. 2009-2010) you didn't really have to "buy" bitcoin. You simply downloaded the satoshi client and mined bitcoin. Or you could simply go to a faucet or on a forum and ask people to give you some bitcoins to test this new internet currency (example first faucet giving 5BTC in 2010).

Then trading started slowly in a P2P form and eventually the exchanges came out. There were a couple of them in early years with MtGox starting in July 2010 and eventually becoming a "major" exchange after some time and finally scamming people in 2013 and causing a lot of drama.
Some of these exchanges included the handful of altcoins for trading too.

[The Cryptovator]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I think until 2015 there was already a major exchange that started the business. See the list of exchange when they come on the market. Even a few crypto exchanges were founded in 2011. Before that Bitcoin mostly traded peer to peer, because there wasn't another way to gain Bitcoin except mining. Bitcoin wasn't much popular back in 2011, there weren't many propels to buy it as well. And not much altcoin was there. When altcoin started development then slowly exchange is coming as well. Think simply, no demand means no opportunity to exchange. When demand increasing exchanges increasing as well.

[Lorence.xD]

I started buying in late 2013 and there were major exchanges then, wasn't any harder than it is today. Was probably harder back in 2011. I think Mt Gox did the majority of the global volume back in 2011 so basically you'd just go use Mt Gox I'm guessing.

Mt Gox is the one that is always on the headline back then, being the biggest exchange and being always attacked by hackers, they sure do love the headlines. AFAIK people buy bitcoin the same as today, the only thing that changed is the exchanges that they used, you don't even have to buy because back then the problems to solve to mine blocks are far easier so if you want bitcoin back then, you just have to mine it in your computer.

[hilariousetc]

How do people buy anything new or from an emerging market? They find a way. I believe there was a rumour ebay was first created as a way to sell Pez dispensers online but if I recall correctly it's popularity took off with people selling Beanie Babies on there but before ebay they would have likely traded them either in person meet ups or via online forums and such and that's what happened here. The first major exchange of bitcoin was done on this forum for two pizzas. After that people would have traded their cash, Paypal, bank transfers or other products or services for bitcoins and many still do and we have a Currency Exchange dedicated to that: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=53.0

[sheenshane]

Probably it's easier than I think because most exchanges before didn't allow impose KYC verification on their users.  I remember this in somewhere article (IIRC) buying Bitcoin on Mt. Gox exchange is $1K per day and that is a whole number of Bitcoin back then.  It's very easy to have a whole number of Bitcoin back then, but unfortunately, I found and discover Bitcoin year 2017 when there's a bull run after the second halving.

I tend to agree that even joining a faucet before you can have Bitcoin, but of course, the dollar value isn't big compared today and nobody's interested because they think it's a waste of time.

But now, even a single of satoshi is had value to us and you can cover even fees.

[el kaka22]

I sold to other people using paypal. Back in the day we didn't cared about our bitcoins all that much about paypal and centralization and many other things, it is funny that paypal is getting into bitcoin just now but back when I didn't had any sort of local exchange that allowed me to deposit or withdraw fiat, I was capable of using paypal and just sent or received money from there, no chargebacks or anything ever happened to me neither, which I have to say would be very risky to do right now but back in those days we were only a few people so it wasn't really this scary, now you could get screwed over 10 bucks on paypal if you are not careful enough.

Of course there was P2P as well, it was always available, there were many times a guy I know wired money to my bank account and I made a profit from that, eventually he started his own exchange as well so it was really cool to see that.

[Wexnident]

The earliest major source I knew of Bitcoin back then was mining and faucets. People didn't really start trading much, every now and then some would though but that mostly consists of p2p trading. Though I didn't really participate back then, my friend who got me into Bitcoin often used to mine using my PC and the university's pc sometimes when he was able to use it. He often used p2p to buy and sell whenever he needed to. Plus, the earliest exchange that most people know of back then was Mt Gox.

[mersal]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I used LBC to buy bitcoins when there is no enforced KYC requirements to trade there and it was most reliable at that time because most exchanges didn't have fiat deposit for many countries after that 2017 lot of local exchanges popped up so we can get better deals for fiat than LBC in the recent times.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Perhaps this is one option, Bitcoin at $50k: Looking back at the price perspective. You can buy it at a very cheap price. I also link a old thread there, it was like auctions in the early days of bitcoin.

[ampere]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

Well; bitcoin and cryptos were firstly mined; before being listed on exchanges, back then i believe there was nothing like major or minor exchanges; neither was anything like fringe exchanges. It traded on exchange and people engaged with it cautiously or curiously through mining and purchases. Also, p2p was a great way to transact it back then

[Wind_FURY]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I used LBC to buy bitcoins when there is no enforced KYC requirements to trade there and it was most reliable at that time because most exchanges didn't have fiat deposit for many countries after that 2017 lot of local exchanges popped up so we can get better deals for fiat than LBC in the recent times.

I used LocalBitcoins for my first purchased Bitcoins too. In fact, everyone should create good trading relationships from the P2P marketplaces. One day, you won’t be needing the platform to trade with one another. It would be a simple peer to peer transfer, preferably in person.

[Distinctin]

I have nothing to add since I only know Bitcoin at the time of joining the forum. I got heard about MT. GOX but never have an experience with this and those years as mentioned by OP, Bitcoin isn't widely known for everyone. But to wonder if those people who bought Bitcoin are still in crypto now or they are losing it as their keys being misplaced.  

Anyways, I can't figure out how hard to make a trade in the past compared today as we have a lot of Bitcoin exchanges available. Honestly, they are so lucky to have that experience, buying Bitcoin as $1, $12, having traded for pizza? That is overwhelming.

[DoublerHunter]

^ Back then, in the year 2015 I bought occasionally in LocalBitcoin, it was easy to buy before because people can buy more BTC without worrying about the KYC. But during that day, I have doubted BTC and I did not fully understand the system which is very profitable today which is I did not realize before.
The first BTC faucet that I have joined before was Freebitco.in, they are doing this before and until now this feature was still there. It is very easy to accumulate BTC before since it is very cheap in the market and even faucets gives a decent amount of BTC.

[Noctis Connor]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

Well in my country we already had the wallet where you can use your debit or credit card to buy bitcoin since they will give you the account where you can deposit the money and wait for 12 hours before you can received your bitcoin , but some how i can earn bitcoin from airdrops where i can get them for free and of course with the help of this forum you can learn everything from here not just to earn bitcoin from the campaign but to learn and stand on your own and it is for you to decide whether you wanna sell your bitcoin or just reinvest it into another coins.

[mersal]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I used LBC to buy bitcoins when there is no enforced KYC requirements to trade there and it was most reliable at that time because most exchanges didn't have fiat deposit for many countries after that 2017 lot of local exchanges popped up so we can get better deals for fiat than LBC in the recent times.

I used LocalBitcoins for my first purchased Bitcoins too. In fact, everyone should create good trading relationships from the P2P marketplaces. One day, you won’t be needing the platform to trade with one another. It would be a simple peer to peer transfer, preferably in person.

Good trading history and trading with someone who is actively trading should be important when we trade on p2p because people sometimes go for the higher price offer and end up getting receive money from hacked bank account which is one of the issues when we are trading with p2p.

[abel1337]

On my first experience in accumulating BTC, I only do faucets way back in 2014, and in 2015 we have coins.ph wallet which enables us to buy bitcoin with ease without the risk of getting scammed in the process. One of the amazing features about it is we can pay in cash! and the handicap of not having a debit or credit card is not a hindrance to buying bitcoin. Actually in our country, coins.ph before is more well known than localbitcoins because of the multiple functionalities of that wallet.

[jostorres]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

People do use P2P even to this day, there are lots of people who use P2P in many nations that banned bitcoin, look at what Nigeria is going through right now, central bank banned bitcoin related moves for Banks and banks stopped working with places that deals with bitcoin so right now no bank would allow you to do something like that. Which is why people are moving towards P2P and they are giving cash to each other and receiving bitcoin, that is how they are dealing in 2021 today, you think we couldn't figure it out 10 years ago?

I remember vividly that I did multiple deals with people, I sent them bitcoin and they have wired me money to my bank account, it wasn't really an anon way to do it since I got all of his information including name and account numbers and so forth but in the end who cares? We just did it anyway and as you can see I didn't use that information since I didn't cared.

[Yatsan]

I certainly do not have idea on how they are doing it on the old days but for sure it might be hard compared to as of now. But I have been hearing news about crypto existence way back then from my seniors who have mentored me about cryptocurrency and based on them, P2P is the most common way on acquiring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency way back then. Processes and transactions way back then are not to be worried that much for the value of crypto is not that big so scammers are still not around as well as hackers to be a hindrance and no trust issues are there for transactions not to become successful compared to now that there are lots of risks associated on doing transactions upon purchasing that you must only buy on legible exchanges or else you will get your money busted turning it into nothing at all.

[MIner1448]

Bitcoin was publicly available sometime in 2012, it appeared on exchanges in 2013-2014.
Immediately after 2013, his hype began to grow instantly and capitalization also grew at a tremendous rate of growth. I think the beginning of the peak of Bitcoin is 2012-2014, these years almost all experienced people have already spoken about it.

[tygeade]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

People used to buy and sell P2P on the forum and I believe that was how the forum was introduced basically to fulfill the needs of buy and the sellers. I was checking old threads in meantime and when I saw This Thread and many others like this, I was into tears that why I was not here and bought some when such deals were being offered.

When I first came here though, there were enough sites which offered bitcoins purchase and selling, like btc-e was one of the biggest sites back then and although I never used, mt gox was considered a giant and it actually was as market crashed when they closed.

[isaac_clarke22]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I believe personal transactions were done back then before even tech-savvy people look into it making it convenient to buy one. I started to get into Bitcoin back in 2017 and I registered here late the same year. If you're still curious how did I bought mine, it was through convenience store payment. Pretty convenient (heh) .

[Jemzx00]

Other than P2P transaction, there are variety of ways that people acquire and bought bitcoin back then. Also, there are few crypto exchange that were already founded such as the famous Mt.Gox. (we all know what happened to mt.gox)

Another way to buy bitcoin is through LocalBitcoins which I've used for the first bought bitcoins that I've have until I switched to easier and convenient site such as Coins but by this time there are already a lot of exchanges and ways to buy bitcoin.   

[Lanatsa]

Talking into those early days even though im not that early on engaging the market but with some google search then this is mostly done with p2p and soon when

recognition had risen up then exchangers do really come out like Mt.Gox. Only to those old time engagers on this forum are aware on what actually happened that
time in terms of exchanging and purchasing out coins.

Knowing that bitcoin can be still mined using up your own pc since difficulty isn't really that high for you to mine.

[BurtW]

Five words for you:  Magic The Gathering Online eXchange

[konflikkastil]

I think it was not that hard when I started buying BTC, it has been so easy that you can buy from someone and ha- ve sent to your wallet address. That's what we call P2P transaction today. The whole transaction has to be based on trust. You have to trust the other people person at the receiving end and sending end. Though, I once fell victim of scam along, buy it was just once. Close to $200 worth of a coin called Nob$. It was an experience I will never forget, I guess it was one of the few lessons have learnt in crypto. Things has been easy now, that you can sell your coins and get the money directly into your local bank account.

[cyriljundos]

if you watch the documentary "banking on bitcoin" in that movie shows people selling bitcoin in the us in a small value. i think you should watch that video. i started bitcoin since 2017 and trading alt coins. its been a zigzag and rough for us traders because the value of btc that time is quite low and if i get profit that time is too small but at least bitcoin price now is higher .

[jerry0]

Where did people keep their bitcoin back then?  Was it on exchange?  When did those wallets suddenly appeared?  I assume many used bitcoin core right?  Then electrum?

[trigger1975]

In 2012, there was this site where you could buy Second Life's Linden Dollars for USD (credit card) and convert them to BTC. It was fucking expensive but that days the fastest way to convert fiat to coins. Also I've used local coins a lot to trade fiat for coins.

[livingfree]

Where did people keep their bitcoin back then?  Was it on exchange?  When did those wallets suddenly appeared?  I assume many used bitcoin core right?  Then electrum?

Mostly everyone is just mining from 2009-2011 and there were even faucets that have given a lot of bitcoin, thanks to Gavin.

But if you take back and read, there were exchanges back then. That's the story of MtGox got in and you have to google the story to know it. It's sentimental if you read those posts from the early people on how did they got their bitcoins back then.

[xSkylarx]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I found out about bitcoin wayback 2017. But from what I heard to others, during this time there are many faucets that gives bitcoin for free. Earning 0.001btc is very easy that time so I think only few people bothers to buy it. And since it was not that popular that time, there is no reason for buying it. I think MT/Gox was the popular exchange during that time until the hacking incident happened in 2014. Many bitcoins were stolen from people and these reminded the crypto community to not store their cryptos on exchanges.

[adaseb]

If you wanted BTC back in 2013 or so you either had to go to a Bitcoin ATM or just buy a GPU and mine some LTC, or get an old BTC ASIC like an Antminer S1 and mine some that way. There was localbitcoins but you had to be in a really popular city to find people in your area who buy and sell BTC.

Another option was Paypal. Later they restricted this but in the early days you could just rent someone's hashpower and they would mine BTC for you and you would pay them by credit card. Basically you paid $100 and you in return got $80 worth mined back to your account. This was good because all you needed was a Paypal account and a credit card.

Selling crypto back to fiat was alot more difficult. Most Bitcoin ATMs were just one way and there was no way to sell your BTC back for fiat.

[JohnBitCo]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

We know that there was no binance at that time but there were other exchanges like Mt Gox and later poloniex was one of the biggest crypto exchange.
People use to buy/sell bitcoin and altcoins on these exchanges. Today there are so many exchanges for the spot (https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges) , dex (https://www.coingecko.com/en/dex) and derivatives (https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/derivatives).

[jack05]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

Initially it was person to person and later we saw exchanges coming up. Right now it's very easy to buy from exchanges but it has also compromised the anonymous nature of bitcoin. The real aim to bitcoin was p2p trading and no middlemen.

[goldade]

I started trading bitcoin back in 2017 and although there were major exchanges back then there weren't any accepting my country's currency and so I could not use them.
I used P2P back then. Buying bitcoin from an individual. I'll provide my wallet address and he'll send the coins while I'll send the fiat equivalent to his bank account. It was quite fast
The only issue with that method is that it is not totally safe. You run the risk of losing your money because most times you make transactions with people you don't know. Sometimes you're scammed of your hard earned money but most times one gets lucky and the transaction will go smoothly

[TedMosby]

the first time I bought bitcoin, it was from a random local website. P2P transaction with the website owner  .
a few years before that, I knew that people buying/selling bitcoin on a local forum where I hang around every day there.
some people I know also create their own website to buy and sell bitcoin P2P with Paypal back then.

[yhiaali3]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

[wxa7115]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I bought bitcoin for the first time at the end of 2014 and there were already exchanges back then so I suppose it was no different than what you can do today.

However distrusting exchanges and the fact that most likely they will get my data and never delete it I bought my first coins in a face to face trade, I will admit that I was a little bit scared wen I did it because in my country bitcoin was still very underground so I did not knew with what kind of person I was going to met but the exchange was fairly easy and I got my coins in less than 20 minutes, during that time we talked a little bit about bitcoin so it was an overall good experience.

[Mahanton]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

True, bitcoin wasnt still on an active market since it can be mined through your own pc since difficulty isnt rising until that very first transaction which did really spark out on having an active market
which it did result into further similar activity which did really open out those early p2p and soon as with those exchange platforms.I cant really tell on whats the real set up since im just too late
to know this market but for those who are old then they are much pretty aware on how things been done but the things im saying is a bit relevant or real on what really happened.

[StartupAnalyst]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

[trigger1975]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

Absolutely.  As I wrote in another thread, when it jumped to 20 USD in 2011, I've sold a lot of my coins thinking this is a one-in-a-million chance to get some money back and that the price – once it dumped again – would never ever get back to 20 USD.  I've bought some back later for 2-3 USD and sold them all once again for 3 or 4 USD …   

[wxa7115]

When BTC was just launched in 2009, it wasn’t popular so no one bother about how to buy it. Some people mined it for fun, all those who mined it thought they have some kind of shit money they can use nowhere. Really, when first miners got possibility to buy pizza or coffee per a lot of BTC they thought they were lucky to get rid of their shit digital currency. At the time, almost no one expected that BTC would one day be pumped up to even $10 rather than $100 and furthermore, hardly a lot of people expected that BTC could one day reach $60 000.

I am not so sure that what you are saying is accurate, those that were involved in bitcoin in the early days were people that thought the technology had a future, otherwise they would not have taken the time to buy it or mine it at all, at the time people were not thinking about getting rid of their coins, what they wanted to do was to push the technology forward so if they could get to buy something with it they were happy about it.

This is why we hear the stories of those people exchanging thousands of coins for very small transactions, and even if now people look at that and have a good laugh I would bet that a significant amount of those people still hold a lot of coins which means they were not harshly affected by those transactions.

[sayaya17]

I had forgotten in 2013 or 2014, I landed first on the poloniex exchange, but I have not bought bitcoin, I just only created a trading exchange account.
I was still monitoring and learning about bitcoin, and the following year I bought bitcoin. I don't think it's as easy as it is now to buy bitcoin with my
country's fiat currency directly on the trading exchange. Because now many trading exchanges can accept the currency conversion of my country.

[poodle63]

It was hugely P2P between each individuals but I remember when I joined to crypto space in 2014 there already exists exchanges and I think they have existed even in the early stage of bitcoin emergence.

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

I found out about bitcoin wayback 2017. But from what I heard to others, during this time there are many faucets that gives bitcoin for free. Earning 0.001btc is very easy that time so I think only few people bothers to buy it. And since it was not that popular that time, there is no reason for buying it. I think MT/Gox was the popular exchange during that time until the hacking incident happened in 2014. Many bitcoins were stolen from people and these reminded the crypto community to not store their cryptos on exchanges.

Yes earning bitcoin was really easier back then compared nowadays but none of us know that bitcoin could get this high so yeah many people missed the opportunity because lacking in faith lol.

[MCobian]

I started getting to know Bitcoin in 2015, but I didn't buy Bitcoin at that time to get Bitcoin. I got Bitcoin in 2015-2016 getting Bitcoin
from faucets, because in those years the faucets were still worth working on. Then in early 2017 it was the first time I bought Bitcoin,
but in 2017 there have been many major exchanges that have sprung up. I don't know how in 2011 people could get Bitcoin, perhaps
by mining or by doing P2P transactions.

[TheUltraElite]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

At that time many forum trades were going around and most people in the pre-2013 era did not wish to store their bitcoins for long term profits unlike today. They were actively acquiring it and selling it to buy other stuff like game keys, goods and other stuff that raises eyebrows.

Many of the p2p sites that allowed trading in this manner were shut down and people lost a lot of money. A prime example of this is MtGox, you can read about its legal stuff here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox

In either case, no exchange is completely full-proof so dont store coins there unless you are trading on them.

Apart from them the Faucets were also worth doing at that time. With bitcoin priced in 3digits people could go to faucet sites are play as much they wanted to get good amount of bitcoins per day which would be a huge amount in today's valuation. Unfortunately very few of them had good foresight.

[tvplus006]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

[death69]

Like around 2011 to 2015? Before it became available on major exchanges?

Initially it was person to person and later we saw exchanges coming up. Right now it's very easy to buy from exchanges but it has also compromised the anonymous nature of bitcoin. The real aim to bitcoin was p2p trading and no middlemen.

That is true. In the early years, from 2008-2011, transactions usually based on p2p, what was the true purpose of bitcoin - to become a p2p currency. However, nowadays, bitcoin main purposes are holding and trading. It helps many exchange to be existed and earn money by luring people to participate in buying, selling, stacking bitcoin

Some of old exchange I have found, they were mentioned in 2011 on a post of this forum: btcex.com. But it seems it has ceased to for many years

One of the first currency exchange's posts of Bitcointalk: Alertpay to Bitcoin (12$ for 10BTC)

[Oasisman]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

I don't know much about it but sure those early adopters bought Bitcoin directly from the miners or directly from the people who has connection from the Bitcoin miners.

Well, to here's another similar thread posted from 4 years ago
You will get several answer that'll give you an idea how early adopters bought their first Bitcoin.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2331346.0

And as everbody knows, Mt.Gox is one of the first exchange to ever sell and buy Bitcoin as the name became popular during their downfall.

[justdimin]

I don't know completely, but there was Bitcoin mining since the beginning, and getting Bitcoin was quite easy through mining because the difficulty was very low and it was possible to mine Bitcoin simply by means of a laptop. These first miners must have sold bitcoins to people through some sites such as Legacy platforms, by brokers, or personally peer-to-peer.

The first bitcoin miners did not have a goal to sell it, besides, there was no demand for BTC completely. This is what led Laszlo Heinitz to post an ad on this forum about buying pizza in 2010 for 10,000 BTC. So we know the value of BTC in 2010, which was approximately $1=400BTC.

Yes, the only possible way to buy and even sell bitcoins was to just find people on the forum who would agree on buying and actually this is what happens with any asset, specially decentralized, the market starts with P2P trades and slowly starts building up. Once the market is build up like right now, we see so many exchanges and that all started because initially we had some people who were able to buy bitcoin when the value was uncertain and the future was dark.

People might laugh at someone buying a pizza for 10k BTC but the truth is that these guys who actually buy and sell bitcoins in the early days are the real heroes who made bitcoin gain the status it has now. If there was not enough activity within the community, I feel like bitcoin might have taken another 5 years to reach the value which it has already crossed.

[Ararbermas]

The first time i bought bitcoin way back 2015, i think it was through a wallet  that already supporting bitcoin transaction "i dont remember the name". But its actually good to use that time because anytime you can convert your money to bitcoin with low fees and you can keep it also within as a investment..its very safe to store money especially for beginners.. but suddenly as it keeps updating the features every month i have lost my interest. Because also i found a new best wallet that support KYC wherein very new that time to secure the wallet..

[Kasabus]

The first time i bought bitcoin way back 2015, i think it was through a wallet  that already supporting bitcoin transaction "i dont remember the name". But its actually good to use that time because anytime you can convert your money to bitcoin with low fees and you can keep it also within as a investment..its very safe to store money especially for beginners.. but suddenly as it keeps updating the features every month i have lost my interest. Because also i found a new best wallet that support KYC wherein very new that time to secure the wallet..

I feel the sentiment of how hard to make a transaction buying and selling Bitcoin from one to another to a person you never know. I can't expect that trust but you had proved it but just it times that Bitcoin showing its popularity, more scam thing to happen and it is really to get back that situation when we are afraid to give trust to others. And big thanks to reputable exchanges who save the new generation where they can easily make a trade in the safest way. Though it needs to pay some fees at least we can assure that it arrives in our wallet.