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Tech BUYING Bitcoin

LandsUnknown

LandsUnknown

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I'm interested in buying bitcoin as an investment, not for any purchases, I'd want to be able to easily and quickly convert it into cash if it stops rising in value. I just don't know where to start. Im talking about relatively small or perhaps medium sized amounts here. Perhaps as much as thousand dollars or maybe even just a couple hundred or so. It's grown so much and honestly my intuition says it's going to keep growing for quite a while and I want to get in on it. I know of some sites where you can buy bitcoin but I don't want to get scammed. I've also never invested in anything before, so this is all somewhat new to me.

I've done quite a bit of research on it but am still concerned about someone ripping me off online. I've also done quite a bit of research on the economic factors driving it..... And while I'm not an expert by any means it seems worth buying into to me.
 
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Rule number 1: If you don't own the private key then it's not your bitcoin!


What this means is that you should never store Bitcoin on your computer, especially not on line at an exchange. Buy a hardware wallet or create a paper wallet. Keep the private key in a secure location. Never put your private key on a computer where a hacker can steal it. Google bitcoin hardware wallets and you'll see three major mfrs with varying price and degrees of safety while transacting. When you initialize your wallet write down all the seed numbers, passwords etc. for future needs in case your wallet is lost or damaged. With the information you write down you can create another copy of the wallet. Put the information in a very secure place that you remember. If someone else finds this info they also can create a copy so keep this very safe.

So now you have your hardware wallet. Go to an established exchange and create an account. Purchase your Bitcoin and transfer the Bitcoin onto your hardware wallet. DONE !!! No one can steal it there because it is offline and they can't create a copy of your wallet without your seed number private key and password.

When you want to sell your BTC you plug the wallet into your device and transact safely and instantly, just remember to unplug your device when you are done.
 
Thanks for that because I just have online wallets. Can you describe the risks over physical wallets besides the risk of hacking? You said you don't own it unless you have it on a physical location... how so?

But yeah OP, you need to join an exchange, in the US, GDAX is the best. They're connected to Coinbase. Then you verify your account (need to upload IDs and such) and connect a bank account. There are fees to buy through bank transfer but not bad on an exchange (coinbase is worse, they charge you a bigger fee and sell you bitcoin at an inflated price). There are also instant buy with credit card sites like coinmama.com, but the fees are higher and some credit cards won't let you do it because they consider it sketchy, I guess. I get a call from my CC company to verify it's not fraud every time I've done that, on my one card that will actually let me do it and not just outright block the transaction.

It's not really hard, you just have to familiarize yourself with it.
 
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Paper wallets are the best way to store your coin but beware they are unintuitive and come with some crazy pitfalls. I have linked some good resources for Bitcoin beginners in another thread, including a site that maps out BTM (Bitcoin ATM) locations. Online exchanges do offer the lowest price, but demand invasive identification materials under the guise of KYC/AML and hold arbitrary power over your account and any assets tied up in it. At this point I would even consider getting into Litecoin or Monero instead since they are other solid contenders for crypto primacy and the transaction fees aren't as nutty as Bitcoin fees are now (in fiat terms).
 
Yeah BTC transactions are insane right now. Cost multiple dollars minimum and unless you pay a premium they're taking HOURS.

Thujone, what do you make of the impending move to being traded openly on the CBE/CME in the next few days? Seems like BTC would make a jump pretty quick again if big-money investors and institutions will be able to trade it, and it's very hyped still. Seems like if you have BTC it might be best to hang on to it at the moment before considering moving it to other cryptos.
 
Just answering his request without injecting my personal influence. I don't like giving financial advice except "never invest in anything more than you can afford to lose."
I hold Bitcoin long term now that they are worth it, but don't purchase any more BTC beyond what I already accidentally kept. It's a gift for my grand kids mainly.
I do mine Alt Coins, then convert them to BTC and back into my off line wallet. But that is my opinion and not financial advice.
 
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Xorkoth said:
Yeah BTC transactions are insane right now. Cost multiple dollars minimum and unless you pay a premium they're taking HOURS.

Thujone, what do you make of the impending move to being traded openly on the CBE/CME in the next few days? Seems like BTC would make a jump pretty quick again if big-money investors and institutions will be able to trade it, and it's very hyped still. Seems like if you have BTC it might be best to hang on to it at the moment before considering moving it to other cryptos.
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it's a futures contract market so it shouldn't affect the price of Bitcoin too much by itself, but since futures contracts provide a valuable utility--the ability to hedge against Bitcoin price volatility, i think it will probably increase the velocity of Bitcoin as more will be willing to accept it as payment.

so far merchants have handled the volatility problem by using exchanges and service providers like BitPay, which allow anyone to take payments in Bitcoin but then convert it immediately to stable fiat. Bitcoin has always been pegged to the value of the dominant regional fiat (e.g. USD, EUR, JPY) so everyone using it has gotten accustomed to just looking at the current exchange rate to determine what they are actually paying, regardless of whether the invoice is asking for 0.0001 or 0.001 XBT.

so futures trading is great in the sense that it will reduce the reservations people have about settling payments directly through the Bitcoin network, though it won't yet eliminate the need to link its value to fiat
 
I'm also interested in bitcoins now. It's a pity that I wasn't interested in buying bitcoins a few years ago.
 
andyz said:
I'm also interested in bitcoins now. It's a pity that I wasn't interested in buying bitcoins a few years ago.
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Lol I don't think you're the only one.

Is storing my bitcoin on an off line wall such as Electrum safe? Obviosly I don't keep my seed or passwords on the computer. Is this what you mean by a 'paper wallet'?
 
The general rule for using a wallet like Electrum is sign your transactions from a computer that is never online, then broadcast them from a computer that does not have your keys. This has you covered :)

I use a Ledger nano hardware wallet, they are strong security with reasonable user interface and EZ mobility. I plug it into any computer that runs Chrome and run the wallet app. Even if the computer is loaded with malware or viruses (say like a public computer might be) my wallet and coins are safe even while transacting. ;)
 
Around now is a good time to buy in in the sense that we're in a big dip/correction, but it's a white-knuckled ride right now and as a beginner it will be very difficult not to panic and lose money. But unless crypto crashes entirely and phases out (unlikely, blockchain is here to stay IMO, it's about a lot more than just currency), it should grow a lot by the end of 2018. But the past week I've been going from +175-200% to down -10%. My advice is to buy BTC or ethereum, and hold it no matter what. Start doing a lot of research and if you identify some altcoin projects you believe in, buy them when they hit what you think will be their lowest point, and be prepared to hold onto them long-term. Crypto is so insanely volatile, every day the prices can swing so much. If you micro-manage it, it's easy to panic and sell and then you take losses. Remember, it's only a loss, or a gain, if you sell. Until you sell, it's all hypothetical. Some of my coins are worth significantly less than when I bought them at the moment, but I'm holding until they go back up.

It's an intense time to get into crypto but if you're smart, it'll be a good opportunity because prices are lower than they will probably be in the future for the whole market.
 
Bitcoin transaction fees have dropped like a stone so things are looking up again! so far the bottom held ~$10.5k, it doesn't feel like a bull trap but I'm still planning to wait a bit before moving back in.
 
okay so i won 150 bucks on the afc champoinship game and the betting site called me and said to get my money i would need to do all this weird stuff, so i decided to take it in bitcoin, they gave me 50 dollars extra for all the confusion, so right now im sitting on 218$ dropped down to 204$ last night and i almost said fuck this . but its back up...but anyways they said i can take my phone to any bitcoin atm machine and cash out whenever i want, just gota scan my blockchain app at the atm....

i was thinking of switching over to eth instead of btc. i just dunno.
 
In all likelihood Bitcoin is going to go way up again. Right now it's in flux, so either cash out now or else don't watch it too carefully because it'll freak you out. The price might crash down a couple thousand more. But in a couple of months it will probably be significantly higher than it is now.

It's a gamble, but I've been investing in crypto for a little while now and I feel confident the market is going to go up again. You actually received bitcoin at one of the best times you could because it's quite low now.
 
White_Rose said:
I do mine Alt Coins, then convert them to BTC and back into my off line wallet. But that is my opinion and not financial advice.
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Definitely interested in this. If you don't mind - how do you mine the alt coins?

Did you purchase dedicated mining hardware? If so, any recommendations?
 
I use Nicehash (software) to mine the alt coins and am paid out in BTC. You can use any mining hardware you want in Nicehash, but I am using NVidia GTX 1080 ti cards. When I have mined .1BTC Nicehash transfers the BTC to my wallet automatically.
 
I'm more of a "Buy Bitcoin low, sell it high" kind of guy. I started to buy bitcoins only a few years ago, but best advice I can give is just "buy and hold". Of course, it is easier said than done. I just read an article about how to buy bitcoin anonymously with credit card and I think it could be a good opportunity for those who going to buy BTC but don't want to wait to be verified and upload ID.
 
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