Topic: [2013-12-09] Bloomberg -Twelve Days of Bitcoin: How Hard Is it to Buy One? (Read 3336 times)

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.

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

We are Bitcoin.

Resistance is useless.

You will be assimilated.

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...

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


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

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)

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

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

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

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. 

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".

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

Thats only for US

Thanks for US regulations and fcking banksters.

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 

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.

Once in bitcoin, you can never go back.

Silly, transaction takes seconds to broadcast.

Confirmation =/= transaction time.

Noob

Great video.  I like this media angle. No mention of the price.
That's priceless PR.

Oh and related self-plug for my 12 days of Christmas lyrics from last year: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/all-together-now-bitcoin-12-days-of-christmas-133148

Someone on twitter send Matt the link; it would be hilarious if they sang it (or an improvement) on air. (Side note: how did I not think to call it 12 days of bitcoin!?)

@ NewLiberty


would agree to your statement about beta.

and yes, he get alot of BTC  ! hopefully he understands that these btc are donations 

heh, his wallet is growing faster than he can spend it.
Up to 1.3btc as of now.
https://blockchain.info/address/1BbAisaqKdkKddwu53a7GfJCmh2f7V2yDX

Its been hitting the airwaves in bits and pieces about once an hour or two since this started.

Yes the network is pretty good, but on pretty much everything else we disagree radically.  People ought to think of bitcoin as very much beta.  It does not do what the average people think money ought to do and takes a while for people to figure that out. 

To say that Bitcoin wallet client has nothing to do with bitcoin technology is not something your average person is going to agree with either.  It is all that they will ever see.

And no, we are going mainstream soon, unless we have radically divergent ideas of "mainstream" and "soon".

Just because it is the best money that has ever existed doesn't mean that everyone can deal with it.  Not yet anyway.
You almost make my point for me with your last sentence here though "Bottom line, bitcoin isn't an investment. Its the utility that ppl miss. All this "missing the boat" crap shows they don't understand what bitcoin is. They don't see how to utilize it."

It has tremendous potential utility, and very little actual utility, unless you do most of your purchases on the internet, or want to buy gift/debit/prepaid cards and use those at the places that take them.

The Struggles that Matt at Bloomberg is having are all too common.  He is in the "above average" group and well within the target user base.  Furthermore all those criticisms of bitcoin are accurate, and ignoring that fact is what keeps folks from making the things that will ultimately bring the mainstream adoption.  We are not even close.  I can't even find a plumber in my major metropolis that takes it.

None of these keeps me from talking about it to everyone I meet, and the confused looks I get from 99% of people is fine with me.  I am happy to be the guy that planted the seed in their mind, and wait for it to grow in those minds that are fertile.

It's like the telelphone network. Nobody rushes around trying to buy all the telephones they can, to "strike it rich". You just need one or two. The network is the power of the entire communications platform. Same with bitcoin, people rush around trying to buy them all, but the main point is to just have some - the network effects will take care of the rest.

But as usual, most older people have trouble understanding how DVR's and Computers work, much less abstract crypto-currencies.

With tps of 7 and 10 minute transaction pause, it's still beta.


There are ways to eliminate the tps limit and 10 minute block pause, it's up to developers to think this through.

Bitcoin protocol is in version 0.2 now, as I see it.

I just wonder how often he'll be reporting on his experiences.

Thats a wrong way of thinking tho.... Bitcoin wallet client (even the official one) has nothing to do with bitcoin technology.

You cant say because the wallet client is still not version 1  that means the blockchain/bitcoin infrastructure is still in beta. Its pretty obvious now that the infrastructure is WAY pass the beta. And we're pushing to mainstream pretty soon.

Bottom line, bitcoin isnt an investment. Its the utility that ppl miss. All this "missing the boat" crap shows they dont understand what bitcoin is. They dont see how to utilize it.

Great experiment, i'm sure it will bring much more public awareness.

Probably the most important thing that is under-emphasized:  BITCOIN IS IN BETA (no one has "missed it") It is not even complete to version 1 and most software efforts aren't complete until version 3 or so.  These are the early days, and there are many more early days to come.

When expectations are reasonable, we have the best chance of success.

this link didn't work for me. that's how i found it: https://www.google.de/search?client=opera&q=Bloomberg%E2%80%99s+Matt+Miller+takes+you+through+the+process+as+he+fulfills+his+quest+to+purchase+a+Bitcoin+with+Bloomberg+News%E2%80%99+Max+Raskin+on+Bloomberg+Television%E2%80%99s&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

https://blockchain.info/sv/address/1BbAisaqKdkKddwu53a7GfJCmh2f7V2yDX

That's his adress, just as you said. Just scanned the code on the show.

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.

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.

Matt Miller's public key at blockchain.info  1BbAisaqKdkKddwu53a7GfJCmh2f7V2yDX

Sending a tip of a gallon of gas worth of bitcoin to him:
https://blockchain.info/tx/b6c12392076fc8b929b63e8ecb810d104dfaa6dbfecabbf2fd1d3d1e81717e25

Yes, considering the audience, it is great, especially for the novice who is their average viewer.  It makes them feel non-stupid to see these financial "genius" struggle a little bit with getting their shiny new blockchain.info wallet to work for the first time and buy their first bitcoin, but succeeding in the end.

Having the novice feel non-stupid is one of the barriers to entry for mass adoption.

its hard to hear that idiots talk about BTC but at least it wasnt so negative than in the begin of 2013 AND yes, bloomberg has alot viewers.

so its a good one

Betty Liu is mostly distrustful of Bitcoin and generally talks it down, but some of those on her show are much more positive and curious.  As a result there was short discussion of Bitcoin:
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/12-days-of-bitcoin-struggling-to-buy-one-6gju__9xTpi5qyI_~aQy9A.html

Matt Miller is going to buy a bitcoin via localbitcoins.com and do the transaction on TV as part of the show, and then do something with it every day for 12 days.  He tried Coinbase and was daunted.  None of the people on the show have much understanding of bitcoin and there is quite a bit of misinformation, but this is one of the most widely viewed financial news in the USA.
http://www.bloomberg.com/personalities/matt_miller/

If you are in New York and looking for some exposure, you can probably sell something to Matt Miller over the next few weeks.