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Topic: A beginner's thought on bitcoin (Read 1342 times)

hero member
Activity: 812
Merit: 1001
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May 29, 2011, 08:45:30 AM
#5
If you want to buy significant amount of bitcoins i.e. thousands there are basically 5 ways to do it.

1. Wire money to mtgox or another exchange and buy BTC there
2. Send cash in mail to a respected cash in mail trader in exchange for bitcoins
3. Mine yourself.
4. Buy a mining contract.
5. Do  a private OTC deal.

They all have pros and cons but none of them involve credit cards or paypal or other such method which allows chargebacks.

Quote
Given that btc is widely accepted in Singapore

Niceee!
newbie
Activity: 21
Merit: 0
May 29, 2011, 08:38:14 AM
#4
I don't think there is much truth to that "Bitcoin is only for speculation" stuff anymore... You can already buy pretty much stuff directly in Bitcoin and there is even a way to purchase stuff of amazon. Also stabilizing the BTC/(some currency) idea is something that cannot be done as Bitcoin is just different from normal currency and also is not nessecary as it is within the power of every online shop (offline is not that important right now) to dynamically adjust their prices.
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
May 29, 2011, 07:25:51 AM
#3
Hi, all!

I'm new guy to bitcoin. I got to know bitcoin Wednesday(2011-05-25).

As I have been reading a lot on economics, especially Austrian School, I believe bitcoin is the best currency system for the future.

However, as a beginner, I think it's too hard for beginners to get enough bitcoins for real use, especially for those outside USA. I'm in Singapore right now, I bought 7.83 btc at 100 SGD from a guy who sell btc in Singapore online. This price is 20% higher than the offer in Mt Gox. I also suggest my friends to buy some btc for investment. But they think it is too trouble and too risky (they think bitcoin will be banned by the Singapore Government quite soon). Also 7.83 btc is too less for real use. Given that btc is widely accepted in Singapore, what can you buy with just 100 SGD? The guy told me that he could not offer more than 30. That is still not enough for big deals.

Also I have a technical question, yesterday when I trade with the guy, he asked me to sign up a new account on mybitcoin.com, he transfered the btcs to me when we meet. The transfered btcs went to my account immediately. Later I transfered it to the account on my laptop, it took like 4 hours for me to notice the btcs. So anybody who knows how the bitcoin.com realized immediate transfer?



Right now bitcoins are more of a speculative asset like gold than a currency used for purchasing. As more merchants begin to accept bitcoins, the incentive to purchase and use bitcoins for economic transactions will increase, not only driving up demand, but eventually stabilizing the bitcoin price and making the currency less volatile. The dollar, euro and other currencies fluctuate against one another by a few percent a month, if that, largely because you have millions of participants in the market conducting billions of trades and reaching a fairly stable equilibrium on a short erm timescale. This relatively low volatility of major currencies ensures that merchants are comfortable accepting whatever currency as payment and not adjusting prices by the hour or day based on a "real" currency. Price stability will further contribute to the perception that the bitcoin has value more than just its immediate exchange rate.  Instead of transactions looking like Mtgox USD->Bitcoin->Someone else for a service->Mtgox USD you'll develop a real, self-contained bitcoin economy where bitcoin->someone for a service->someone for business goods->someone for labor to make business goods-> someone for laborer's expenses->etc, etc. So I think with a merchant push to accept bitcoins we really could see people making real use of bitcoins.
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
May 29, 2011, 04:57:20 AM
#2
Many people have skills that they may not even realise are valuable, mainly because selling very small services for other payment methods like credit card is impractical.

However with bitcoin, it is much easier for people to earn in small amounts, for doing such things as writing an article, translating some text, maybe designing some graphics or other small jobs.

In this case, I think people who are just starting out and wondering how to get some BTC, should think about what skills they can offer, even if they seem basic, and post a message in the Marketplace forum, outlining their skills and what work they would be willing to do for some bitcoins.

eg. Can you do graphics? Can you do PHP?

Even relatively unskilled people may find work doing "SEO" jobs that entail posting messages to forums or visiting a site/clicking a particular link every day.

Any newbie that wants to work for bitcoins has no excuse for not posting a message about their skills in the marketplace area!
member
Activity: 84
Merit: 10
May 29, 2011, 04:01:40 AM
#1
Hi, all!

I'm new guy to bitcoin. I got to know bitcoin Wednesday(2011-05-25).

As I have been reading a lot on economics, especially Austrian School, I believe bitcoin is the best currency system for the future.

However, as a beginner, I think it's too hard for beginners to get enough bitcoins for real use, especially for those outside USA. I'm in Singapore right now, I bought 7.83 btc at 100 SGD from a guy who sell btc in Singapore online. This price is 20% higher than the offer in Mt Gox. I also suggest my friends to buy some btc for investment. But they think it is too trouble and too risky (they think bitcoin will be banned by the Singapore Government quite soon). Also 7.83 btc is too less for real use. Given that btc is widely accepted in Singapore, what can you buy with just 100 SGD? The guy told me that he could not offer more than 30. That is still not enough for big deals.

Also I have a technical question, yesterday when I trade with the guy, he asked me to sign up a new account on mybitcoin.com, he transfered the btcs to me when we meet. The transfered btcs went to my account immediately. Later I transfered it to the account on my laptop, it took like 4 hours for me to notice the btcs. So anybody who knows how the bitcoin.com realized immediate transfer?

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