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Topic: Bitcoin doubts for an average person (Read 1553 times)

legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1000
May 09, 2016, 04:04:24 PM
#27
Fcleon,

It's like gold. With a few more utilities. Some use it as a medium for trading, saving against inflation, long term invetment, short term invetment, electronic payments, cross border payments and much more.


It's not for everyone, but choose what interests you most about it. For me it was trading against Altcoins when I started. Now I stick to the proven bread winners and projects I know development is being accomplished in.

For you it could be a short/long term invetment or margin trading.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
May 09, 2016, 03:59:40 PM
#26
The basic doubt would be whether it will survive for a longer period or not as majority of people don't have faith in things which are related to internet.
sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
May 07, 2016, 12:40:56 PM
#25
Hi, I have been reading a lot about bitcoin, and I still have some doubts, but from what I have been reading I know some things:

- Mining is not profitable even on ASICs, (maybe it is if you have lots of them, and cheap or free electricity)
- Depending on the wallet that you choose you can be highly vulnerable to get your money stolen.
- It seems that you need to have some kinda advanced programing knowledge.
- Faucets are a waste of time, you only get dust.
- Buying bitcoins is the only way to get more money by selling them when the price raise.

But I still do not know some things (I dont know how to compile a software, I have a macbook air and a desktop windows pc):
' I dont have too much space on my mac, maybe 40 Gb to spare and 20 gb on desktop

- As I was reading it seems that armory is the most secure wallet, but now is been developed
 by goatpig and he doesnt release a dmg file just some files to compile it, and I am a total noob on that, so if someone could help me but in like baby steps ,it would be great.

- I was reading that either on armory or in another wallet, it is highly recommended to create a paper wallet or cold storage wallet, I dont have another pc with offline conection, so it is recommended to use a paper wallet? if I cant get a cold storage wallet, would that be enough, doing something like this, buy bitcoins, and then just keep them on a paper wallet, and if I need them I just transfer all or just a few them later, to another wallet or the same, as I said I dont know too much about this.

I could not find all this info, or at least not so clear for someone like me that doesnt know to much about programing.

Thanks in advance
Quote
Mining is not profitable even on ASICs,
i'm not a bitcoin miner,but its really not profitable if i mine use ASICs?
yes i know that bitcoin is doubts for some people,its one of many reason why they dont want take any risk to invest or hold bitcoin,but this is positive for us to encourage they and make sure that bitcoin is better than they thought,not an easy duty to make they sure about bitcoin,but i will not stop to try it.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
May 07, 2016, 07:43:48 AM
#24
An average person would definitely doubts on bitcoin if you can't show him some proof of payments or exchange that bitcoin is real.
Like exchanging bitcoins into fiat money.


First of all you need to show him how to earn from bitcoin, if he understands it successfully then rest everything will follow it.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 501
Strength in Numbers
May 07, 2016, 07:03:43 AM
#23
An average person would definitely doubts on bitcoin if you can't show him some proof of payments or exchange that bitcoin is real.
Like exchanging bitcoins into fiat money.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
May 07, 2016, 06:34:17 AM
#22
I think the basic doubts for an average person would be how to use bitcoin or how to start earning money from it and how to spend it these are basic doubts that will come to every individual's mind.

You would be surprised it's moving more and more out there.  To loose some of the "bad" things that BTC can be used to do a lot refer to it when inesting as blockchain technology or something like that.

But my family always knew I mined BTC kinda hard to hide when I started in house before having mining area.  But now some members ask more and more about it.   I think we have gained ground from my personal experience. 

We are not at mass adoption, and some will always want fiat.  but I think we actually have a promising outlook as far as bitcoin spreading currently.
hero member
Activity: 938
Merit: 1000
May 07, 2016, 04:09:58 AM
#21
I think the basic doubts for an average person would be how to use bitcoin or how to start earning money from it and how to spend it these are basic doubts that will come to every individual's mind.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
May 06, 2016, 10:20:59 PM
#20
Ok, thanks everyone for all the advices.
I have been doing for research and it seems that cex.io is the best way to buy bitcoins from my country, they charge 3.9% plus 0.25 cvs when buying with my credit card, but I don't feel quiet safe because they ask me for a photo holding my credit card, is that ok? what do you think?

Also because it seems a little complicate and not to easy to check my balance and keep buying or expending, I think I am just gonna go with electrum, they do offer encryption, so it seems safe, but what happens if my mac crashes, like two days ago I had to format it.

So if in the future I lose all my electrum files, and I just have my seed, I would be able to recover all my money?
Yes. The seed can be used to import your wallet to any new install of Electrum because all of your addresses are based upon that seed.

I piece of paper with the seed words is a good thing to have.  Make sure to treat them like gold, as if someone get's them they can import your coins easily and take.  So I strongly suggest a usb stick or offline on seed words.  And paper printed with it to.

But keep more then one copy as don't want one point of failure.  But again keep them safe a safety deposit box can be bought at most banks for not much, if your storing a sizeable amount. 
staff
Activity: 3458
Merit: 6793
Just writing some code
May 06, 2016, 04:48:23 PM
#19
Ok, thanks everyone for all the advices.
I have been doing for research and it seems that cex.io is the best way to buy bitcoins from my country, they charge 3.9% plus 0.25 cvs when buying with my credit card, but I don't feel quiet safe because they ask me for a photo holding my credit card, is that ok? what do you think?

Also because it seems a little complicate and not to easy to check my balance and keep buying or expending, I think I am just gonna go with electrum, they do offer encryption, so it seems safe, but what happens if my mac crashes, like two days ago I had to format it.

So if in the future I lose all my electrum files, and I just have my seed, I would be able to recover all my money?
Yes. The seed can be used to import your wallet to any new install of Electrum because all of your addresses are based upon that seed.
newbie
Activity: 7
Merit: 0
May 06, 2016, 04:44:57 PM
#18
Ok, thanks everyone for all the advices.
I have been doing for research and it seems that cex.io is the best way to buy bitcoins from my country, they charge 3.9% plus 0.25 cvs when buying with my credit card, but I don't feel quiet safe because they ask me for a photo holding my credit card, is that ok? what do you think?

Also because it seems a little complicate and not to easy to check my balance and keep buying or expending, I think I am just gonna go with electrum, they do offer encryption, so it seems safe, but what happens if my mac crashes, like two days ago I had to format it.

So if in the future I lose all my electrum files, and I just have my seed, I would be able to recover all my money?
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
May 06, 2016, 12:08:00 AM
#17
The paper wallet is only applicable if you going to store those coins for a extended period of time. If you want to use paper wallets, I would suggest breaking these coins up into smaller quantities and then sweeping them with a online wallet, when you want to use them. It might be a safer option than a desktop wallet, if those paper wallets were created in a Air gapped environment or on a offline computer.

The Trezor is only a option, if you can afford it. ^smile^

Paper wallets are kinda like the gold standard they will always be here to stay.  They work good if done right.  On the "air gapped environment".  You can easily install a new OS only create wallet, and blow away OS.  might be seen as to much for some... but it will work.  Also printers are sometimes overlooked you will want to use as old and dumb as you have.  A lot of modern ones have a cache look into clearing it after printing.

There are others besides Trezor to, but none have the following that Treozor does.  Honestly it is a good wallet - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hands-on-trezor-hardware-wallet-notlist3d-1298917
staff
Activity: 3458
Merit: 6793
Just writing some code
May 06, 2016, 12:04:55 AM
#16
I use the regular original blockchain wallet
tBTCBTC
Blockchain.info is neither regular nor the "original". The original wallet is bitcoin 0.1.0 released by Satoshi, and its successor is Bitcoin Core. So if you want to run a modern wallet that is the "original" then you are using Bitcoin Core.
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1965
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
May 05, 2016, 01:21:34 AM
#15
The paper wallet is only applicable if you going to store those coins for a extended period of time. If you want to use paper wallets, I would suggest breaking these coins up into smaller quantities and then sweeping them with a online wallet, when you want to use them. It might be a safer option than a desktop wallet, if those paper wallets were created in a Air gapped environment or on a offline computer.

The Trezor is only a option, if you can afford it. ^smile^
legendary
Activity: 3234
Merit: 1214
Vave.com - Crypto Casino
May 05, 2016, 12:41:39 AM
#14
Don't doubt bitcoin my friend this current shake is not enough to hurt it, it's going to the moon and beyond 800$ per coin.

As quoted its in the rising side. So people need to trust right now to experience the growth. Ordinary man fears of loss, as there is no guarantee on our effort and investment as its entirely online based.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
May 04, 2016, 11:42:02 PM
#13
Well I do have 900 USD but it is the only money that I have until I get a new job so I cant just buy every bitcoin I can with my money, I dont know too much about economics, but since more businesses are accepting them, the demand is getting higher so I am pretty sure that because of that the price is gonna go up and also because of the news, they are making it more popular.

As far as buying them I am still not sure how to do it, as I said I live in Ecuador, I do have an international credit card, and a bank account. I was researching some sites but the fees are high, also some sites dont tell me I can buy them from ecuador without registering and even some sites were I register I can find any information.

So for Ecuador what will be the cheapest way to buy them? I checked on localbitcoins.com and there is just one seller and it is pretty expensive almost $600 per bitcoin.
 
As for thw Ledger,it really seems like a good cold storage wallet, amazon doesnt send it to ecuador and I could not find it on ebay, but I can buy it from www.ledgerwallet.com and the shipping is free, but I was thinking in a temporary solution maybe I could run a Virtual machine in like a unknow (but trusted) linux distribution, create a wallet there and then buy some bits and them to that wallet, I could check the funds online without using the linux distribution right?, and I could also transfer some bits to another wallet in my mac, what do you think?


Honestly I would not go all in if your between jobs.   Only invest what you are willing to lose, and not having a job investing all 900 if that is your nest egg is not so good of idea. LBC is never the cheapest way do to how it's anomyous to a point people pay extra.  You might see the closest local forum to you and find good exchange in there.  A good exchange will be a better price in most cases.

Yes longterm a hardware wallet is a good idea for BTC you touch frequently.   So I agree with getting one eventually.  But if you just have 900 dollars between jobs... by time you by hardware wallet and 1 btc you used up a lot of your fiat.  I might suggest starting smaller unless you have more of a nest egg then mentioned.
newbie
Activity: 7
Merit: 0
May 04, 2016, 10:07:53 PM
#12
Quote from: knightdk
If you choose any wallet listed on https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet, you will be safe. If you choose a desktop wallet, you will be even safer.

Right now I am using airbitz, but I do think it is better to use a desktop client, but as the bitcoin.org site says, most of them are vulnerable to the enviroment, or in other words the OS, I know I am being a little paranoid but it is money (I would feel better to keep my money in a place were no malware or keylogger can get it), so lets say I choose Electrum, how do I start?, I create my wallet, I buy some bitcoin, like $20 worth, then I how should I proceed?, how do I create a paper wallet? and then transfer the money to that wallet, or should I just use the same wallet, but keep a copy in paper?

I know you said paper or cold wallets are better for large amounts or money but in time maybe I will buy more and I would want to keep it secure.

Thanks all for your responses
Well if you want a paper wallet, I actually recommend that you use https://www.bitaddress.org. The source code of their site is public, all you need to do is download a zip of it and open the site in your browser on your local computer to make sure that it is safe. Preferably you should generate the keys while offline, which is easily done by simply disconnecting from the internet (safer than being online, but not as safe as a dedicated offline machine). Through that site, you can create a paper wallet and encrypt it. Then you just send your Bitcoin there for storage.

If you use electrum, it would be as a hot wallet. You send some Bitcoin there in case you need to spend some, and send the rest to your paper wallet.

Ok, I think I understand,
 so I download a wallet software (I am still unsure but I am choosing either multibit hd or electrum)
I create a wallet in that program
I buy some bitcoins and I receive them on the account that I created.
within the program I transfer them to the paper wallet that I created it via https://www.bitaddress.org/
or I could just buy some coins and receive some on my paper wallet and also buy some and directly receive them on my paper wallet.

is that correct? any other recomendation?

Quote from: xhomerx10
Get a Trezor.

Quote from: notlist3d
You can't go wrong with it.  I have did a hands on in past - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hands-on-trezor-hardware-wallet-notlist3d-1298917 .  But it is by far the most popular.  Some other wallets have even based their wallet off Trezor code.

Either way I see the general public slowly going over to hardware wallets.  Paper wallets will always remain king for lack of better word's.  But hardware will become much more popular for BTC people actually touch and spend I think.
Yeah it seems also a good way to store bitcoins; I am gonna think about it, but I live in Ecuador, so it may be more expensive because of the shipping and taxes.

Quote from: IluhaHA
Don't doubt bitcoin my friend this current shake is not enough to hurt it, it's going to the moon and beyond 800$ per coin.
I currently dont have a job, but I have like $900 so yeah I think you are right maybe it is a good thing buying some bits and hopefully making some money in the future, I would not invest all of it obiusly, and hopefully I will get a job soon but still, I think is a good investment.



Having 900 USD to spent means you are not going to buy like only 100 USD of bitcoins , so I like to suggest you no matter how good Trezor is with your total money its a bit expensive for you, but you can buy Ledger HW1 wallet which is very good also as it is malware proof too like Trezor and its cost is real low like 40 USD together with shipping to your country (Use ebay or amazon to buy it) so you can keep your coins securely there ,rather than trying with web or desktop wallets. Desktop wallets are pretty sure if you know what you are doing and are an intermediate to advanced PC user but if you are not, then Ledger HW1 is your best bet to keep your Bitcoin. We all think price will go high in the future, so for the moment I can say we all think bitcoin itself is a good investment to be made.

Well I do have 900 USD but it is the only money that I have until I get a new job so I cant just buy every bitcoin I can with my money, I dont know too much about economics, but since more businesses are accepting them, the demand is getting higher so I am pretty sure that because of that the price is gonna go up and also because of the news, they are making it more popular.

As far as buying them I am still not sure how to do it, as I said I live in Ecuador, I do have an international credit card, and a bank account. I was researching some sites but the fees are high, also some sites dont tell me I can buy them from ecuador without registering and even some sites were I register I can find any information.

So for Ecuador what will be the cheapest way to buy them? I checked on localbitcoins.com and there is just one seller and it is pretty expensive almost $600 per bitcoin.
 
As for thw Ledger,it really seems like a good cold storage wallet, amazon doesnt send it to ecuador and I could not find it on ebay, but I can buy it from www.ledgerwallet.com and the shipping is free, but I was thinking in a temporary solution maybe I could run a Virtual machine in like a unknow (but trusted) linux distribution, create a wallet there and then buy some bits and them to that wallet, I could check the funds online without using the linux distribution right?, and I could also transfer some bits to another wallet in my mac, what do you think?
copper member
Activity: 1442
Merit: 529
May 04, 2016, 02:02:22 AM
#11
Quote from: knightdk
If you choose any wallet listed on https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet, you will be safe. If you choose a desktop wallet, you will be even safer.

Right now I am using airbitz, but I do think it is better to use a desktop client, but as the bitcoin.org site says, most of them are vulnerable to the enviroment, or in other words the OS, I know I am being a little paranoid but it is money (I would feel better to keep my money in a place were no malware or keylogger can get it), so lets say I choose Electrum, how do I start?, I create my wallet, I buy some bitcoin, like $20 worth, then I how should I proceed?, how do I create a paper wallet? and then transfer the money to that wallet, or should I just use the same wallet, but keep a copy in paper?

I know you said paper or cold wallets are better for large amounts or money but in time maybe I will buy more and I would want to keep it secure.

Thanks all for your responses
Well if you want a paper wallet, I actually recommend that you use https://www.bitaddress.org. The source code of their site is public, all you need to do is download a zip of it and open the site in your browser on your local computer to make sure that it is safe. Preferably you should generate the keys while offline, which is easily done by simply disconnecting from the internet (safer than being online, but not as safe as a dedicated offline machine). Through that site, you can create a paper wallet and encrypt it. Then you just send your Bitcoin there for storage.

If you use electrum, it would be as a hot wallet. You send some Bitcoin there in case you need to spend some, and send the rest to your paper wallet.

Ok, I think I understand,
 so I download a wallet software (I am still unsure but I am choosing either multibit hd or electrum)
I create a wallet in that program
I buy some bitcoins and I receive them on the account that I created.
within the program I transfer them to the paper wallet that I created it via https://www.bitaddress.org/
or I could just buy some coins and receive some on my paper wallet and also buy some and directly receive them on my paper wallet.

is that correct? any other recomendation?

Quote from: xhomerx10
Get a Trezor.

Quote from: notlist3d
You can't go wrong with it.  I have did a hands on in past - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hands-on-trezor-hardware-wallet-notlist3d-1298917 .  But it is by far the most popular.  Some other wallets have even based their wallet off Trezor code.

Either way I see the general public slowly going over to hardware wallets.  Paper wallets will always remain king for lack of better word's.  But hardware will become much more popular for BTC people actually touch and spend I think.
Yeah it seems also a good way to store bitcoins; I am gonna think about it, but I live in Ecuador, so it may be more expensive because of the shipping and taxes.

Quote from: IluhaHA
Don't doubt bitcoin my friend this current shake is not enough to hurt it, it's going to the moon and beyond 800$ per coin.
I currently dont have a job, but I have like $900 so yeah I think you are right maybe it is a good thing buying some bits and hopefully making some money in the future, I would not invest all of it obiusly, and hopefully I will get a job soon but still, I think is a good investment.



Having 900 USD to spent means you are not going to buy like only 100 USD of bitcoins , so I like to suggest you no matter how good Trezor is with your total money its a bit expensive for you, but you can buy Ledger HW1 wallet which is very good also as it is malware proof too like Trezor and its cost is real low like 40 USD together with shipping to your country (Use ebay or amazon to buy it) so you can keep your coins securely there ,rather than trying with web or desktop wallets. Desktop wallets are pretty sure if you know what you are doing and are an intermediate to advanced PC user but if you are not, then Ledger HW1 is your best bet to keep your Bitcoin. We all think price will go high in the future, so for the moment I can say we all think bitcoin itself is a good investment to be made.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
May 03, 2016, 10:26:45 PM
#10
a couple of things that i think are misleading here:
hot wallet: is a wallet that is connected to internet. so if you create an Electrum wallet it is not considered hot wallet unless your computer is connected to internet.

if you are looking for security you have to create the wallet (whether it is electrum, Armory, or bitaddress paper wallet) on a clean pc and preferably offline.

you don't need to compile the wallet from the source code. just download the wallet install files from the correct link and verify the signature (google how to do the last part).

you can create an offline (cold storage) from Electrum too. there is some information on the official website
official website: https://electrum.org/
docs (offline part): http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/coldstorage.html


p.s. Multibit HD charges you additional fees to use the wallet (it is not a free wallet) although i read somewhere that they recently removed this part in the latest release but i am not sure.
newbie
Activity: 7
Merit: 0
May 03, 2016, 09:28:38 PM
#9
Quote from: knightdk
If you choose any wallet listed on https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet, you will be safe. If you choose a desktop wallet, you will be even safer.

Right now I am using airbitz, but I do think it is better to use a desktop client, but as the bitcoin.org site says, most of them are vulnerable to the enviroment, or in other words the OS, I know I am being a little paranoid but it is money (I would feel better to keep my money in a place were no malware or keylogger can get it), so lets say I choose Electrum, how do I start?, I create my wallet, I buy some bitcoin, like $20 worth, then I how should I proceed?, how do I create a paper wallet? and then transfer the money to that wallet, or should I just use the same wallet, but keep a copy in paper?

I know you said paper or cold wallets are better for large amounts or money but in time maybe I will buy more and I would want to keep it secure.

Thanks all for your responses
Well if you want a paper wallet, I actually recommend that you use https://www.bitaddress.org. The source code of their site is public, all you need to do is download a zip of it and open the site in your browser on your local computer to make sure that it is safe. Preferably you should generate the keys while offline, which is easily done by simply disconnecting from the internet (safer than being online, but not as safe as a dedicated offline machine). Through that site, you can create a paper wallet and encrypt it. Then you just send your Bitcoin there for storage.

If you use electrum, it would be as a hot wallet. You send some Bitcoin there in case you need to spend some, and send the rest to your paper wallet.

Ok, I think I understand,
 so I download a wallet software (I am still unsure but I am choosing either multibit hd or electrum)
I create a wallet in that program
I buy some bitcoins and I receive them on the account that I created.
within the program I transfer them to the paper wallet that I created it via https://www.bitaddress.org/
or I could just buy some coins and receive some on my paper wallet and also buy some and directly receive them on my paper wallet.

is that correct? any other recomendation?

Quote from: xhomerx10
Get a Trezor.

Quote from: notlist3d
You can't go wrong with it.  I have did a hands on in past - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hands-on-trezor-hardware-wallet-notlist3d-1298917 .  But it is by far the most popular.  Some other wallets have even based their wallet off Trezor code.

Either way I see the general public slowly going over to hardware wallets.  Paper wallets will always remain king for lack of better word's.  But hardware will become much more popular for BTC people actually touch and spend I think.
Yeah it seems also a good way to store bitcoins; I am gonna think about it, but I live in Ecuador, so it may be more expensive because of the shipping and taxes.

Quote from: IluhaHA
Don't doubt bitcoin my friend this current shake is not enough to hurt it, it's going to the moon and beyond 800$ per coin.
I currently dont have a job, but I have like $900 so yeah I think you are right maybe it is a good thing buying some bits and hopefully making some money in the future, I would not invest all of it obiusly, and hopefully I will get a job soon but still, I think is a good investment.

legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
May 03, 2016, 09:12:08 PM
#8
Quote from: knightdk
If you choose any wallet listed on https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet, you will be safe. If you choose a desktop wallet, you will be even safer.

Right now I am using airbitz, but I do think it is better to use a desktop client, but as the bitcoin.org site says, most of them are vulnerable to the enviroment, or in other words the OS, I know I am being a little paranoid but it is money (I would feel better to keep my money in a place were no malware or keylogger can get it), so lets say I choose Electrum, how do I start?, I create my wallet, I buy some bitcoin, like $20 worth, then I how should I proceed?, how do I create a paper wallet? and then transfer the money to that wallet, or should I just use the same wallet, but keep a copy in paper?

I know you said paper or cold wallets are better for large amounts or money but in time maybe I will buy more and I would want to keep it secure.

Thanks all for your responses

 Get a Trezor.


You can't go wrong with it.  I have did a hands on in past - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/hands-on-trezor-hardware-wallet-notlist3d-1298917 .  But it is by far the most popular.  Some other wallets have even based their wallet off Trezor code.

Either way I see the general public slowly going over to hardware wallets.  Paper wallets will always remain king for lack of better word's.  But hardware will become much more popular for BTC people actually touch and spend I think.
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