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Topic: Diary of a Bitcoin Virgin (Read 8496 times)

copper member
Activity: 674
Merit: 100
August 27, 2019, 04:40:33 PM
#30
Hey so I saw your post in the vosk penny coin section, being a member since 2011 is pretty damn og and shows the vision you had then, I would love to hear a follow up to this story and hear how it turned out.
newbie
Activity: 30
Merit: 0
April 14, 2013, 08:34:51 PM
#29
Yes indeed!
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
April 14, 2013, 07:42:17 PM
#28
its better to start a website or a service and charge a fee to get bitcoins
http://cdn.head-fi.org/3/38/387e003f_HolyNecroPost_759032.jpeg

But thanks for giving me an idea for a new thread.

Let me know when you do
member
Activity: 70
Merit: 10
April 14, 2013, 09:13:31 AM
#27
its better to start a website or a service and charge a fee to get bitcoins


But thanks for giving me an idea for a new thread.
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
April 14, 2013, 08:59:39 AM
#26
its better to start a website or a service and charge a fee to get bitcoins
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
December 27, 2011, 06:29:34 PM
#25
OP, thanks for this great post, we can learn a lot from a fresh perspective.

Did you find on your journeys a link to Bitcoin StackExchange? (Not stock exchange).
It is a Q&A site about Bitcoin, and I see as one of its prime goals helping newbies such as yourself.

There's a link to it from bitcoin.org, and I wonder just how many people actually follow that link and ask questions there (vs the people that discover Bitcoin , don't go to Bitcoin SE, and feel overwhelmed by its complexity)

When I discovered Bitcoin, back in April, you could still buy them via Paypal (through good old Bitcoin Morpheous). Also, in Israel (where I live), we happen to have an easy Bitcoin exchange that takes a simple domestic bank transfer and gives you BTC.

2012 is the year when Bitcoin usability will really start kicking in. We already have wallet encryption, light "client side" wallets, and soon Scripts. The future is looking good.
legendary
Activity: 2198
Merit: 1311
December 17, 2011, 01:49:35 PM
#24
It's interesting to read this.  The experience of getting into bitcoins seems not to have changed much from when I jumped in the pool in April.  What seems to have changed, having been around a while now, is the experience once you're in.  Things now seem much more secure.  The infrastructure is getting noticeably more robust.

It's frustrating that the process of getting in is still so difficult, but I think it's for the best that that aspect hasn't been the focus of too much attention.  It's good, in my view, that what's been getting attention instead is the underlying infrastructure.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
December 12, 2011, 01:47:49 AM
#23
Nice post!
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 0
December 12, 2011, 01:32:40 AM
#22


Probably because you are CPU mining. Do you have all cores mining, or just one?
[/quote]

Probably because I'm using a web app, but yep all 4 cores are running at 100%.
Gotta say that getting started on this mining business is complicated can't even get pyopencl to install on Fedora

Throws up this

Code:
In file included from src/wrapper/wrap_cl.cpp:1:0:
src/wrapper/wrap_cl.hpp:27:19: fatal error: CL/cl.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 1000
December 12, 2011, 12:36:30 AM
#21
Hahahahahahaha, I'm new to Bitcoin as well, I think it is a revolutionary idea and it needs coins to circulate hence it needs mners. I've just had a play with bitcoinplus.com  Cheesy, my quad core PC can get a payout of 0.0000446 BTC once an hour (roughly). I believe solving a block gets you 50 BTC, it would take me 130 years to get that on bitcoinplus.com  Cheesy.


Probably because you are CPU mining. Do you have all cores mining, or just one?
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 0
December 11, 2011, 05:42:22 PM
#20
Hahahahahahaha, I'm new to Bitcoin as well, I think it is a revolutionary idea and it needs coins to circulate hence it needs mners. I've just had a play with bitcoinplus.com  Cheesy, my quad core PC can get a payout of 0.0000446 BTC once an hour (roughly). I believe solving a block gets you 50 BTC, it would take me 130 years to get that on bitcoinplus.com  Cheesy.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1147
The revolution will be monetized!
December 11, 2011, 05:28:24 PM
#19
Nyte, I've had the same experience that you wrote about. Except now I've finished up and have  16 bitcoins as of a few days ago. What a pain it was! Now, I'm looking around to see what I can do with these coins. I love the idea, but it's like the wild west around here. Sites up one day, then down the next. People offering deals, then disappearing with other people's coins. I'm finding sites that are literally ponzi schemes and they claim it to be too!
...
Yes this is like the wild west of finance. Because of bitcoins unique properties and because of lack of regulation you will see all kinds of crazy transactions, like open ponzi schemes. P.S. As no one is being deceived It's not a ponzi, It's really just a kind of quirky game. In an environment such as this there is both opportunity and danger in abundance.
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
felonious vagrancy, personified
December 11, 2011, 04:09:21 PM
#18
This is excellent because it shows how hard it is for a total newbie to come into bitcoin.  The hurdles are giant.

No, we just need to make it clear that mining is not for newcomers.

I think this guy's experience would have been much more positive if he hadn't thought that mining was a way for newcomers to acquire small amounts of coins without investing much time.  That simply isn't true, and we should make sure people know that.
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
felonious vagrancy, personified
December 11, 2011, 04:07:15 PM
#17
tl;dr: we need an exchange that takes cash deposits, NOW.  Everything else is doing okay.  Edit: we should be sending people in the USA to cryptoxchange since cash-deposits-at-a-branch are massively simpler than any other funding mechanism.

Get an account at MtGox, easy enough. Oh wait, I can't fund it with Paypal, Credit Cards, or even ACH Bank Transfers... Angry

Yes, the difficulty of getting fiat currency into the exchanges is a big issue.  You're sort of unlucky on the timing, though: from mid-summer until just a week ago there was always at least one exchange that would let you make cash deposits at a bank branch in the USA.  Hopefully that option will come back.


What about Mining? That sounds interesting.

Mining is not for newbies, is not easy, and probably never will be.  I don't see that as a negative for bitcoin... it's more important to make transactions easy.  Miners are highly incentivized to expend effort learning about difficult stuff; the developers' time is better spent making things easy for everybody else.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
December 11, 2011, 02:01:59 PM
#16
Nyte, I've had the same experience that you wrote about. Except now I've finished up and have  16 bitcoins as of a few days ago. What a pain it was! Now, I'm looking around to see what I can do with these coins. I love the idea, but it's like the wild west around here. Sites up one day, then down the next. People offering deals, then disappearing with other people's coins. I'm finding sites that are literally ponzi schemes and they claim it to be too!

I find the whole thing fascinating. Having looked over these forums, I can see that people are making transactions legitimately but it seems like it takes some research. Meanwhile, while I figure out what to do with my coins, I find that they've gone up in value by 10% in the last few days. Not too bad, but who knows what they'll be worth in another year. I hope they keep their value and people starting creating more legitimate and stable sites. I would love for this idea to take off. I saw how it had it's boom and subsequent crash to this point (but it's still higher than it was before the boom). Time will tell what happens to this whole bitcoin thing.
legendary
Activity: 1008
Merit: 1023
Democracy is the original 51% attack
December 10, 2011, 01:19:22 PM
#15
OP- thanks for your tale!

The easiest way to buy Bitcoin is just to have a CryptoXChange.com account and deposit cash at a Bank of America. You'll have Bitcoins 24-48 hrs later. No dwolla, no wire transfers, no verification.
administrator
Activity: 5222
Merit: 13032
December 10, 2011, 03:23:12 AM
#14
Day 6: You get whitelisted for posting something substantial. Smiley

See if anyone near you will trade cash for BTC. This will be the easiest method if it's possible.
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
December 10, 2011, 03:05:40 AM
#13
This is excellent because it shows how hard it is for a total newbie to come into bitcoin.  The hurdles are giant.  This is not good.  We need to grandma proof this is fast as we can.  I'm not exaggerating, we need this to be as easy as cash or credit cards.  I have been hardcore into enterprise computer engineering for 14 years now, and it's sort of trivial for me, but to your average user they are completely lost.  If we tear down these hurdles it will guarantee bitcoin adoption on a mass scale, no doubt about it.
newbie
Activity: 43
Merit: 0
December 09, 2011, 09:39:15 PM
#12
You can also use Tradehill, which accepts OKPAY, Paxum and wire transfers.
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
December 09, 2011, 06:24:49 PM
#11
I thought you could just walk into a Chase bank and send money to Mt.Gox?

That method has been temporarily suspended:
 - http://mtgox.zendesk.com/entries/20741697-temporarily-suspending-chase-cash-deposits

There are multiple methods to acquire bitcoins:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins

Two other exchanges that still offer the ability to deposit cash at a bank are:
 - http://www.get-bitcoin.com  (Chase)
 - http://www.cryptoxchange.com (Bank of America)
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