Topic: Its so hard to buy bitcoin these days compared to 2011 (Read 3424 times)

If I remember correctly back when we could buy btc at Walmart that was when Bitinstant was still around and they got in trouble with the gov for facilitating silk road users or something similar.

One thing that we have going for us now is localbitcoins, which I've found to be pretty good. You being an American you could almost certainly go on there now and find a trade. Heck, there's even a bunch of people using PayPal on there(be extra cautious of that though).

Circle is supposedly coming soon and I think people are expecting the to make things easier/better. We'll see how that works out. Not holding my breath.

Just use lbc. The reason it is more expensive is because most other options suck massively.

Locabitcoin is easy.

The exchange route will most likely get blocked by your own country banks.

Via local bitcoins i think is the fastest way.. or you can buy them via forum,.. i mean its not so difficult to buy them and if thats the case, thats good because once you buy them you wont sell them so easily

Its not just Bitcoin, all the financial institutions have to toughen up on KYC. Even just opening bank accounts. In June, the KYC is tightening up to the point that Australian banks have to ask people if they are American citizens. Bit weird.. Makes me think the USA is behind all the KYC crap.

I disagree. Coinbase.com is my argument, as an American.

I don't think it's hard to buy bitcoin at all and its getting easier all the time. Obviously you should try avoid exchanges that require tedious verification etc, but there are many simple ways to get ahold of coins. You can always easily buy them on the marketplace here.

Really from what I have read Bank of America sucks at most things so its good to know they are doing BTC fine.
If you want you should vouch for them in the Friendly list on the hostile and friendly banks thread
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/list-of-bitcoin-hostile-and-friendly-banks-264679

Did note that BOA did value Bitcoin back in December a bit dated so I wonder what they would estimate it at now.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2013/12/05/bitcoin-gets-valued-bank-of-america-puts-a-price-on-the-virtual-tender/

I think the opposite. It is so easy now. so many companies.

In matters of Bitcoin, they ask more&more AML/KYC stuff today. That's not how Bitcoin was meant to be used. Bitcoin stands for independency, decentralisation and personal freedom!

CampBx in the US is decent.

I used to use them until Dwolla dropped them.

I don't think you would have problems with Bank of America and Coinbase. BofA for just about everything else is kind of crappy, but it works fine for BTC

It's obvious that states put more and more regulations, restrictions and controls on online exchanges. This can only get worse.

The best is to buy/sell Bitcoins with cash.

People who want to exchange millions of dollars can meet in Nauru or similar places and transact cash-in-hand, like they do for other things.

The problem is for the little people (as usual). When Bitcoin will be more common it will be easy to exchange it in the street with strangers (like today in NYC we buy and sell cigarettes in the street at one buck per cigarette). Until that point, buy/sell Bitcoin will be a bottleneck.

I connected moriarty via a single hop to http://bpbtconsulting.com/opensource/reachmail-announces-wordpress-integration-business-wire-press-release/

I agree with you I miss the days of wire transfers since it was a lot faster back then
Quickbt might work for you otherwise try the other posters suggestions above
Also avoid Chase bank their savings account is 0.001% ...
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/if-you-put-250-in-a-chase-savings-account-you-ll-get-2-5-cents-in-yearly-interest-and-maybe-charged-4-a-month/18083-if-you-put-250-in-a-chase-savings-account-you-ll-get-2-5-cents-in-yearly-interest-and-maybe-charged-4-a-month

You might give Mycelium app a try.

3 maybe more depends on the price offered

Most ATMs are not cheap though
http://bitcoinatmmap.com/

BTC is always high risk now that people are becoming creative on how to reverse transactions. Buying BTC via locally is the best method.

How much coin u need?

Bitsimple not available at CA.
wow...why is this happening to me...everytime I try to buy bitcoin

How do you know it's a scam?

dont try bitplastic. its one of a number of scams owned by a guy named moriarty.

stick to local bitcoins and other tried and tested methods. see if there is a bitcoin ATM near you

You might also consider doing work for bitcoin. For instance:

- Translation work
- Coding work
- Web design work
- Video editing

In short, everything that could be done on a computer and delivered online is a way to make bitcoins.

Also, if you produce something and want to sell it; honey, tea etc.. it wouldn't be that much work setting up a webshop and selling it for btc.

Also, I think that the more we can evolve the whole project into becoming self sustained in the sense that we don't need to exchange for fiat that much, it would be great.

Picture this:

A webhosting company accepts btc, and hosts their servers with a datacenter that accepts bitcoins, and they pay their staff in bitcoin. The staff can then purchase their food and other daily items with bitcoins. Well, I see that it's rather difficult to pay everything in bitcoin, but as long as an effort is made, and the more merchants and individuals that partake in the system, the less frequent the need for exchange to fiat will be.

I approve of merchants that accepts bitcoin through say bitpay, all swell, but I would've loved if the same merchants would actually participate in the ecosystem by buying supplies and paying staff if not entirely, then at least partially in bitcoins.

Perhaps eventually there will evolve a tripadvisor-like system where the level of support for bitcoin is expressed for shops and services, so the users can chose to support the ones that most support the bitcoin system. While it's nice to accept bitcoin and then have BitPay or similar system exchange it to fiat immediately is better than nothing, but ideally I'd hope the merchants could keep more of their btc.

I think it's wise to educate the shop-owners about the political and philosophical issues relating to bitcoin, but also to emphasize the 'no chargeback'-philosophy, which I would think esp. some high-risk merchants would appreciate.

No I live at LA.
market price ~570$ and local bitcoin offers ~590$ (cheapest)
so if i want 5 bitcoins i'd be paying about 100$ extra from the market price..

and I need 5 bitcoins..i don't mind purchasing it from you haha..
 

You pay a premium for a reason - unless you're going over state limits most BTC sellers are happy to let you buy without asking questions. Where as all the exchanges will ask for verification documents within due time.

Have you tried the currency exchange section here? There has to be someone in your area selling.

+1 slime indeed

i like danny's suggestion, try bitsimple.

I'd dump your Chase account anyways just because they're slime balls. If you have a TCF bank or a credit union, they're pretty good options. A credit union works good w/ https://cashintocoins.com/index.php?code=ftl&utm_source=Free%20Talk%20Live&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=cashintocoins&utm_content=version-default-desktop&ceq-sid=b8341d105f2e2110f2fc5ec7d8d0f838 aka Cash Into Coins in the US. TCF works well w/ Coinbase and I use them frequently.

Yes, it seems ironic that we have more exchanges popping up globally and yet we have to jump through more hoops to get money into them. Governments and banks are creating friction and choking bitcoin growth. I think bitcoin ATMs can be a partial solution for average bitcoin users.

wow...just because you were dealing with coinbase?

Jp Morgan Chase...figures.

do you live in a rural area or something?  localbitcoins is generally like 1-2% above market price in my area.  Although I think more people are just worried about getting bitcoin out there rather trying to make a bunch of personal gain.  How many are you trying to buy?

Have you tried BitSimple?

Thank you for your advice !

You might try Bitplastic, which accepts Western Union.  I have never tried them, but it looks OK, although I'm not sure I'd leave money in their wallet.
A friend of mine has successfully tried wu2liberty dot com.  They will take Moneygram.

I am new to this myself, but it seems like exchangers in the Western World are becoming as picky as the banks.  But exchangers in Russia don't seem to care who you are and there are no forms to fill out or registration required. 

Stay away from WM Center, though, as their prices seem way out of line.
Hope this helps.

back in 2011 all I had to do was send money via moneygram at walmart and BOOM! BTCs!!

now it seems like its so hard to purchase bitcoins even when the market's bigger.
I was considered a high risk from coinbase, they declined my transaction, (im not a high risk I have enough money),
kraken,BTC-e dont accept USD anymore, my bank CHASE about to shut my account because I was dealing with coinbase..
I don't know where I should go to buy bitcoins at market price (localbitcoin is too expensive)

So ironic and funny..

Im gonna try bitstamp tonight..any words of advice will be helpful