Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: Rubberband Man on July 09, 2011, 12:18 am
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I know this isn't the bitcoin.org forum but I'm just going to rant here anyway.
The amount of research you have to do to find out how to get money into one account and turn that money over into bitcoins is ridiculous. I will tolerate it, but how is this currency ever supposed to go mainstream with huge obstacles in the way? You can't purchase bitcoins directly with credit card or check card. No way, that would be too easy.
You can get the money wired into a bitcoin exchange, but that will cost a ridiculous amount. Whether it's a flat fee or percentage, they're all absurd amounts. You can go the Dwolla route, but Dwolla takes FOREVER. First it took days to confirm my bank now it takes 5 days on top of that to transfer the funds? What the hell?
The only real route to go is with a 3rd party that will accept paypal or money order in exchange for bitcoins or credits with a bitcoin exchange company. Maybe someone can make a sticky thread "Best way to purdchase bitcoins" or something. It will save other people the frustration.
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I agree that it can be a hassle. I didn't want to purchase Bitcoins with my personal bank account because that is traceable to my identity. While sending a WU/money transfer offers more anonymity, it also takes longer. Same with cash, plus the additional risk of it getting lost.
I ended up going with a site called "Bitcoin Exchange."
http://www.bitcoinexchange.cc/
http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=6223.0
The upside to this site is that you can buy a Moneypak card and fill it with a desired cash amount. No name or identifying info needed for this step. Then you send the Moneypak number on your card to this Bitcoin Exchange site (which utilizes PGP) and they buy Bitcoin with it at the going rate and deposit it into the Bitcoin address of your choice. It all took less than 24 hours. Completely anonymity and ease.
The one downside: there is a fee to do this, which starts at 7% for small amounts but goes down with larger amounts (I paid 6.5% on about $380 US).
In my view, definitely worth it for something quick, anonymous, and easy, but I'm sure there are other ways out there of doing it as well, albeit requiring more patience or steps.
Good luck!
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I've been in contact with that group. I think its the easiest way to go. Granted, you are going to pay, like you said, a 6-7 percent on each transaction. If I ever had to buy btc's that is exactly how I would have done it. Selling btc's is just as smooth, but the bad thing is that you don't know what hes going to sell at.Last I checked, his sell page is down due to the mt.gox fiasco. so, you have to xfer the btc's and then he sells, which could mean a lot of difference. I asked him about being able to set a minimum that I would accept and he never got back with me. Other than that one question, he was always very responsive to my questions.
But, buying? heck yea, this is the place to go....
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Bitcoins are meant to be difficult to get to regulate the amount of them available.
Listen to the Podcast about bitcoins on http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
find the one on bitcoins and it will help explain.
Unfortunately it will always be difficult to get them.
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it shouldnt be hard, if every person was automatically added to a bitcoin map, local trading would be the way...straight f2f meeting cash4digital cash
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I agree that it can be a pain in the ass. The reason that not many accept CC is that if your card is stolen and someone buys Bitcoin with it then you report it when you get the bill, then the person has made off with the Bitcoin and the seller gets the transaction reversed and left with nothing!
You can use PalPal and MoneyBookers at www.bitmarket.eu
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bitcoin should have made it mandatory for everyone to be added to a map when they started bitcoin...still anonymous...maybe not pinpoint exact location but the number of folk per city and there contact details should be available for trading....i reckon there are alot of people who are actually using bitcoin....
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bitcoin is massive,if you look at the bitcoin forum,
online now:408 Guests, 280 Users (22 Hidden)-nearly 700
most people online at once today:840
Most ever Online at once: 3809
i posted a question and i got 40 views in 2 minutes...
they have over 3million posts
and this is only members of a forum....probably 0.01% of the people who use bitcoins have registered there...lool..i dunno..would love to know the figures though
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No serious non-reversible payment processor like LR,Pecunix,... is easy to use. This wouldnt work because of stupid laws, where the receiver of a payment has no rights.
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got an idea for a new website similar to SR but to a much more grander scale....so if this ever happens people....remember me yeah.lol...
each customer will be able to log into there 'online city' where they will find there 'online dealer'...so basically if you live in london,there will be a london section where all the london dealers will be selling....if you live in new york, there will be a new york section...so all the sellers will be listed by city
there will be NO MAIL ORDER deliveries at all...THANK FUCKING GOD. goods will be delivered to customers via dead drop(hiding goods in a location and giving the customer the directions to the location without ever meeting)..the seller will change his drop location with every deal.
only problem is the receiving of payments :/ lol
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got an idea for a new website similar to SR but to a much more grander scale....so if this ever happens people....remember me yeah.lol...
each customer will be able to log into there 'online city' where they will find there 'online dealer'...so basically if you live in london,there will be a london section where all the london dealers will be selling....if you live in new york, there will be a new york section...so all the sellers will be listed by city
there will be NO MAIL ORDER deliveries at all...THANK FUCKING GOD. goods will be delivered to customers via dead drop(hiding goods in a location and giving the customer the directions to the location without ever meeting)..the seller will change his drop location with every deal.
only problem is the receiving of payments :/ lol
Its called Topix
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its called u mad pal...
the idea is to not get busted....dead drop=not meeting face to face.....on topix its predominantly mail order but you will find guys that do f2f,but thats damn risky....
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Dead drops work only for big amounts. No seller will waste their time with dead dropping small amounts because he would have to use a new drop for every order, several times a day.
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Amen.
I've given up buying them period as the 4 turnover steps to get them damage my dollar's worth. I'm just selling my art for the sole purpose of bitcoins, used in turn solely for the purpose of buying drugs. There's a couple difficulties, like broken links or whatnot, but beyond the materials they're used to purchase, bitcoins have no value. So try selling something of value to someone. You've gotta have something.
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Dead drops work only for big amounts. No seller will waste their time with dead dropping small amounts because he would have to use a new drop for every order, several times a day.
good exercise.lol...
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It's kind of amusing reading complains like this; I dabbled in the online sourcing scene before SR or bitcoin and things here are about a thousand times easier.
Anyway, bitcoins are certainly not "meant to be difficult to get". The number in circulation is strictly regulated by the network, but that's totally unrelated to the difficultly in buying them. The reason bitcoins are difficult to buy is simply because no one has set up easy ways to buy them. In part this is due to forces hostile to bitcoin; you used to be able to buy bitcoins directly through PayPal, but PayPal shut down the big exchangers since they came to see bitcoin as competition. But the bigger reason is just that bitcoin is new and no one has figured out how to make them convenient yet.
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I agree that purchasing Bit Coins has been a hassle. MT. Gox says that a Dwolla transfer will process in 15 minutes yet is has already been over 72 hours. I think I am going to take my business to Trade Hill after I get this issue resolved.
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Cavirtex works fucking grand for canadian users - direct deposits into the bank, mine cleared in 2hrs, bitcoins bought instantly, etc, works very well.
On tradehill route I've found the best way to get prompt transfers is a polite email asking if YOU'VE made a mistake, personally, and asking if they could just check it out to be sure? Act stupid if you use it a lot, lol. This usually works well - they get the email, check the transaction and almost ALWAYS clear the funds instantly, and then email you back with a quick "nope, everything is alright!" and you're ready to go. I've found polite emails to these folks will take you far.
but honestly, dwolla, how can you be so slow? that's one thing i do want to know - my bank shit took days and days to clear thru.
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but honestly, dwolla, how can you be so slow? that's one thing i do want to know - my bank shit took days and days to clear thru.
IDK for certain, but the delay is probably with the banking system itself. For example, I have brokerage accounts, and when transferring money from my bank to a brokerage account, it takes several days for the funds to clear and become usable on the brokerage account. This is the same period of delay which happens with Dwolla. I don't blame Dwolla, but rather the antiquated banking system: stuck as it is on the old paper-check clearing system.