Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: MedGuad on October 25, 2011, 08:27 pm

Title: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: MedGuad on October 25, 2011, 08:27 pm
I hope this is the proper forum for this type of post, my apologies if it is not. 

First time buyer trying to get in on all of this.  I created a Dwolla account and transferred my money there from my bank (this took almost a week of waiting).  Once the money was in Dwolla I tried transferring it to my Tradehill account.  For some reason it says the fraud check failed and now I don't see my USD in either Dwolla or Tradehill  :-[

I put in a support request with TradeHill trying to find the problem.  Everything was legitimate unless I did something wrong.  While I'm waiting for TradeHill to respond, what could have gone wrong??  Am I going about this the right way?

Thank you!
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on October 25, 2011, 09:23 pm
yeah, the lags u described are real: the week from bank to dwolla.  Then because of problems with dwolla reneging on cashed checks, tradehill started using bitinstant as a 'go between' ...and for about a week there, bitinstant was down.  Many of us just figured 'enough' and started using exchangebitcoin, and they folded...but bitinstant had come back up, and it sounds like that's where your money is.

It's good u sent tradehill a post on it...I'd also send one to bitinstant, u can see they are the intermediary by clicking on the tradehill links, in 'deposit' and then 'usd' and then 'dwolla'  but this is the curse of btc, how hard they are to trace, once u click on link.
 
Good luck with all this...many have now moved on to get-bitcoin.com  And they work fine...so far...
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: MedGuad on October 26, 2011, 05:32 pm
Thanks for the reply. I originally misspoke about sending a ticket to tradehill... I meant BitInstant.  I contacted BitInstant about it and they replied this morning saying they would refund the money to my Dwolla account (still not there yet) and that the issue was because I was trying to get funds from my bank (which I wasn't).

They said it shouldn't happen again though... Now I'm just waiting for my money to get back to Dwolla so I can try to transfer again.  My plan is Dwolla -> BitInstant -> TradeHill -> BitCoins!  Hopefully that will work.  Would you recommend get-bitcoin instead?

Thanks for the advice and help.  I'm really kind of overwhelmed by the whole process but looking forward to start shopping :)
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on October 26, 2011, 09:59 pm
Thanks for the reply. I originally misspoke about sending a ticket to tradehill... I meant BitInstant.  I contacted BitInstant about it and they replied this morning saying they would refund the money to my Dwolla account (still not there yet) and that the issue was because I was trying to get funds from my bank (which I wasn't).

They said it shouldn't happen again though... Now I'm just waiting for my money to get back to Dwolla so I can try to transfer again.  My plan is Dwolla -> BitInstant -> TradeHill -> BitCoins!  Hopefully that will work.  Would you recommend get-bitcoin instead?

Thanks for the advice and help.  I'm really kind of overwhelmed by the whole process but looking forward to start shopping :)

Well, you're doing it right, and obviously understand the hassles we all face.  I'd definitely add instawallet.org to your btc toolchest, once u get btc.  And I like tradehill, cuz of the first big mtgox fiasco, but im just sick of dwolla and all that waiting, and getting my bank involved, etc.  I find that get-bitcoin.com is an easier way, and I just can get cash and run over to wells fargo, much easier and less waiting...bummer of get-bitcoin is u don't really 'join' them, and can't just leave dollars sitting there, like u can with tradehill...and if u think btc might drop even more--a possibility--u don't want to many btc just sitting somewhere...

But it's a volatile area, affects us all.  Right now, because of the dwolla bottleneck, I tend to much prefer get-bitcoin.com for easy and quick...but I also think--if u have the xtra cash, which most of us don't haha--that having some dollars already sitting in tradehill is a good idea...cuz u can quickly then do a transaction and move them out in btc...I'm still trying to figure a way around dwolla, myself...that's the big bottleneck..now that bitinstant is working again...that was the slowdown too, making tradehill terrible...while bitinstant was down...

sounds good tho :)
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: MedGuad on November 02, 2011, 02:58 pm
Thank you! I got the cash back in my Dwolla account.  Can someone please confirm what to do next?  Bitinstant is telling me this issue shouldn't happen again when trying to transfer to Tradehill.   Does it go Dwolla -> Bitinstant -> Tradehill?

Also I didn't know about the instantwallets.  I will get a few of these Thanks!
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: MedGuad on November 02, 2011, 03:12 pm
Edit:

Good news I have the funds in my tradehill account!!  So the next step is to buy bitcoins and transfer them to my wallets?  I might wait to see if the bitcoin exchange drops a bit more before doing so unless you guys recommend I go ahead.  Thank you all!
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: lrp72 on November 02, 2011, 05:10 pm
I have nothing to add, except as a newbie, I feel your pain.  I used MtGox and it all went fine (after the week of waiting for Dwolla to clear).  I think I will try the above suggestions next time...
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: zefka on November 02, 2011, 05:24 pm
I've used get-bitcoin's cash through mail with success. No ID or anything needed right now. Part that makes me most nervous is sending cash via mail of course. Could insure it but then paper trail. Risks everywhere I suppose.
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on November 02, 2011, 06:39 pm
Yep, part of the learning process here, is getting your bitcoins without going crazy ;)   Tradehill or MtGox are slow, but fairly reliable...

Best, all time, for me, is now get-bitcoin.com .... using the cash option, u just can go to any Bank of America or Wells Fargo branch, and deposit into the account# they give you, then email them a copy of receipt, and within a few hours you have your btc....but if you want to sit on dollars, then you need one of the exchanges TH or MTG ....

Buying on here, other than sumyungai I don't recommend at this time...way too many scams....and I've never bought from sum, but he's recommended by people I trust....most of the others have turned out to be rips, so we're super cautious about buying btc on SR itself...
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: jackstraw on November 02, 2011, 08:57 pm
Question on get-bitcoin.com..... Do they email you after they confirm your deposit or only after you make a deposit request?   I know they say coins will show up within 24 hours but most are saying they  have them in a few hours???  Damm I miss exchb. :-(   They were amazingly fast.  I will be patiently watching my wallet I guess.
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on November 02, 2011, 09:28 pm
Question on get-bitcoin.com..... Do they email you after they confirm your deposit or only after you make a deposit request?   I know they say coins will show up within 24 hours but most are saying they  have them in a few hours???  Damm I miss exchb. :-(   They were amazingly fast.  I will be patiently watching my wallet I guess.

Both: email upon request, and 2nd email upon receipt...and I've always gotten them within a few hrs.  I find them almost identical to echb, *except* u don't actually have an accnt with them, which has some pluses, naturally...also, they now take deposits from BoA along with WF.

Only downside is, you can't leave dollars sitting there: the exchange to btc takes place right then...
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: A8nP?lough on November 02, 2011, 09:40 pm
Okay so I've been very carefully trying to formulate how to go through with getting BTCs. So far this is my plan:

Bank of America deposit to getbitcoin --> dwolla --> bitinstant --> tradehill --> some to one instawallet, others to another instawallet, and then these to N instawallets until there is a last instawallet that goes to SR

alternatively:
create throw-away SL account and buy lindens on Virwox via paypal, trade lindens for BTCs and then instawallets??

I've been mulling over this for about two hours now when I should be studying for toxicology! Thank you for this community, you all are great!
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: jackstraw on November 02, 2011, 09:51 pm
Thanks Phuba....Yeah I sent them another email asking for confirmation and they got back to me within a minute of hitting send...lol.  Wish my coins were as fast.   I had really come to love ExchB so we will see about get-bitcoins.   I don't even want to think about dealing with moneypak. 
I do miss the ability to keep some $$$ and instantly buy some coins like before.   

The waiting is the hardest part.....
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: coolguy1 on November 03, 2011, 12:01 am
the weirdest thing happened to me. i got bitcoin from get-bitcoin.com an got double the amount i payed for lol. i just shut my mouth. i would just use them as they might give you some extra BTC lol. well just thought that was worth mentioning.

!!!!!!******!!!!!!Get-Bitcoin.com is AWESOME!!!!!!!******!!!!!!............ lol had to do it.
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on November 03, 2011, 01:07 am
Okay so I've been very carefully trying to formulate how to go through with getting BTCs. So far this is my plan:

Bank of America deposit to getbitcoin --> dwolla --> bitinstant --> tradehill --> some to one instawallet, others to another instawallet, and then these to N instawallets until there is a last instawallet that goes to SR

alternatively:
create throw-away SL account and buy lindens on Virwox via paypal, trade lindens for BTCs and then instawallets??

I've been mulling over this for about two hours now when I should be studying for toxicology! Thank you for this community, you all are great!


Once you  deposit in BofA they go straight to Exhangebtc, then to *any* btc account you wish...why bother with dwolla and TH after that?  You could just get you a couple of instawallet accounts and bookmark them...send them to instawallet, and eliminate all the middlemen...Yes, you could sent them straight to TradeHill I guess, but it's unnecessary...or keep them in wallet.dat on your computer...but I stay in 'the cloud' as much as possible...

Dwolla to TradeHill, which used to be very useful, has just become to sketchy, and the way bitinstant  operates, just isn't worth it...

To each, however, his own, and best wishes... :)
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: A8nP?lough on November 03, 2011, 11:49 am
"To each, however, his own, and best wishes... :)"

Thanks Phuba!
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: chester25 on November 03, 2011, 01:40 pm
Has anyone used campbx.com and know what their process is like?
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on November 03, 2011, 09:16 pm
the weirdest thing happened to me. i got bitcoin from get-bitcoin.com an got double the amount i payed for lol. i just shut my mouth. i would just use them as they might give you some extra BTC lol. well just thought that was worth mentioning.

!!!!!!******!!!!!!Get-Bitcoin.com is AWESOME!!!!!!!******!!!!!!............ lol had to do it.

I'm kind of glad you mentioned it: I didn't want to say anything (it happened to me too) as it got me a bit concerned, actually.  I was glad to see the xtra bucks, but I don't believe in 'good things just happen to good people, etc' and I was a bit suspicious, wondering if somebbody--LE, for instance--could have planted some 'traceable' btc, if such a thing is possible, even?

I mean, say we were on somebody's watch list, and get-btc.com is one of those LE traps, like they used to set up fences, in Jersey, like that...where the cops were the middlemen--then they just thro some btc around, and follow where it goes...

Weird...nice, but weird...
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: trees on November 03, 2011, 11:04 pm
I've used get-bitcoin for the first time yesterday, deposited cash at the bank and received my btc this morning.  Fairly large order too and they were fast so I highly recommend them. Will be using them from now on.  BTW, it's the same procedure as with ExchB; fill the out of state deposit slip at bank, also get-bitcoin's account is located in CT for the slip.

I was worried about being scammed but glad everything worked out. Recommended.
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: A8nP?lough on November 04, 2011, 06:43 pm
I've used get-bitcoin for the first time yesterday, deposited cash at the bank and received my btc this morning.  Fairly large order too and they were fast so I highly recommend them. Will be using them from now on.  BTW, it's the same procedure as with ExchB; fill the out of state deposit slip at bank, also get-bitcoin's account is located in CT for the slip.

I was worried about being scammed but glad everything worked out. Recommended.

This is how I was going to do it. FIrst of all, do you need a BoA account? Secondly, do the tellers ask for your ID?
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: trees on November 04, 2011, 09:49 pm
Hey A8n, you don't need an account of BoA (fuck all major banks) or ID.
Tellers could care less what you do, seriously. I've had a different one everytime, and they just go about their business. Just be normal and fit in with society. I advise not depositing over 1000 USD at one time though, to bypass that, you can visit multiple BoA. If you get a couple of deposit slips while you're there, you can fill them out at home, and go through the drive through. I can confirm this works because I've done it before for ExchB, and will do the same for get-bitcoin.
Title: Re: First time buyer trying to get BitCoins
Post by: phubaiblues on November 05, 2011, 05:49 am
Yep, I mean, *nobody* in the whole transaction knows me...I can put any first name I want--that's all I've used--both on get-bitcoin order, and on bank deposit....it's actually *better* than exchangebtc was, in that area, since you don't have to give shit to join, while exchangebtc u did

...you do need an email addy, but, u know, doesn't matter which one, as long as you know it, cuz that's how they answer you...and name 'what's in a name' ha ha....and with instawallet being as secure as it is, not much reason IMO, not to just keep it all in the cloud...a lot faster transferring around, too...and less on desktop...

It's a great, anonymous setup, so far...and yesterday they were giving out free lunch...for a few of us anyway ;)