Any Bitcoin Users On Scf?

Hi:

Do any of you use Bitcoins? I'm interested in your experiences and any tips/pointers on where and how to get started.

KirkS

Most of what I have seen goes down like this ...

Person 1: "Are Bitcoins easy to use?"

Person 2: "The thing is, I don't actually use them. I just hoard them. I'm waiting for some bigger fools to push up the price by using theirs."

Person 1: "Oh."

Person 2: "Yeah. So you should buy some Bitcoins and use yours."


Think of them as a stock, not a currency.

I've toyed with them a bit (pardon the pun), but nothing significant (less than $100).

First, you find an exchange provider that converts your cash to bitcoins and vice versa. Lesson one: different providers take different fees.

Most exchanges work online, but there are some physical ones too. For example in Finland there are 5 locations where teller machines (similar to ones used by banks) are available. If you want to turn cash into bitcoins, you go to machine, enter bills in, and in the end choose to transfer equal amount into your bitcoin wallet (authentication is done through mobile phone/app). And if you want to withdraw bitcoins to cash, then you enter your bitcoin wallet details and get real world money out of the machine. Lesson two: the more physical the service, the more you pay.

You'll also need a bitcoin wallet. This is essentially a tool for managing your bitcoin account/assets. Again, different providers, different levels of security, different costs. Lesson three: loose your wallet, and the money is gone. Forever (no ifs, no buts).

Likely there's a ton of stuff I'm not aware, so take the above "as is". This helped me to get the basics: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Help:FAQ

-k-

There's a fascinating (and lengthy) piece about Bitcoin and "Satoshi" by Andrew O'Hagan here

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n13/andrew...toshi-affair

I think Bitcoin 'shares' (or coins) are currently capped around 20-30 million. They certainly are tradable but there are some people which consider Bitcoin somewhere between a Ponzi and a pyramid scheme. I would be like scb, I would invest only a very small amount in them. My fear would be that there might be future manipulation of the number of shares (coins). What would stop anyone from deciding to influence the market value?

Of course the same question could be asked about real currencies but in that case at least their is an actual country backing the value.
Don

Last I heard a bitcoin was about $12,000 so typically you are buying only a small fraction of one. Good reading but not sure why is this a stamp forum discussion. What is the tie in?

That's the reason why I've signed up with Bitcoin ;) Personally I see it as a working alternative to PayPal, and I much rather use Bitcoin than give out my credit card details.

-k-