Quote: (11-13-2013 05:58 PM)Fisto Wrote:
Buying these things seems to be unnecessarily complicated.....
Can someone break this down better?
That Virox website only allows me to deposit 78 USD at a time, and then I'm forced to get their exchange rate for a bitcoin after paying fees.
Of course it's unnecessarily complicated, there is actually incentive for existing major financial institutions to make it as difficult as possible. As I said, the people trying to make it easier have the government or banks come down on them like a ton of bricks (do some reading on Bitcoin and Dwolla). Shit like this is why Bitcoin is the future.
Cost to transfer $6.5 million internationally?
Bank Wire: Over $500 000
Paypal: Over $200 000
Bitcoin: 6 cents
How you going to handle a competitor with an overhead that low? Boycott people getting some in the first place. Once enough people are in, you're done.
EDIT: The silver lining is that this exact situation is doing something towards keeping prices from skyrocketing. The second someone sets up something that any Tom, Dick and Harry can buy Bitcoin with and not get shut down by legislation or financial interference, Bitcoin prices are going to the moon. This is starting to happen in some of the countries that aren't the USA, the window is rapidly closing for the current price range.
My tips:
1. The max limits and fees on Virwox are a pain, but this is actually the easiest way to get some, and if you're in for the long haul then the fees will be negligible. The limit increases quite a bit once you've had the account a few days. Also, there's no reason you can't open 5 accounts, run a bit of money through each of them to make sure they're working, then sit back for a week and wait for their limits to increase.
2. On BTC-E, you can buy with a bunch of online payment options, including Visa/Mastercard via Payeer (who themselves work via Liqpay). After you have an account, click "Finance", then next to USD click "Deposit", then scroll down to the bottom and click "Payeer". There are almost as many fees doing it this way as using Virwox.
WARNING: If trying to buy in from overseas, get the confirmation SMS sent to a friend currently residing in the country where your credit card is registered, and have them relay it to you. If you use a phone number from a different country to your credit card you get an error message saying that they don't match, and the online service guys are super unhelpful about setting to a different phone number. Get it right the first time.
WARNING 2: Some people have had experience with being scammed by the Russian guys that run Liqpay, Google it. Caveat emptor.
3. I buy in via a Chinese friend that has his stuff already set up. If you have any friends that are Chinese (as in, Chinese passport, not your local American Born Chinese community), it's possible to buy on Btc-China using coupons purchased on Taobao, and you can transfer direct from Chinese banks into Taobao.
For everyone else, fantastic introduction to and discussion of Bitcoin.