Post
Topic
Board Trading Discussion
Re: Do you buy and sell BTC in person?
by
BurtW
on 18/08/2015, 14:21:45 UTC
Never in person, I tend to stick to online exchanges mainly for ease of use (I believe there is a local Bitcoin meetup but I haven't had the time to see what it's all about yet).

Something to consider in the future....
Homeland Security can and does infiltrate Bitcoin organizations such as meetups and this web site.  So always keep it in mind that the people you are talking to at these meetups and here can be Homeland Security agents, confidential informants or cooperating witnesses.

Local meetups and this web site are very important for Bitcoin and this should not stop you from going and will not stop me as you can see:

http://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Bitcoin-Society/events/224676885/

However, be cognizant of this fact and be careful not to say anything that might be used against you.  This can be hard.

For example, a few years ago I saw an ad right here on bitcoin talk.  A guy from Darjeeling India was selling bulk Darjeeling tea for Bitcoins.  I love Darjeeling tea so I bought a large quantity.  Later, as I was going through the thousands of pages of "evidence" against me, including interviews with my friends, I found that one of my friends mentioned to Homeland Security that I bought this tea using Bitcoins.

It was entered into the evidence transcript like this:

Quote
Wagner used Bitcoins to purchase a large quantity of "tea"

This kind of pissed me off and I was really looking forward to bringing this up at trial - how they twisted this innocent purchase in their little pea brains to be an accusation against me.  

Anyway I was able to avoid the additional $100,000 that the trial would have cost me so that was good.