Quote from: CIYAM Open on February 10, 2013, 06:18:14 AM

Yes - that is unfortunate (please note the date on that topic and read all the posts to make your own judgement).

Yes, I have read all the posts and reached my own judgement :-)

Looks like the reason it was the top result for me was most likely because somebody had recently added to the thread.

I am very much interested in bitcoin as it seems a much more secure system without the security issues that our conventional systems have (e.g. paying for things over the Internet by or phone using credit card by revealing your "secrets" to the vendor).

To use bitcoin efficiently and safely, I get the impression it is best to try to avoid having to exchange money between AUD and BTC. This is because it involves banks and exchange agents which are slow and take up anything up to 10% of the funds being exchanged.

This means finding some other way of earning BTC. Selling stuff would seem an ideal way.

Unfortunately, looking at the current environment, it seems that there are many more people trying to sell stuff then to buy stuff. Not to mention nobody seems to know who is running sites like bitmit, what their trustworthiness is like, etc.

One might assume that more people selling then buying would lead to low prices for buyers. However this does not appear to be the case. e.g. Some of the prices I see on bitmit are very much inflated from what I could pay normal retailer in AUD. I think the problem is there is no real incentive to try to sell things in BTC, perhaps because there aren't enough buyers.

Anyway, just my thoughts for the moment.