It's definitely a shot in the dark if you aren't dealing with a reputable/responsible and well funded exchange. For instance, it is known that Coinbase is pretty much the most capitalized company in the space aside from 21, and it can be expected that their security practices would be par-none. For the most part, it's tough to know how secure the other large exchanges are.

As good practice, it's probably best not to keep your coins sitting on any exchange for a long time.

It looks like BitQuick makes sure that there's no way you can get scammed. They walk the buyer and seller through the process so you don't need to go by trust ratings.

I'm glad that you're trying to help out, it's really appreciated. I just personally think that it's a bit of a bad idea to encourage somebody to gamble with any amount of serious money. It's a novel thing that can allow you to make some BTC if you're lucky or skilled, but in general it should be treated like the concept of holding Bitcoin itself IMHO, I.E. you shouldn't put in more than you can afford to lose.

Just my 79.83 Bits, which is worth about two cents right now.

Well, that's fucking horrible. Yeah I would just continue sending email requests, sorry to hear that you're in this situation. They really should have a phone number, or at least live chat.

Since the difficulty of obtaining Bitcoin increases as more people try to mine it, it's now at the point that mining on your own computer is entirely useless. Large corporations are now mining, so it's better to just buy them directly if you're trying to get some Bitcoin.

Here's an example chart from 2010 to 2012.

Not that I know of at the moment.

Some cool things are in the works though. Overstock wants to build a stock market platform powered by cryptocurrency technology.

Also, Barry Silbert recently launched the first public and compliant Bitcoin ETF.

I'd contact them via support@circle.com.

Anyone ever given BitQuick.co a look?

They're similar to LocalBitcoins but make sure that you can't/don't get scammed.

0 BTC at the moment.


I've spent maybe half a Bitcoin total. I remember paying for the movie "The Interview" with Bitcoin when it was first released.


Thankfully none!

It's not easy to get free money. Bitcoiners are fairly generous, but it's also recommended that you pay it forward to another person if you are tipped by a community member.

If you're looking to buy, I think that the following sites are good for new users:

BitQuick - No bank account needed to buy, coins can be received the same day via cash deposit. Seems to be similar to LocalBitcoins but safer. I put this one first since you don't need a bank account and they are fast, so new users can get into Bitcoin fairly easily.

Coinbase - The largest Bitcoin service out there to date, and in my opinion one of the more trustworthy ones. The guys running it are great and have been around for a while. You do need to connect a bank account, and they have variable limits. When you've used up all of the instant buys, you need to wait 3-5 days for the ACH.

Expresscoin - Pay via personal check and money order. Check takes 3-5 days, money order is instant but you have to go to the post office (or wherever) first to get the money order. They also have cash, but only for participating CO-OP Shared Branch credit unions.

It's a very interesting question, unfortunately it seems to be a very difficult thing to verify/determine with certainty. Because Bitcoin is divisible into much smaller units, I don't think that "lost Bitcoin" will really be at the forefront of Bitcoin-related issues any time soon.

I think they've been around more than a year or so, close to 8,600 transactions according to their front page.

Don't mention it! The last thing that I would want to hear is that somebody lost hundreds of dollars on a mobile wallet.

I really just wouldn't try. If you find a successful outlet you'll very likely end up incurring insane fees. I don't think there's a reputable service out there where this isn't the case.

If you're doing peer-to-peer there will be rampant fraud.

Paypal's not ready to go full Bitcoin yet.

I love this description, "Bitcoin in baby language". Haha.

If it truly is for babies though, I would not include coarse language such as the phrase "fuck you", even if it is exemplary. 

Seriously though, if it's for newcomers I think this forum is definitely a good place to start.

This is pretty much all that's out there at the moment, the list is short:

-Coinbase

-Circle

-Trucoin


Debit/credit card functionality is tricky for any Bitcoin business, charge-backs are a bitch. Because of this, the limits for new users are rather low.

Hey there! 

Mobile wallets can be very convenient, with features that you can't do with your computer such as NFC and Bluetooth payments.

You seem to be doing the right things by keeping up with regular backups, I would just recommend that you don't keep more money on your mobile wallet than you can afford to lose.

Your mobile wallet is like a "spending wallet". I wouldn't keep your entire Bitcoin savings on your phone since it can be argued that your phone is more easily exploitable than your computer, especially when your computer has the option of utilizing tools such as Trucrypt, which your phone does not have.

I recently heard of this new site called BitQuick, it looks like they're basically solving this problem. They seem to be a streamlined LocalBitcoins, without the possibility of being scammed.

It's an escrow service, so the business takes care of sending the BTC to the buyer and ensuring that there's no fraud. There's no trust ratings. What do you guys think?

This actually looks like the best option. I would go with this one if I were you, OP.

There's a couple places that have NXT wallets:

-Cryptsy

-NXTblocks