I'm not willing to lower the quality of my posts just to break out of newbie-land.  I originally joined this board to PM a seller on the market board; I ended up spending my coins elsewhere.

Honestly, I can't remember when I heard about it first.  I do remember reading the Wired article, and stumbling over here before dismissing it.


As a physical gold/silver holder, it strikes me as honest money.

Someone older than myself correct me if I'm wrong.


The wallet.dat file contains all of the private keys to your addresses (which are needed for you to send funds to another address).


It's as safe as you're willing to make it; there are many posts about how to protect your wallet.


Personally, I keep "walking around money" on my computer and "BTC I'm not ready to spend yet" offline.

FWIW, I have used bitinstant successfully.  I'm assuming you've emailed them this information directly?  From what I've heard, most mixups occur when the payment wasn't exactly (to the penny) what was shown on the order form.  I've heard they're pretty swamped, but make good when they get to you.  I know I'd be pissed if I'd been waiting that long.