Add United Bank (DC Metro area) to unfriendly.  They flat out told me any association with coinbase is grounds to close a decade old account.  And BOA closed my MSB biz account back in September 2015 and were tight lipped about why. Yes, I had a AML/KYC policy that I followed to a T.  This shit is ridiculous.

I've bought beer, cocktails, sheets, tshirts, a couch, a stereo system, more sheets, football tickets and earrings so far.  bitcoin is awesome.

sheets. I only buy sheets.

Daniel Kaufman, Co-Founder, Strategy
Ophélie Pubellier, Co-Founder, Technology
Scott Walker, Co-Founder, Business Development and Marketing
Mark Bridges, Business Development and Marketing
Kourosh Davarpanah, Evangelist
Maël Nison, Core Coin Developer
Ludovic Pouvreau, Back-end Developer
Alexandra Grasland, Front-end Developer and Designer
Alex Norstrom
Jackson Palmer
Brock Pierce
Patrik Stymne
Michaël Witrant
Josh Abram
Markus Alderback
Olga Bartnicki
Henrik Dahlback
Michael Daun
Anders Ehrenblad
Josh Engroff
Bill and Gideon Friedman
David Frykman
Rob Goldman
Toby Gorman
Pal Hodann
Michael Hudgins
Nicholas Högberg
Johan Ihrfelt
Henrik Kjellberg
David Lerner
Ori Mace
Adam McNicol
Emil Michael
Alan Murray
Henrik Hancke Nielsen
David Perez
Tom Phillips
Andreas Reutercrona
Ted Rogers
Daniel Sachs
Christophe Salanon
Richard Silen
Calle Sjoenell
Bjorn Soderstrom
Patrik Stymne
Henrik Sundgren
Jonas Svensson
Per Zachariassen

What a bunch of bullshit.  

1) They claim they've sold over 70M neucoins for over 3K BTC.
2) They claim the proceeds are visible here: https://blockchain.info/address/3MrNuksZ1VePU3dGiSQFiouWerJUJgDkfH
3) There is .05 BTC in that address

They originally listed the names of people behind this scam in this article, but they have since been scrubbed.. INTERESTING HMM?
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/neucoin-teams-techs-top-executives-bring-cryptocurrency-masses/

Clearly the next GAW.  Assholes.  Fuck Off.

What would be my recourse if I lose the security card? or if it gets destroyed somehow?

you can get amazon code from coinstar for 0% fee, then go to coinclub.io and convert to BTC..  i haven't used coinclub but they seem to have a good track record.

http://www.reddit.com/user/CoinClub_io

It's an extra step from what you are describing, but simplest way i see to convert change to bits.

I checked it out for shits and giggles.
nothing fishy as far as I(and software) could tell from an exploit standpoint.
I must be one of the people whose details were deleted.

There is nothing of value from what i can discern other than emails tied to a balance.

I highly doubt Mark "has all the coins" btw...bizarre post all around.  What is to happen on the 25th?

This is stupid, not to mention illegal.

Before you even insert cash, the machine asks for your QR code. It makes sure it is a valid address before accepting any bills.  As long as your wallet and devices are secure(which is out of BTM's control), you should feel very comfortable using BTMs. They will not let you insert more money than they can cover. I have not used Skyhook, but the major BTM manufacturers have never had transaction issues I am aware of. Bitaccess, Lamassu, Robocoin, Genesis1 are all trustworthy machines.

You don't know a damn thing about what Satoshi was "betting" on.

But I can also pay for someone's gas in the middle of nowhere instantly from my living room with btc, all they need is the payment protocol.

I use .00001 fee all the time and it's gets added pretty quickly.  $.003 isn't very ridiculous to me when i'm moving $1500 or even $5 around.. total fees per block currently avgs .1 - .2 btc.. big whoop.

Seems like you are just in this to make more dollars?  Please correct me if I'm misreading your original post.

Last night I got a buttload of free drinks just for talking the bartender into d/ling a wallet for his phone, and tipped him $3 in BTC.  This creates network effects that will make you more dollars(if that's your bag) in the long run.  Have you spent any bitcoins, or do you have any plans to do so, or will you just dump when it hits your price target?

I guess it depends.  I can get fiat to exchanges in under 48 hours. USA->bitstamp.  $50 fee tho...

This is GARBAGE media. Your articles are full of half facts, and sorely lacking in actual data.  Bunch of What-ifs and FUD.  Did you even read the complaint against Shrem or the Florida guys?  They weren't arrested "for selling bitcoins".

Please GTFO. Worse than Fox News.

*adds cryptoconspiracy.com to blacklist*

Figured this was a good example of the future of bitcoin.  I was just contacted by a major bank and told my credit card number was breached.  This is literally the 4th in 2 years. They would not tell me where it was breached but said it was a mass breach event. Now I have to go change just about every account because this was my #1 card.  I'm so sick of this crap.  Where is the CFPB? Oh, that's right, they're busy writing slanted hit pieces!  As soon as I can ditch these cards and go full crypto, then we have arrived at the future.

I'm fresh out of popcorn, also, luckily Overstock.com has plenty:

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Great-Northern-8-oz-Popcorn-Portion-Packs-Case-of-24/5620074/product.html?searchidx=0

Thanks for the post, I had something very similar happen. He had addresses on a piece of paper, not even QR codes and admitted they were not his. I felt uncomfortable about the whole thing and declined to sell the coins.

My concern with BTCJam's no collateral loans is that there is nothing stopping someone with a Judgement on their record from telling the Collection agencys to take a hike and never paying a dime back.  It's a bad mark on their credit but if it's shot anyway, who cares?  The laws are definitely in the borrower/scammers favor.  I personally would never seek interest thru bitcoin loans.  What if you loan 1 BTC and the price spikes to 5K, and Bob can't possibly afford to buy 1BTC to pay you back.  It's just rife with problems, but I hope everyone gets paid.  I did Prosper.com for a bit and ended up breaking even after one scammer just walked away from a $1300 loan. No money collected.  All in all, I experienced a ~20% default rate on my loans, and Prosper didn't do dick about it.