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1. I have no idea how to get Bitcoin. A quick search takes me to several exchanges that look like torrent sites for pirating shit. 2. Nor has anyone presented

1. I have no idea how to get Bitcoin. A quick search takes me to several exchanges that look like torrent sites for pirating shit. 2. Nor has anyone presented me a compelling reason to get bitcoin (other than the future). Off the top of my head, if a company offered me an account that would take care of my online transactions in a secure way using Bitcoin, I might be interested. Maybe I'd put a few hundred in it each month and use it for random expenditures, and hopefully get access to some cool micro-services. But I have zero awareness anything like that exists. 3. If it's to succeed as capital, it will be a daring bank that creates their own bitcoin equivalent... followed by one of the norwedish countries making their own national bitcoin. Then the floodgates will open.

mabbo 11y ago
The only real compelling reason anyone has these days to buy a bitcoin seems to be for use on darknet markets, mostly to buy drugs. The merits of those markets are wonderful to discuss, but as I don't really have a use for drugs in my life right now, I have no need for bitcoins.
- StavrosK 11y ago
  I don't know, have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time, between the "verified by Visa" crap, the merchant not accepting the card and some failure on their system. With Bitcoin, you tap the link and press "confirm". It's miles ahead of any other payment system I know, including cash (because you don't have to be in proximity of the recipient).
  - bduerst 11y ago
    >have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time Who exactly are you buying plane tickets from? The last time I bought tickets, it took less than a minute to pay with a credit card. I spent more time searching for a flight with wifi.
    - such_a_casual 11y ago
      Maybe his country has different rules about this sort of thing? Or maybe airlines/credit card companies have different rules for his country?
      - bduerst 11y ago
        Or maybe it's pure hyperbole to support a narrative that Bitcoins are easier than credit cards. Bitcoin transactions can take up to 10-15 minutes just to complete.
  - datapat 11y ago
    >I don't know, have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time Funny, because the times I have used Bitcoin it has taken a solid hour, or more, for the payment to 'complete' due to the confirmations required. This for pathetic, tiny payments (like $10 or so), When using a card for airline tickets, for thousands, it takes seconds.
- orionblastar 11y ago
  That is why there was a Silk Road but they got busted by the FBI. Would sell drugs and ship them in a CD holder, claiming it was a CD-ROM for Bitcoins. There are other sites that sell things for Bitcoins that are not drugs. But there aren't that many of them. You have to get the banks to support Bitcoin so you can exchange from Bitcoin and back and that hasn't happened on a large scale yet. When I went to buy Bitcoin I saw a lot of Russian based sites, and not sure I could trust my bank account info with them as they might be run by the Russian mafia for money laundering.
  - mabbo 11y ago
    Silk Road was just the first darknet market though. There's plenty of others now, but anytime one gets a bit large, it tends to steal all it's users money and vanish, and if it gets REALLY large, it tends to be shut down by a government eventually. But there's always another market. And there always will be.
blhack 11y ago
http://www.coinbase.com/ http://www.coinbase.com/
- pcmaffey 11y ago
  Thanks, looks good. Next question for my adoption is: I want to shop anywhere online. Do they have a browser extension that can (1) handle payment processing anywhere and (2) convert my bitcoin to cash for vendors that don't accept bitcoin.
  - datamingle 11y ago
    if you use https://www.gyft.com/ https://www.gyft.com/ .. you can buy gift cards to retailers and get 3% back using Bitcoin.
  - gesman 11y ago
    Here's how we can buy anything using bitcoin (Amazon, Apple store, parking, gas, groceries, etc: http://www.mensk.com/shift-card-bitcoin-visa-debit-card-that-changes-the-game/ http://www.mensk.com/shift-card-bitcoin-visa-debit-card-that...
such_a_casual 11y ago
Bitcoin is the only alternative to Paypal if you are an American doing international transactions. Paypal is a terrible organization that has been setting itself up for a huge class action lawsuit for a while. The problem with Paypal is very simple. As a seller, you have absolutely no way of verifying that the buyer is the actual buyer, but you are held financially responsible if they are not. So what happens is people are constantly using stolen paypal accounts to make transactions. Paypal then reverses those transactions 24-48 hours later. Paypal refuses to give you any information up front about the buyer (the very same information that they use to verify that it was a stolen account after the fact, the very same information they use to flag the transaction and alert the real owner [but not the seller]), or any information on the criminal after the fact without a court order. So as a seller, there is no way to protect yourself against people using stolen paypal accounts. They are protected by the walled garden of paypal. Even though they have complete control over the security of their site and are the only party with the information required to verify whether an account is stolen, Paypal avoids the cost of their negligence and forces this cost on the helpless merchant. Paypal enables criminal activity and takes no financial responsibility for criminal use of their product. They don't even have the decency to share information about the person who committed a crime against you. Meanwhile, the merchant is left helpless. They have no way of getting the information necessary to verify the customer, no way of getting information on the criminal after the crime has taken place, and no other service to turn to because of the monopoly paypal has on international transactions for Americans. No other services offer international transactions for Americans (maybe this has changed in the last couple years but I doubt it). So if you are an American selling goods on the internet and you want to protect yourself against criminals, the only way to do it is to use Bitcoin. If you know of another way I'd love to hear it. BTW: Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. A monopolist, like paypal, can't come in and just reverse the transaction after you've already sent the product to the customer.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago
1. Coinbase or Circle 2. There really aren't any! Not for the average user, not right now. Adoption was only ever going to start with niche use cases, like international remittances, some B2B applications, darknet sites, etc. I think most people will start using Bitcoin without realizing it, as is the premise with 21inc. and many others. I think OpenBazaar will see some success, too. There's lots of time for this to work out, and speculators will drive the price for a long time. 3. A fiat blockchain is just expensive and inefficient fiat. Why do you need a public ledger when you're already placing all your trust on a bank or government? Just keep the private ledger that's cheap and trivial to implement. I think many people have this notion of thinking about Bitcoin like currency, but that's really not right. Bitcoin is a trustless network, and all of it's power and innovation stems from that. Introducing a trusted party to that just destroys all of that.
dandelion_lover 11y ago
1. https://localbitcoins.com/ https://localbitcoins.com/
erikpukinskis 11y ago
> A quick search takes me to several exchanges that look like torrent sites for pirating shit. Huh? Googling "buy Bitcoin" returns Localbitcoins and Coinbase, which is exactly what other HNers have recommended here.

mabbo 11y ago

The only real compelling reason anyone has these days to buy a bitcoin seems to be for use on darknet markets, mostly to buy drugs. The merits of those markets are wonderful to discuss, but as I don't really have a use for drugs in my life right now, I have no need for bitcoins.

StavrosK 11y ago
I don't know, have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time, between the "verified by Visa" crap, the merchant not accepting the card and some failure on their system. With Bitcoin, you tap the link and press "confirm". It's miles ahead of any other payment system I know, including cash (because you don't have to be in proximity of the recipient).
- bduerst 11y ago
  >have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time Who exactly are you buying plane tickets from? The last time I bought tickets, it took less than a minute to pay with a credit card. I spent more time searching for a flight with wifi.
  - such_a_casual 11y ago
    Maybe his country has different rules about this sort of thing? Or maybe airlines/credit card companies have different rules for his country?
    - bduerst 11y ago
      Or maybe it's pure hyperbole to support a narrative that Bitcoins are easier than credit cards. Bitcoin transactions can take up to 10-15 minutes just to complete.
- datapat 11y ago
  >I don't know, have you tried to buy plane tickets with a credit card? It takes me a solid half hour every time Funny, because the times I have used Bitcoin it has taken a solid hour, or more, for the payment to 'complete' due to the confirmations required. This for pathetic, tiny payments (like $10 or so), When using a card for airline tickets, for thousands, it takes seconds.
orionblastar 11y ago
That is why there was a Silk Road but they got busted by the FBI. Would sell drugs and ship them in a CD holder, claiming it was a CD-ROM for Bitcoins. There are other sites that sell things for Bitcoins that are not drugs. But there aren't that many of them. You have to get the banks to support Bitcoin so you can exchange from Bitcoin and back and that hasn't happened on a large scale yet. When I went to buy Bitcoin I saw a lot of Russian based sites, and not sure I could trust my bank account info with them as they might be run by the Russian mafia for money laundering.
- mabbo 11y ago
  Silk Road was just the first darknet market though. There's plenty of others now, but anytime one gets a bit large, it tends to steal all it's users money and vanish, and if it gets REALLY large, it tends to be shut down by a government eventually. But there's always another market. And there always will be.

blhack 11y ago

http://www.coinbase.com/ http://www.coinbase.com/

pcmaffey 11y ago
Thanks, looks good. Next question for my adoption is: I want to shop anywhere online. Do they have a browser extension that can (1) handle payment processing anywhere and (2) convert my bitcoin to cash for vendors that don't accept bitcoin.
- datamingle 11y ago
  if you use https://www.gyft.com/ https://www.gyft.com/ .. you can buy gift cards to retailers and get 3% back using Bitcoin.
- gesman 11y ago
  Here's how we can buy anything using bitcoin (Amazon, Apple store, parking, gas, groceries, etc: http://www.mensk.com/shift-card-bitcoin-visa-debit-card-that-changes-the-game/ http://www.mensk.com/shift-card-bitcoin-visa-debit-card-that...

such_a_casual 11y ago

Bitcoin is the only alternative to Paypal if you are an American doing international transactions. Paypal is a terrible organization that has been setting itself up for a huge class action lawsuit for a while. The problem with Paypal is very simple. As a seller, you have absolutely no way of verifying that the buyer is the actual buyer, but you are held financially responsible if they are not. So what happens is people are constantly using stolen paypal accounts to make transactions. Paypal then reverses those transactions 24-48 hours later. Paypal refuses to give you any information up front about the buyer (the very same information that they use to verify that it was a stolen account after the fact, the very same information they use to flag the transaction and alert the real owner [but not the seller]), or any information on the criminal after the fact without a court order. So as a seller, there is no way to protect yourself against people using stolen paypal accounts. They are protected by the walled garden of paypal. Even though they have complete control over the security of their site and are the only party with the information required to verify whether an account is stolen, Paypal avoids the cost of their negligence and forces this cost on the helpless merchant. Paypal enables criminal activity and takes no financial responsibility for criminal use of their product. They don't even have the decency to share information about the person who committed a crime against you. Meanwhile, the merchant is left helpless. They have no way of getting the information necessary to verify the customer, no way of getting information on the criminal after the crime has taken place, and no other service to turn to because of the monopoly paypal has on international transactions for Americans. No other services offer international transactions for Americans (maybe this has changed in the last couple years but I doubt it). So if you are an American selling goods on the internet and you want to protect yourself against criminals, the only way to do it is to use Bitcoin. If you know of another way I'd love to hear it. BTW: Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. A monopolist, like paypal, can't come in and just reverse the transaction after you've already sent the product to the customer.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago

1. Coinbase or Circle 2. There really aren't any! Not for the average user, not right now. Adoption was only ever going to start with niche use cases, like international remittances, some B2B applications, darknet sites, etc. I think most people will start using Bitcoin without realizing it, as is the premise with 21inc. and many others. I think OpenBazaar will see some success, too. There's lots of time for this to work out, and speculators will drive the price for a long time. 3. A fiat blockchain is just expensive and inefficient fiat. Why do you need a public ledger when you're already placing all your trust on a bank or government? Just keep the private ledger that's cheap and trivial to implement. I think many people have this notion of thinking about Bitcoin like currency, but that's really not right. Bitcoin is a trustless network, and all of it's power and innovation stems from that. Introducing a trusted party to that just destroys all of that.

dandelion_lover 11y ago

1. https://localbitcoins.com/ https://localbitcoins.com/

erikpukinskis 11y ago

> A quick search takes me to several exchanges that look like torrent sites for pirating shit. Huh? Googling "buy Bitcoin" returns Localbitcoins and Coinbase, which is exactly what other HNers have recommended here.