I experienced similar frustration when trying to buy bitcoins. I ended up using localbitcoins.com, and had an excellent experience. The site matches up private

I experienced similar frustration when trying to buy bitcoins. I ended up using localbitcoins.com, and had an excellent experience. The site matches up private users (by geographic location by default) wishing to buy bitcoins with those wishing to sell. It offers "feedback" ratings for traders, and an escrow system where the site confirms your coins have been sent to it and placed in reserve, and these get released to you once the seller confirms receipt of your funds, either by texting a code from their phone or by using the website. There were no onerous fees, and my entire trade was completed within hours. Typical trading methods would include internet bank transfer (which is what I did), or even meeting in person with cash (riskier but more anonymous I guess). >Also someone explain to me how that is anonymous when they have all my information if I had uploaded my driver's license and my bank account information. Nobody claimed it was anonymous. And companies acting as "money transmitters" (or who the feds decide to consider as such) have a bunch of AML/KYC regulations they are required to follow, hence the whole ID thing. You can enhance the anonymity of your coins in various ways, typically by services which chop them up and shuffle them between many addresses to obfuscate their trail in the blockchain (so-called "mixers"). >And this fluctuating price isn't very impressive either What concerns you about it? For many people I guess the short-term fluctuations aren't such an issue (e.g. those playing the long game with their bitcoin investment; or those only holding coins for a short time to make a specific purchase, particularly where the sales platform offers a hedging feature like Silk Road apparently did).