Adventures in Cryptocurrency

[Onward]

I wanted to post an update to my earlier post on my attempts at bitcoin, and I thought I'd start a new thread and maybe attract some other people's experiences.

As an educational exercise I've been trying to buy a small fraction of a bitcoin for the past four days.

It's bizarre, and almost comical, how difficult it is to get a few overpriced bits assigned to me.

I've tried two exchanges (Coinbase and Coinmama) and some other thing that's not exactly an exchange (SIMPLEX). I still have nothing to show for it.

Some highlights along the way:

Coinbase decided I was not in a trusted country, and blocked all purchases until I could prove I lived in the U.S.

SIMPLEX cancelled my order at the last minute because, they said, the price of bitcoin had changed too much in the time it took them to verify my identity.

Coinmama made me submit a photo of myself holding my driver's license alongside a piece of paper with certain things written on it.

And still ... no bitcoin.

It's amazing to me that anybody has ever gotten through this process.

Update:

After 2.5 weeks and a crazy circus of hoops and obstacles, I am now the proud owner of 0.003866 bitcoins, purchased from the Coinbase exchange.

Current value is $44.17.

After hours and hours trying half a dozen different exchanges that never worked, I finally got through Coinbase's ID-verification hell, and bought $50 worth of coins via my credit card. Coinbase took a $2.19 fee. So I really got $47.81 worth of bitcoin.

I then transferred all my booty to my private wallet (which I'd set up beforehand), since online wallets aren't safe. Coinbase charged me (or rather, forced me to pay a miner) $5.00. So I ended up with $42.81 of bitcoin in my wallet.

It's already grown to $44.17.

 

[aja8888]

It seems like the "fee guys" are making all the money on bitcoins.

 

[Texas Proud]

It seems like the "fee guys" are making all the money on bitcoins.

+1


Also, I saw on TV the other day that said they think that 10% of all bitcoin has been stolen from someone... Does not seem safe to me...

 

[Onward]

I'm trying to figure out how those fees scale up with larger purchases. I'm pretty sure the first one ($2.19 to Coinbase) does grow with transaction size.

I think the second one ($5 to miners) stays roughly fixed, regardless of transaction size.

I'm still a newbie, so I'm really not sure.

 

[REWahoo]

Sounds like there are a lot of "adventures" in cryptocurrencies:

A Japanese exchange has lost 58 billion yen ($530 million) in cryptocurrency because of hacking, according to Japanese media reports.

The Coincheck exchange said on its website Friday that it had halted sales and withdrawals of the currency, which is called NEM. It later added that it had restricted dealings in most other cryptocurrencies too.

$530 million lost in hack of Japan cryptocurrency exchange

 

[Totoro]

It seems like the "fee guys" are making all the money on bitcoins.

Indeed. Coinbase had $1B in revenue last year reportedly. That's actual revenue, in actual dollars.

Sell the shovels, don't dig for you own gold.

 

[Onward]

Yeah, I wasn't too happy to start out with a 14% loss.

Maybe there's more efficient ways of buying, though?

 

[NYEXPAT]

Onward, look to see if the Robinhood app is available in your state. You can buy without the fee's.

 

[Onward]

Onward, look to see if the Robinhood app is available in your state. You can buy without the fee's.

Tried to sign up, but they won't let me from Mexico. (Don't want to put a VPN on my phone.)

I will try again when I visit the U.S., or when they get their web-version up. (I have a VPN on my notebook.)

I have a feeling they are going to be bombarded with new sign-ups.

The whole point of this is to get educated about digital currencies (which IMO could well be in all our futures) and the technology behind them. I'm not really expecting to make $$.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Tried to sign up, but they won't let me from Mexico. (Don't want to put a VPN on my phone.)

I will try again when I visit the U.S., or when they get their web-version up. (I have a VPN on my notebook.)

I have a feeling they are going to be bombarded with new sign-ups.

The whole point of this is to get educated about digital currencies (which IMO could well be in all our futures) and the technology behind them. I'm not really expecting to make $$.

Did not know you were not US based. I am trying to get a handle on it as well. I am slowly moving money into Peru (there is only one bank that works with Paypal) they have a 10k transaction limit and a 1 1/2% fee. They are expected to bring crypto atm machines here in a few months but I understand they are buy only and we do not have banks here that will exchange for fiat yet. I am not interested in trading either and would love to see price stability and widescale adoption.

 

[mrfeh]

I'm trying to figure out how those fees scale up with larger purchases. I'm pretty sure the first one ($2.19 to Coinbase) does grow with transaction size.

I think the second one ($5 to miners) stays roughly fixed, regardless of transaction size.

I'm still a newbie, so I'm really not sure.

Exchanges will charge a fee for buying and selling. This, in my experience, has always been a percentage of the amount bought/sold. The percentage varies wildly; using a CC on coinbase will be one of the highest.

Transferring funds also incurs a fee, for the miners. This will occur whenever you transfer money from one address to another (wallet->wallet, wallet->exchange, exchange->wallet). In most cases, the amount of this fee is not related to the amount of the transfer.

There are some details I am leaving out, but that is it in a nutshell.

 

[donheff]

I read the other day that the Bitcoin Blockchain is so bogged down that unless you pay for priority processing transactions can take 6-8 hours to get certified in a block. With Bitcoin so volatile that is pretty darn scary - "Wait, I ordered 5 grams of cocaine and you only sent three. Oh, I see, the price dropped,"

 

[Onward]

Yes, the transaction that sent the BTC from Coinbase to my wallet took 1.5 hrs to be confirmed. I didn't know it would take that long, and I was sweating a bit, because the BTC disappeared from my Coinbase account immediately.

I think "confirmed" means "added to a transaction block that has been added to the blockchain that most participants recognize as valid." I am not sure about this.

Most people seem to say you should wait for multiple blocks to be added before you consider the transaction confirmed. That reduces the chances that the block containing your transaction will ever be invalidated.

An hour and half is slower than cash and cc's, but faster than ACH and wire transfers (in my experience).

Hmmmm.

 

[mrfeh]

Yes, the transaction that sent the BTC from Coinbase to my wallet took 1.5 hrs to be confirmed. I didn't know it would take that long, and I was sweating a bit, because the BTC disappeared from my Coinbase account immediately.

I think "confirmed" means "added to a transaction block that has been added to the blockchain that most participants recognize as valid." I am not sure about this.

Most people seem to say you should wait for multiple blocks to be added before you consider the transaction confirmed. That reduces the chances that the block containing your transaction will ever be invalidated.

An hour and half is slower than cash and cc's, but faster than ACH and wire transfers (in my experience).

Hmmmm.

This is the (IMO) biggest problem w/ bitcoin at the moment - the high fees. The higher the demand for transaction processing, the higher the fee necessary to get the transaction confirmed. The more you pay, the quicker it gets processed.

Of course, there are other cryptos with tiny (sometimes even free) transactions, that occur very, very quickly.

 

[Texas Proud]

Saw that bitcoin was below $7,000 today...

Hope nobody here bought at over $15,000 and was hoping it was going up...


I still see it continuing to crash....

 

[gayl]

Bubble

 

[Turboslacker]

Bought some Bitcoin on way up around $14K then again at $19400 near the peak LOL. Playing with chump change just to enjoy the high volatility. Down 50% with all my crypo holdings so I definitely got my money's worth.

So what do I do now??
HOLD

 

[NW-Bound]

With bitcoin, you do not HOLD. You HODL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HODL

 

[zedd]

Bought some Bitcoin on way up around $14K then again at $19400 near the peak LOL. Playing with chump change just to enjoy the high volatility. Down 50% with all my crypo holdings so I definitely got my money's worth.

So what do I do now??
HOLD

What to do? Hold on. Hold on indeed.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I see the next support level they will be gunning for is $5450.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Saw that bitcoin was below $7,000 today...

Hope nobody here bought at over $15,000 and was hoping it was going up...


I still see it continuing to crash....

My cost basis is around $300. I wonder if it will be reached.

 

[Cayman]

This is the (IMO) biggest problem w/ bitcoin at the moment - the high fees. The higher the demand for transaction processing, the higher the fee necessary to get the transaction confirmed. The more you pay, the quicker it gets processed.

Of course, there are other cryptos with tiny (sometimes even free) transactions, that occur very, very quickly.

The biggest problem with bitcoin is high fees? Sure, that's the biggest problem.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I bought a bit of Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash around Midnight when Bitcoin fell below $6K. Just a little bit to get back to my original 2015 $100 investment (which was almost $8K at the peak). I had sold $500 of Bitcoin in December at $17k/coin. With last nights "investment" I still have my original investment off the table.

Why? For the same reason I participate in the Super Bowl Square (it's called gambling) and because the Asia markets at the time were -6+% (so I thought that Bitcoin would attempt a technical recovery of some sort).

 

[Onward]

I bought my whole stash, $50 worth, at about $11,000.

Super-bear market instinctively makes me want to buy more here, but can't logically justify it.

 

[exnavynuke]

I have 4 cryptocurrencies currently that I bought last year, with my personal cost now at less than $100 (already cashed out the rest). Today's market value is still a bit over $1.5k. Trying to catch a falling knife isn't my style, so I'm just going to leave things be for now.