Newbie Questions

[poornamelessme]

Hello,

I just started playing with crypto currencies about 4-5 days ago and started reading up on it, etc. but have some general newbie questions I hope people here can help me with.

First off, what is the easiest way to buy bitcoins? It seems like most places require bank accounts to be linked (doesn't so feel safe to me) or wire transfers, or odd things like that. Can we simply pay using paypal, anywhere? I assumed by now that there would be one secure site that allowed for paypal purchases of bitcoins.

I read something about a site where we can buy Linden Dollars, transfer that to bitcoins, but it sounded very roundabout and figure a certain amount of money will be lost in the process.

Can any wimpy computers mine at all? Either goldcoins, or any coins? I wanted to set up an old PC just to see how it's done, but it seems to be taking forever simply setting up a Dogecoin wallet... so am not so hopeful. I have a feeling it'd take weeks to mine anything at all, and in the process blow out the cpu. I did set up my goldcoin wallet on my tablet, which did go a lot faster -- probably not the safest place for a wallet though. Guess it's a good thing I'm poor.

So far, I've set up accounts on Cryptsy, CoinEx and some other oddball sites, just to see how this all worked. It sort of reminds me of a stock market game I played as a kid on my C-64... so far I have the freebie gold coins that were given out. And I was given a lot of mooncoins from a giveaway.

Anyway, curious if anyone has any tips. Ideally I wish I had a portion of bitcoins to play around with, buy goldcoins with, etc. but don't feel like giving away my bank info to do so. If anyone feels extra generous, here is my wallet too: EGw3wdifj7iMb2drRvEeXvA2dKvTxd7YSH

The main way so far that I've gotten any coins at all simply is begging, it seems. And a lot of faucets.

[dustint]

In canada i use https://www.cavirtex.com to buy bitcoin but you do have to set it up with your bank account.  A few steps to setting up an account but worth it in the end because it is a safe easy way to buy or sell bitcoin. In the US Coinbase is the #1 choice for bitcoin I think. 

[agnusnatum]

Hi, welcome to the forum 

Buying bitcoins: any reputable exchange will require some form of account validation to prove your identity/address i.e. scans of utility bill &/or drivers licence/passport etc. I’m not sure about ‘linking’ of bank accounts, but in the case of Bitstamp for example, once you have verified your account you would then need to arrange a wire transfer, as you would do any other, with the account details they provide. I’ve done this without issue, and via 3rd payment processors such as OKPay, again without any problems. 

If you’re not comfortable in divulging any personal info, then you may want to consider https://localbitcoins.com/ I haven’t used it but it is popular and depending on your location, will probably be able to connect you with a vendor willing to accept paypal. You may be paying over the odds for the privilege however; paypal and bitcoin are not happy bedfellows! 

Mining: you’ll be able to find better high level summaries re mining and hardware requirements online than I could offer, but in short, it depends on the coin and it’s state of maturity. You could’ve used any old machine to mine Bitcoin immediately following its release, but as the ‘difficulty’ increases, so too does the demand on the hardware to perform calculations. Hence in the case of Bitcoin, the mining hardware has evolved from your average home computer, to high-end gaming machines, to machines designed specifically to mine bitcoin and do nothing but. 

With technology evolving as it does generally, old machines always seem to take ages to do anything (especially if running Windows), so I wouldn’t recommend using one by way of experimentation; you may find the whole experience too frustrating!

Better to learn about the cryptocoins generally, identify which you’re interested in (GoldCoin, obviously....!) and then understand the mining requirements relative to the coin. 

Hope this helps, I’ll send a few GLD your way so you can appreciate again how the GoldCoin client doesn’t run like a Doge.

Sent on the move

[CryptoFreedom4Me]

Welcome to the community

[poornamelessme]

Thanks for the replies.

And yeah, after reading up on it some more, I see most vendors don't like to take credit cards or paypal for bitcoins due to fraud and chargebacks... so it does make sense. It just feels weird though to give bank info to some of those sites. A lot of the exchange sites also seem a bit... well... less professional than I expected. Even Cryptsy seems rather clunky. I'll have to look into it a bit more as to the best place to get bitcoins (or any coins). I assume eBay wouldn't be the best place? Besides seller inflation, I don't think eBay really like the sale of virtual goods so much.

As for mining, I recall hearing about bitcoins years ago, but didn't bother with it since my PC at the time was insanely ancient. Although now of course I wish I simply bought a new PC and mined some. I figure if I try to do any mining, it'd have to be new coins only, ones that haven't hit any exchanges. Or I look into cloud hosted mining options?

Coinwise, GoldCoin does seem to be a bit underrated. HoboNickels also look interesting. I don't understand one thing though ... why do some of the coins like GoldCoin, which do have some value per coin, get less notice and also less usage than coins worth a lot less (Doge)? Is it simply a marketing type of thing?

I'm sure people here have looked at ways to market the coin, but it seems like if a coin had some intrinsic value to begin with, it may do better. Such as linking GoldCoin to precious metals in some way (deal/marketing with gold sellers, or something like that) ... so at least the coins could be used to buy real gold with, that sort of thing.