Bitcoins

grifferz

bigadaj wrote: »

Can you really buy groceries with crypto currency?

Not that I'm aware of. In the UK the biggest companies accepting Bitcoin as far as I am aware are Scan and Aria (computer hardware retailers).

There are a few third party schemes for using Bitcoin at Amazon but these are not directly blessed by Amazon yet.

missjames

You can use bitcoin for any transaction you like, but usually you have to convert to fiat first.

I am talking on another thread about the best value fruit/veg box delivery company. I will use a little bitcoin (change to fiat first) when its high and at the moment while its low just use fiat only.

grifferz

I can use Flanian Pobble Beads for any transaction I like as well.

As long as I convert it to GBP first.

probably via the Triganic Pu.

vectistim

grifferz wrote: »

I can use Flanian Pobble Beads for purchasing anything as well.

As long as I convert it to GBP first.

probably via the Triganic Pu.

Don't you find the Pu tends to tear your trouser pockets?

missjames

I hope bitcoin goes down a bit more. I want to buy a little for my kids. Keep a print out in my safe of my place on the block chain.

sabretoothtigger

This is a uk forum, that spam bot may not care. Gox is never coming back

missjames wrote: »

I hope bitcoin goes down a bit more. I want to buy a little for my kids. Keep a print out in my safe of my place on the block chain.

:laugh:
That does sound funny


You can buy groceries with bitcoins but cannot walk into tescos and do it exactly.

If you want to pick it apart, while at tescos you could on your smart phone swap btc for a bank transfer with anyone in UK and it'll be done in about 20 mins I guess.
As the money is in your bank you can then pay as normal


The thing is, will there be any advantage to business to take btc. I mean I'll take the payment here now if you want but I will charge you a premium for my effort to order your groceries online for you, so why bother
Thats the question and I will say sometimes btc has a use. Like in venezuela, sometimes even in uk also


The price is down but I dont foresee the death of this from that. It is for transactions and facilitating and the ease of business is the main critical point. Buy gold if you want to hold something forever undiminished and you will have everything in the correct order.

inversions

I've been doing a lot of reading about the various ways of buying crypto currency. It sounds much harder to sell them! I noticed at least one poster on here saying he was buying and selling Bitcoins. Where do you sell? I've found a lot of hoops to jump through and no really obvious way. One site I've found, for instance, only wants people who will be able to sell £1000 worth.

brendon

inversions wrote: »

I've been doing a lot of reading about the various ways of buying crypto currency. It sounds much harder to sell them! I noticed at least one poster on here saying he was buying and selling Bitcoins. Where do you sell? I've found a lot of hoops to jump through and no really obvious way. One site I've found, for instance, only wants people who will be able to sell £1000 worth.

LocalBitcoins is an easy way to buy and sell, but perhaps you don't get the best rates. Many of the marketplaces are US-only or do not operate in the UK, unfortunately. With LocalBitcoins, you are trading with other users, so you pay directly into somebody else's bank account and they transfer you Bitcoins. Or, the other way round to sell. Make sure you choose someone with a good reputation. (You can also buy/sell in Cash and arrange a meet, but that seems a bit shady AFAIC.)

grifferz

inversions wrote: »

I've been doing a lot of reading about the various ways of buying crypto currency. It sounds much harder to sell them!

Bear in mind that if your first thought is "how can I buy this and sell it at a profit" then you aren't really thinking of it as a currency but more as an investment. It's not that easy to get into more conventional forms of investment either. Otherwise everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be an investment.

It's pretty easy to sell bitcoins.

If I had a small amount of bitcoins and wasn't concerned about getting above market rate for them then I would probably sell them on an exchange like Kraken or Bitstamp. There you can sell all your bitcoins immediately for market rate, through the exchange, converting it to EUR or USD.

You'd then withdraw that to your UK bank account in EUR using a SEPA bank transfer, which neither Kraken nor Bitstamp charges more than a very small amount for (90 Eurocents?). Your bank probably won't charge you but may give you a poor exchange rate. It may take a couple of working days for a SEPA transfer to come through.

If I wanted to make a small profit above market rate then I'd have to sell them on sites like LocalBitcoins or Bittylicious. On LocalBitcoins you need at least 0.4BTC to do this.

Unlike an exchange, sites like LocalBitcoins are more peer to peer with the site performing escrow duties. So as a seller:

1. You would put up an ad on their site that is for selling in person or by bank transfer.
2. Someone accepts your ad and buys some bitcoins from you at your posted rate.
3. The site immediately takes away the bitcoin funds plus their 1% fee.
4. Once you take payment directly from the buyer (i.e. in your hand or in your bank account) you press the button on the site that indicates "I've received the money".
5. The site releases the bitcoins to the buyer.

So the site is just mediating between you there.

Sites like LocalBitcoins are rather safe for buyers because of the escrow. If a buyer pays but never receives, they can dispute the transaction and ultimately site admins will forcibly release the bitcoins to the buyer.

It is more dangerous for sellers because once the seller has hit the release button, an irreversible bitcoin transaction has taken place. Scammer buyers will try any and every way they can to trick sellers into releasing bitcoins before permanent payment has taken place.

Bear in mind that none of these sites (exchanges, markets like LocalBitcoins) are regulated for dealing in money, and if they shut down tomorrow then very likely any funds you had sitting on them in bitcoins or fiat would have to be considered lost.

You could expect to be able to sell at between 3 and 10% above market rate on a site like LocalBitcoins, but not all at once, and obviously with a fair bit more hassle. This makes markets more risky because your bitcoins sit on there for longer. With an exchange you can be done in a couple of hours.

inversions

Thank you for your excellent explanation grifferz. Yes, I am thinking of it as an investment. Well, a gamble! I've actually bought some Litecoin (1 for £6.48, last year I looked at mining them but failed to get it working and I think they were worth a lot less even then) and will be buying some Dogecoin as well, about £3 worth. In the vague hope that one of them will take off. Its much the same hope with which I look through the football pools coupon most weeks!

I may buy some BTC if the value drops a bit more.

Do you know anything about the wallets? I've downloaded the full local versions for the types of coin and synced them. Can I just cut and paste them onto other hard drives or do I have to move them some other way? I've noticed the backup function but I am asking about moving the wallets physically and permanently between different drives or partitions.