bit coins for dummies like me.

[BobCajun]

Bitcoin is traceable. But you can make it harder and more difficult to trace.

Mining them...good luck on wasting your time lol.

There are a number of places to get them. There are apps where you can find people locally who will sell them to you or you can use a online exchange like coinbase.com

Either way I'd recommend getting in now for the future. Its actually quite popular and with the way our society is technologically I believe this will be a major currency.

Invest in BTC now and invest in marijuana stocks.

Maybe invest in bitcoin but I don't know about MJ stocks. Have you ever heard of "overproduction"? Do you expect mj prices to rise with increased production? However SHORTING mj stocks would probably be an astute investment. The steep fall is inevitable.

 

[davethepothead]

Maybe invest in bitcoin but I don't know about MJ stocks. Have you ever heard of "overproduction"? Do you expect mj prices to rise with increased production? However SHORTING mj stocks would probably be an astute investment. The steep fall is inevitable.

True not all stocks are created equal thus I believe some companies will take control of massive parts of the sector, once it becomes federally regulated companies will take hold of niche opportunities (like the dominoes for weed delivery or the go to affordable all in one grow box). MJ will become streamlined and big companies like big tobacco and big pharma will have huge slices of the pie. It's the big companies who's wave you wanna get on early and ride it out. But I never thought about short selling some of these companies. Inevitably some companies will have all this hype and fail. Just gotta find the ones that are all hype and get out in time.

 

[BobCajun]

True not all stocks are created equal thus I believe some companies will take control of massive parts of the sector, once it becomes federally regulated companies will take hold of niche opportunities (like the dominoes for weed delivery or the go to affordable all in one grow box). MJ will become streamlined and big companies like big tobacco and big pharma will have huge slices of the pie. It's the big companies who's wave you wanna get on early and ride it out. But I never thought about short selling some of these companies. Inevitably some companies will have all this hype and fail. Just gotta find the ones that are all hype and get out in time.

Frankly I'm surprised anybody actually buys from the weed stores. They're just being suckers of the government. Lots of suckers in western US states I guess. All they needed to do was vote to decriminalize MJ, to protect people from criminal records for small amounts. Who the hell voted for weed to be sold in stores like cigarettes and liquor? Stupid Washingtonians, Oregonians and Coloradoans, or whatever the hell they call themselves?

Holy fuck people are stupid. How the hell does that help anybody but the government and big corps with lots of investment money to use to elbow out small growers? Naive, naive, naive. Just like that numbnuts Marc Emery, donating millions to US west coast legalization movements and then it actually happening and the BC mj export industry is now toast. If it's not REALLY legalized, meaning no laws whatsoever, then how is it better than simple decrim? What, you're more worried about paying a small fine now and then than having the west coast mj trade taken over by rich people?

I suggest they have another vote and this time vote to make it illegal again but with decriminalization of small amounts. Yeah, some unlucky few will go to jail, but those are the greedy fucks who grow huge amounts out of personal greed and sells it in a stupid way that gets them caught. That keeps the competition down, weeding out the jerks. They probably won't even let the people vote to illegalize mj, now that they have their talons into the golden goose. You done fucked up, west coast stoners, bad.

 

[DaveInCave]

In short, bitcoin for dummies is an oxymoron.
If you're a dummy, you can't use bitcoin *safely* and anonymously.
Dealing with bitcoin requires you to read and to understand what you are reading.

At some point the apps will be friendly enough so even technologically illiterate people could use them,
but we are not there yet.

Also to correct some of the misinformation:
Bitcoin is traceable, but linking a given bitcoin address to an identity can easily be avoided.

Here are some things to get you started (google is your best friend):
You can buy bitcoins from a person in cash on LocalBitcoins, from online exchanges via bank transfer, using credit cards, Paypal, and for Amazon gift cards on Purse.io or Paxful.
You don't have to buy a whole bitcoin, you can buy 0.00000001 of a bitcoin.
You should understand what a bitcoin public address is, and what a private key is, and how to keep it secure and safe.
You should use a trusted wallet app with a thin client, like mycelium or electrum, not a cloud based service which doesn't give you control over your private keys.
For large sums of money you should know what a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger) or cold storage is.
You can spend bitcoins anywhere using bitcoin-linked debit card like Xapo, you can buy cheaply on Amazon with bitcoins using Purse.io.
Like any speculative investment, only invest money you can afford to lose.
Mining bitcoins is not feasible anymore for an individual.
Mining Ethereum and Zcash is quite profitable if the energy prices where you live are low enough.

The best recommendation I can give you, is to buy a small amount of bitcoins, let's say $150, and start playing with it, for example, buy some seeds, buy something from Amazon on Purse.io, etc.
If you mess up, you might lose it, but for low sums it's not the end of the world.
For investment purposes I recommend people to put up to 10% of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies, as it is highly speculative and fluctuating.
Maybe wait until the Bitcoin fork to invest large sums of money, but Ethereum, Ripple, Zcash, and litecoin are very good candidates.

If you have more specific questions I'm happy to answer.
I'm an early bitcoin adopter, started mining it back in 2010. Currently running a Zcash mining operation.
I also personally know a couple of leading cryptocurrency developers from the academic world.

I have no doubt that bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies will be the basis for any financial transaction infrastructure in the future.
More than likely users will not interact with the blockchain directly, but it will be in the background.

 

[BobCajun]

In short, bitcoin for dummies is an oxymoron.
If you're a dummy, you can't use bitcoin *safely* and anonymously.
Dealing with bitcoin requires you to read and to understand what you are reading.

At some point the apps will be friendly enough so even technologically illiterate people could use them,
but we are not there yet.

Also to correct some of the misinformation:
Bitcoin is traceable, but linking a given bitcoin address to an identity can easily be avoided.

Here are some things to get you started (google is your best friend):
You can buy bitcoins from a person in cash on LocalBitcoins, from online exchanges via bank transfer, using credit cards, Paypal, and for Amazon gift cards on Purse.io or Paxful.
You don't have to buy a whole bitcoin, you can buy 0.00000001 of a bitcoin.
You should understand what a bitcoin public address is, and what a private key is, and how to keep it secure and safe.
You should use a trusted wallet app with a thin client, like mycelium or electrum, not a cloud based service which doesn't give you control over your private keys.
For large sums of money you should know what a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger) or cold storage is.
You can spend bitcoins anywhere using bitcoin-linked debit card like Xapo, you can buy cheaply on Amazon with bitcoins using Purse.io.
Like any speculative investment, only invest money you can afford to lose.
Mining bitcoins is not feasible anymore for an individual.
Mining Ethereum and Zcash is quite profitable if the energy prices where you live are low enough.

The best recommendation I can give you, is to buy a small amount of bitcoins, let's say $150, and start playing with it, for example, buy some seeds, buy something from Amazon on Purse.io, etc.
If you mess up, you might lose it, but for low sums it's not the end of the world.
For investment purposes I recommend people to put up to 10% of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies, as it is highly speculative and fluctuating.
Maybe wait until the Bitcoin fork to invest large sums of money, but Ethereum, Ripple, Zcash, and litecoin are very good candidates.

If you have more specific questions I'm happy to answer.
I'm an early bitcoin adopter, started mining it back in 2010. Currently running a Zcash mining operation.
I also personally know a couple of leading cryptocurrency developers from the academic world.

I have no doubt that bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies will be the basis for any financial transaction infrastructure in the future.
More than likely users will not interact with the blockchain directly, but it will be in the background.

How much can you make mining Zcash? Guess I can google it. Probably impractical like btc though.

 

[DaveInCave]

How much can you make mining Zcash? Guess I can google it. Probably impractical like btc though.

The feasibility is quite high actually. You get to ROI within 3-4 months.
So from a graphics that costs $300 you make about $100 per month, depending on your electricity price.

I live in one of the countries with the cheapest electricity in the world and I pay about 3 cents per kW/h.

That's one of the reasons by the way that you can't find a graphics card anymore anywhere these days, and manufacturers start to sell special mining GPU models without a display output.

 

[BobCajun]

The feasibility is quite high actually. You get to ROI within 3-4 months.
So from a graphics that costs $300 you make about $100 per month, depending on your electricity price.

I live in one of the countries with the cheapest electricity in the world and I pay about 3 cents per kW/h.

That's one of the reasons by the way that you can't find a graphics card anymore anywhere these days, and manufacturers start to sell special mining GPU models without a display output.

My power isn't anywhere that cheap, but I do a graphics card Gforce. maybe mine them now but don't sell them right away. Think if you had mined and saved btc when they first came out. But I guess you'd never know when to sell them because they could go up more.

 

[DaveInCave]

My power isn't anywhere that cheap, but I do a graphics card Gforce. maybe mine them now but don't sell them right away. Think if you had mined and saved btc when they first came out. But I guess you'd never know when to sell them because they could go up more.

I actually did, back in 2010-2011


I don't see any reason to sell bitcoins anymore. you can spend them directly if you want, but their value is most likely only going up.
Same for ethereum, ripple and zcash, those are for holding for the long term.

You should try mining zcash for few days just for fun, it's quite a cool hobby.

 

[BobCajun]

I actually did, back in 2010-2011


I don't see any reason to sell bitcoins anymore. you can spend them directly if you want, but their value is most likely only going up.
Same for ethereum, ripple and zcash, those are for holding for the long term.

You should try mining zcash for few days just for fun, it's quite a cool hobby.

Yeah I may give it a try. Thanks for the information.

 

[kingzt]

What kind of platforms are safe for transferring money and buying cryptos. My buddy uses coinbase and he said they charge a lot to buy and is thinking of switching to gemini? Is there any safer ways than that?

 

[DaveInCave]

What kind of platforms are safe for transferring money and buying cryptos. My buddy uses coinbase and he said they charge a lot to buy and is thinking of switching to gemini? Is there any safer ways than that?

Never used Gemini.
Coinbase is probably the best one that I know for US buyers.
Bitstamp is another.
Maybe this helps:
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/exchanges/

 

[kingzt]

Never used Gemini.
Coinbase is probably the best one that I know for US buyers.
Bitstamp is another.
Maybe this helps:
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/exchanges/

Thanks for the timely reply. A buddy of mine uses it but he says it's like 1.5% to buy with them if purchasing through your bank account and even higher if you use a debit or cc I believe. I do like they have an app though.

 

[DaveInCave]

it might seem like a lot, but when you buy something with bitcoin it ends up being way cheaper both for you and for the vendor.
10%-15% cheaper on purse.io for example.

 

[kingzt]

Will bitcoin be king? I'm thinking of investing in ethereum or litecoin first.

 

[alwayslearning777]

Will bitcoin be king? I'm thinking of investing in ethereum or litecoin first.

I went with litecoin first.. it was just cheaper, yea you can buy .002 btw but I like having 1ltc instead ... MIT is announcing plans to use litecoinfor one of their projects, bitcoin may crash a little bit on August 1st from what I hear ... my plan is sell off my lites, or some around that time and then scoop up a bitcoin if the price does really drop ... ethereum I have a few as well .. I watched something and basically if you can calculate when a lot ofICOs go public, there is basically a large sell off in etherium and that's the time to buy .. idk I guess that getting a little far into it buy it what I'm doing is 70 percent litecoin 15 etherium 15 bit .. once Ltd hits 70 I'm gna put 10 into bitcoin
Litecoin was my first love . I learned how to go from exchange to paper wallet to online wallet back to exchange .. and once I got the hang of that I started to mess with bitcoin ... etherium I put on a paperwallet and cannot figure out how to get it back on so don't do that lol

If you have questions I may be able to help .. it was nerve racking for me, the process of moving them offline and back on ... the reason I do that is I do not trust leaving all of mine in an exchange in case that exchange gets shut down

 

[Lucky Luke]

Will bitcoin be king? I'm thinking of investing in ethereum or litecoin first.

Cash is King.

 

[kingzt]

I went with litecoin first.. it was just cheaper, yea you can buy .002 btw but I like having 1ltc instead ... MIT is announcing plans to use litecoinfor one of their projects, bitcoin may crash a little bit on August 1st from what I hear ... my plan is sell off my lites, or some around that time and then scoop up a bitcoin if the price does really drop ... ethereum I have a few as well .. I watched something and basically if you can calculate when a lot ofICOs go public, there is basically a large sell off in etherium and that's the time to buy .. idk I guess that getting a little far into it buy it what I'm doing is 70 percent litecoin 15 etherium 15 bit .. once Ltd hits 70 I'm gna put 10 into bitcoin
Litecoin was my first love . I learned how to go from exchange to paper wallet to online wallet back to exchange .. and once I got the hang of that I started to mess with bitcoin ... etherium I put on a paperwallet and cannot figure out how to get it back on so don't do that lol

If you have questions I may be able to help .. it was nerve racking for me, the process of moving them offline and back on ... the reason I do that is I do not trust leaving all of mine in an exchange in case that exchange gets shut down

I am still new to this and what you said is confusing to me. I will have to do a little more research. What do you mean by online and offline? Also when you say exchange do you mean like Coinbase and Gemini?

 

[kingzt]

Cash is King.

I agree when you purchasing something but cash loses value over time due to inflation. You'd have more money investing and banking on compounding interest if you just saved.

 

[alwayslearning777]

I am still new to this and what you said is confusing to me. I will have to do a little more research. What do you mean by online and offline? Also when you say exchange do you mean like Coinbase and Gemini?

Yup I use coinbase as my exchange ...
So online meaning I keep my coin on coinbase or my electronic wallet.. in order to use the coins they have to be online that way you can just click send and send them where ever you want.

I use electron LTC as my online wallet, meaning they are still online but not on the coinbase exchange.

Offline is a paperwallet where basically your public and private key are only stored on the piece of paper you printed out. So this is the safest because they can't be hacked and they are in your possession.

So onlinein exchange - buy them from coinbase or whatever and you keep them on there.. this is the easiest but if you plan to buy them and just hold for a long time, I wouldn't do that. If your going to be buying and selling daily or weekly it's probably fine

Online in an electronic wallet - you send the coins that you baught on the exchange to your electronic wallet, so it'll ask you the public key you wish to send them to and you would type in the public key that you get when you download your electronic wallet.

Paperwallet or offline - go to a paperwallet generator and generate and print a paperwallet. Do this offline and not using wireless, you can watch videos on the best way to do this. Then you send the coins you have o your exchange to the public address that you printed out,they essentially disappear until you are ready to bring them back on

To bring them back online you open your electronic wallet (not exchange) and click sweep private keys, or something to that effect. You type in the private key that is printed on your paperwallet and then shortly after thecoins arrive on your electronic wallet

From the electronic wallet you can send them anywhere... I do not know why the exchanges do not have the option to import or sweep the paperwallet ...

 

[Lucky Luke]

I agree when you purchasing something but cash loses value over time due to inflation. You'd have more money investing and banking on compounding interest if you just saved.

OK..Cash is King. Houses In city's are also King.