Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Discussion Thread

[Az_Rael]

Yes, it's sad. But there are many stupid people. I'm not going to sell the house for the sake of the bitcoins. But I want to invest some days in bitcoins. I found an article on how to buy bitcoins no verification Guide to Buy Bitcoins with Credit/Debit Card Without Verification (No ID) | BitcoinBestBuy. Do they write the truth? What do you say?

Depends on your tolerance for risk. Localbitcoin is peer to peer, so you are buying directly from someone else. I have never heard of the other exchanges they mention except shapeshift, which you can't actually buy from fiat with if I am not mistaken. ATMs have very high fees, so you pay for that convenience if there are some near you (and you have to trust the machine hasn't been hacked in some way like skimmers do with normal ATMs)

IMHO unless you have a serious need to buy without verification for some reason, it is better to take the time to go through the process with one of the major exchanges. Once you are setup, you can buy and sell with much less hassle.

 

[Unpilot]

Depends on your tolerance for risk. Localbitcoin is peer to peer, so you are buying directly from someone else. I have never heard of the other exchanges they mention except shapeshift, which you can't actually buy from fiat with if I am not mistaken. ATMs have very high fees, so you pay for that convenience if there are some near you (and you have to trust the machine hasn't been hacked in some way like skimmers do with normal ATMs)

IMHO unless you have a serious need to buy without verification for some reason, it is better to take the time to go through the process with one of the major exchanges. Once you are setup, you can buy and sell with much less hassle.

Yep I agree with this.

 

[MikeC]

What do people think about all the Tether being printed recently - could it be propping up the prices of all the other coins like I’m reading on reddit?

 

[Az_Rael]

What do people think about all the Tether being printed recently - could it be propping up the prices of all the other coins like I’m reading on reddit?

I think that is a distinct possibility. My guess is it is most likely being used to directly prop up the price of bitcoin, but that does affect the whole market. They are creating crazy amounts of tether which you can see here: OmniExplorer.info

If it all crumbles at some point, it will take Bitfinex down with it. So it could be another Mt. Gox level event. They have already banned US residents from using the platform entirely, a huge red flag. Bitfinex

 

[jeewee3000]

Hi guys, been reading this thread and the interwebs on how to buy/trade crypto.

I've gotten so far: made and verified a coinbase account, and wired money to coinbase + made and verified a binance account, verification pending.

My goal would be to invest my funds into XMR (Monero), but I have some questions after reading some posts here:

1) should I buy BTC on coinbase or Litecoin? Some say Litecoin trades are faster.
2) should I use GDAX to transfer from Coinbase to binance? How does this work exactly: I transfer from Coinbase to GDAX and from GDAX to Binance? (I'm located in Belgium so is GDAX usable here?)
3) (opinion question would you agree XMR is a decent bet compared to other alt-coins? Or should I get into Ripple, any other... ?

Thank you in advance,

someone who wants to make a slight crypto-buy-and-hold gamble

 

[Az_Rael]

Hi guys, been reading this thread and the interwebs on how to buy/trade crypto.

I've gotten so far: made and verified a coinbase account, and wired money to coinbase + made and verified a binance account, verification pending.

My goal would be to invest my funds into XMR (Monero), but I have some questions after reading some posts here:

1) should I buy BTC on coinbase or Litecoin? Some say Litecoin trades are faster.
2) should I use GDAX to transfer from Coinbase to binance? How does this work exactly: I transfer from Coinbase to GDAX and from GDAX to Binance? (I'm located in Belgium so is GDAX usable here?)
3) (opinion question would you agree XMR is a decent bet compared to other alt-coins? Or should I get into Ripple, any other... ?

Thank you in advance,

someone who wants to make a slight crypto-buy-and-hold gamble

1. I recommend Ethereum or Litecoin as a transfer coin from Coinbase/Gdax. Either will be faster than BTC. I would actually not buy the coins on Coinbase, though, just transfer your regular money over to GDAX directly first.
2. Yes, GDAX allows free transfers. Coinbase and GDAX are the same company, so all you do is go to GDAX’s website and log in with your Coinbase credentials. Once there, you can access your Coinbase USD/EUR balance inside GDAX. Now you can buy ETH or LTC with much lower fees if you place a Limit order (just like using a regular stock trading platform if you are familiar with that process).

To get the coins to Binance, you log into Binance and get the recieving address for the coin you are transferring, be it ETH or LTC. Then head back to GDAX and send the coin from your GDAX account to the Binance address. If you are moving a significant chunk, you may want to test that process first with a smaller amount. Once it clears over on Binance, you can then trade for XMR or whatever coin you want. Depending on the trading pairs they offer, you might have to trade into BTC first, but all that is instant once inside an exchange.

Once you have your coin of choice, transfer the coins out to your personal wallet - don’t leave it in the exchange account unless you are going to trade regularly with it.

3. XMR is probably a decent bet being the big privacy coin. I have not bought into it because I am in the US, and I wonder if because of that privacy, if it will eventually run into some trouble here (ala Bitcoin from the SilkRoad days). I am also not in any of the coins that pay “dividends” like NEO for similar reasons (figure those will get classified as securities by our SEC at some point). But that is my own guess, nothing related to the coin itself or it’s fundamentals.

 

[HankLloydRight]

You should transfer to GDAX first, then buy BTC, LTC, or ETH there. I think Coinbase charges a fee to buy, where GDAX does not. Then transfer to your coin to Binance. I'm using ETH for this now. I have some ETH sitting in GDAX waiting to transfer to Binance to buy Tron and Ripple when they dip below $.05 and $1 respectively purely as a speculation play (or waiting for the next round of pump-and-dump).

Or what AZ just posted seconds before me

 

[Unpilot]

This "sale" seems to be going on a bit longer than I would like.

 

[jeewee3000]

Thanks for the detailed answers! I am now a proud owner of XMR.

Final question: why shouldn't I leave my coins in Binance? Is it dangerous, less lucrative, ...?

Good luck to all

 

[Az_Rael]

Thanks for the detailed answers! I am now a proud owner of XMR.

Final question: why shouldn't I leave my coins in Binance? Is it dangerous, less lucrative, ...?

Good luck to all

Exchanges can and do disappear unexpectedly, taking your coins with them. Most infamously, Mt Gox in 2014.

 

[jeewee3000]

Once you have your coin of choice, transfer the coins out to your personal wallet - don’t leave it in the exchange account unless you are going to trade regularly with it.

Considering your response - stating exchanges can disappear - I thought I'd transfer to my personal wallet, but I ran into some trouble.

Thing is, I have XMR in my Binance account, but my coinbase (which is my personal wallet I presume?) can only accept BTC, LTC, BCC and some others. The coin I bought (XMR) is not available to keep in coinbase.

So how would I preserve my "alt-coins" in my personal wallet?

Again thank you Az_Rael (smurfs reference?) for your detailed answers.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Coinbase is not your personal wallet, it's an exchange just like any other.

You need a hardware/offline/cold storage wallet to hold your coins that you're not intending to frequently trade. Like Ledger: Ledger Wallet - Hardware wallets - Smartcard security for your bitcoins

Here's an article about how to do it: How to store your bitcoins - bitcoin wallets - CoinDesk

You can even just store your coins on your computer in a software wallet, but if your HD crashes, so do your coins, so you'd need to do regular backups. It's like cash - if you lose it.. you lose it, it's not recoverable.

You can then move them back online if/when you need to trade them again.

 

[Az_Rael]

So how would I preserve my "alt-coins" in my personal wallet?

Again thank you Az_Rael (smurfs reference?) for your detailed answers.

LOL, yes a Smurfs reference. But not those new fangled 3D ones, the originals from the 80s when I was a kid.

@HankLloydRight gave a great answer, to which I will add that I don't think Ledger supports Monero yet, so you will most likely need to use a desktop wallet for that coin. You can also make paper wallets as well for offline storage or backup.

There is a list of Monero wallets on the sidebar of Monero: the secure, private, untraceable currency • r/Monero and I recommend being overly paranoid when generating/writing down your personal seed and keeping it off of unsecured locations on your computer.

 

[HankLloydRight]

PonziCoin

 

[Az_Rael]

The Tether/Bitfinex plot thickens.

U.S. Regulators Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether


I am getting tempted to cash out my gains to the sidelines until this plays out. Hard to say, though.

 

[ZeApelido]

With the recent market "correction", I'm trying to reassess my coin distribution. I'm trying to estimate what potential relative price appreciation of BTC to other coins may be this year. Right now I have ~25% in ETH, 15% in XRP, and 10% in BTC, and the rest spread out among a bunch of altcoins. My probabilistic risk reduction side would say to cut some of the ETH into BTC. I've luckily tipped back and forth a few times when one appreciated more than the other (moved BTC to ETH in 2016, ETH to BTC in summer 2017, BTC to ETH in Fall 2017).

Thoughts?

 

[Kipernicus]

Look at this scam, from "@alon_musk", using his picture and everything replying to a real Elon tweet. Funny thing is there's a bunch of "Thanks it worked" tweets after it. All fake?

 

[anticitizen13.7]

Look at this scam, from "@alon_musk", using his picture and everything replying to a real Elon tweet. Funny thing is there's a bunch of "Thanks it worked" tweets after it. All fake?

Ugh, I've seen variations of this scam right after the Falcon Heavy launch. There was one account called "@elon_muuk" asking for ETH to be sent to X account to receive 10x ETH in return. I reported it and it was taken down quickly afterwards.

These are all scams. Fake accounts are trivially easy to set up for Twitter.

Garbage like this really makes me hate social media. Twitter and Facebook are cesspools that encourage the growth of the trash of humanity.

 

[jasonb]

With the recent market "correction", I'm trying to reassess my coin distribution. I'm trying to estimate what potential relative price appreciation of BTC to other coins may be this year. Right now I have ~25% in ETH, 15% in XRP, and 10% in BTC, and the rest spread out among a bunch of altcoins. My probabilistic risk reduction side would say to cut some of the ETH into BTC. I've luckily tipped back and forth a few times when one appreciated more than the other (moved BTC to ETH in 2016, ETH to BTC in summer 2017, BTC to ETH in Fall 2017).

Thoughts?

i'm bullish on btc this year. lots of work behind the scenes i thiink will eventually result in price action. but i'm not sure about reducing your eth. i sold mine back to btc after riding it up 2x but looking to get back in if opp presents. i have some alts but its going to take a strong alt to outrun btc this year i think... wish you best of luck.

 

[DaveT]

What do you think the chances are that in the future (ie., 10-15 years out) the government issues their own blockchain technology and outlaws all other blockchains for financial transactions?