[felixflyer]

Yes there are many brokers making a good living buying & selling Bitcoins. It is a bit of a hassle getting through the ID verification process the first time but that's a good thing. Once you have done that though its just a matter of getting in touch and buying/selling more at a specific price.

[Tall_Guy_In_a_PA28]

This thread from 2013 makes amusing reading. A debate about bitcoin trading around $100.

Forummite Hotelfox (not seen here for a while) had bought in at $0.62!!

[felixflyer]

And dumped 75% at $2.20. Ouch.

[Paultheparaglider]

That does make amusing reading. Of course, what would really be useful would be to have a link to the thread five years on and not the one five years back...

[matthew_w100]

Yes there are many brokers making a good living buying & selling Bitcoins. It is a bit of a hassle getting through the ID verification process the first time but that's a good thing. Once you have done that though its just a matter of getting in touch and buying/selling more at a specific price.

So as a punter, I have to go through an ID process? How do crims maintain their anonymity then?

Does the broker vouchsafe his credentials, or is online reputation sufficient?

[felixflyer]

There are many ways to buy/sell bitcoins. This is just one of them and the one that is popular in the UK. This site has it's own verification and trust rating. The broker I use is part of a larger group of brokers on there. When you agree a transaction the bitcoins are put in escrow on the site and once the money has been received they are released.

Criminals will use a completely different method of transfer.

[Paultheparaglider]

Learn about cryptocurrencies the modern way...

https://qz.com/1177249/japans-kasotsuka ... yptofraud/

[vw-dan]

Yes there are many brokers making a good living buying & selling Bitcoins. It is a bit of a hassle getting through the ID verification process the first time but that's a good thing. Once you have done that though its just a matter of getting in touch and buying/selling more at a specific price.

So as a punter, I have to go through an ID process? How do crims maintain their anonymity then?

Because there's nothing to stop you from sending me some coins and me sending you some hard cash. Which is fine on a 1:1 basis, but relies completely on trust because what are you going to do if I don't send you the promised cash?

Brokering starts to also bring you into a lot of financial regulation, hence the ID checks and so forth.

[Dodo]

I spent a couple of hundred quid on a bitcoin tracker (XBT Provider AB Bitcoin Tracker) as part of my SIPP a few months ago. It has been nice watching it go up, and if it goes down it is not really going to hurt me.

[PaulB]

Surely by the time the masses catch on, the peak has passed....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glob ... SKBN1F60CH

[felixflyer]

If the masses bought in then it would rise further. This is a major correction but one that happens at the same time every year. Some put it down to the amount being drawn out before Chinese New Year but there has also been some bad press this year too. That coupled with the weaker new buyers panic selling has dropped the price significantly.

I just see it as bargain time and have bought more. I'm in it for the long haul.

[Morten]

One of the interesting things is that there is a huge secondary market on the crypto exchanges where people trade non-minable coins. I.e. coins which are derivatives of the coins which are mined. Trades in those coins are extremely volatile and if you are able to time correctly, you can double any value in 5 minutes - only to see it lose everything again 5 minutes later.
It's a bit like a casino - also because most of the currencies are denominated in BTC, you forget that it is real money and gains/losses don't feel 'real'. The fact that the market value of BTC has slumped is almost irrelevant when the highly volatile currencies you hold have just doubled or halved... of course, with the added spice that you may never be able to exchange your BTC for fiat money again

Scary places. Again, just like a casino, good for a bit of fun as long as you don't allow yourself to get carried away. Like I said above - the people actually making money are the exchanges etc... A 0.5% charge per trade looks tiny when every trade is done with the expectation of a gain in the 10s %... but by the time you've made 20 of them, you've given away 10% of your initial amount - regardless of the outcome of your actual trades.

Morten

[PaulB]

With those sorts of things are humans competing with machines making deals based on algorithms (in which case humans will lose out)?

[Morten]

Maybe. Probably. Or a rigged exchange where artificial time lags and preferential trade reconciliations would guarantee winners and losers. I wouldn't trust most (any?) of the exchanges further than I could throw them. However, I put some faith in the fact that they make enough money on their 'legitimate' income and they should not want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg... But caveat emptor - squared - and then some...
With cahunas of steel and a bit (lot!) of luck opportunities are almost boundless - for success - and failure!
On the other hand - I'm old and like to sleep in peace ;^)

[felixflyer]

There was also a very big Crypto Pyramid scam taken down yesterday called BitConnect.