Bitcoin - do you understand it

If a Bitcoin is really worth £20,000 as they said on the news this morning - how do you cash one in?
Where does the money come from?
The money comes from the person that buys it, like selling anything really.

Current price on the GDAX exchange is £14555
 
The money comes from the person that buys it, like selling anything really.

Current price on the GDAX exchange is £14555


So, if I go down my local bank or building society, and say - "here is a bitcoin, can I please have £14K" - what will they say?
If I go into a car dealership and offer them a bitcoin for a brand new middle of the market hatchback, what will they say?
 
So, if I go down my local bank or building society, and say - "here is a bitcoin, can I please have £14K" - what will they say?
If I go into a car dealership and offer them a bitcoin for a brand new middle of the market hatchback, what will they say?
They (the bank) will probably say the same as if you went in with a 300/2.8 lens, declared it to be worth £4000 and asked them to give you £4000 in twenty pound notes. "No"

What would you expect them to say? A bank is not a bitcoin exchange. I fail to see the point you are trying to make with that question.
 
If I go into a car dealership and offer them a bitcoin for a brand new middle of the market hatchback, what will they say?
And if you went into that dealership with a suitcase of full of used Zimbabwean dollar billls what would they say? think of it as another foriegn currency, you buy and sell bitcoins at an exchange just like buying dollars for your holiday to the US. How many dollars you get for your pounds depends on an exchange rate which depends on a number of complex factors.

The real point of bitcoin is that you can carry out transactions (buy and sell things) without the authorities being able to track who bought or sold the goods. Now stop and think for a moment who might want to use that service and what they might be buying and selling, generally it's not the sort of things you can buy in Tesco
 
The real point of bitcoin is that you can carry out transactions (buy and sell things) without the authorities being able to track who bought or sold the goods. Now stop and think for a moment who might want to use that service and what they might be buying and selling, generally it's not the sort of things you can buy in Tesco
You can do that with pound coins as well. I often buy things in Tesco using cash money, so the authorities have no idea when I buy a pint of milk.
 
You can do that with pound coins as well. I often buy things in Tesco using cash money, so the authorities have no idea when I buy a pint of milk.

Unless you make the mistake of using your Tesco Clubcard with the purchase.
 
If a Bitcoin is really worth £20,000 as they said on the news this morning - how do you cash one in?
Where does the money come from?

You buy and sell it in a similar way to buying anything, the difference is that you are buying something virtual, i.e. something you cannot see.

I used an app called Coinbase to buy it, they just do a bank transfer into your 'GBP Wallet' which is effectively a virtual wallet as such in pounds sterling.

You can then buy one of the virtual currencies, I bought £50 of Litecoin which cost £52 including a £2 fee.
At the time a single litecoin cost £50 so I bought something like 0.99993 coins.

I then sold for £250 ish and they charged me £2 to sell meaning I made a profit of £196.

Once sold, it goes back into your GBP wallet.

The downside here is that you have to pay them 2 Euros to verify your bank account which they then refund.
Something I was not aware of is that they are based in Estonia so its an international transaction so the 2 Euro turned out to be nearly £11 including a fee, this is a one time charge to verify your UK bank account though.

I am still in profit for about £185 so will buy me some more Philips Hue stuff I don't need :)
 
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I see that one of the originators has cashed all his bitcoins in.

ETA his name... Emil Oldenburg
 
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I have joined the crypto currency revolution but didn't go for bitcoin ..I am using coinbase like others and binance... I went for a newish coin called TRON

I can't wait to be a millionaire now :)
 
I am also on the crypto currency hype train, went with alt coin called REQ, good idea, nice start-up team, they seem to know where they want to go with their product. And I still regret selling my 2 Bitcoins 2 years ago :D
 
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And I still regret selling my 2 Bitcoins 2 years ago :D
I've been tempted on and off to mine bitcoins since not long after it hit the streets. I comfort myself with the knowledge that I would have sold probably at the first profit, i,e, when it hit $10 or $50 on the basis hat the bubble couldn't last. So now I have no regrets that I sold them too cheap :D
 
I've been tempted on and off to mine bitcoins since not long after it hit the streets. I comfort myself with the knowledge that I would have sold probably at the first profit, i,e, when it hit $10 or $50 on the basis hat the bubble couldn't last. So now I have no regrets that I sold them too cheap :D
I think the secret is to buy some and leave them in a wallet for a year or two, not checking prices etc. small investment so you can just count them as lost money...
 
I think the secret is to buy some and leave them in a wallet for a year or two, not checking prices etc. small investment so you can just count them as lost money...


yes.. I supposedly retire in 4 or 5 yrs so am hoping they are worth more than bank interest would ahve given me ...

Although i would like to take out my initial investment within a year and leave the profit from that for 4 yrs ...then its a no lose situation.... but plan B to leave until I retire should work :)
 
I mined mine (well my fraction of one) four years ago, then forgot about the wallet. I only dug it out from an old hard disk last month after bitcoin was back in the news. At the current price, what I have is worth about thirty times what it cost me in electric to mine. I have no thought of selling, I don't need the money.
 
I don't need the money.

I ahvent put any money in that I may need real soon or I would eb depending on.. Money is important but at the end of the day it's a gamble.. you would worry yourself sick if you put your life savings in...
 
I have had a little dabble, just put $25 into ripple on Friday, just as a small test sum to get to grips with the process, it has been steadily dropping since.

But then I have that effect gambling. Last time I went to the dogs, almost every one I bet on took a tumble. :LOL:
 
You can lok back over a Xyr graph and every january prices drop for all crypto currency so it's the best time to buy :)
 
I made £170k with bitcoin last month.

Sadly it was using the plus500 iPad app in demo mode, but still...
 
I use coinbase as well and went with Etherum, seems to go up and down very quickly! It's currently hovering around the amount I initially put in, will leave it, forget about it and maybe I might be pleasantly surprised when checking it in the future!
 
I signed up to coinbase a month or so ago, verified my ID. But it keeps asking me to verify ID everytime I log in :(
 
Coinbase was great until I sold and wanted to withdraw.

Cost me a tenner to do a SEPA transfer to verify my bank then it still said I was unverified.

Three weeks of support tickets later and I gave up.

It's easy to buy but a nightmare to cash out.

End up losing another tenner to sell via another website but finally got it out.
 
BUY NOW! haha .. wow they went out of fashion this week. dropped like a stone all of them....
 
How do you cash in cryptocurrency for real money - Euros, Sterling, Dollars?


Bank to wallet.. wallet to company.. company to coins and reverse for selling..

or summat like that :)
 
BUY NOW! haha .. wow they went out of fashion this week. dropped like a stone all of them....

That would be because Coincheck (one of the big Japanese Crypto Exchanges which are regulated) lost $500m. Quite similar to the massive drop in price due to sell offs when Mt. Gox got hit
 
That would be because Coincheck (one of the big Japanese Crypto Exchanges which are regulated) lost $500m. Quite similar to the massive drop in price due to sell offs when Mt. Gox got hit


Go back up eventually.. its a bit like gold.. soemthing happens in the world and the value changes :)
 
Don't panick! Don't panick!

aaaaargh!

Mine lost 50% of value in the last few days ..... Got to stay calm and wait for them to go back up .......hmmm exciting eh ? :(
 
Don't panick! Don't panick!

aaaaargh!

Mine lost 50% of value in the last few days ..... Got to stay calm and wait for them to go back up .......hmmm exciting eh ? :(

Same here!! Am pretty confident it will go back up but it was a little shock this morning when I saw the value in my account!
 
I bought a little bit the other day so I apologise for the arse falling out of it!
 
The large increase in "value" of cryptocurrencies is a bubble in that the increase in price is not backed by any increase in value. Bubbles always burst eventually and there is unlikely to be any rallying of price.
 
The large increase in "value" of cryptocurrencies is a bubble in that the increase in price is not backed by any increase in value. Bubbles always burst eventually and there is unlikely to be any rallying of price.


haha and you dont think the fact they have dropped before then gone back up again kinda dispells that ? :)
 
haha and you dont think the fact they have dropped before then gone back up again kinda dispells that ? :)
No. There is a difference between small increases followed by small decreases followed by small increases and the current situation of large increases that have no real foundation followed by a fall to the investment's real value (which is essentially nothing).
 
No. There is a difference between small increases followed by small decreases followed by small increases and the current situation of large increases that have no real foundation followed by a fall to the investment's real value (which is essentially nothing).


Well they are rising in value again now........... so eeerm ? :)
 
The falls are pretty much due to most of Asia and Russia cracking down on it. The US and EU could pretty much destroy it overnight now. Will they do it or are there different plans? We will have to wait and see... I feel sorry right now for those who mortgaged their homes at the peak moment. You can put maybe 1-5% of your investments into it, not 50-100%!!
 
I feel sorry right now for those who mortgaged their homes at the peak moment. You can put maybe 1-5% of your investments into it, not 50-100%!!

It's a gamble ..we should all know that and as such it's the old saying "Never bet more than you can afford to lose" .. I wouldn't like to lose my money but it's more a case of oh well.. not a disaster :)
 
Don't panick! Don't panick!

aaaaargh!

Mine lost 50% of value in the last few days ..... Got to stay calm and wait for them to go back up .......hmmm exciting eh ? :(
It it really lose value. Is it worth worth less then the prices you bought it at?

I only ask because lots of folks claim to have lost loads when in actual fact the is at a similar price to when they bought in.
 
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