Bitcoins?

[BoomerB]

People have literally died from overheating running 8 or 9 hi power mining CPUs in single room dwellings. And if you're not doing at least that amount i fail to see the profit potential. The more coins mined, the rest become harder to get. But take it with a grain of morphine cuz to this day i have not seen an explanation of what btc mining actually IS.

[Longbaugh]

The first Bitcoins I bought a couple years ago were trading at $7. I spent them as fast as I got them though. Right now they're at $420 and at one point they were trading at close to a thousand.

And to think when they were $7 I had over 200 coins.

[anxiety_sucks]

yes talk about about a missed investment opportunity, i remember them and the cheapness when they first came out

[Stripers]

Thanks for the help in finding this thread. For whatever reason the search feature didn't find it.

You all bring up great points, but my questions are way more basic. Rather than mining and making an investment, I am simply trying to get off the ground with Bitcoin.
I understand transactions are anonymous(maybe not as much as thought, I did not read the previous links posted). But buying Bitcoin is done mostly through cc take ng your activity pretty transparent. I'm interested in a location where I can buy it with cash. If anyone has knowledge in this area I'd much appreciate it.
Through basic research, I found a site, something close to liberty.com, that gives you a list of approved stores that sell Bitcoin with cash. I guess from there it's a matter of setting up your wallet.
Again any advice much appreciated.

[Grandote]

Go to localbitcoins.com look for a vendor in your area, meet up, buy with cash.

[Tbaronfl]

Sorry guys..what's PGP?

[barq2]

PGP = Pretty Good Privacy. It is used to encrypt emails. It is better than pretty good, and more or less uncrackable (I'm not going to say impossible, but it requires huge computing power.

I sold a bitcoin for $20 a few years ago and was delighted with the profit. Oh well, any profit is still profit. And as my Dad (old school banker) would say about investments, "It isn't a profit until you've banked it."

I agree that bitcoins are volatile. If you believe Kim Dotcom's claims about his new venture in January 2017, then the price will go up a lot. (But, he does tend to make big claims, for all I know he is manipulating the market.) Periodically one of the bitcoin companies actually holding people's bitcoin wallets gets hacked, everyone freaks out about security, and the price drops. That is a good time to buy.

I doubt the value would drop to zero. But here are some points to consider.

1) Don't invest what you can't afford to lose
2) Over a long enough period of time bitcoin value probably will rise, but do you have enough liquidity to choose when you spend (or convert back to USD)? This is where money makes money. If you are in a strong financial position you can ride out a bitcoin crash by waiting for the value to come back up. If you need to spend them now, because that's all you have, then you have fewer degrees of freedom. That's basically the same principle as any investment - if you can choose when to sell you are fine, if your hand is forced then it is higher risk. (Sorry to bitcoin crypto-anarchists, but bitcoin won't undermine capitalism, it is at most the next phase.)
3) If you are paranoid or really security conscious (depends on your needs), look for a bitcoin tumbler. For a small cut they will take your coins, scramble them with other bitcoin and then return them. Of course the last step is crucial ;-) Do you homework and get a reputable one that doesn't steal your money!

I think it is worth putting a few dollars in, moving it around, tumbling it, getting used to the software and terminology. It is quite interesting and I generally agree with the comments about IOPs moving towards bitcoin as they find other methods of payment closed off. I suspect they are put off because it is a bit more complicated, and the volatility. We've already heard from one person who bought enough bitcoin for one transaction and the value dropped. IOPs can tolerate a bit of currency fluctuation ( a few percent), but bitcoin moves more sharply. That said, when it comes to volatility, the UK pound has been giving bitcoins a run for their money after the Brexit vote!