Bitcoin - A Note For Non-Users (Useful Tips Included)

[MedicalFlyer]

Having seen the purchase page go up (hurray) I thought I'd look in to the Bitcoin option.
I've been around the web for a good while and paid through some less than safe systems in the past but thankfully so far had very little trouble. I also use PayPal and Amazon Payments where I can to save me sticking my card details all over the place.

I've never looked in to Bitcoin before as I've not had any need for it or interest for that matter. Yes there is a lot of bad press about it but then pretty much any other form of currency can and has been misused since the dawn of time. This is why what looks like a boring old £1 coin for example is actually a very technically complicated item. And as for bank notes, there's more security built in to one of them than your door locks.

From the outset with a lot of places and sites involved in the buying, selling, and storing of the Bitcoin system it's mightily confusing knowing where to start and who to trust.
Thankfully RedFox have their own guide so I thought I'd start there. Joining BitGo and setting up the 2-step authentication on my mobile was nice and easy.

Then comes the difficult bit. Buying into the currency. It is no means as easy as PayPal or similar services.

According to the checkout system a 2 year licence comes to 0.1349352 Bitcoins which is roughly equivalent €54/£41.36/$60.46 (prices taken from checkout page after discounts).

You need to buy your required amount of Bitcoin. So it's off to somewhere you can do so. Again RedFox provide some examples and BitGo seem to have their own affiliated service for this. Having signed up with a few of these options they all seem to require the same thing some point along the way. Photographic proof of your ID - be it a passport, ID card, or driving licence.

For myself this is a big NO. While I'm not going to say these systems are unsecure, the way in which the whole thing is run makes it pretty darn secure to start with, there is no chance I'm going to start uploading copies of my ID and proof of address to unknown parties. I wouldn't even trust the issuing bodies in my country to handle them correctly.

As such, I didn't get to the actual point of buying any currency so I'm not even sure you can buy that little at a time. I sure there are some members here with much more experience that can answer this and may have some good advice about getting in to the system easily for those interested. From my quick escapade it does seem an interesting, if complex, way to go about exchanging money and I'll try to learn more at some point.

For me, for now, it'll be VISA or wait for MasterCard support and then pay with my credit card for a bit more security. I have to wait a week for pay day anyway. Thankfully I have 8.0.1.0 running nicely as a trial (Go Team!).

Some may complain about the further discount Bitcoin users are getting. I'd imagine this is close to the charge the team are paying for the card payment processing. From what I saw of the Bitcoin system there is little to no overhead for transactions.

UPDATE
Please read further posts for some very useful information from other forum members and my experiences thus far. I'm trying this out for my own interest (I love nothing more than learning how things work) and hopefully to help others in a similar situation.

 

[Soldier4Life]

Having seen the purchase page go up (hurray) I thought I'd look in to the Bitcoin option.
I've been around the web for a good while and paid through some less than safe systems in the past but thankfully so far had very little trouble. I also use PayPal and Amazon Payments where I can to save me sticking my card details all over the place.

I've never looked in to Bitcoin before as I've not had any need for it or interest for that matter. Yes there is a lot of bad press about it but then pretty much any other form of currency can and has been misused since the dawn of time. This is why what looks like a boring old £1 coin for example is actually a very technically complicated item. And as for bank notes, there's more security built in to one of them than your door locks.

From the outset with a lot of places and sites involved in the buying, selling, and storing of the Bitcoin system it's mightily confusing knowing where to start and who to trust.
Thankfully RedFox have their own guide so I thought I'd start there. Joining BitGo and setting up the 2-step authentication on my mobile was nice and easy.

Then comes the difficult bit. Buying into the currency. It is in means as easy as PayPal or similar services.

According to the checkout system a 2 year licence comes to 0.1349352 Bitcoins which is roughly equivalent €54/£41.36/$60.46 (prices taken from checkout page after discounts).

You need to buy your required amount of Bitcoin. So it's off to somewhere you can do so. Again RedFox provide some examples and BitGo seem to have their own affiliated service for this. Having signed up with a few of these options they all seem to require the same thing some point along the way. Photographic proof of you ID be it a passport, ID card, or driving licence.

For myself this is a big NO. While I'm not going to say these systems are unsecure, the way in which the whole thing is run makes it pretty darn secure to start with, there is no chance I'm going to start uploading copies of my ID and proof of address to unknown parties. I wouldn't even trust the issuing bodies in my country to handle them correctly.

As such, I didn't get to the actual point of buying any currency so I'm not even sure you can buy that little at a time. I sure there are some members here with much more experience that can answer this and may have some good advice about getting in to the system easily for those interested. From my quick escapade it does seem an interesting, if complex, way to go about exchanging money and I'll try to learn more at some point.
.

Just want to say thanks for posting this, its the only one I can find where someone took the time to explain their experience trying to do Bitcoin.

 

[MedicalFlyer]

You're welcome.
Having seen the demand for Bitcoin among these forums and many other places on the rise in the past few years I thought I'd at least have a look. Then finding the amount of effort required to possibly save a few extra pennies on one transaction it didn't seem worth the extra effort.
I say possibly because there are likely other fees involved buying in or out of Bitcoin just as with most other currency exchanges.

Certainly an interesting system and the pinnacle so far of money just being a widely accepted idea.
Remember that bank notes (and coins) are only an authorised means of transferring a specific quantity of currency (usually in the form of gold or silver) to one another without actually doing so; in and of themselves they aren't currency but the promise of it. In the UK for example this means that theoretically anyone carrying such a note could contact the Bank of England and request to have all notes exchanged for their equivalent value. So all those oddly printed bits of paper (which is mostly not paper) and funny metal/plastic discs are just representations of some shiny metals locked away somewhere. Most of which is transferred without any physical interactions taking place and only by the promise of it existing to start with. It's an odd system when you think about it.

 

[Recycle]

Those that got Visa to work got lucky so far twice my Visa turned me down...what a load of BS....now might have to borrow the folks MC to see if that work but have to wait til MC gets ready.

 

[MedicalFlyer]

A bit OT Recycle but from what I've seen the cause of the problems is that the payments are being processed via Asia through an uncommon processor. This is likely just flagging as a potentially fraudulent transaction by the banks as it doesn't fit your usual buying patterns or well known processors. I get this happen most times I make a large purchase in brick and mortar store as it's not how I normally buy things.

Lots of people have had no problems and many others have resolved them after contacting the bank/card issuer. While it is a massive pain in the rear for those affected - and the team are probably paying a lot for the service compared to the more mainstream providers - they are extremely limited by the methods they can use in order to keep the whole operation going. A lot of the major providers would quickly decline their services and potentially withhold money. It's the game we have to play in order to have free use of the media we purchase.

These are just my observations and I could be wrong in part.

 

[George++]

After the hassles of trying to buy licenses using a Visa card I was considering using Bitcoin. After a failed attempt trying to buy I was able to get the payment approved.

I will still look into Bitcoin as an alternative payment method, especially for foreign/international transactions.

 

[Recycle]

A bit OT Recycle but from what I've seen the cause of the problems is that the payments are being processed via Asia through an uncommon processor. This is likely just flagging as a potentially fraudulent transaction by the banks as it doesn't fit your usual buying patterns or well known processors. I get this happen most times I make a large purchase in brick and mortar store as it's not how I normally buy things.

Lots of people have had no problems and many others have resolved them after contacting the bank/card issuer. While it is a massive pain in the rear for those affected - and the team are probably paying a lot for the service compared to the more mainstream providers - they are extremely limited by the methods they can use in order to keep the whole operation going. A lot of the major providers would quickly decline their services and potentially withhold money. It's the game we have to play in order to have free use of the media we purchase.

These are just my observations and I could be wrong in part.

I did contact my Visa Bank and told them of the problem hopefully they fix this so I can purchase before the two months are up.

 

[zent]

I didn't know Redfox had a guide. To me Bitcoin seems like setting up a banking system on your computer. Appeals to some people more than others. I miss PayPal. Waiting for Mastercard and the 21 day expiry.

 

[BR3NN88]

Hi, A friend told me to get on website to purchase as there was a 20% off discount. But after seeing Bitcoins get another 10%, I was straight on the case, For people that live in the UK there is a very fast way of getting bitcoins, im sure you will still make a little saving. Me i already had bitcoins for the purchase. please visit. https://bittylicious.com/ which will allow you to purchase the amount you need using many way, bacs, pingit, so on.

I paid 0.19835282BTC for lifetime membership, which on Bitty is about 62.88, now, So sometimes it may be worth you looking for coins i think the extra 10% was lovely,

 

[MedicalFlyer]

Hi, A friend told me to get on website to purchase as there was a 20% off discount. But after seeing Bitcoins get another 10%, I was straight on the case, For people that live in the UK there is a very fast way of getting bitcoins, im sure you will still make a little saving. Me i already had bitcoins for the purchase. please visit. https://bittylicious.com/ which will allow you to purchase the amount you need using many way, bacs, pingit, so on.

I paid 0.19835282BTC for lifetime membership, which on Bitty is about 62.88, now, So sometimes it may be worth you looking for coins i think the extra 10% was lovely,

So with this I would need to set up a wallet and then register with bittylicious and buy currency?
Looking at their site it seems I can register without having to mess around with uploading my ID. Is this correct?

If so it might be a feasible prospect to use this as a one off payment as my brother would also like a licence now so might as well make use of the extra saving when buying two.

 

[BR3NN88]

HI mate, I use Blockchain for my wallet, not really a fan of keeping my wallet on my HDD .. You never know computer crashing so on. So sign up to blockchain which will take minutes, NO ID is needed, you will then get your wallet. Click receive and it will give you your wallet ID for receiving coins. So lets say you wanted 0.2BTC, you pop over to bitty, click bitcoins paste your wallet address in change value to 0.2 or how much you want, leave it as Bank transfer, then click get some coins, it will load a screen saying pay John smith, what ever amount to the penny, to Acc, Sort, using ref (the ref is important).. i use my natwest App on phone, click pay someone new, as a one off, fill it in click pay, then watching website it will say payment received can take 5 minutes,. Then you will get coins sent its about 5 more minutes maybe, You will see coins within wallet,

FYI - It needs 5 confirmations until you can spend the coins, This can take 30-40minutes.

When you have coins and its all gravy, Pop over to purchasing the software like i did pick what you need, at the end tick bitcoins, it will apply the 10% discount and click buy, You will get a payment address and amount of coins,. go back to blockchain, click send, paste wallet id and amount you need to send. And click buy/send (Cant remember), and then i got an email 2 minutes after with my license file

 

[MedicalFlyer]

Thanks. Sounds a lot simpler than the faff I got involved with on my last endeavour. I'll certainly take a good look now as the current card processing seems to be causing some problems. Could be handy for other things in the future.

 

[BR3NN88]

Honestly Mate, Its the best thing. You may pay about £1 more in cost, but when you can get coins using bank transfer using my phone .. its always worth the cost.

Let us know if you do use site ..

Enjoy

 

[MedicalFlyer]

Just signed up with blockchain and bitty. Now to have a rummage through their security settings and investigate how much BTC I'll need then wait for payday and the glory of being back in the world of the licensed

UPDATE:
So having set things up I've got to the point where I can make a purchase of currency by the looks of it.
For two LTL's I need 0.33752592 bitcoins according to the checkout pages which they equate to £103.32 roughly.
Without uploading any ID I can buy 0.23 bitcoins through bitty and then 50% of that again in 12 hours or 48 hours for the whole lot. So unless things vary I'd need to make two purchases of currency with a 12 hour gap which allows for 0.345 which should cover the licence costs.
£115.99 roughly doing it this way which is a little more than the prices shown for paying by Visa but includes all currency exchange fees.

Looks like I found my way. Thank you @BR3NN88

 

[BR3NN88]

Nice Mate, Well i hope the site comes in helpful for bitcoins if you need them for future ..

Im back on life time membership for anyDVDHD ..

 

[whatever_gong82]

I just used what was recommended for the Bitcoin option, so I am now the proud owner of an RedFox AnyDVD HD lifetime license!!

I'll have to rebuy the other 3 AnyDVD HD licenses at a later date.

 

[George++]

I just used what was recommended for the Bitcoin option

Did you use the web wallet option, or the Bitcoin client stored on your machine?

After the hassles I had using my Visa check card I am considering using Bitcoin for another RedFox purchase I would like to make.

Bitcoin seems intimidating, with all the options.

 

[BRCS]

Did you use the web wallet option, or the Bitcoin client stored on your machine?

After the hassles I had using my Visa check card I am considering using Bitcoin for another RedFox purchase I would like to make.

Bitcoin seems intimidating, with all the options.

I used the web wallet option which only required Email confirmation then I found a Bitcoin seller that took paypal and only asked for phone verification ordered my bitcoins in my case I bought like .025 which is a quarter of a bit coin more than enough buy and anydvd HD license with with about $40.00still left in my bitcoin account.

The market flucuates every day on the Bitcoin market do not buy anymore than needed to take care of your imediate online transactions is the best option for most.

I ran into the Visa problem also so that is how I solved the problem.

 

[whatever_gong82]

Did you use the web wallet option, or the Bitcoin client stored on your machine?

After the hassles I had using my Visa check card I am considering using Bitcoin for another RedFox purchase I would like to make.

Bitcoin seems intimidating, with all the options.

I used the web wallet option. One word of warning though, it --in this case, coinbase-- asked for a copy of your id, in my case, my driver's license (Front and Back.)

Normally, I'd balk at that and just call it a day, but since Slysoft recommended this option as one of many, I took the plunge.

It took me about 3 days total to get the amount needed to get an AnyDVD license (I was limited to $40 max per day by my bank to buy any additional bitcoin,) but I ended up with my AnyDVD license.

 

[jadehawk]

Had CoinBase for a while and yes they do ask for ID. however so far all transactions I have done with them have being secure and very easy. Just got my lifetime license and took advantage of the extra 10% discount. Had a previous lifetime license before slysoft bit the bullet. so getting a lifetime license again was a no brainer..