Bitcoin as the ONLY payment option, lol what?

[vd752]

I can see Bitcoin continuing to stand out as the primary virtual currency.

- primary virtual currency for illegal things for sure

[universal4]

Please be sure to refrain from personally attacking each other and respecting that the GPWA is a place where folks can in fact share their opinions, (and debate such opinions respectfully).

Rick
Universal4

[DaftDog]

- primary virtual currency for illegal things for sure

You may be right but aren't all other major currencies also involved in illegal business on a daily basis?

[Sherlock]

- primary virtual currency for illegal things for sure

Nobody needs another currency for 100% legal things. So if there has to be another currency it must have broader use by definition.

[Buddy M]

First let me say I did not do my homework so I am the only one to blame for this mess. I am not at all bitcoin savvy so I pushed back as long as I could from using bitcoin. As many of you know not using bitcoin is not an option for some programs, so I had no choice.

I followed the directions and advise from Betting Partners and I was able to create several accounts to exchange bitcoin,then as suggested on bettingpartners website I opened a KRAKEN account. (Im not blaming BP at all) There was no problem making a deposit into Kraken, but after I joined, two of the methods for making a withdrawal I saw were now closed for USA account holders and the only option available to withdraw MY money was a method that required me to advance to Tier 3 status.

Well, when it came to one of the docs they needed I was not able to submit it, because their program insisted it was not the correct size; I tried to submit LOL, 22 docs that they claimed to be the wrong size which they are not, later I saw on Kraken’s website that the wrong size notice was a problem Kraken admitted they had. I tried to get help from them so the emails began and continued, and continued and continued……. All I got after 2 weeks of emails were the prepared emails claiming how busy they all are and they would resolve it within 48 hours, that never happened. I did get two replies’. One asked for a number which I sent them immediately, no further response on that email from them. The other was from someone who told me the doc was too big (it’s not) which was what I had asked in the first place, as in how do I fix it? I asked if I could email it and he said yes and to let him know when I did. I emailed it and sent another email stating I did send the doc, but they all go to the same place so if you’re lucky enough to get a reply it’s not from anyone who knows your situation and you have to start the BS all over again.

I was able to deposit MY money into KRAKEN in 45 seconds, but I am getting nowhere with trying to have my money transferred to my bank, none at all and what recourse do I have, I KNOW, none. Do I give up? it’s not just a few bucks.

Now I am getting several more bitcoin commissions and what the heck do I do. What can I do? Nada.

Stay away from Kraken and do your homework. This is not Betting partners fault for suggesting them, I didn’t do my homework and now I lost my money to KRAKEN.

[allfreechips]

You should be able to send the bitcoin to another wallet right? I would go with coinbase and call it a day, they have minimal fee's for bank transfer (im in the US)

[Buddy M]

Im in the US too and I just signed on with coin base. I don't know if I could transfer it to coin base. I would have to convert it back to Bitcoin. I gotta check that out. Thanks AllFree, I really appreciate the advise.

[justbookies]

I am trying not to post on this forum tbh as it's a waste of time, but I feel for your situation. A few points 1) Yes, you can turn it back to bitcoin and send it straight back out to your wallet, coinbase or wherever 2) I dont understand why you have had such a problem with Kraken. They can be incompetent but I have always sorted out my issues with them (and I have had a few). 3) I am going to PM a suggestion to you that has worked twice for me.

[Buddy M]

Well, as a follow up. I did send Kraken one more email. It was not a very nice one and I don't know if what I said in there was what got them moving to help me; I actually hope it wasn't what I said to them that led to action. I'd rather believe that are good business people and that they were busy and maybe overwhelmed a bit, but in any case they informed me of the changes to attain Tier 3 status, I complied and my money is in my checking account. I would still advise those new to Bitcoin to look into the companies your dealing with more than I initially did. Thanks to those of you who shared your advise and thoughts with me on this.

[Rich100]

Yes, a few of the USA brands have converted to Bitcoin only. It was a pain at first but you got use to it.

[MMM]

Thinking about selling before that SEC decision. If someone holding for the decision, would be glad to hear the reasons behind it.

[Sherlock]

I do not give a **** about SEC decision. Someone counted that it is priced in already as 25% approval, which indeed is a crazy high number (= the probability of approval is lower). But, but, but.... that would mean the recent rally is caused only by SEC decision, which is IMO nonsense. Traders in bitcoin always need some big theme to talk about. So I do not give a ****. Most probably it will be again postponed. The bitcoin will make a dip, probably smaller than expected, I will maybe just buy more. I expect it will resume shortly after.

Also might happen something as crazy as approval, and good luck then buying bitcoins for 3XXX or even more.

This is the chart one has to look for https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty. Only hodl makes sense.

Also something for tinfoil hat lovers: https://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-bats...495-132335.pdf Price of bitcoin started to pick up exactly on the 14th Feb, when this happened. So there are rumors it is an insider trading. Just passing the info. I just do not give a **** for short term "news".

[Sherlock]

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum.../RELEASE-NOTES
There is a new electrum wallet Release 2.8.0 (March 9, 2017)

The important thing here is that it can add fees to current transaction. Few days ago someone here was solving that problem, where his/her bitcoin payment was stuck because of full mempool (=there were many transactions in Bitcoin network due "spam" which is used in ongoing war of miners). This update solves the problem. With this wallet you can always add fees, if you need to process the payment quickly.

[TheGooner]

Does Electrum wallet update automatically?

[Sherlock]

Nope. Everybody is responsible for his actions. The new versions might have and usually have bugs (minor, but you never know...). They also fix bugs. So it is up to people.

The old wallets are functional always, so I do not upgrade, bc I use them as cold wallets.

But maybe is time for new flashmemory stick, wallet and seed if you are sending bitcoins out and you think the feature is usefull.

[PROFRBcom]

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum.../RELEASE-NOTES
There is a new electrum wallet Release 2.8.0 (March 9, 2017)

The important thing here is that it can add fees to current transaction.

Really? This is just now being added? I know we toyed with Electrum at some point. I could swear that it added miners fees and that they were adjustable. This would have been months, or maybe even over a year ago.

[Sherlock]

No, if I understand correctly, those are two independent issues.

The miners fees were there even before; recent release on default enables dynamic miners fees. B4 you had to activate them manually or something like that. But this is something that I was not talking about.

I was talking about adding fees to the transaction which is already in progress. This means that sometimes you are sending bitcoins and after you have sent them, you realize that the fees that you pay are too low; so the transaction can be stuck for days. Before this release you had just to wait. Now you can add more fees and the transaction should go through.

[PROFRBcom]

Oh wow. I've never heard of such a feature before. That is cool. To throw money at it to speed things up. However, it does concern me. Currently recommended fees on transactions I've sent are typically ~30 cents. Rewind one year and they were 3 cents. If fees are $3 next year at this time, bitcoin will not be nearly such a good way to move money. Nor will the price be nearly as high. There is a point that the fee needed to move the coins will start to become detrimental...

[Sherlock]

I do think fees will go up, I do not think it will be 3 usd in one year.

But 3 usd is still fine. 30 usd might be a problem.

Unlike leftist think, onchain bitcoin transactions are not good for microtransactions. We know the fees are more or less flat. So for transactions ~ over 100 USD, the fees would be like fees for creditcards or lower at rate 3 USD. With that bitcoin can live if we take into consideration that bitcoin goods like drugs or gambling have much higher margin for sellers.

The fees - even when I want them lower - are still too low. Almost nobody knows that transactions can be "batched". So it is possible to pay just one miner fee if you are sending more bitcoin transactions at once. Yet almost nobody does it! We are wasting the resources of the network. So once fees go from 0.3 to 3 USD, many exchanges, bookies etc. will start using this method.

And yes, finally the bitcoin network will be near collapse and that looming collapse will bring some kind of offchain solution. It can be Segwit, Lightning Network, bigger blocks, combination of those, something else or even off any blockchain centralised solution.

It would be probably too detailed here to explain, but simply: trust the free market. The higher the price of fees becomes, the more attractive will be the detours. Even this new wallet feature I just talked about is part of the detour. One does not have to set up too high fees, scared that the transaction does not go through. Because there is the backup solution now.

[yeahfree]

with regards to fees, it all depends how you look at it. for me personally i really don't mind to pay the fees at all, even if they would be $30. it would still be a lot cheaper than currency conversion at 2 or 3% that the netellers or skrills are charging.