[smtddr]

These stories of hacks & scandals and your link showing increasing-value only increases my desire to buy bitcoin. Also, this wild story[1] makes me want bitcoin too. What if I just want to buy $500 USD worth of bitcoin and just sit on it? Maybe 10 years from now it'll be worth close to a million, or maybe bitcoin will be shutdown and it'll be worth nothing. I think I can risk it. Who's trust-worthy these days if I want to make that purchase?

1. http://now.msn.com/kristoffer-koch-norwegian-man-buys-apartm...

[aianus]

Coinbase.com is a YC company that's trustworthy and convenient if you have a US bank account

[christiangenco]

+1 for coinbase. As long as you transfer the bulk of your coins to an offline wallet (Electrum is pretty simple), you can buy from any exchange like this pretty safely.

I've been doing dollar cost averaging through coinbase for the last three months (buying $20 worth every week), and with the recent surge my ~$300 investment is now worth over $1,000.

[zachlatta]

Eh, I wouldn't recommend Coinbase. They deemed one of my purchases from them as "high-risk" and have been holding my money hostage since. Support team has been taking 3-4 days to reply to each email in the thread.

[christiangenco]

Yeah, their support department is absolutely awful.

[Wingman4l7]

They've been chalking that up to growing pains -- for the longest time, they didn't even have a dedicated support guy hired; it was just the two founders. Last time I checked they had just one member of staff dedicated to support, although by now they might have one or two more.

[iancarroll]

Sometimes this happens. They deal with purchases every day and can't aid with money laundering.

[MichaelGG]

But a 3-4 day response time isn't part of fraud prevention.

[twentysix]

Maybe you should buy it and hold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHUPPYzzZrI

[smtddr]

That vid @ 0:25 - 0:39 ...it grew three thousand percent from last year to now? O_o;

[Spittie]

I think https://localbitcoins.com/ it's still one of the safest way to buy bitcoins.

[kristianp]

As long as you don't use MtGox. It has problems with withdrawals of USD, and hence has an inflated bitcoin price compared to others.

[sukaka]

if in 10 years the price fluctuated from say $50 to $1000 and then rested at $500, you gained a huge opportunity cost. You could have shorted $500, played the market, sold early and reap the rewards =P

[celticninja]

localbitcoins.com

quick, easy and escrow available.