Hacker News Reader

Comment by ashray | Hacker News Reader

Not nearly enough. I decided that it's important to let people actually spend their bitcoins. That's why I started http://bitcoinsaresexy.com - Basically selling amazon gift cards and Paypal USD transfer in exchange for bitcoin. Response has been good so far :)

The really important thing right now is widespread bitcoin acceptance. Until that comes around.. sigh we're in the wild west of bubble territory.

View on HN

SO 74 Bitcoins are worth 75$ value Amazon giftcard? How is this not ripoff? I mean 1 Bitcoin is like 140$ and if you buy Amazon giftcards in bulk I assume one can get some sort of price reduction.

Thanks for pointing out that UI confusion. I will fix it :)

You pay the equivalent of $74 in BTC according to the live exchange rate. So you pay USD 1 less.

It's not a ripoff, it's a discount. example: Right now, you'd pay 0.3333 BTC.

Again, I see that the UI isn't 100% obvious, I will make sure that it is updated shortly.

I've added live rates to the site now so that there's no confusion. You'll see exactly what you'll be paying in BTC :)

He is charging .3333 of a bitcoin for a $75 gift card. Which is fair since a bitcoin is $223

But how do you buy bitcoins? So far i haven't found a single website that actually worked for me.

It's very hard to buy bitcoins - unless you're in the US or a tier 1 european city. You need a verified account at an exchange (mtgox is the biggest one) and then need to wire them money, etc. It's complicated.

The easier ways to get bitcoins are to sell something on bitmit or something like that. Or, you could try localbitcoins and try to buy from someone in your city.

In the US it's fairly easy..

With MtGox you can also make cash deposits at any local Chase Bank branch. MtGox has extremely easy to follow instructions for this on the 'funding' page in your account. This may only be available to verified users, I am not sure.

Try http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com they have guides for many countries. In the US I would personally go with coinbase.com (I have used them).

Or post to your local craigslist and ask to pay cash for bitcoins. If you are in a big city, anywhere in the world, chances are you will find a Bitcoin seller.

If you are from Europe then https://bitcoin-24.com Make a SEPA transfer, it costs 1.24 euro, then you can trade and withdraw any time. Beware, withdraws usually take couple of days.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com