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by tosh·13y ago·view on hn ↗
Very interesting to see a major brand starting to accept Bitcoin. I guess that's a huge next step. So where are the reliable exchanges right now? Haven't really looked into BTC since the Mt Gox incident.

Also http://bitcoin.com/ looks way more accessible and polished compared to last year. What are the major obstacles for mainstream adoption?

2 comments
> So where are the reliable exchanges right now?

MtGox is a really good exhange.

Bitfloor is also really good and seems to be run by great people (plus it's located in NYC instead of Japan, which I think is nice), but you have to be willing to forgive them for a security breach in the recent past. (Never leave large amount of BTC in an exchange.)

CampBX is another good option, they are located in Atlanta, GA.

Sorry if I've left out anyone's pet exchange.

A (generally) better way to acquire bitcoins for spending (as opposed to speculation/wealth storage) is to use bitinstant. You can literally buy bitcoins at Wal-Mart and CVS (which are super ubiquitous where I'm from) using bitinstant.

edit: apparently you can also buy them using coinbase (a YC company). I didn't realize you could do that until someone else mentioned it, since they advertise themselves as a hosted bitcoin wallet.

>> So where are the reliable exchanges right now?

> MtGox ...

> Bitfloor ...

If this is the first two you come up with I'm guessing none of them are reliable.

AFAIK CampBX has never had any issues whatsoever, but I actually would prefer an exchange that has had issues and worked them out in a professional manner in the past.

Anyway, all bitcoin exchanges are perfectly reliable for exchanging. Where they have had problems in the past is when people use them as a bank. Don't leave your fiat currency or coin there. Do your exchanging and then take your money out.

As far as I'm aware, Mt. Gox is the most secure exchange around right now and hasn't had an incident since its big one last year. Even so, you only have three fears: 0) You poorly secure your account and someone logs in as you and takes your coins 1) Bitcoin's value plummets and you lose all your invested money. 2) Mt. Gox loses some of their actual coins, and refuses to let you withdraw from your balance with them. 0 and 2 are theft, which is a constant concern to anyone regardless of what is being stolen. While I don't think Mt. Gox insures any of its deposits with something similar to FDIC insurance, I bet there's an insurance company out there that will insure your bitcoins for a fee.

Also, it's easy to get rid of #0 as a fear. Does your bank (or more analogously if you have stocks, your account for some company's online trading interface) support YubiKeys or similar? http://www.yubico.com/ Mt. Gox has given quite a few of them away for free. (Mine was free.)

I have a fourth fear with Mt. Gox. For a European the only way to directly buy Bitcoins there is a SEPA transfer. Mt. Gox will only accepts this after I send a scanned identification document and a proof of residency without ANY alterations.

I understand why they need this and I appreciate that they are thorough in their measures to prevent fraud and money laundering. I even sent my passport to other companies, but only altered in a way that makes it unusable for identity theft.

But still: I don't trust them enough that I don't fear my passport scan gets leaked some day and is used for identity theft.

I worried about the same thing about sending something that exposed my Social Security Number. So I submitted my driver's license and car insurance policy for identity and residence respectively. (It was kind of a pain to find a proof of residence they accepted since I had no bills in my name.)

For anyone browsing the thread, this is part of an email their support desk sent me for accepted documents, which is significantly more permissive than the upload page for verification suggests:

    1 A copy of your government issued photo ID such as:
    - Passport
    - Permanent residence card
    - Driver’s license

    2. Proof of Residence that is not older than 3 months such as:
    - Monthly utility bill
    - Internet Bill
    - Cellphone Bill
    - Tax Return document
    - Residency Certificate
    - Voting registration form
    - Medical insurance
    - Pay Slip
    - Car Insurance Policy
    - Medical Bill
Thanks, I think I'm much more comfortable with sending a copy of my Driver's license.
Is there a relationship between coinbase and blockchain.info? Even their websites look very similar.
No relationship. They look similar because they both use an open source web gui tookit called Bootstrap.

http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/

You might to look at http://howdoyoubuybitcoins.com/