Bitcoin is the only money you can really own. Other currencies are fragile and ephemeral.

http://blog.oleganza.com/post/67362431718/you-can-own-bitcoi...

If you want to buy bitcoins and you are in the US go to Coinbase.com you can crate an account link it to your bank account and buy some coins very quickly. If you use an exchange like Mtgox or similar it could take weeks to get all the identity verification stuff approved. If you decide you want to day trade later get an account on CampBX, bitstamp.net or similar and use that but to start out Coinbase is the way to go.

Chargebacks are the reason. If you buy a bitcoin with a credit card and I send you a bitcoin, you can get your money back from the credit card company and keep my bitcoin.

Yes, Bitcoin is a threat, for the whole financial system for that matter, but it's much more of a threat for those who don't adopt it than for those who do. At least if Paypal adopted it, they could remain relevant in the future, and people would still use them.

And of course Paypal suffers from same problem as credit cards of chargeback and fraud

In Canada, http://cavirtex.com or https://vaultofsatoshi.com/

If you are in Europe, http://bitcoin.de , http://bitcoin-central.net , https://www.bitstamp.net/

If you are anywhere, check out your local Bitcoin meetup group.

Took me about 30 mins total from wanting to buy to having my order placed.

(If you use NAB it will be even faster, I had to make a cash deposit at an NAB)

There are lot of services that allow you to buy Bitcoin and people have already listed a few, but here's another option:

Start charging for Bitcoin. It's funny how few people think about this.

"How to get USD?" You do some work that another person is willing to give you USD for.

Register in Bitstamp or Kraken (my favourite exchanges).

Validate your account. You have to provide some sort of proof of identity and address. This is asked by governments and if they don't comply with them they can be closed without any previous notice, like it happened with the exchange bitcoin24. It can take up to 1 week.

Deposit cash. Companies like Visa/Mastercard/PayPal don't want to deal directly with BTC, that's why a bank transfer is more convenient. Being European you probably have cash in a SEPA bank, which is an advantadge because most exchanges accept SEPA deposits at a very low fee (much cheaper than a Wire Transfer) and they are usually very fast (1-2 working days).

But on the other hand I also understand that these services have to be very careful so they don't get abused themselves.

BTC exchanges are operating in EVE like territory, the only reason to trust them is because they have not run away with the money YET. Ironically, this benefits MtGox the most, who despite/because of the ridiculous withdrawal limits have managed to stay in the business the longest.

The only exception that I would be willing to trust is Coinbase and that is only because of YC connection, and that is no guarantee either but the best for now.

BTC will only take off for the masses, when there is a reputable company offering banking/trading services with BTC.

Localbitcoins have to do for now, but is not something that scales very well.

http://www.bitonic.nl/

iDeal...

www.bitquick.co

Prerequisites: A bitcoin wallet to receive the coins, and some cash.

1: Click Buy, browse through the offers and pick one that has a reasonable price and uses a geographically convenient bank.

2: Submit your bitcoin address and your desired amount, write down the bank account info that appears, go to the bank, and deposit the specified amount of cash into the seller's account.

3: Take a picture of the deposit receipt and email it to BitQuick.

4: Bitcoins will be sent from escrow to the address you specified earlier. Done!

Let me know if you want a referral.

Also it's more liquid than buying actual BTC and then selling them I think. Just be careful about using leverage.

I left finance in 2009. I never thought I'd get back into trading...

It does seem like a very interesting strategy though, that can probably make one even more money than investing directly in Bitcoin, but for that to work I think you need a sizable ($10,000?) amount, and only invest a few hundred dollars at most in that position. That way you can still make a lot of money if Bitcoin keeps increasing, but if it does happen to drop quite a lot, at least there's a much smaller chance of losing all the money.

Put in $300 and they give you $300. I opened it yesterday got a position on BTC same day (would be fun to get real BTC though). You can buy .01 lot with $300.

http://www.avatrade.com/?ref=38634