Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: sardinesinacan on December 05, 2012, 09:33 pm

Title: Noob Question About BitMe
Post by: sardinesinacan on December 05, 2012, 09:33 pm
So today is my first time buying Bitcoins.  After doing research on the forums and the Wiki, I decided to try BitMe because the process sounded relatively simple.  I made my cash deposit at Chase, took a picture of the receipt, scrubbed all the exif data and emailed it to them.  The money showed up in my account about an hour later.  So far, so good.

I guess I just overlooked this, but I didn't realize the money would show up in your account on there as US$.  I had just assumed they would automatically convert it to BTC.  So I go ahead and buy BTC with the money in my account.  The transaction is still pending as of now.  First of all, this is normal, right?  I obviously have a limited understanding of exactly how BTC works, I had thought the coins would be available instantly.  How long does this kind of thing usually take?

Thanks in advance for any answers.
Title: Re: Noob Question About BitMe
Post by: Oompaloompa on December 05, 2012, 10:01 pm
Haven't used BitMe & don't know how they operate or likel timescales, but I'd expect that it'd say in their FAQ section or wiki or whatever they've got.
I wouldn't be concerned at a little wait though. If its not there tommorrow & their site says it should be get in touch with them.
Title: Re: Noob Question About BitMe
Post by: Winston420 on December 05, 2012, 10:30 pm
BitMe is an exchange.  Account holder wishing to buy or sell bitcoins place an order to buy or sell.  If you place an order, and there is a matching order, all or part of your order gets executed, and the trade is made.  BitMe takes about 0.07% on the trade.

Unfortunately, BitMe really doesn't have a mechanism to make a market order: for instance, if you are buying BTC, you buy open orders selling the cheapest BTC until the order is fulfilled.  How it works currently, is default value on a buy is price of the cheapest BTC for sale.  If your request is greater than what the sell order has at that price, you create an open buy order until someone matches your order.  If you don't want to wait, you can cancel the pending order, and make a buy at the cheapest sell order price.   BitMe is currently is a low volume exchange, and the prices for BTC tend to be over the mtGox rate because there are more buyers than sellers.

When trading on BitMe, you should be aware of the current mtGox rate and be careful that you don't overpay by too much if there aren't enough open sell orders available at reasonable rates.

If you have a mtGox account, and the going price on BitMe is 5% over the mtGox rate, you can transfer your USD to a mtGox account via an AurumXchange voucher.  It cost about 4% to do this transfer.
Title: Re: Noob Question About BitMe
Post by: sardinesinacan on December 05, 2012, 10:32 pm
Thanks for the replies guys....I just didn't totally understand how this part of the process would work, but it seems like everything is on the up and up.  Think I got a handle on it now  8)
Title: Re: Noob Question About BitMe
Post by: bluebell on December 06, 2012, 09:45 pm
Ive deposited money into BitMe and im still waiting for someone to match my order price, which is not cheap but it seems the bitcoins went up in value right before I made my order so im still waiting.

So basically this will be my first and last order on BitMe.... I would not recommend them to anyone that needs bitcoins right away