Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: antitheist on January 05, 2012, 07:39 am
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Hello Everyone,
This is in response to a thread I read, but can no longer find! So apologies if some of the information is duplicated.
Let me preface this by saying I'm relatively new to SR/BTC, so this may be helpful to those of you in that situation.
Mt.Gox Experience:
I set up a Mt.Gox account (using the Tor browser) to buy Bitcoins being as that it was one of the larger markets and seemed reputable. I created an account with a fake name and one of my hushmail.com (highly recommended) accounts, and proceeded to fund my account to buy about 40 BTC. After my bid went through and the BTC were credited to my account I obviously wanted to transfer them so I could get buying on SR!
I decided I didn't want my Mt.Gox account to be sending BTC to a SR account address, so I entered one of my personal wallet addresses (from the Bitcoin software) to have the coins sent there first, and then I would send them to SR.
This is where things got tense for a bit. Upon trying to send my newly purchased BTC to my wallet I received a message (on screen, below the transfer) saying that my Mt.Gox account was under review, and suggested I go to the "Verification" page. I was confused so I went to the verification page and that is where I found out for the first time they ask for you to upload a Government ID and a bill with your address. Obviously I was like no fucking way, but not sure what to do. So I emailed every single one of their support email addresses, and said how upset I was and how unprofessional I felt they were. I also said I wanted them to release my coins immediately.
Sadly in the thread I was reading earlier some people sent in their information to get their Bitcoins/Money released. ***You should NOT have to do that!***. They sent me back a message saying they would release my BTC, and the issue was that I was using the Tor browser. Obviously not ideal that they wanted me to use a regular browser, but far better than sending them my Government ID and my address.
Anyway, I hope this helps anyone out who experiences a similar situation! Be well =)
-antitheist
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I recommend any new users thinking about using Mt.Gox to search for another source of coins. Mt.Gox sucks and you are bound to have a bad experience if you are dealing with them. But just so everyone is clear about this, the reason Mt.Gox along with every major bitcoin exchanger requires government issued ID is because they have been classified as currency traders by the federal reserve. All currency traders are required to keep specific information about their clients. The OP had good luck in the sense that he still got his coin without having to produce an ID. But the fact is that its illegal for an entity classified as a currency trader to conduct trades with any party that has not confirmed their identity. Considering the governments anti-bitcoin stance Mt.Gox would be pushing their luck to make trades without getting all the information the feds are obligating them to collect.
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thanks for this - good to know. i personally use intersango, but there have been times where they've fucked up and i've had to look elsewhere. i'll know to avoid mt gox like the plague now
What is intersango? Also, how are people getting coins aside from the major exchangers? Thanks 4 the help guys
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You have to expect sites are going to be checking if you're using tor or not. And if you are, you're already in the suspicious behavior category. So, you really don't want to be doing something that may require an ID for verification through tor. Especially if you risk losing your money because you were unable to produce ID. Also remember, you could setup a proxy tunnel through tor, and then be accessing the services via a standard proxy, albeit, routed through tor.
But in general, you don't need to worry about buying bitcoins with your real ID. And even when you send them to SR, they're going to a unique ID number that can't be associated with SR in anyway. There's really no difference if your sending it to the unique ID in your own bitcoin wallet or the unique ID in your SR wallet.
Really, its vendors who need to take ID precautions when cashing out. There's really no way for you to get into trouble buying bitcoins and then forwarding them to your own "fake IDs", or IMO sending them directly to your SR account. However, acting suspiciously can definitely get your funds revoked. You got off lucky, actually. But I'd recommend you abandon that mtgox account and create another. Its certainly flagged as suspicious, especially since you refused to show ID. And now, someone might actually be watching extra close where those coins are going.
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If you live in the United States, even in the rural bumfuck towns, it is too easy for you to get bitcoins.
get-bitcoin.com . Almost every city in the US has at least one Bank of America or Wells Fargo.
Drop an anonymous cash deposit into their account, wait 12 hours (new processing features have extended the time it takes for them to verify your payment and send you bitcoins...used to take 2 hours) and bam you've got bitcoin. Send it through a few instawallets for security measures then go ahead and send it to SR.
Flat 5% fee, no bullshit, no hassle.
It's that simple folks.
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Thanks a million Trinitron!!!! Finally someone has simplified this bull shit....With all the complications , I have yet to make a successful transaction... There has to be a better way....
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Thanks a million Trinitron!!!! Finally someone has simplified this bull shit....With all the complications , I have yet to make a successful transaction... There has to be a better way....
No problem man. I've wondered for all this time why so many people have problems.
Yes you may have to pay 2-3% more in fees than the other trade sites, but that is still half what would cost you to get it off silkroad through moneypaks (next easiest method).
And if people are interested in knowing how to know how big of a deposit to make, here's my method.
Since SR has taken off the exchange rate, I first start off by figuring that out. Find a listing pegged to the US dollar, add it to your cart to see how many bitcoins that is. then USD divded by BTC and you have the exchange rate. I then take the BTC amount for the item I want and times it by 1.05 (the fee that get-bitcoin will charge) and then convert that to USD. Add enough for an extra bitcoin or two in case of fluctuations and that is what I deposit. I always set the price I'm wiling to pay for bitcoins for about a dollar over, again in case of fluctuations so that my order will still go through. Then use whatever method you want to transfer it to your SR account from the wallet you provided to get-bitcoin as soon as you receive so that the rate doesn't change too much from the rate you bought them at. After that, I think you know the drill ;)
Did that make any sense? Or am I just rambling?
Either way, cheers!
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cool, that's pretty awesome. Thanks for the tip on that site, Trinitron. New to me. And this is reliable? I guess you are going on CCTV to make this "anonymous" deposit, though. And wouldn't they be asking for a name on the deposit slip?
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cool, that's pretty awesome. Thanks for the tip on that site, Trinitron. New to me. And this is reliable? I guess you are going on CCTV to make this "anonymous" deposit, though. And wouldn't they be asking for a name on the deposit slip?
Yes, you will be on CCTV. No name or any other information is needed. Just grab an out of state deposit slip, fill in their account name and number. That is all that is needed. They are good guys and you will get your bitcoin. To those who are paranoid though, I will be upfront. It could be totally possible if someone wanted to, they could use CCTV footage to have your face, and track the deposit down to the address you submitted to get-bitcoin. Though, at this point with you connecting to the instawallet only on tor, it can easily be claimed that you gave the address to someone else as a means of payment. Or some other excuse of that sort.
I'm no fucking security expert, though. So don't take my word for it. I give you what I know/think and its up to you to process it and make your decision.