After long remaining mostly mum on Bitcoin, Microsoft’s legendary co-founder Bill Gates has spoken.At the Sibos 2014 financial-services industry conference in Boston, America's richest man just threw his weight behind the controversial cryptocash.Well, at least as a low-cost payments solution.At the event, when asked about Bitcoin’s potential to ease the cost of payment transactions for moving money from one place to another Gates waxed mostly positively about the virtual money.“Bitcoin is exciting because it shows how cheap it can be,” he told Erik Schatzker during a Bloomberg TV’s Smart Street show interview yesterday.“Bitcoin is better than currency in that you don’t have to be physically in the same place and, of course, for large transactions, currency can get pretty inconvenient.” Related: The 7 Most Fascinating Things Bill Gates Said in His Reddit Chat Gates again reiterated his stance on cryptocurrencies when he delivered the event’s closing keynote address, in which he stated that, in the future, financial transactions will eventually “be digital, universal and almost free.” While he seems relatively bullish on how inexpensive transacting in Bitcoin can be, Gates isn’t singing the praises of its anonymity.

The billionaire alluded in an oblique, somewhat rambling fashion to some of the more nefarious anonymous uses associated with Bitcoin.“The customers we’re talking about aren’t trying to be anonymous,” he told Schatzker.“They’re willing to be known, so Bitcoin technology is key and you can add to it or you could build a similar technology where there’s enough attribution where people feel comfortable that this is nothing to do with terrorism or any type of money laundering.” Related: Three Lessons a Serial Tech Entrepreneur Learned from Bill Gates To see the portion of the interview in which Gates directly addresses Bitcoin, watch the video below: The last time Gates publicly commented on Bitcoin was last February, the day Bitcoin currency conversions debuted on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, when he skirted questions about Microsoft’s stance on the cryptocurrency and subsequent others during a lively Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.bitcoin hacker for hire

Instead of answering Bitcoin-related queries head on, Gates shifted the focus to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-backed Vodaphone M-pesa, a mobile phone-based money transfer and microfinancing service in Kenya.Gates said that his organization is “involved in digital money, but unlike Bitcoin it would not be anonymous digital money.” He went on to predict that “digital money will catch on in India and parts of Africa and help the poorest a lot” over the next five years.bitcoin etudeRelated: Billionaire Entrepreneur Mark Cuban: 'Bitcoin Has 'No Shot as a Long-Term Digital Currency' Now that Gates is officially Microsoft’s technical advisor, perhaps he’ll make a push for Microsoft to accept Bitcoin (or another virtual money) as a form of payment and/or weave cryptocurrency into the company’s nascent “Zero-Effort” mobile payments initiative.bitcoin alone mining

Only time will tell.Kenya’s M-Pesa proves that when people are empowered, they will use digital tech to innovate on their own behalf: http://t.co/0gnBGW2H— Bill Gates (@BillGates) January 3, 2013 Hmmm.We wonder what fellow billionaire Mark Cuban thinks of Bitcoin now.Related: What Do Snoop Dogg, Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel Have in Common?circle bitcoin exchange rateOne of the biggest issues today in Bitcoin is the fact that you can’t buy it very easily.bitcoin edward snowdenEven though Paypal has been very favourable of Bitcoin in the past 2 years, it’s still an issue to find credible places to buy Bitcoins with Paypal in 2016.is bitcoin income taxableWhy won’t Paypal allow this ?bitcoin sign on espn

There are numerous chargeback cases created by scammers who buy Bitcoin with Paypal from you and then claim they didn’t receive anything.This way they get to keep their money and their Bitcoins (here’s a short video illustrating this).And now for a more detailed explanation and some additional options… Pros: A reliable method that has been around for a long time.bitcoin poker aceNow since no exchange currently allows a way around the charge back issues of buying Bitcoins with Paypal we are going to have to go through VirWox – The Virtual World Exchange.bitcoin poker aceWe will use a virtual currency called SLL (Second Life Linden Dollars), This currency is used for one of the biggest virtual worlds today – Second Life.After buying this currency with Paypal (which is acceptable) we will then trade it to Bitcoins.My guess is that Virwox is able to do this method since they are not directly selling you Bitcoins with Paypal but rather selling you SLL with Paypal which they can prove if you received (unlike Bitcoin since it’s anonymous in nature).

If you find yourself getting stuck at any point don’t hesitate to contact me through the contact form on the site.VirWox is an exchange of virtual currency, you can buy there Lindens, Bitcoins, and more.It has more than 400,000 registered users and is a Second Life Lindens authorized reseller.Click on the “not registered yet”  on the top of the left sidebar to open up a new account as shown here: Fill out your username and email address.Where it asks for “avatar name” just leave it at “No Avatar”,  it  doesn’t matter, since you’re not going to play Second Life.Once you clicked “register” you will get an email confirmation with your password.Open the email, copy the password and log back into VirWox.Do not worry about the message saying “Your avatar connection has not been validated yet” – it is irrelevant.Note: From now on for each transaction you will make there will be a fee – make sure you are aware of the relevant deposit and withdrawal fees.

Note: If you haven’t made a deposit yet you will get the screen shown above requesting you to deposit before you buy SLL.Sometimes a manual review will be required by VirWox after this step.This can take up to 48 hours but usually takes around 6 hours.Withdraw your Bitcoins Will this method actually work ?I’m saying probably because I have received a handful of emails from people who weren’t able to get their Bitcoins.having said that, from all of the people who didn’t get their coins I haven’t gotten one email stating their money wasn’t returned to them.So yes, the process is a bit irritating but I have been using this method since 2013 and it hasn’t failed me yet.How much fees will be deducted from my deposit ?This is probably the second most asked question I get.It’s important to understand that when you buy Bitcoins through Virwox you are actually conducting two transactions.USD to SLL and SLL to BTC.This means you’ll need to pay a fee for each of these transactions.

The problem is that Virwox’s fee structure is always changing that is why I advise to check each case in person before proceeding.There is a pretty cool site which shows you the current BTC/USD rate after all of Virwox’s fees.I’m not sure how reliable the site is but you can check it out for yourself here.Are there any other methods to buy Bitcoin with Paypal other than Virowx?However Virwox has been around for the longest time and therefor is the most reliable.If you continue reading this post I will cover 4 more methods that you can use but each of them has its pros and cons.Buy Bitcoins with Paypal through Local Bitcoins Pros: Wide variety of sellers from around the world Cons: High fees, chance of scam At the time of writing this paragraph (April 2015) this is the only known way to buy Bitcoins with Paypal.If you’re still looking for additional ways you can take a look at LocalBitcoins and try to find sellers that perhaps will be willing to sell you Bitcoin with Paypal.

Local Bitcoins, unlike Virwox is a marketplace where buyers and sellers meet.If you use this option you’ll be dealing with an actual person which means that credibility also comes into play.The way you can use Local Bitcoins to buy Bitcoins with Paypal is by finding a person that is willing to sell them to you.But since the seller is taking a big risk (as I explained in the beginning of this post) the will usually charge a really big premium (most of the times this will be more expensive than Virwox).The upside is that you will usually get your Bitcoins faster.Enter your search parameters The first step will be to go to Local Bitcoins and enter how much you want to buy and from which country.Since Local Bitcoins was originally made for people to meet face to face there is no “worldwide” search which is a shame.This means that there is no way to see all of the people who are willing to sell you will Paypal worldwide other then going through each country one at a time.Choose your seller On the next screen you’ll see a list of available sellers, you can now browse them one by one.

Here are the things to take into account: Feedback score – Located under the seller’s name.It’s advised to conduct transactions only with high feedback sellers.Trade limits – Each seller has a minimum / maximum amount of Bitcoins he’s willing to trade.Payment window – How much time you have for paying the purchase and marking the payment done after you initiate a trade.It’s also super important to read the terms of trade for the specific seller located on the right side.Here’s an example: Some sellers will require you have an initial reputation in order to buy from them so they can avoid scams or fraud.This means that you will perhaps have to conduct some small transactions just to get reputation.Complete the trade Once you’ve found your seller just enter how much you will to buy and click on “Send trade request”.Keep in mind that it’s crucial to conduct all communications within Local Bitcoins and preferably use their Escrow services (which are triggered automatically for all online sales).

This method is faster the Virwox but it can take you a lot of time to gain enough reputation, find your seller and also the premiums are really high (around %30 and more…).Buy Bitcoin with Paypal through E-coin Pros: Medium fees Requires a long time to complete (around 10 days) E-coin is a company that supplies virtual and physical Bitcoin debit cards.Since it’s just like any other debit card you can use E-coin’s card with your Paypal account.In order to buy Bitcoins with your e-coin debit card here’s what you’ll need to do: 1.Order a physical / virtual debit card from e-coin Go to E-coin.Click on “request new card” and choose the type of card you want.It’s possible to buy Bitcoins with Paypal through both cards (physical and virtual).A Virtual card should cost around $3 and will be enough for this process.Connect that debit card to your Paypal account and verify it Inside your Paypal account, go to “Wallet” -> “Add a card” and add your newly acquired virtual Bitcoin credit card.

One the card is added you will need to verify it.In order to verify the card you’ll need to have a balance of at least $3 on it so that Paypal will be able to charge you.Once Paypal charges you, you will see a 4 digit code next to that transaction on your e-coin account.That 4 digit code in the verification pin for your card on Paypal.Deposit funds to your Paypal account I’ll assume you know how to do that :) 4.Withdraw funds from your Paypal account to your e-coin account Go to “Wallet” -> “Withdraw funds” and choose the “withdraw funds to your card” option.Make sure to choose your e-coin card.The withdrawal can take up to 7 days to appear in your e-coin account.Buy Bitcoins with your funded e-coin debit card Now that your e-coin card has funds in it, you can use them to buy Bitcoins.The whole process can take some time as verifying your E-coin card with Paypal takes some times and withdrawing the funds can take up to 7 business days depending on where you live.

Buy Bitcoins with Paypal through Paxful Pros: Wide variety of sellers from around the world Cons: High exchange rate, chance of scam Paxful is the smaller less known version of LocalBitcoins.It’s a peer to peer marketplace that allows you to buy Bitcoins with almost anything (e.g.Skype credits, Amazon gift cards).The process of buying Bitcoins at Paxful is pretty simple: Create an account Choose a payment method for buying and a desired amount Choose your seller – You can either choose manually or let Paxful decide who is the best seller for you.Once the trade initiates you will be sent in to an online chat with the seller where you can finalize the deal.The seller’s Bitcoins will be sent into Escrow and once you mark that you’ve sent your payment they will be released into your account.Keep in mind that if you don’t finalize the deal within a certain timeframe (usually 30 minutes) the deal will be auto-cancelled.Buy Bitcoins with Paypal Through Cryptonit Pros: Low fees Cons: Unestablished company, requires verification Cryptonit is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to deposit funds through Paypal as well as many other payment form like Skrill and a credit card.

However unlike Virwox, you will need to go through a verification process in order to qualify for Paypal deposit.The verification process includes the following: A copy of a government issues photo id An address verification document like a utility bill or rental agreement A photo of you holding these documents or a Skype video call with someone from Cryptonit Verification should take around 12 hours around weekdays (on weekends can take up to 24 hours).After verification is complete getting your coins is pretty simple.Just go to the “trade” tab, choose the right currency pair (e.g.BTC/USD) and fill out how much you want to buy.IMPORTANT: Starting from December 7th 2016 Circle no longer allows the option of buying or selling Bitcoins through their services.They are now referring all of their customers to Coinbase.The method described below should work with Coinbase as well.Cons: US customers only, requires a Paypal debit card.This option is a bit trickier since it will work only if you’re living in the US and you’ll need to have a Paypal Debit Mastercard (can be obtained here).