With all the chatter lately about bitcoin’s surge in value, I figured it was time to try it out for myself.But rather than setting up a “mining” operation to create new bitcoins or investing US dollars, I realized I could transfer some money from one virtual currency into another.As an early user of the virtual world Second Life, I had amassed a few thousand Linden dollars, which is the currency used for transactions within the game.Second Life used to pay basic users a stipend of L$50 a week simply for logging in.Not having used it in years, I was pleasantly surprised to find over L$5,000 Linden dollars sitting in my account, just waiting to be converted into bitcoins.I started the day with L$5,203 in my Second Life account, which is worth about US$20.To move my money, I created an account at VirWoX, a virtual currency exchange originally created to exchange Linden dollars for real-word, government-issued money.You can trade US dollars, euros, pounds, and Swiss francs into and out of Linden dollars, Avination (used in a virtual world of the same name), and Open Metaverse Currency (used in several virtual worlds).

You can also now exchange between Linden dollars and bitcoin.In order to initiate the transfer, I had to visit one of VirWoX’s terminals inside Second Life, where I deposited L$5,195.That’s me in the image above, with what appears to be some sort of cat behind me.The terminal works kind of like an ATM, except that instead of punching in a PIN, the terminal showed me a PIN I created in VirWoX, to prove that it was legitimate and not some rogue ATM trying to rip me off.Having transferred the funds into my VirWoX account, I needed to convert them into bitcoins, which means dealing with exchange rates.Even though I work in an office filled with financial journalists, not everything sinks in, and I managed to commit a rookie mistake of buying in with the market price of bitcoins at an all-time high.I executed a trade at an exchange rate of about 49,000 Linden dollars for 1 bitcoin.VirWoX took a commission of L$50 plus 2.9% of the transaction.After a nearly instantaneous trade, I was the proud owner of one-tenth of a bitcoin, worth about US$18 at the time of trade.

The final step was simply to get the money out of my VirWoX account and into a bitcoin “wallet,” a secure address that acts as my public identity on the bitcoin network.ethereum installation guideThis turned out to be, by far, the most time-consuming step.bitcoin for dummies good wife watch onlineAfter downloading the recommended bitcoin client, I needed to wait about five hours for it sync with the network.ethereum circleOnce that was done, I initiated a transfer from my VirWoX account to my newly created bitcoin wallet.bitcoin buzz appVirWoX charged a fee of one-hundredth of a bitcoin to make the transfer.ethereum march 17

That left me with a grand total of BTC 0.09, worth about US$18.20 at the time of this writing.Or at least that’s what I hope.After clicking to transfer the funds, I got a somewhat cryptic response saying my withdrawal now requires a “manual step” by VirWoX that can take up to 48 hours to complete.bitcoin virus australiaAs I wait for my bitcoin client to synchronize with the network, this is the perfect time to see how much my time is actually worth.bitcoin broker irelandAnd what better way then by running an ever-so-slightly absurd Tesla cost-of-ownership calculator in reverse?is bitcoin wallet anonymousAssuming my final transfer eventually completes, my time is apparently worth around US$3.44 per hour, or roughly BTC 0.018 an hour.buy bitcoin ukash

I think I’ll stick with software development and leave the investing to the professionals._ Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question Anybody can answer The best answers are voted up and rise to the top up vote 9 down vote favorite 6 If you have a bank account in the US and an account in the UK, and you want to move money from one to the other, is Bitcoin a sensible way to do it, or are you better off using TransferWise or just doing an international wire transfer?currencies wire-transfers up vote down vote While in the US last year, I sent money to myself in Europe that way once, because it was significantly cheaper than using the legacy banking system.I think it mostly comes down to whether you have easy access to a Bitcoin exchange from your bank account in the US and what amounts you are trying to transfer.It also depends on how urgently you need the money in the other country, and which country you currently are residing in.

Alternative 1 (if in UK): Use your US credit card to get Pounds from the bank, deposit those in your UK bank.Advantage: Fast Disadvantage: Currency exchange fee, fee for using CC abroad, (Deposit fee, if you have one) Alternative 2: International Wire Transfer Advantage: No manual involvement Disadvantage: Takes several days, expensive (~$50), get lost sometimes Alternative 3: PayPal Advantage: Very fast, independent from residence Disadvantage: ~3% exchange fee, % transfer fee, has to be withdrawn to Bank account Alternative 4: Money transmitter Advantage: Fast Disadvantage: Needs to be picked up and deposited, expensive I think Bitcoin: Advantage: Can be cheap Disadvantage: Takes a few days, manual involvement Procedure: • Consider buying Bitcoin locally if in the US, else buy Bitcoin from Exchange or Coinbase (each takes a few days until it is cleared, I think) • Send Bitcoin to your account at an exchange in Europe • Trade Bitcoin for national currency • Withdraw to Bank account (usually a small fee applies).

Personal experience Back when I did that last year, I was able to buy Bitcoin at a Bitcoin Meetup at Bitstamp spot-price.I transfered those to Bitstamp, traded, and ordered a withdrawal.I had a confirmation that the money was headed to my bank account within 30 minutes, it arrived two days later.I actually made a few dollars on it, because the price had slightly increased between my local trade and the trade on Bitstamp.up vote 6 down vote To organize a wire from Europe to the US and back using bitcoin without fees, you can: do a IBAN/BIC wire to your kraken account (free!), takes 2-4 business days and register your US bank account (very small fee, usually around 20 eurocents) account I did not try it yet but the whole process should not cost you more than 50 eurocents.Of course you risk small losses/profits due to volatility of bitcoin prices.up vote 4 down vote Most big US banks charge 40-50$ in fees for international transfers and take a cut of the exchange rate.

You might be able to lower this if you use a company like Usforex or Xoom, which I believe take around a 1-1.5% cut of the interbank rate plus a < 5$ fee.I just transferred 1000$ from the US to Europe, from my wellsfargo account, via coinbase (bitcoin USD wallet), kraken (bitcoin EUR wallet) and a EUR bank account there.Coinbase took 10$ in fees for the ACH money transfer from my bank account into the coinbase bitcoin wallet.It took around five days.I think Wellsfargo does not charge for ACH transfers when money is pulled.Kraken requires 6 bitcoin confirmations, so the transfer Coinbase -> Kraken took 20 minutes.The trade bitcoin -> EUR then cost 0.34%, so 3.4 EUR.This fee can possibly be lowered to 0.1% by doing the transfer with a different type of electronic money, like litecoin, I haven't looked into that.The SEPA transfer to the EUR bank account cost EUR 0.09 and took 4 days.Now this is not the whole story, because I haven't figured out the cut the bank takes on the exchange rate and what the difference between the interbank rate and the US->Bitcoin->EUR rates is.

In total the bitcoin fees were less than 14 USD for 1000$, the bank transfer cost was at least 50$.The bank exchange rate spread can be around 1.5%, I have no idea what the spread in the case of bitcoin is, but probably lower.The Bitcoin transfer took around 7 days, similar to what it takes to do a Usforex/Xoom transfer.The bitcoin transfer takes a lot more manual clicking work.You have to transfer the money (1-2 minutes), do the bitcoin transfer (+wait 20 minutes), do a bitcoin/euro trade (+ wait 20 minutes), then do the 2nd transfer.Neither coinbase nor kraken can schedule any of this.You also can lose money if you delay any of this, as the exchange rates of bitcoin may change over time.That being said, the volatility of bitcoin at the moment is lower than the banking fees, even over weeks.I think overall I prefer Xoom or Usforex like services for the occasional transfer, as it's so much easier to use.I hope someone automates the whole transfer one day with a program using coinbase's / kraken's APIs.

up vote 2 down vote To make an international money transfer using bitcoins you need to figure out 2 things: 1.How to convert FIAT to BTC and 2.How to convert BTC to FIAT.FIAT to BTC Open an account on your local exchange./markets/list/ to find local exchanges.You want to open an account on the local exchange because generally, it is cheaper and faster to transfer money locally.Once you have an account buying BTC is generally straightforward.Things to keep in mind: Make sure you open an account in an exchange and not a company that sits on top of an exchange.Exchanges generally charge from ~0.1 to 0.5% per transaction, while resellers generally charge above 1%.Make sure to check out the spreads (the difference in buying and selling prices) on the exchange.If daily trading volumes on an exchange are low, chances are the spreads are high and you might end up overpaying for your BTC.You bank account name and your registered name on the exchange must match.Sending BTC is straightforward.

BTC to FIAT To convert BTC back to FIAT you need to register on an exchange in the receiving country.You need to keep in mind exactly the same things as for point 1.In addition keep in mind that most exchanges require 3-6 verifications before you can sell your BTC on the exchange.This takes on average 30 to 60 minutes and during this time you are exposed to the price volatility of Bitcoin.This is my company.We take your bitcoins and deliver local currency to your recipients and charge only 1%.Having said the above IMO it makes sense to use BitCoins if: 1.The money transfer channel is not too bit (for example, not US/India), hence there is not a lot of competition and prices are high.There are liquid exchanges at the both ends of the transaction (last time I checked spreads in Curacao (Caribbean islands) were around 10%.You price conscious and make transfers regularly.IMO if you answer "yes" to these questions it makes sense to use BitCoins to make international money transfers For a UK/US channel Transferwise charges ~0.5-1% depending on the amount (with a minimal of 2 Pounds or 3 USD).