Bitcoin help

[Antianxiety1]

I have an account that has an external wallet .....  issue is I can only spend or transfer .003 of a bitcoin . So, somewhere in that $130 range I'm guessing . That being said theres only $89 in the acct. 

Is my solution to this adding more cash into bitcoin- so I have over .003 in my wallet? Or will I just never be able to buy something under $130 or whatever it Is on this crypto platform ? 

Thanks and pre apologise for the newbie bitcoin questions. Lol, I have no prob buying bitcoin mining stocks.. but cant buy or spend bitcoin for the life of me

 

[DoomKitty]

@Antianxiety1  What are you using?  All external wallets allow you to send/receive whatever amount, so your post is a tad confusing.  Do you mean you are using an exchange where you own the seed to your wallet?

 

[Antianxiety1]

@DoomKitty crypto . Com and then the wallet it essentially gives you.... I thought it was weird to be able to buy $40 in BTC but not sell it/spend it 

 

[DoomKitty]

Yeah i just looked the. up and it says that’s their minimum limit.  So wild! i would recommend buying more until you have the minimum and then sending all that to an external wallet and then send from there to vendor.  Maybe you can switch exchanges to buy from in the future? Like cash app or something. 

 

[Antianxiety1]

@DoomKitty @DoomKitty much appreciated.  I was so confused . I can buy $40 worth and try to donate to the page - but, have to spend $130 min per transaction . Thanks for the other recommendations.  Hopefully in a few hours I can send someone less than .003 of a coin lol 

 

[Johnik]

I would echo DoomKitty’s response.  It is both safer (more secure) and more flexible (you can send any amount) to use an external wallet.  

 

[seekerslayer]

That's a pretty big hit on the exchange. 

 

[BuckMulligan]

I am having so much trouble/confusion with BTC. 
 

First off, I am trying to buy just a few BTC through Paxful (as I had done in the past) so I can make my annual contribution here. I made payment yesterday via PayPal but seller (who turns out is in Africa) says there is a hold on my funds but that expects to release in next 5 hours (24 hours from time of purchase). I have never had to wait more than a couple of hours to close a small trade on Paxful before. It is a small amount but I want to get it in my hands so I can make contribution here. 
 

I tried opening a Coinsource account yesterday but my state ID wouldn’t scan in a way that software would accept. It looked fine on my end but kept getting rejected. Coinsource has BTC ATMs near me. I gave up on that though. 
 

So, I opened a Coinbase account. If I am understanding correctly I cannot withdraw BTC to my wallet after buying for 10 days. Not super helpful. Fees on about $500 purchase (which I did not proceed with) were close to $8. Not sure if there would be other hidden fees though. If I buy there can I hold BTC in. A stable coin and then convert back to BTC just before withdrawal to avoid currency fluctuation risk (understand it could go up in my favor but could also go significantly down over a 10 day period and this is money for purchases not investment). 

Sorry for so many questions, but this seems so difficult and confusing TBH. 
Thanks. 

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan As for the P@xful part i am not sure.  If you go into your P@ypal account and it says the transaction is complete, then it is definitely complete and the seller should release funds.  As for the C0ins0urce, the pic definitely cant have any glare whatsoever, and it's best if your ID is in very good condition.   It can be tricky finding the best spot and angle for sure.   As for C0inb@se, yes all new accounts have to wait 10 days prior to releasing btc for security reasons.  Not sure how long that lasts tho, hopefully someone else does.  If you are planning to hold in stable coin, then convert prior to using, then i would just buy the stable coin first.  Also, it is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended to transfer your btc to an external wallet prior to spending.  Some people will even hop it again.  This is pretty crucial.  Their analyzers are next to none, so if they flag any transaction you make they will close your account permanently.  There are many options for external wallets, such as Blue W@llet and others for mobile, or W@sabi or El3ctrum for laptops, etc.  You can also buy btc from blue w@llet itself for something easier.  Not sure what fees are.   Also, im not sure if C0inb@se makes you wait again after exchanging stable coin for btc or not if you are new, so it's possible that idea wouldnt work.  Or at least work as far as keeping the money the same.   Hopefully others chime in!

 

[BuckMulligan]

So, my transaction at Paxful finally closed. Trying to transfer around $50 to my Green wallet so I can contribute here.  Paxful is showing a transfer fee of $17, about 1/3 of amount. That is crazy. At end of day I will do it so I can get my sponsorship back here but anything they take reduces what I can contribute here. Also not sustainable at these rates for other things. I didn’t see a choice to transfer at a slower and less expensive rate which I recall having as a choice last time I did this a few years ago.  Any suggestions before I accede to these extortionate amounts. Thanks. 
 

Edit: Looks like a fixed charge so my 33% is a function of it being a low transfer amount. If I were doing hundreds presumably it would be a relatively small percentage. Still seems crazy. Any thoughts to avoid this. Otherwise I am going to transfer to Green and then here and will have to do a smaller sponsorship level. I would add more but getting the BTC was such a pain I am not inclined to do more at this moment. 

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan It's possible the exorbitant fee is due to blockchain congestion and waiting till its less congested with allow for a lower fee.  Sometimes theres just too many transactions happening so the fees skyrocket.  I imagine though that most of that fee is just a fee P@xful charges so they can make bank.  My only suggestion then would be to use a different service. 

 

[BuckMulligan]

@BuckMulligan It's possible the exorbitant fee is due to blockchain congestion and waiting till its less congested with allow for a lower fee.  Sometimes theres just too many transactions happening so the fees skyrocket.  I imagine though that most of that fee is just a fee P@xful charges so they can make bank.  My only suggestion then would be to use a different service. 

Got BTC into my Green wallet.  When I created the wallet it gave me a Legacy wallet and a Segwit one. I had no idea what the difference was. The transfer went into my Legacy wallet. Assume then I should use the site’s Legacy wallet address for making the transfer then. Can someone confirm so I can finalize the donation process.  Thanks so much. 

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan In general using a segwit wallet will allow for much cheaper fees, so in the future i would definitely make another wallet that is segwit and only use that one.  And yes, if you are using a legacy wallet then send to the legacy address.

 

[BuckMulligan]

So, fees aside, are ATMs a good way to go. I finally got approved for Coinsource ATM. If I understand correctly the BTC I purchase goes straight to my personal wallet. Coinbase might be cheaper but I need to keep the funds there for a while. While not thrilled I can stomach the 10% fee if I get the coins right away such that I can place an order with a vendor right away.  

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan  ATMs are definitely good if you want to spend immediately yes, and yes you provide the btc address for an ATM so you can choose where the crypto will be deposited.  They can also be good if you can find one that doesn't require KYC.   Alternatives to look in to that don't hold funds are mobile apps like C@shapp, C@ke Wallet or Blu3 Wallet.  You will always of course want to move funds into another wallet first regardless, but you can do that immediately after the transaction has been confirmed on the blockchain. 

 

[BuckMulligan]

@BuckMulligan As for the P@xful part i am not sure.  If you go into your P@ypal account and it says the transaction is complete, then it is definitely complete and the seller should release funds.  As for the C0ins0urce, the pic definitely cant have any glare whatsoever, and it's best if your ID is in very good condition.   It can be tricky finding the best spot and angle for sure.   As for C0inb@se, yes all new accounts have to wait 10 days prior to releasing btc for security reasons.  Not sure how long that lasts tho, hopefully someone else does.  If you are planning to hold in stable coin, then convert prior to using, then i would just buy the stable coin first.  Also, it is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended to transfer your btc to an external wallet prior to spending.  Some people will even hop it again.  This is pretty crucial.  Their analyzers are next to none, so if they flag any transaction you make they will close your account permanently.  There are many options for external wallets, such as Blue W@llet and others for mobile, or W@sabi or El3ctrum for laptops, etc.  You can also buy btc from blue w@llet itself for something easier.  Not sure what fees are.   Also, im not sure if C0inb@se makes you wait again after exchanging stable coin for btc or not if you are new, so it's possible that idea wouldnt work.  Or at least work as far as keeping the money the same.   Hopefully others chime in!

@DoomKitty - so for example, if I am going to use Coinbase and will be locked up for around 10 days and want to avoid currency fluctuation risk I can buy stable coin, wait the 10 days and then convert to BTC and withdraw immediately.  I guess I would probably have to pay a second fee to then convert to BTC but maybe that is cost of avoiding currency fluctuations. Do you think that after the first time you can transfer out sooner. Thanks. 

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan I'm not heaps familiar with Coinbase, but i would imagine that after the ten days you could do whatever you wanted.  I think the 10 days thing is to make sure you're not going to try and do any chargebacks on the purchase.  I also think after a few purchases they reduce the hold time greatly. 

 

[BuckMulligan]

In terms of making payment with BTC (or other crypto), given significant daily fluctuations, do vendors typically agree on a price/conversion price day before or morning of payment and hold it for a day while you make payment. Otherwise there is a risk you buy BTC for an order and by time you transfer to your wallet and get ready to send there isn’t enough there. Of course you can top up a bit tO avoid this but then effective price goes up even more and there is still uncertainty in case of massive swing. Curious as to how people handle this who don’t have a huge store of such crypto available. Swings could go either way of course including in your favor but I would be more interested in mitigating downside risk in such situations than hoping value goes up between buying crypto and making a purchase. 

 

[DoomKitty]

@BuckMulligan I've done it just by acquiring btc from places that don't do holds on your funds, so i can just buy the btc and then transfer it out to external wallets and then pay vendor all within a very short amount of time.  I also now will buy btc when it's low and then make orders when it's worth more because i have a very good stockpile and am not last minute purchasing.   In my experience vendors just expect you to pay whatever is the current conversion at the time of order/payment.    I always have funds ready when i am placing an order so i can transfer immediately and not make them wait.