The best way to buy Bitcoin in Canada

If you're interested in adding cryptocurrency exposure to your investments here are a few points from my perspective you might find useful:

1. I love Bitcoin as an alternative asset class in tandem with a low-cost globally diversified index fund like VGRO, XGRO, VEQT, or XEQT.

2. As someone who already invests in traditional index funds and dollar cost averages every time I get paid regardless of market conditions, I am also doing this with Bitcoin.

3. Check out Newton. They have the lowest purchasing fees out of all the available exchange platforms in Canada and this is what I use to buy bitcoin.

4. Check out Shakepay to earn free Bitcoin on a daily basis by physically shaking your phone once a day. It sounds gimmicky, but it is a legitimate company based out of Montreal which is regulated by both FINTRAC and AMF while also being legally licensed as a Money Service Business.

   I do not buy from ShakePay because of their high purchasing fees/spreads and simply use them for the free daily accumulation of Bitcoin.

5. In Canada, these are currently the cheapest methods of accumulating Bitcoin and there are sign-up bonuses for both companies (Newton $25, ShakePay $30).

   Here are the referral links if you are interested in using them:

   Newton (https://web.newton.co/r/N669Y7)

   Shakepay (https://shakepay.me/r/NQECMIZ)

6. If you want tax free capital gains, you can buy QBTC.U (USD) or QBTC.TO (CAD) in your TFSA. It is certainly expensive in terms of its fees and/or spread; however, if you are super-long and super-bullish in Bitcoin as an alternative asset class, then it does not really matter. With that said, you do not truly own Bitcoin with QBTC because QBTC is a fund; and therefore, you own shares of the fund and not Bitcoin itself. As the saying goes and as you may have heard if you have done your due diligence: "not your keys, not your Bitcoin". As such, you run and operate with all of the associated risks of leaving your coins on an exchange, platform, or app.

   For large investments, I use a cold storage wallet to take my Bitcoin off of an exchange.

7. If you are current in financial news, you would know what happened with the exchange/platform and Canadian company named Quadriga. In short, many investors did not truly own their Bitcoin with them since Quadriga sold "entitlements to receive crypto assets or fiat currency from Quadriga" while Quadriga held the "keys" to the real Bitcoin and investors lost around 135 million dollars CAD. This is easily verifiable information and a famous story as well as a perfect example about "not your keys, not your Bitcoin".

8. There is no reason why you cannot do both (i.e. truly own actual Bitcoin in a cold storage wallet and own shares of the QBTC fund in a TFSA). Just realize that with the first option of truly owning the asset (i.e. Bitcoin), it is subject to capital appreciation tax whenever you trigger a taxable event such as selling, buying, and/or converting crypto-to-crypto.

9. Before you invest in anything regardless of the asset class, make sure you understand what you are putting your money towards, understand your risk tolerance, understand the proper asset allocation percentages for your risk tolerance, and formulate a clear plan of what you want to achieve as well as how you will move yourself towards those goals.

10. Finally, for me, the biggest investment is not really the Bitcoin itself, but rather, it is in the underlying technology and innovation of the blockchain infrastructure which serves as a massive global public ledger leading to the decentralization of this digital currency as well as its invincibility and independence from overbearing governing bodies whereby the Bitcoin unit itself simply has a monetary value relative to fiat currency.

11. A large part of the information of this post was taken from this post: https://redd.it/kh987p

    So if you'd prefer to show your support to the original commenter, I encourage you to reach out to them by using their referral links.

    Best of luck to you and always do your own due diligence! =)

Strangely, nobody is talking about Bitcoin.

During the last bull run I remember friends and family at least mentioning the price increase and sharing their off the cuff opinions. Back then, one friend even cited that fact as a reason he wasn't investing--it felt like a get rich quick fad, an obvious bubble. There was some truth to that, as it crashed to a bear market for quite a while afterward.

But today, the people around me are only talking about politics and the pandemic. In their minds, Bitcoin is probably something that came and went a couple of years ago. It's approaching the market cap of Facebook and it's not even on the radar of people who keep up with current events in the general sense. If I go on a big news site like New York Times, it's not even mentioned. Yes, the capital building incident in the US may have eaten the news cycle, but even tech sites and economics sites barely mention it. It's interesting.

Bitcoin and me

I thought I'd write about the last four years, an eventful time for Bitcoin and me.

For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I got my start in crypto working on an early version of PGP, working closely with Phil Zimmermann. When Phil decided to start PGP Corporation, I was one of the first hires. I would work on PGP until my retirement. At the same time, I got involved with the Cypherpunks. I ran the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer, among other activities.

Fast forward to late 2008 and the announcement of Bitcoin. I've noticed that cryptographic graybeards (I was in my mid 50's) tend to get cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it.

When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a skeptical reception at best. Cryptographers have seen too many grand schemes by clueless noobs. They tend to have a knee jerk reaction.

I was more positive. I had long been interested in cryptographic payment schemes. Plus I was lucky enough to meet and extensively correspond with both Wei Dai and Nick Szabo, generally acknowledged to have created ideas that would be realized with Bitcoin. I had made an attempt to create my own proof of work based currency, called RPOW. So I found Bitcoin facinating.

When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test. I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them.

Today, Satoshi's true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and sincere. I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course of my life, so I recognize the signs.

After a few days, bitcoin was running pretty stably, so I left it running. Those were the days when difficulty was 1, and you could find blocks with a CPU, not even a GPU. I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand I was extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half full half empty things.

The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs.

Speaking of heirs, I got a surprise in 2009, when I was suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease. I was in the best shape of my life at the start of that year, I'd lost a lot of weight and taken up distance running. I'd run several half marathons, and I was starting to train for a full marathon. I worked my way up to 20+ mile runs, and I thought I was all set. That's when everything went wrong.

My body began to fail. I slurred my speech, lost strength in my hands, and my legs were slow to recover. In August, 2009, I was given the diagnosis of ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the famous baseball player who got it.

ALS is a disease that kills moter neurons, which carry signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes first weakness, then gradually increasing paralysis. It is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years. My symptoms were mild at first and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.

Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eyetracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes.

It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals. Currently I'm working on something Mike Hearn suggested, using the security features of modern processors, designed to support "Trusted Computing", to harden Bitcoin wallets. It's almost ready to release. I just have to do the documentation.

And of course the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me. I have skin in the game. But I came by my bitcoins through luck, with little credit to me. I lived through the crash of 2011. So I've seen it before. Easy come, easy go.

That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.

The Case for Storing Bitcoin on PayPal/Square/Robinhood

There are many valid reasons for purchasing and holding Bitcoin and other crypto on a service like PayPal, Square, or Robinhood. While it may not be right for you, please recognize the validity in the following arguments for doing so:

Difficult Learning Curve

Owning crypto is a complicated business. The learning curve required to own crypto is high. I remember looking at Bitcoin back in 2010 and spending a few hours trying to figure out a way to mine Bitcoin. Even with a light computer science background, I was unable to successfully do so, and ended up making Magic the Gathering Online bots instead. I do wish I had spent a few more hours or days or even weeks figuring out how to mine Bitcoin, but I didn't, so I became involved much later. I am still happy with my outcome.

Nonetheless, my point stands: while it has become easier to mine, buy, and store crypto, it is still a high learning curve and requires substantial research in order to become a part of the community.

Services like PayPal, Square, and Robinhood are far easier for everyone to understand. Most people have exposure to PayPal or Square. Many have experience with Robinhood. The additional learning required to invest in crypto is minimal.

The more of a learning curve that is required, the fewer people will become part of the community.

Not Owning Keys does not Mean you do not Own the Bitcoin.

I will preface this section by saying I am a lawyer (but not yours, and probably not in your state).

One of the most common sayings in the subreddit is that if you don't hold the keys, you don't own the Bitcoin. While this may be true from a purely computer-science perspective, it is not true from a legal perspective.

When you hold crypto on an exchange or with a service like Robinhood, Square or PayPal, you own title to the Bitcoin (you could have "bailed" it to the exchange/service, or alternatively it is being held by the exchange/service on your behalf), and if the exchange or service makes some mistake, you have legal recourse against the exchange or service. In other words, you can sue to get damages from them for their mistake.

The ability to file a lawsuit against them only has value if the exchange/service has assets you would be able to seize. So, this means that a better bailee would not only hold crypto assets and would have substantial other assets that you could seize if you won the lawsuit. In other words, services like CoinBase or BitFinex, whose sole business is crypto, could lose all their assets in the event of a bad security breach, or in the event of theft. This has been seen before with MTGOX, and everyone who stored any crypto on MTGOX was left pretty much SoL.

Again, this brings me back to PayPal and Robinhood. These two companies have substantial assets and revenue streams primarily from sources other than crypto. So, if they get hacked and lose all of their crypto, there is still likely going to be recourse against these companies.

While dealing with the companies themselves may be a pain in the ass, there is still recourse in the courts if in no other way.

Responsibility of Maintaining Keys and Wallets

A common recurring theme in the news of the crypto world is lost Bitcoin due to lost keys. Maintaining your keys is a large responsibility, and one that can easily result in losing the Bitcoin forever.

Over several years, I have gifted family members nominal amounts of Bitcoin. Recently these nominal amounts have grown substantially in value. One of my siblings that I gifted some Bitcoin to recently explained to me that they had lost the keys (they had misplaced the seed phrase). They wanted to know if there was any way to get the Bitcoin back without the keys.

Unfortunately, due to the security built into Bitcoin, there really is no effective way to get back the lost Bitcoin.

Maintaining your own keys is something you have to be aware of and on top of. If you mess up in even a small way, you can lose all of your Bitcoin.

On the other hand, if you use a service like PayPal or Robinhood or Square to maintain the crypto for you, even if they do screw up, you have recourse against them.

Wrench Attack Protection

There are also other advantages from holding your crypto on these services. Specifically, it adds additional, multiple layers of protection against "wrench attacks." Wrench attacks are when someone learns you have crypto so they come over to your house and "hit you with a wrench" (physical violence) until you give them your crypto. If you hold your own keys, this transfer is instant and irreversible.

By holding your crypto on PayPal or Robinhood, you ensure substantial delay between your crypto being sold and the funds being available. When you sell your crypto on Robinhood (I have no experience with PayPal), for example, it takes typically 3-5 business days (or more) for the funds to clear and to be able to withdraw them to your bank account.

Then, once your funds are available to withdraw, you withdraw them to your bank account (typically 3-5 more business days).

Then, once the funds hit your bank account, you must either go into the bank or write a check or have some other way of getting the funds to the attacker.

In other words, the substantial delays built into holding your crypto on a service like PayPal or Robinhood act as a lengthy buffer of safety when there will likely be chances to act and protect yourself and (secondarily) your assets.

In stark contrast, if you keep your crypto on a hardware or software wallet, it can be taken from you in mere seconds, and there is absolutely no opportunity to save it or get it back.

Wrench attacks do happen, and storing your crypto on a service like Robinhood or PayPal has its value in protecting you and your crypto and giving you recourse against a company that has other assets that are seizeable.

Managing your own Crypto may not be for Everyone

Certainly holding your own keys is great and has its advantages, but it also has its own risks.

It may be you are willing to take all of the risk yourself. Myself, I like to spread the risk around so that it isn't all on me. I am not perfect and can make mistakes. I don't want a single mistake to cost me all of my crypto holdings.

It is fine to carry crypto and Bitcoin balances in different places, including having some on PayPal or Robinhood and having other holdings on a hardware or software wallet.

So, there it is, the case for storing crypto on a service like PayPal, Square, or Robinhood.

[WTS] Hand Pours Ready to go

New Stuff Sample

Verification - Verification

Additional transaction Details Below - Reasonable offers welcome, some items will be marked with a “***” indicating that if they don’t sell within 48 hours they go back in the crucible.

New Hand Pours

3.9 ozt Vault 76 Vault Door - $135

10+ ozt 999 Mandalorian Beskar Bar - $340 each (Bar still needs to be filed and polished)

10+ ozt 90% Mandalorian Beskar Bar - $340 each (Bar still needs to be filed and polished)

JSB Branded - JSB Kit Kat Bar - JSB Square Bar - 1.1 ozt JSB Chunky Bar

(1) 1.6 ozt JSB Kit Kat Bar - $53 each

(3) 1.7 ozt JSB Kit Kat Bar - $56.50 each

(1) 2.0 ozt JSB Kit Kat Bar - $65 each

(1) 1.6 ozt JSB Square Bar - $53 each

(1) 1.7 ozt JSB Square Bar - $56.50 each

(1) 1.8 ozt JSB Square Bar - $60 each

(2) 1.1 ozt JSB Chunk Bar - $36 each

Basic Hand Pours – Most of these designs are interchangeable/combinable if you’d like me to make a new piece – I’m still having trouble perfecting the proof finish, hence the proof-like phrasing

Spot is Aladeen Bar (FITS IN CAPSULE!) - $30 each https://imgur.com/9d2wpol

Revolutionary Bars (FITS IN CAPSULE!) - $30 each https://imgur.com/YtOCxHK

“They Live” Bar (FITS IN CAPSULE!) - $30 each https://imgur.com/OeD44ri

Discipline Equals Freedom Bar - $70 each https://imgur.com/iqeiZ3o

“Good” Round - $14 each https://imgur.com/BssG3sP

Idiocracy 2020 Round - $14 each https://imgur.com/eJj50it

Hammered Round - $19 each https://imgur.com/CkFTkAN

“Stay Clean” Proof-Like Round - $40 https://imgur.com/Ng9YWUP

Basic Dude Stuff Card - $18 each https://imgur.com/bDrvpCc

“Mirror” Double Proof-Like Round- $40 https://imgur.com/f53zlAo

Stay Hard/Keep Hammering Card (slightly under ½ ozt) - $17 each https://imgur.com/AQxviaW

Fear/Quicksand Hammered Bar - $42 https://imgur.com/ztTdWyi

999 Blanks - https://imgur.com/saHuTdU

1 ozt Button Rounds - $32 each

25 gram Loaf Bars - $26 each

25 gram Hand Cut Bar (FITS IN CAPSULE!) - $30 each

40 gram Bars - $41 each

69 gram Chunky Bars - $70 each

Shipments on this sale will be USPS first class for $5 or priority for $8.

Payment by PPFF, Zelle, Venmo, Bitcoin, and ETH (Crypto Preferred!)

TRADE OPTION - My hand pours for your silver and damaged silver. I can also turn your (damaged) silver into a hand pour for you for a negotiable fee depending on the piece.

Prices are subject to change at any time due to market fluctuations and in the event of a listing error or update.

Does anyone on here use/know about Strike?

I just saw a post about Strike, a payment app that uses Blockchain and Bitcoin. I’ve been reading about it and am still having difficulty understanding some things. If anyone knows the answers, please help.

1) are there any fees for buying and selling Bitcoin on Strike? The FAQ says no, but how can that be? Every other option to do so requires fees.

2) is it a taxable event to sell your Bitcoin on Strike? Again, the FAQ says no. But I also can’t wrap my head around that. If I transfer my Bitcoin to strike from my hardware wallet, and then sell for USD and withdrawal that USD at a gain, wouldn’t I be taxed for doing so?

Thank you in advance

NEW 1 Pay Depot ~ BUY Bitcoin (BTC) at Quick Stop Gas Station - NC

NEW 1 Pay Depot ~ BUY Bitcoin (BTC) at Quick Stop Gas Station - NC

Check out Quick Stop Gas Station to get the lowest possible transaction fees when you buy or sell your cryptocurrency with Pay Depot.

Bitcoin ATMs at Quick Stop Gas Station LOCATIONS:

• 611 N Bickett Blvd, Louisburg, NC, 27549

Google Map Link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1a9XAEuY6XSma1CiZLobl028SK_DKN5eE&usp=sharing

For Support, You can Email us [Support@paydepot.com](mailto:Support@paydepot.com)

Price = Current market price

Limit = $800/$3000 Daily

ID: Required for Purchases over $800

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