Best Bitcoin Wallet & Exchange (U.S. Players)

[mrpapageorgio]

Thanks! Good info. With GDAX can I purchase Bitcoin using my credit or debit card? ACH payments take too long.

No, cash only. Fastest way with them is to deposit cash into your USD wallet in coinbase (no fee) which they claim takes 2-4 business days, then transfer the USD to GDAX and buy your bitcoin. You can then transfer Bitcoin directly from GDAX to your own wallet free (compared to the high fee they charge transferring from Coinbase's wallet).

[EricLegend]

Ok just to clear. I went to gdax.com and I use my same login info from Coinbase and now I'm signed in. I notice my Banking info from Coinbase is already listed on GDAX. So I click deposit then buy? It states it will take 4 days to clear, will it be sooner?

[mrpapageorgio]

Ok just to clear. I went to gdax.com and I use my same login info from Coinbase and now I'm signed in. I notice my Banking info from Coinbase is already listed on GDAX. So I click deposit then buy? It states it will take 4 days to clear, will it be sooner?

If you go to Coinbase and go into the USD wallet, you can deposit money in there. They claim 2-4 business days from there, so I don't know if its any different than directly depositing into GDAX (I'm only suggesting this because the confirmation email I got said it could be as little as 2 business days). If you do the USD wallet route, once the funds are in your USD wallet, go to GDAX and login using your coinbase info and click deposit and choose the option to transfer funds from Coinbase USD wallet.

Then once the funds are in GDAX, go ahead and buy.

[EricLegend]

Once again I messed up. I thought I was suppose to make a deposit thru gdax website from my bank account?

[mrpapageorgio]

Once again I messed up. I thought I was suppose to make a deposit thru gdax website from my bank account?

You can deposit directly into GDAX from your bank account or you can deposit into your Coinbase USD wallet and transfer the money from the wallet into GDAX. The only reason I brought up the wallet option is because they gave me a clearing time frame into the wallet as 2-4 business days. I do not know if depositing directly into GDAX is faster/slower or no different. If you deposit into the wallet and transfer from the wallet to GDAX, the transfer from the wallet to GDAX is instant.

[EricLegend]

I appreciate your clear explanation of all this.

Now once the funds are in my gdax account, do I then transfer to Coinbase then to Blockchain or gdax to blockchain then to book?

Lastly is their a fee once I transfer funds Coinbase/gdax to blockchain?

[mrpapageorgio]

I appreciate your clear explanation of all this.

Now once the funds are in my gdax account, do I then transfer to Coinbase then to Blockchain or gdax to blockchain then to book?

Lastly is their a fee once I transfer funds Coinbase/gdax to blockchain?

You can transfer directly from GDAX to Blockchain (click withdraw on the GDAX website and send it to your Blockchain bitcoin address). That transfer is free. The transfer from Blockchain to your book is dynamic pricing (basically Blockchain calculates the fee depending how busy the miners are), but I've usually never paid more than a dime as a fee and the transaction time usually ranges from 15 minutes to 90 minutes in my experience before confirmed. Blockchain usually won't send Bitcoin out until the receiving bitcoin transaction is confirmed and books will honor the deposit to them after the receiving transaction is confirmed.

If you transfer from GDAX to Coinbase to Blockchain, Coinbase charges a fee (to transfer out) I feel is way to expensive (they wanted $2.99 when I tried before I learned of the GDAX workaround), where Blockchain just charges what is necessary for the transaction to get processed by the miners.

Note: The receiving bitcoin transfers between your Blockchain and book/GDAX will usually appear in your Blockchain wallet within a few seconds, but it's not considered official until the transaction is recorded ("confirmed") in the Bitcoin network. The number of confirmations before the receiving party is comfortable with the transaction being official varies. The Blockchain wallet considers 3 confirmations official, and with books it can vary between 1 and 6 confirmations (some are fixed, some base it on how much the deposit is).

[EricLegend]

A man who knows his stuff, great info. I'll update this thread once funds are available in my GDAX account.

[mrpapageorgio]

A man who knows his stuff, great info. I'll update this thread once funds are available in my GDAX account.

I had to learn the hard way on how some of this worked (didn't cost me that much financially, except wasting a lot of time on dead ends (which wallet worked best for my needs, how to buy and sell efficiently, etc), but still made some mistakes), so hoping I can prevent others from making my mistakes.

[MeanPeopleSuck]

Thanks! Good info. With GDAX can I purchase Bitcoin using my credit or debit card? ACH payments take too long.

Edited: Already Answered.

[MeanPeopleSuck]

Don't know how their exchange is since they denied my application to open an account after going through the verification and wouldn't elaborate why.

Great posts. Good to meet you, mr papa. I hope to see you again soon.

Do you use a VPN or a certain anonymous browser? If y, that's probably why CB denied your application. I've gotten that "and we refuse to elaborate on why" thing a few times when being rejected on those grounds.

[mrpapageorgio]

Great posts. Good to meet you, mr papa. I hope to see you again soon.

Do you use a VPN or a certain anonymous browser? If y, that's probably why CB denied your application. I've gotten that "and we refuse to elaborate on why" thing a few times when being rejected on those grounds.

Thanks, no I don't use a VPN (CB didn't deny my application btw, it was Gemini). My only hypothesis is when I uploaded my proof of address, I used a bank statement from an account I just opened a month ago and either the newness of the account spooked them or because I only had two transactions the month I opened it (so the account balance at the time of the statement was small) and they thought I was too poor to use their service.

Only other thing I can brain storm is if using my phone and its browser to upload the documents caused a problem.

[EricLegend]

Update: The ACH transfer from my bank to Gdax is complete. Now what do I do next? I have $200 in USD but 0.000 BTC.... It won't let me send to blockchain, do I need to send to Coinbase or buy BTC first. Help

[bitcoinLuke]

Update: The ACH transfer from my bank to Gdax is complete. Now what do I do next? I have $200 in USD but 0.000 BTC.... It won't let me send to blockchain, do I need to send to Coinbase or buy BTC first. Help

No, you buy the BTC on gdax. You'll have to place an order on the exchange. See if this helps guide you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZocY5dbX_Mw

If not, ask what you have questions on

[mrpapageorgio]

Update: The ACH transfer from my bank to Gdax is complete. Now what do I do next? I have $200 in USD but 0.000 BTC.... It won't let me send to blockchain, do I need to send to Coinbase or buy BTC first. Help

Just a quick summary, make sure on the top left of the screen it says BTC/USD so you're exchanging in Bitcoin and not one of the other cryptocurrencies. Then click Market and Buy which should turn the buttons green to indicate a buy. You can buy through the limit option for no fee, but it's a little more complicated where market option is instant and is only .3% (and at this point I want you to at least be comfortable buying on Market before trying limit). Enter how much bitcoin you want to buy in USD (Assuming $200 since that's what you deposited), click "Place Buy Order", you should then see the USD amount hit zero, then an amount in bitcoin.

After that, click withdraw and select BTC address. Enter the amount of bitcoin, then copy and paste your Blockchain wallet address into the destination box (triple check your wallet address is correctly entered), enter your 2FA code and click withdraw funds. It should show up in your wallet within a few seconds, but you won't be able to send to the book until you have 3 confirmations.

[Optional]

Update: The ACH transfer from my bank to Gdax is complete. Now what do I do next? I have $200 in USD but 0.000 BTC.... It won't let me send to blockchain, do I need to send to Coinbase or buy BTC first. Help

Not sure if this is relevant, but apart from the above two answers, there is usually a hold period on ACH deposits of 5 business days until you can transfer anything out of the exchange too.

[mrpapageorgio]

Not sure if this is relevant, but apart from the above two answers, there is usually a hold period on ACH deposits of 5 business days until you can transfer anything out of the exchange too.

I haven't had that issue with GDAX, I've only seen it with Gemini because they offer instant ACH deposits so they require it to make sure "the check clears" before letting you move the Bitcoin you instantly bought.

[Optional]

I haven't had that issue with GDAX, I've only seen it with Gemini because they offer instant ACH deposits so they require it to make sure "the check clears" before letting you move the Bitcoin you instantly bought.

I thought you had not used gdax before?

You may be correct but Coinbase owns GDAX so thought they might treat ACH the same way.

[Optional]

Oops. Just realized I thought I was talking to EricLegend above.

[mrpapageorgio]

Oops. Just realized I thought I was talking to EricLegend above.

Lol
With GDAX, when I deposit, the funds won't even show in the wallet until it fully clears (3-4 business days in my experience so far). Once it does, then it lets me buy and transfer without issues. I never used Gemini since they denied my application, but from what I read, you can instantly deposit via ACH and buy bitcoin, but you can't move the bitcoin purchased until the ACH transfer fully clears.

[EricLegend]

Update: Was able to convert my ACH deposit to btc using the "limit" option, took less then 5 mins to be match. Sent funds to Blockchain then to fivedimes, all for under $1 .... This is the way to go fellas.

Now when it comes to withdrawing, what are the expected fees looking like from book to blockchain to Gdax?

[Optional]

Update: Was able to convert my ACH deposit to btc using the "limit" option, took less then 5 mins to be match. Sent funds to Blockchain then to fivedimes, all for under $1 .... This is the way to go fellas.

Now when it comes to withdrawing, what are the expected fees looking like from book to blockchain to Gdax?

About the same both ways.

But whether it costs you a few bucks or you make a few bucks mostly depends on if the exchange rate is moving upward or downward over the time your money remains in bitcoin. Just the luck of the draw really.

[mrpapageorgio]

Update: Was able to convert my ACH deposit to btc using the "limit" option, took less then 5 mins to be match. Sent funds to Blockchain then to fivedimes, all for under $1 .... This is the way to go fellas.

Now when it comes to withdrawing, what are the expected fees looking like from book to blockchain to Gdax?

Same
The mining fee is dynamic which means it varies on the amount of traffic on the Bitcoin servers. The more transactions going on, the more you're going to have to pay to get the miners to take your transaction and process it. The book should eat the fee sending it to your wallet, so you only pay the fee sending from your wallet to GDAX. Sending at night or on a weekend is much cheaper than on a Monday at 11AM. It's pretty much the difference between $.05 and $1.xx, so in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal, but just an FYI.

However keep in mind that BTC can swing in price so you may make a few dollars or lose a few dollars in the process of transferring the bitcoin from your book until you finally exchange it for USD. <br>
Once it's in GDAX, same thing, no fee for limit order, .25% for market orders. Then withdraw directly from GDAX to your bank and it should show up in your bank account in 1-2 business days. I don't know the cutoff time, but the withdrawals I did before 2PM ET went in my account next business day. If you transfer to the USD wallet and withdraw from Coinbase, they say they can charge $.25, withdrawing from GDAX directly to your bank is no fee.

P.S. I should correct myself from previous posts, the taker fee (market transactions) is .25% on bitcoin transactions. It's .3% for Litecoin and ETH transactions.

[chico2663]

Yes, ID and SSN is required on the US exchanges at least because of Know Your Customer/Anti-Money laundering laws.

Don't know how their exchange is since they denied my application to open an account after going through the verification and wouldn't elaborate why.
If you don't like Coinbase simply because of their fees (I'm assuming you're referring to the 1.5% bank account, 5% credit card), use GDAX which is Coinbase's exchange site (they're .3% compared to 1.5%-5% on Coinbase's retail side). For buying and selling Bitcoin they're fine, but I would never hold Bitcoin in their wallet for any extended period of time.

I have always held my coins in cb. How am I messing up?

[chico2663]

I invested in lite coin but notice block chain doesn't have it

[soxwin1917]

I have always held my coins in cb. How am I messing up?

If you're serious about bitcoin you shouldn't hold them in a third party wallet because YOU don't own the private keys at that point. Get a hardware wallet and store your bitcoin offline. Otherwise coinbase or gemini or whomever control your bitcoin and are merely letting you use them.

[mrpapageorgio]

I invested in lite coin but notice block chain doesn't have it

What soxwin said about holding your Bitcoin in a different wallet. It's the same as buying gold from a third party and having a third party "store" the gold for you. You don't actually own it until you hold it.

I have pestered them that they need to add Litecoin as a supported currency. They support BTC and ETH, but you can only access the ETH wallet through your computer, but I saw on their social media they'll soon have ETH supported on mobile phones.

[EricLegend]

This can be confusing. Where do you keep "hold" your btc if not in Coinbase wallet? Blockchain?

[lotuspod]

I prefer the Electrum wallet for btc. But pretty much any open-source desktop wallet should be fine, really just personal preference.

[mrpapageorgio]

This can be confusing. Where do you keep "hold" your btc if not in Coinbase wallet? Blockchain?

Personally I use Blockchain: https://blockchain.info/wallet/#/

I like that I can access my Bitcoin both on my phone and through my computer if needed.

[EricLegend]

When u transfer btc from gdax to blockchain or from book to blockchain there safe? From fluctuation also?

[lotuspod]

If you want the best in security, you can also use a Trezor or something similar, in combination with the Electrum wallet. Here's a link below if you need more info on this. If you're going to be holding about a thousand dollars or more in btc, the extra security starts to be cost-efficient enough to be worth it.

https://doc.satoshilabs.com/trezor-apps/electrum.html

The main reason for having one of these desktop/mobile wallets is that you are in control of your private keys...rather than a third-party like coinbase, kraken, bittrex, or another browser-based wallet/exchange. If anything happens to those third-parties then your btc could be at risk, look into the Mt. Gox / BTC-e disaster for an example.

[Optional]

When u transfer btc from gdax to blockchain or from book to blockchain there safe? From fluctuation also?

It's safe from theft in a Blockchain.info/wallet if you keep your private key safe. But it sits in that wallet as bitcoin only so is subject to price fluctuations still.

If you want to avoid price changes on bitcoin then only use it to transfer money to and from US$ and do it fast each time.

If you have extra bitcoin you want to hold then take it to GDAX and sell it for US$ and then only buy more when you need it. You have to trust GDAX to hold your money in this situation of course.

[shocka1212]

odd how I get my btc payout in 2 days from CB and to buy its going to take 5....

[mrpapageorgio]

odd how I get my btc payout in 2 days from CB and to buy its going to take 5....

One of my biggest issues with them. It's very inexpensive and easy to sell your bitcoin on GDAX once you know what you're doing, but buying is a pain in the behind since you have to wait 3-4 days for the deposit to clear. I know you can buy instantly with a cc for 4% extra, but my motto has always been why pay extra when you don't have to. If they can fix the deposits where they clear in 1-2 days or can put in the feature like Gemini where you can buy instantly but have to wait for the ACH to clear before moving the bitcoin, it would greatly improve their value as an exchange.