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[Ankesh]

Thanks Phil for talking about Bitcoins.
I'm fascinated by its concept. And have been dabbling with it since a couple of months now.

I think it has good potential to become the "currency of the internet."
Its early days for it however - so its extremely volatile.

Getting Started With Bitcoins

1. Don't download the official Bitcoin software. Its too slow and bloated. Instead open your bitcoin wallet online with http://blockchain.info/wallet/ - make sure you activate 2 factor authentication and take a backup as security measures. (Blockchain also offers a paper backup option - so if you have bought a lot of bitcoins, you can take a paper printout and put that paper in your safety deposit box.)

2. Buying and selling bitcoins. Mtgox.com is the biggest bitcoin exchange and sets the price. Other places to check out buying and selling bitcoins: localbitcoins.com and bitinstant.com (can buy bitcoins by paying cash at a local Walmart or 7/11.)

3. Setting up bitcoins on your website so people can pay with bitcoins. Sign up with either bitpay.com or coinbase.com (USA based only as of now). Both are easy to setup. Awesome part about bitcoins is no chargebacks, no fraud, and no exorbitant credit card fees. So you will improve your bottom line by 5-6% right away. The downside about bitcoins is that it is too volatile right now. So you have to either hedge it, or convert it instantly to USD, to not be affected by it. Bitpay and coinbase both allow instant conversion to USD (Bitpay supports a few other currencies too...)

If you do start accepting Bitcoins, it would be a good idea to send out a press release to your local media outlets. They will most likely interview you - because there is a lot of buzz around bitcoins right now. It would also be a good idea to let people know at http://reddit.com/r/bitcoin - you'll get quite a few sales from there. People over there are hardcore about bitcoins.

If anyone has any questions about bitcoins, do ask - and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks.