Love the show. Been watching for a few weeks. You asked for our experiences with exchanges, so here is mine (slightly embarrassing though it may be!).

I have been getting deeper into this stuff for several months, especially since November-ish, but have not actually bought any BTC yet because I had no way to buy it. I cannot sync my bank account to Coinbase (etc.) because I am with a small Canadian credit union without access and am extremely jaded by larger banks (which still seem to lack access). Where I live, it is difficult to get to any Bitcoin ATMs.

I finally got a credit card recently, after much difficulty, but when I tried to put it into Coinbase to complete my account, it failed, three times.

I called Visa and the guy said 1) he had never heard of Coinbase, 2) the failure was caused by a $1 or so charged by Coinbase being considered 'cash advances' which have a $20 minimum, 3) there was no reason an online transaction should be considered a cash advance, and 4) this was not Visa's doing. I do not know if he was lying or just ignorant, but I certainly did not believe him and do not want to do business with credit card companies beyond absolute necessity.

I said I would call Coinbase and hung up, but decided against that because I really don't trust them either, or the other exchanges. At all. I was not aware of any account creation fee, so why were they trying to charge me just to add my card as a payment option?

But it works out, because I am now on the hunt for BTC ATMs that sell on acceptable terms (hopefully without recording all my personal data). The delay has worked to my advantage, too, or will as long as I get on top of buying this juicy dip!