Buying Ether outside US has never been this hard

It's been weeks, couple of weeks now if not a month. I have been monitoring Ethereum for a while now and I am at a point where I have known enough and ready to jump in. At the time of writing this article Ethereum nearly clocked $400 against the dollar. Yes, that gave me more reasons to jump with two feet all in.

I had tried jumping in a few weeks ago through mining but I couldn't find cheap equipment out there, never before have GPUs been on demand like this. Besides the equipment issue, I wasn't sure how much I would pay for electricity.

The Ethereum fire had got me as I watched the price go from $90 to almost $200 in matter of days. I was desperate to get in. But I did not have cash. I had a few Bitcoins and I thought I should sell the Bitcoins and buy ether mining equipment.What was confusing to me was that the price of Bitcoin was also rising by big margin. By the time I was writing this article, the price was almost hitting $2,800 against the dollar. I was torn.

What to do?

I pondered for a while, weighed the risks on both sides. Here was my analysis.

Reality:

Both crypto currencies (Bitcoin & Ethereum) were gaining value rapidly

There was a risk in selling Bitcoin for Ethermining equipment since I wasn't sure of the return on investment

There was the possibility of losing in the longterm. Bitcoin was almost hitting $3000,against the dollar

The cost of mining would be expensive as difficulty increases hence more electricity hence chance of breaking even would be low

The time it takes to setup ether mining rig would be longer, awaiting shipping etc.

I wasn't sure how soon proof of stake will replace current proof of work, it could happen next month or who knows

Verdict:

So in the end I kept my Bitcoins and forgot about mining for the moment.

Some cash

Remember earlier I had mentioned that I didn't have cash. That weekend I was blessed and I got a web development gig for $300. I pounced on it like crazy, finished it and finally got paid. This was the moment of glory, I was itching to invest in Ether.

Buying ether

Despite researching on ether for sometime, I hadn't researched much how to buy ether. In fact I didn't know where to buy. So I hit Google and Reddit /r/ether. Thankfully I found some great articles with options. The first one I tried was Coinbase. I had known Coinbase for some time now and it was easy to trust. I tried opening my acccount from my current location and it said that I couldn't buy in my current region.

I found a workaround by using VPN logged on to coinbase from US. Open an account, added credit card. This is I started experiencing challenges with Coinbase. Coinbase couldn't just accept my card because of address on the card and asked I contact the issuer. I'd hit a wall, I tried couple of times again and I was blocked! Try after 24 hours. I was disappointed.

That was it for me with coin base, I went looking for other exchanges i.e. Kraken, Gdax(coinbase), Poloinex and all wanted some form of US ID e.g. social security number which I didn't have.

I searched even more and finally I landed on CEX.IO based in London, UK. Somehow I got some love and some form of trust for London :) so I thought this will be quick as had been described in customer comments review.

I quickly signed up, uploaded all docs needed, loaded my credit card ready to trade.

Start with small amounts

I wanted to buy ether worth $100 then I remembered the golden rule, start with a smaller amount just in case things go south you won't lose much. I was right, after buying/placing my bid, I was happy but nothing happened. I thought my order will be processed faster but it didn't.

The wait

After waiting for a few hours with no communication, all I could see was a pending order which I could cancel. Then after sometime the cancel button had gone. You already know where my thoughts were going - I started thinking I had been scammed. I went, Google and searched CEX.IO scam, wow I saw many discouraging results. Blamed myself that I should have researched more. I started doubting if the company was legit. Hit Twittteron CEX.IO page and saw that they last posted like 2 months ago.

I finally decided to contact them directly via help form on the website backend. I received an automated no reply email ticket. It wasn't a good relief and I was now convinced I had been scammed. My consolation was the fact that I had lost a small amount of money and I was okay with that. In a last desperate move I hit Facebook. Then messaged them directly.

There was no reply to my Facebook message until 3 days later when I got a reply that they hadn't found a seller who would buy at my bid price. I was a little relieved and I hoped again. Up until now I haven't received any ether yet and still awaiting their response.

That's my struggle in trying to buy ether outside US. I do not know if any one else is struggling. Would love to hear your story.