Site Review: Mt.Gox

After setting up your digital wallet, mining a bit and gambling away your first free bitcoins, you are ready to enter a Bitcoin exchange and buy a couple of shiny coins with real world currency. With them you'll be able to speculate, gamble more or "expend them on tons of products and services", as the Weird Hippie CoinTube Woman says. There are several Bitcoin exchanges around, but the largest is Mt.Gox:

The virtual Forex: https://mtgox.com/

How It Works:

• Mt.Gox allows you to buy/sell Bitcoins with/for real world currency (dollars or euros).
• You must first create an account to use it. Since you will deal with money here, make sure to choose a good password and all that security stuff you already know.
• Once you are logged in, you should explore a bit the website so as you see how it works and all the options you have.
• For example, you can TRADE Bitcoins (duh). Mt.Gox will keep a 0,6% of all your market operations. You cannot sell or buy less than 0,01฿:

Placing market orders, do not disturb...

• In case you want to buy coins, you'll have to deposit some money on your account first. In case you want to sell bitcoins, you'll have to deposit them as well. There are several FUNDING OPTIONS available for that:

Several ways to put money into your account

• For using some of the funding options you'll have to GET VERIFIED (from SETTINGS). In order to be verified you'll have to give Mt.Gox your personal data and send a scan of an official document such as your National Identity Card or your Passport. Additionally, you'll need another document that certifies your residence (a Utility Bill, a Tax Return, a Voter's Registration Form...) that's been issued within the last three months. Yeah, I know. Not even PayPal requires so much information to give you an account.

Documents are attached directly as image files

• There are also other resources, like MERCHANT TOOLS. Check them out if you plan to sell stuff for bitcoins on your website.

How To Proceed:

• Create an account (you need an email).
• Log in (you need the user and password you chose on the previous step).
• Get verified (you need a National Identity Card or similar and some other document to certify your residence issued less than three months ago; it can't be a bank statement).
• Deposit some money and buy bitcoins (you need dollars or euros). Or deposit some bitcoins and sell them for traditional money (you need at least 0,01฿).
• Speculate, gamble, use the bitcoins.
• PROFIT!!!

This girl didn't have any clue she would become the image of a virtual currency exchange market when they took her this photo. Now all geeks want to date her

Site Review:

• Ease of use: 5/5. It's very professionally made and it has all the options you can wish for at the distance of a click. Or two.
• Options: 5/5. There's nothing you could wish for that you can't find on Mt.Gox. It even has Merchant Tools, something not found often on other currency exchanges.
• Requirements: 1/5. It requires too much information. The document to certify your residence is difficult to get if you don't pay yourself for electricity and water at your house.
• Market size: 5/5. Huge. After all, it is the largest Bitcoin exchange and handles over 80% of all Bitcoin trade. Or so they claim.
• Final Score: 9/10. If you are bored of getting small amounts of free bitcoins by visiting several websites every day, or if you consider it too slow and wish to take the step and get Bitcoins paying with real money, Mt.Gox is your place. Have ready a ton of documents though, because they'll ask for them.