Thinking of buying a few Litecoins - Where to get started?

December 1, 2013 7:08 AM

Bitcoin's younger brother Litecoin has been on the rise lately, and I'd like to purchase a couple - not more than a few, I'd just like to try my hand at cryptocoin-trading. Anyone here that has been through the process and can offer me a step-by-step way to trade? What are the most reputable exchanges? Is there an easy way of getting money onto one of these sites so that the coins can be purchased? Am I out of my gourd for considering purchasing even a small amount? I've had a look on reddit, but there is so much conflicting information that it can get a little overwhelming.

Some sites I've taken a look at so far are: Kraken, Vault of Satoshi, Btc-e, and Bitfinex. I'd trust the anecdotal evidence of mefites moreso than those of reddit members, many of whom seem to be 'hawking' their wares so to speak.

posted by Kamelot123 to Technology (3 answers total)

I was just reading up on this. I have read that, if you're in the US, the easiest way is to create an account with Coinbase, buy some amount of bitcoin (you don't have to buy a whole one), say 0.1 bitcoin, then make a deposit of bitcoin into BTC-E, and purchase the Litecoin there using the Bitcoin you deposited.
posted by jayder at 8:49 AM on December 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

What jayder said, with the caveat that Coinbase only accepts bank transfers (and I've heard it takes a few days to clear those, so you might not be able to buy immediately). A somewhat convoluted alternative that is quicker and allows credit card or PayPal payments is to open an account at virwox.com, deposit some money there by whatever means you prefer, then buy Lindens (Second Life virtual currency) on VirWoX with that, turn the Lindens into Bitcoins also on VirWoX, send the Bitcoins to your BTC-e account, and buy Litecoins with them there. VirWoX charges transaction fees, though, so this is only worth doing if you really don't want to wait/use a bank transfer.
posted by zeri at 10:08 AM on December 1, 2013

I've just started mining Primecoin's. I did a little write up how to do it here. I mention this because it is very easy to transfer cryptocurrencies between exchanges and each other once you have SOME. So maybe you could start mining (Primecoins and Litecoins can both be mined with normal computers) and then use the proceeds to buy your desired currency.
posted by aychedee at 12:30 PM on December 1, 2013