In addition to mining, bitcoins can be purchased through various exchange platforms or purchased directly from people. The option is also to sell your products / services by accepting payments in bitcoins . There are thousands of different exchange platforms around the world where you can buy and sell bitcoins at the exchange rate.
Practices are different. Many exchange platforms require quite in-depth information from people before an account can be activated and you can start buying bitcoins . Which refers to compliance with “know your customer” and money laundering requirements (for example, in the USA). In such cases, the person using the bitcoin internally is actually identifiable. Recently, more and more distributed exchange platforms have come out, where personal identification is no longer asked.
The owner of a bitcoin is more difficult to identify if the bitcoin is purchased for cash from another person or from a bitcoin ATM. As soon as a bank account is linked to a bitcoin account through an exchange platform, it is easier to identify the person.
It should be noted that exchange platforms charge a service fee of about half a percent for the purchase and sale of bitcoin . It should also be noted that bitcoins can be purchased at different prices on different platforms. Graphs of different markets also show the difference in prices.
A good overview of the markets traded in bitcoins in real time can be found HERE .
Most markets are cryptocurrency-only, with no contact with banking money. The two best-known cryptocurrency exchange platforms can be used to buy euros: Kraken and Bitstamp .