Yeah, that's the problem for me. I'm new to this space, so not only would I not want to invest too much into it right away because of that, but I also just can't afford to risk that kind of money right now. Plus, even if I could afford to risk it, that's a lot of money to risk on things like cash by mail. Why would I do that just to get a little bit of Bitcoin?

As for the ATMs, I've already looked into those. The only ones near me charge a 20% surcharge, which is not acceptable. Losing $10 on an attempt to acquire $50 worth of Bitcoin is absolutely absurd.

And as for meetups, I live in a rural small town with an older population that I would be willing to bet probably doesn't even know what Bitcoin is. The likelihood of finding any sorts of meetups is pretty low without going quite a distance and if I'm just buying a small amount, it doesn't exactly make it worth it for me.

To be 100% clear, though, I do support the technology and see it as a way to take back some sovereignty. I just don't see any viable way to actually get into this space without bowing to the KYC crap or bending over backwards to use completely impractical non-KYC methods. It sucks, too, because I would really like to give it a try. It's just not something I can do at this point in time. What really annoys me are the ones that basically attack me for this, and claim that I just want to stay in the fiat system, as if I actually have options.