Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: colorblack on February 22, 2013, 11:51 am
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Ok guys.. so I finally took the plunge and joined SR. Wow. Just fucking wow. Its like the feeling I got as a kid @ Toys R Us. So, I've been reading up for days. I understand how the TOR network kind of works. I even *Kind of* understand the basic concept of BitCoins. But ok, I lied.. I don't :( It is literally baffling the hell out of me. So obviously I've got money. Let's say either cash or a regular US bank.
How do I convert them to BitCoins, and then how do I get those bitcoins in my SR account?
I've downloaded Bitcoin-QT for mac. Installed.
Now what? (besides Dwolla.. no patience). I'm trying to understand how to get mtgox & bitinstant to work in tandem.. and then the 3rd element is getting THOSE BitCoins into my SR login account?
Jesus.. this is almost disheartening and makes me want to give up before I've even started.
I'm sorry for the severe Newbieness of this question.. and I'm usually quite good with technology, but the dots are just not connecting in my brain.. :(
Anyone, Beuler, Beuler? Anyone? If someone (preferably on Mac OS) could walk me through each step like the dumbass that I am.. you will be my savior.
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it depends where you live, mt gox is good, I'm in canada and i use ca virtex on their website they have instructions on how to deposit money to then be able to buy bitcoins. For example look for a bitcoin exchanger in your country online thats how i found ca virtex and on their website i signed up for an account/ewallet the instructions on depositing my canadian currency was to go to a certain bank with their account number and transit number and company name. My virtex account has a number that ends in 55 so if i deposit $100 they ask that you deposit $100.55 and then immediately type in your deposit after you have deposited the cash the website and they ask you to use the last 2 digits to help distinquish the deposits. once your deposit is verified you can then purchase some bitcoins. then you check your account on sr for your sr wallet address and copy the long address and paste it in the deposit part from your ewallet and it should be in your sr account withing about and hour or so. I hope some of that makes sense so feel to message me with more questions. Hopefully i was some help
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Hey Colorblack,
I totally understand your confusion and I think I can help! Here is my quick and dirty guide to the magic and majesty of bitcoins!
Bitcoins are nothing more than an anonymous form of currency not dependant on the state (read:government) for it's creation or administration. The price fluctuates daily but, at the moment, I think it's hovering somewhere around 30$ per Bitcoin. That's all well and good, you say, but how the F$#% do I USE them?
Well....I'm getting to that.
First, you are going to need to set up a Bitcoin wallet in which to store your coins. This wallet is just like your physical wallet in that it stores your currency for you...it does not, however, make your butt go do sleep on long drives. There are a couple kinds of wallets you can use and, honestly, best practice is to use all of them since they all function a little differently and serve different purposes. Each wallet will have an address that looks something like this:
1C2WniXGYE1L9gBMH9XhBBwsdnpe1X9RfR (feel FREE to transfer as many BTC as you like to this wallet by the way...I love donations)
Offline Wallets:
This is a downloaded program that stays on your computer and can be encrypted. Think of this like the safe in your house. You will want to use this wallet to keep the majority of your BTC safe; only transferring BTC to your online wallet (I'll get to that next) when you are ready to make a purchase. There are several offline wallets you can use but I prefer the one over at Bitcoin. You can download it here: http://bitcoin.org/
Online Wallets:
Think of THIS one as the wallet you carry around in your pocket. Keep in this wallet just what you want to spend in the short term. Again, there are many choices for this kind of wallet, but I prefer and therefore recommend the one over at blockchain.
Sign up here: https://blockchain.info/wallet/
Silk Road wallet:
This is the wallet provided as part of your Silk Road account. You can get to this wallet by clicking on "Account" on the top of the page when logged in to Silk Road and then clicking on "click here to make a deposit". This will take you to a screen that contains the address for your SilkRoad wallet. When you are ready to purchase THIS is the wallet you will transfer your coins to.
Great, so now you have set up your Safe (offline wallet), your Pocket Book(online wallet), and your Silk Road account....how do I get my hard-earned currency changed from dollars/Euroes/Rupies/whatever into Silk Road-friendly Bitcoins?
That is where BTC traders come in! (Keep in mind that there are other ways to buy/make BTC...this is just how I fund my account)
BTC traders will sell you Bitcoins at rates established by the Bitcoin market each day. Sellers have many different ways of accepting currency and you can do a ton of research on your own on this one if you wish but, for my money, I prefer to use one of the following sellers. Each of these sellers will sell you a set amount of BTC and then provide you with a bank account number at a major bank (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc) that you will then deposit your cash into. You provide the seller with the wallet address that you want the BTC to arrive in (usually your SAFE wallet) and, generally in about an hour or two, after you've deposited the cash you will have an equivalent amount of BTC transferred to the wallet of your choosing!
My two favorite sellers:
Blue Sky Traders : http://ok2yri46aaptiu2d.onion/index.htm
Bitcopia : https://www.bitcopia.com/buy.php
Once you have deposited your your BTC into your wallets you can then, using each wallets address, transfer your BTC to wherever it needs to go for whatever it is you are up to. The process that I generally use is the following:
Buy BTC via seller--->transferred to offline "safe" wallet.------->transfer needed amount for purchase to online "pocketbook" wallet.------Transfer needed amount to Silk Road wallet--->Buy Shit.
Now, some people will just purchase BTC and send it directly to their Silk Road wallet. This is totally doable...I just prefer the added layers of anonymity that multiple wallet tumblers provides.
Sorry this turned into such a long winded post...I hope it helps!
Feel free to drop any donations in the box lol : 1C2WniXGYE1L9gBMH9XhBBwsdnpe1X9RfR
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second for bitcopia.com
Super fast and helpful
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btcXuk are great if youre in UK...
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Remember to tumble. Blockchain.info has a tumbler:
Clearnet warning!!! https://blockchain.info/wallet/send-anonymously
Blockchain.info also has an online wallet, saving you from having to load any software and let's use it from your mobile device (iOS, Android)
Clearnet warning!!! https://blockchain.info/wallet
For a 1.5% fee, which is worth the anonymity, forwarding your transaction through the tumbler will break the traceable chain. Don't think you are gaining anonymity by just moving between wallets, your transactions ARE traceable, read the site information. Get the wallet address you want to send to and paste it into this site, it will then give you a new wallet address to use that will accept your bitcoins into their bin, then they will pay out to your original address provided minus the 1.5% fee.
I use Tor to connect to the site too so they can't log my IP (which they probably don't anyway), but no reason to let your ISP know you are connecting there.... I have gone the route of tumbling between several of my wallets, but this may be entirely unnecessary. You should be able to send directly to SR address via the tumbling forwarder on Blockchain.info.
Using an online wallet and tumbling direct to SR keeps you from having to maintain a wallet on your Mac. Believe it or not, the first time you load up that wallet it will take hours and hours and hours for it to download all the info it needs to be usable and it takes up several GIG on your drive. Not worth it for me, especially since I would like to remove the traces periodically but not have to reload the wallet and wait several days (which will only get longer as time goes by).
Sorry for the book but there are nuggets of wisdom in there!!!!
blahblah1234
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If you're in the UK, check my sig links.
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@blahblah
that is great info that I will TOTALLY be adding into my process! Thank you!
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I forgot to mention (and I just figured out how I need 50 posts here to post anywhere else!), you can also use anonymous online wallets such as Instawallet:
Clearnet warning! https://instawallet.org
You get a wallet address and a URL, don't lose the URL, it's the only link you have to anything you deposit there.
blahblah1234
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@SorenBowie - You're welcome!
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I can't vouch for it but there is a service on Tor that does the anonymizing a bit different, they vary their tumbling fee from 1 - 3% to make it even harder to trace. I kinda like that idea and I am going to dig into them further. It is known as Bitcoin Fog:
http://fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion/
They have a thread on bitcointalk dot org:
Clearnet warning! https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50037.0
Looks pretty legit but YMMV. If anyone has any experience with this service, please chime in!!
blahblah1234
PS only 46 more posts to go!
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Too much information? How about this. Go into the "Money" section of SR and you will find vendor's looking to sell BTC for cash, moneypacks, reloadit cards, western union, etc. I have successfully found a couple people that I work with to get money into the system. Some charge very high rates of commission but I found a couple reliable vendors who I will check to see if they want to convert because I prefer the anonymity of going to a convenience store, paying cash for a reloadit card adn then giving that to the vendor will will then credit my account with BTC. You don't have to wait for 6 network confirmations, it's just the vendor moving the funds over. If you are going to do this I recommend the following:
1. Check the feedback for the vendor
2. start small, don't send anyone more money than you are willing to lose to start off
3. Look for vendors that clearly state the terms of the transaction in the listing or profile
4. Always do it through a listing on SR so you can use feedback if things don't go your way
5. Use the same vendor if you have success, start small with a new vendor
6. If purchasing a reloadit or moneypack, you have to pay cash.
7. Try to avoid a vendor that requires you to give them the zip code you purchased the card at. This is too much information and seems sketchy to me.
8. Don't mess this up by using your "rewards card" or by buying anything else on a credit or debit card. Keep as anonymous as possible. Don't stare up at any cameras, keep your head down, wear a hat, a fake mustache, alternate women and men's clothing - just kidding you get the idea.
blahblah1234
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There's some good information here. After my slight wait (1 day, not 1 hour) with BitInstant I am interested in other methods.
BitInstant didn't screw me too hard but others are reporting waiting 3-7 days and still waiting...
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you mention a tumblr. to someone who has no clue where to look. This is something you have done before. Not me. I just wanna be safe for everyone. I did the bitcoin.org on my pc. I did the wallet thing from block, now there is something different you're saying to do. see the problem here. it's everyone has a way. so I set my sails for a way, then someone suggests another way and other say why they are going to try that way because a way did not work. I have gotten this far fuckers! I am not going to give up now.
I am stuck on the best way to get bitcoins and how to apply said coins. I have read bitinstant. I have a location near where this would work well and I have read that they do work well. Now I am reading different.
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There's some good information here. After my slight wait (1 day, not 1 hour) with BitInstant I am interested in other methods.
BitInstant didn't screw me too hard but others are reporting waiting 3-7 days and still waiting...
Hey, any links to where you got the info on the 3-7 day wait. I didn't hear about this yet and would like to investigate....
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Blue Sky Traders. They are amazing- and totally anonymous. By the time I got back from the bank, the BTC were in my wallet.
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great guide. explains it perfectly! 8)
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There's some good information here. After my slight wait (1 day, not 1 hour) with BitInstant I am interested in other methods.
BitInstant didn't screw me too hard but others are reporting waiting 3-7 days and still waiting...
Hey, any links to where you got the info on the 3-7 day wait. I didn't hear about this yet and would like to investigate....
Here's a non-onion/clearnet link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.0
I've also seen a few others around here complaining about BitInstant's recent slowness.
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see, lingo. You use terms you think everyone on here understands...clearnet. I assume that is uncrypted right. I can just go to my regular browser and use it. Remember. you had to learn to. I just want to do it right.
I think I will just go the way the guide I read on the forums here suggested. I will do bitinstant to walmart, to mtgox. then to that wallet thing block whatever you call it. damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I guess the upside is U.S. jails are a joke.
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Like almost everyything, there is no universal "best".
Use whatever works for you.
Please read the link I posted before using BitInstant though.
It seems like a reputable service but it is surely having problems lately.
Do be careful. Good luck. ;D
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Try using bitfloor.com
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I'm starting a thread dedicated to reviews, offers, and scam alerts of Bitcoin Exchanges and Vendors selling bitcoins... I'm asking anyone with a recent transaction (completed - not incomplete and looking to bitch/moan) to come to this thread and give an honest, fair review including timelines, processes, fees, and any customer service interactions. Thanks!!
I hope this helps everyone out a lot!!
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=124355
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okay! at this for 36 hours in 2 days. I have managed to be running linux and hidden and what not. now bitcoins. I have downloaded the program he mentioned and I assume he means the offline one. which to me is online because that is from my main drive. which I can toss where I put my encrypted stuff. I have set up the block site wallet., Now, that is the online one when he says onlin e wallet, I am assuming, right?
I guess the next step is finding that btc vendor I am happy with. Several of you seem to like the blue place there. I still may do bitinstant. I do not mind waiting a bit longer for the coin. I have been this patient till now. Gotta wait for whatever I may purchase as well. So that does not bother me.
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before I do. I have a question! I have written down my btc address for my wallet for the "online" wallet. I am pretty sure I cannot copy and paste back to windows on my main drive?
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If you're in Australia I can recommend spendbitcoins.com.
Go to the site, click "Buy Bitcoins", enter ur details including copying ur wallet addy in, enter amount to be deposited (in either BC or AUD) then hit submit, print the esilting page (or just write down the reference # and the BSB and A/C # the corresponds to the bank you'd like to deposit at then physically deposit ur $ at the bank and in like an hour or two ur BC are in ur a/c. :)
You can deposit at NAB, Commonwealth, Westpac and Bendigo.
Only thing is there's a 10% surcharge. But hey, unlike Mt Gox there's NO pprwork to link you to the BC deposit if ur a paranoid kinda person and you don't have to wait a week or more to have ur Mt Gox a/c processed/confirmed.
~p~
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I think I have it. The program I installed from which is from bitcoin.org. I have that encryped and installed. I have two tags within it right. each with an address. I want to purchase my coins and have them sent there correct? Say I want to buy 4 coins. I buy two..put them in which ever of the two tags/names I created for the program. Then buy 2more and put them in the other?
Step 2. I from there. put the receive number from wallet on blockchain to that program from the first part to send and it will go into my blockchain wallet correct?
Step 3. vendor....in progess. =p
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There's some good information here. After my slight wait (1 day, not 1 hour) with BitInstant I am interested in other methods.
BitInstant didn't screw me too hard but others are reporting waiting 3-7 days and still waiting...
Hey, any links to where you got the info on the 3-7 day wait. I didn't hear about this yet and would like to investigate....
Here's a non-onion/clearnet link:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128314.0
I've also seen a few others around here complaining about BitInstant's recent slowness.
Thanks uninfested, I am going to watch this play out and dig further. I didn't mean to try to push anyone toward a 7 day wait period, BitInstant has been so reliable for me in the past. I suspect that they will work out this rough patch, they must make good money off that service and doubt they will throw that away for just a couple $$$. Not like it is illegal or anything, it's entirely above board so I don't see why they would scam. It's probably a problem with one of their partners or a bug in their software that they will need to work out.
blahblah1234
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I have removed my references to BitInstant in my previous posts due to the issues they are currently having....
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before I do. I have a question! I have written down my btc address for my wallet for the "online" wallet. I am pretty sure I cannot copy and paste back to windows on my main drive?
Qthello, I always copy and paste. These addresses are too long and too easy to typo. You will lose money by giving the wrong address. And yes, you can copy and paste between linux and a windows main drive. Create a text file and paste, save it and then open where you need it. You can use a thumb drive to move it between PCs or Operating systems. I think this is what you were getting at.
And yes, clearnet means non Tor network. It still should be encrypted if I supplied https links but it is not as "hidden" as this forum or SR for example and you need to be careful if you use the links to keep your anonymity intact.
As for tumblers, read the link I provided to the blockchain.info tumbler. It gives a great overview of what it does and why you want to use it.
blahblah1234
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Thank you amie. As far as anything non tor. I won't mess with while I am on linux, through here on my flash. facebook, yahoo. youtube. shit like that If I want that I just drive hop. I appreciate all of you giving feedback. I think my next step is bitcoins. I seen a shit I really like for my first purchase.
We got little time on this earth and I would like to be with my family for the majority of it. So I will make sure I have this shit completely right when I make the ganja purchase. Oh I cannot wait to get some hash too. Where I live in the states. Even really good bud is rare. I mean there are puffy buds. but, nothing like this.
I been in the underground thing as far as the internet goes for 10 years. Used to mess with yahoo cracking and shit. Had some credit card number generators. Used to work for a site that uploaded rare movies. So I am not new to this side. I love the counter culture. I have been smoking pot since I was 9 years old. Thought I had done a lot and seen it all until I came upon this shit last week. Read it on some internet news. and Here I am. OLeeeee Dirk Mcgirk. I love bein dirty. I think the only time I wasn't not doing some dirt was 1 years old till I was 9. I am high now and running off at the mouth. Lol sorry all and thanks again.