Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: thebest1 on February 17, 2012, 01:47 am
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hey, it seems everyone is trying to do away with the moneypak exchange for BTC or charging a large % for the exchange now. I was wondering if someone could give me an indepth guide of purchasing BTC from mtgox, or a cheaper site? either respond here or PM me. I know there are some topics on this but not "indepth". Thanks a lot. all help appreciated!
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Wondering this myself, just got burned for 80 bucks on a moneypak the other day and looking for any other way to not deal with that again.
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I've only done it once and it worked so I have no complaints about the process.
https://get-bitcoin.com/
Go there, fill out the information. Leave the maximum Price blank.
Your bitcoin address is the address for your account on SR. For "Payment Method" do the Cash Deposit at either Chase or BOA, whichever is closer to your house. Submit it and follow their instructions.
Took about 18 hours and I had my bitcoins on SR
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Hey guys... I just posted this in the technical support forum, I'll leave it for you here too.. And i just want to add that you MUST read the forums thoroughly .. read every thread in every section that you can find about bitcoins.. you'll find the answers that you need...
Hello!
I am a newbie myself and just received my 1st order today!
Getting bitcoins was sooo confusing for me too... But after doing it just 1 time i realized I was making it harder than it needed to be. But for starters, read, read again, and re-read the forums as much as you can, until you get the basic idea. People have lots of different methods so you'll have to see which is best for you.
Here's what I did.
1. Create an account at mtgox.com. Be sure to use your regular internet- DO NOT USE Tor for these steps.
2. Next go to bitinstant.com. There you will do the cash bank deposit. Use your mtgox acct # and you can
choose a local bank to make the actual deposit. You'll then get an email with a code/coupon for mtgox.
3. Back at mtgox, redeem the code from your email to add your funds.
4. Now you should have dollars in your acct. that you'll trade for bitcoins.
5. Next, using Tor, go to instawallet.org. The 1st time you visit the page you have accessed your wallet.
Copy the URL listed in the the box in the top left side of the page, also copy down the long code towards
the bottom. Read the whole page very carefully so you understand how to use the wallet. I lost 200$ on
my 1st try because I wasn't paying attention.
6. Now close Tor and use regular browser to return to mtgox. Again, DO NOT access mtgox through Tor.
7. In mtgox, use 'Funding Options' to withdraw your money and send it to your wallet.
8. From here on out use the Tor browser. Go to your wallet URL and you'll see your bitcoin balance.
9. Now just put in your SR receiving address to send them from the wallet to SR.
It seems like alot.. but once you actually work through the process you'll understand exactly what's going on. Again, I am new as well, so this method probably isn't perfect... actually, if any of you pros are reading this maybe you can give me some suggestions or pointers if I am missing anything or if I could improve anywhere as far as security is concerned. Also, allow some time between each step.. it takes time for the bitcoins to move from place to place. Good luck! If you get stuck along the way give me a shout, I'm glad to help! ; )
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Hey guys... I just posted this in the technical support forum, I'll leave it for you here too.. And i just want to add that you MUST read the forums thoroughly .. read every thread in every section that you can find about bitcoins.. you'll find the answers that you need...
Hello!
I am a newbie myself and just received my 1st order today!
Getting bitcoins was sooo confusing for me too... But after doing it just 1 time i realized I was making it harder than it needed to be. But for starters, read, read again, and re-read the forums as much as you can, until you get the basic idea. People have lots of different methods so you'll have to see which is best for you.
Here's what I did.
1. Create an account at mtgox.com. Be sure to use your regular internet- DO NOT USE Tor for these steps.
2. Next go to bitinstant.com. There you will do the cash bank deposit. Use your mtgox acct # and you can
choose a local bank to make the actual deposit. You'll then get an email with a code/coupon for mtgox.
3. Back at mtgox, redeem the code from your email to add your funds.
4. Now you should have dollars in your acct. that you'll trade for bitcoins.
5. Next, using Tor, go to instawallet.org. The 1st time you visit the page you have accessed your wallet.
Copy the URL listed in the the box in the top left side of the page, also copy down the long code towards
the bottom. Read the whole page very carefully so you understand how to use the wallet. I lost 200$ on
my 1st try because I wasn't paying attention.
6. Now close Tor and use regular browser to return to mtgox. Again, DO NOT access mtgox through Tor.
7. In mtgox, use 'Funding Options' to withdraw your money and send it to your wallet.
8. From here on out use the Tor browser. Go to your wallet URL and you'll see your bitcoin balance.
9. Now just put in your SR receiving address to send them from the wallet to SR.
It seems like alot.. but once you actually work through the process you'll understand exactly what's going on. Again, I am new as well, so this method probably isn't perfect... actually, if any of you pros are reading this maybe you can give me some suggestions or pointers if I am missing anything or if I could improve anywhere as far as security is concerned. Also, allow some time between each step.. it takes time for the bitcoins to move from place to place. Good luck! If you get stuck along the way give me a shout, I'm glad to help! ; )
This is a pretty good way of doing things, even if doing dwolla to mtgox. If you wanted to wait a little longer but obscure the transactions even more you could send from instawallet.org to your own bitcoin wallet and then to SR.
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Where is dwolla mentioned? Isn't instawallet your own BTC wallet? I don't see any need to bounce your coins around any further. SR does it's own tumbling and encrypting before your coins get from instawallet in to your SR acct. That's why it takes a while for them to show up. Instawallet to SR is the longest part of the process.
Wonder has it right. This is the easiest and fastest way to get coins without getting scammed. MP to BTC is the #1 scam on SR right now.
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5. Next, using Tor, go to instawallet.org. The 1st time you visit the page you have accessed your wallet.
Copy the URL listed in the the box in the top left side of the page, also copy down the long code towards
the bottom. Read the whole page very carefully so you understand how to use the wallet. I lost 200$ on
my 1st try because I wasn't paying attention.
This is bad advice, it's not harmful but doesn't do anything beneficial either. I've waxed endlessly on this topic so look through my old posts if you want to know why and what to do instead.
SR does it's own tumbling and encrypting before your coins get from instawallet in to your SR acct. That's why it takes a while for them to show up.
Nobody except the admin knows how the tumbler (kind of a meaningless term btw but I digress) works so it's not smart to put your faith in it, what is smart is to be resposible for your own security and blind your coins' transaction log by yourself.
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I mentioned dwolla as an alternative to using bitinstant with a cash deposit. Some people may care, but personally I think its just as much risk walking into a bank and dwolla to mtgox is perfectly legitimate to trade/sell btc. I'm only concerned about where btc goes as it leaves mtgox and in which case I'm with QTC on this... SR may 'tumble' but I'd rather jump through a few hoops to be safe.
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So what exactly is the method to "blind your own transaction log?"
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I want to avoid using MtGox entirely, so when I select Cash Deposit on Bitinstant, when I go into a Chase or Bank of America, where do I say is the destination of my cash transfer? They do not ask for ID so this is anonymous.
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Admittedly your chances of being ID'd are low and by all means use cash deposit in lieu of wire transfer but this method isn't 100% safe as banks have security cameras and they do log the time of a deposit - I know this as I work in one!
I don't know about the US but in the UK there are deposit points where you can put cash/cheques into an envelope for deposit by bank staff later in the day. They're covered by security cameras at my bank but obviously they'd have no way of knowing which particular envelope was yours so all that could be proven is that you visited the bank.
V.
I want to avoid using MtGox entirely, so when I select Cash Deposit on Bitinstant, when I go into a Chase or Bank of America, where do I say is the destination of my cash transfer? They do not ask for ID so this is anonymous.
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The deposit ticket that bitinstant has you print out has all the deposit info. Just hand it to the teller and say "I'd like to deposit this into this acct." I feel that an anonymous bank deposit is far more anonymous than a dwolla transfer. Don't you have to verify your bank acct directly with dwolla? That would give anyone a direct line to your real identity. A photo would be harder to identify a person with, but not impossible. Either method is still better than MP to BTC, the biggest scam on SR.
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Personally, bitinstant > Bank of America with my twenties > Mt. Gox > Silk Road wallet. Folks, it's almost impossible to get any safer than this. There's nothing sketchy about making a cash deposit at a bank to a company called "TrustCash Ads". I've done it plenty of times with 200-300 dollar deposits at a time. Just for safety I switch up which bank I use each time. Also, there are a huge amounts of topics on the security risks of not cleaning your BTC before they make it to SR wallet, but SR does that FOR you. As in, they have their own bitcoin cleaning method, and sending them through an extra wallet does NOT make it more secure. If the feds wanted to trace you, they could EASILY do it through multiple wallets. Mt Gox cant tell the difference, so your account is totally safe. Also, if you really care about cleaning bitcoins, use a bitcoin tumbler. That will actually erase any traces.