Silk Road forums
Support => Technical support => Topic started by: FluffyG on May 22, 2012, 12:17 pm
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Hi
I, as suggested, looked through the forum before doing or ordering anything, and now I am at a complete loss as to what to do.
My mate gave my a URL and has ordered from someone here so I thought I'd give it ago. I downloaded firefox then tor, which with my complete retardation when it comes to computers, was quite an achievement, one that I am very proud of.
Now I knew I would have to use some kind online currency like bitcoin to order, but looking through the forums people are talking about encyption, PGP, GPG and doing stuff to IRL's.... and now I haven't the first idea of where to start. I tried reading 'The Complete All-in-One Guide on How to Anonymously Use Silk Road' on the security thread and it made me feel like I have an IQ of a inbred toad.
I would be eternally grateful if someone could give me an idea of where to start, in plain english? I'm in the uk and any help will instantly fill your karma bank (by this I mean real life karma, not forum karma, apparently I need 100 posts for that.) :D
Much Love
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after you reach 100 post then you can add to people's karma. It's more anonymous to buy bit coin from a reputable vendor here at silk road. It may cost a bit more but at least they won't be forced by the government to give up their customers. Go to the main site and click on money then find one with 100% positive feedback and then check out their profile and feedback. Come here to the forum and look for reviews and ask about them to others. Send them a pm to make sure they are active and ready to sell. Most bit coin seller's here will take a green dot money pack. You just have to buy one and send them the number from it.
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Hi
I, as suggested, looked through the forum before doing or ordering anything, and now I am at a complete loss as to what to do.
My mate gave my a URL and has ordered from someone here so I thought I'd give it ago. I downloaded firefox then tor, which with my complete retardation when it comes to computers, was quite an achievement, one that I am very proud of.
Now I knew I would have to use some kind online currency like bitcoin to order, but looking through the forums people are talking about encyption, PGP, GPG and doing stuff to IRL's.... and now I haven't the first idea of where to start. I tried reading 'The Complete All-in-One Guide on How to Anonymously Use Silk Road' on the security thread and it made me feel like I have an IQ of a inbred toad.
I would be eternally grateful if someone could give me an idea of where to start, in plain english? I'm in the uk and any help will instantly fill your karma bank (by this I mean real life karma, not forum karma, apparently I need 100 posts for that.) :D
Much Love
Hi, FluffyG, I know where you are cause I was there not too long ago. Just don't get discouraged, that's the main thing. You've done plenty with getting Tor to run and you're here, right? That's really good.
I'll try to help you as much as I can, point by point.
First, bitcoins.
The simplest way I found is an outfit called http://intersango.com. They're in the UK. Read the https://intersango.com/howto/ and it will tell you how to fund your account in pounds, after you register. Then you buy bitcoins and get ready to send them, INDIRECTLY, to your SR bitcoin address. WARNING: never, ever under any circumstances click, on any site, where it says buy at *market price*. You can get fleeced very fast. Instead, buy (or sell if that's the case) at the prevailing rate which must be listed plainly (for example, 1 BTC = $5.00 US)
The next step is to send the BTC to your SR account. DO NOT send them directly, no matter what others say about SR's own mixing pool or system, I don't trust it. Instead, go to Bitcoinfog http://fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion and register. You'll get a BTC address. Send the bitcoins to this address. After they arrive, put in a withdrawal order to your SR address. It will take quite a few hours and they will arrive in small chunks. It is very untraceable, very secure; they do charge for this service, but I believe it's well worth it. Now you've got your BTC!
Second, PGP.
Yes, it is very important to encrypt your orders (i.e., name and address). Again, I don't care what anybody says, I don't trust SR's technology to hide this fundamental personal information. I require all my customers to either encrypt or, if they really don't understand or want to be bothered with it, send the information by as secure an email as they can to my tormail address, or to my TorPM userid. I then read it and immediately delete it all.
Here's what you do, in a nutshell:
You go to http://www.gnupg.org/download/ and download the program. Or, if by any chance you're using Windows XP, you can get PGP 8.0.3
at http://foofind.com/en/download/UxjouGlOLiXGVEQq/PGP 8.0.3 Freeware.exe.html. This one is a lot easier to learn and use than the GNU. And I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling it may just work on other versions of Windows. You could try it out.
At any rate, you double click on the executable you downloaded, and proceed from there. You have to generate a key for yourself) the program does it automatically when you click that). What you wind up with is a key pair, actually, one public, one private. The private is very well hidden, it's tough to even find it unless you're actively searching for it. The public is the one you should share with anyone you want to communicate with. When you encrypt a message you want to share to so and so, you use SS's public key and encrypt with your own private key that you don't even have to get, the program does it automatically. Then you send the encrypted message in email or even in SR's PM system.When you receive an encrypted message, you just use your own key and the program knows it's from so and so and will use so and so's public key. Naturally this presupposes you already have so and so's public key. And even if you don't, the program would actively search for it on some of the public PGP servers where people upload their public keys and chances are it will find it.
Well, that's it. Some others with more knowledge and experience than myself may be able to improve on all this, but with this I think you can at least get started.
Good luck and happy buying.
goblin
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Oh, and with all due respect to ralph123, buying BTC from members may be all right, but it isn't without risks, and it's plenty expensive too. Besides, you get a much more fulfilling sense of being your own guy by making an effort to get your own bitcoins and doing the "leg work" instead of depending on some seller who after all is doing it to make a profit, not just to help you.
And there may be another simpler method in the UK to get your BTC, such as walking into a bank and making an anonymous deposit into the account of a BTC vendor such as get-bitcoin.com. Trouble is, get-bitcopin.com doesn't work outside the US, but there have got to be other outfits that do.
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Spendbitcoins.com here in Australia accept western union for international
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I notice you said you downloaded Firefox THEN Tor; its better to use something called Tor browser bundle. This installs Tor and a special secure version of Firefox. It can be installed to a USB drive so as not to leave traced on computer. Similarly a good bit of software is GPG4USB. This can also be installedt to a USB drive; it is also the most user friendly I have used ( I'm new to this also but I have been experimenting a bit!) To import a public key from some one you want to message you can just select and copy to clipboard, then click "import". To encrypt a message you just type it in the box, select the key you want to use asnd encrypt. You then copy paste the encrypted message where you want it.
You may also want to look into truecrypt. It is very easy to use and will walk you through stuff.
The bitcoin question: I racked my brains over this, but I couldn't get round the fact that if I get caught with a package delivered to me, it's going to be an extra bit of suspicion if I have bought some bitcoins using my bank account, however clever I've been at obscuring their subsequent route. I know that's not evidence but in the unlikely event I come before a jury it's just gonna be one more thing for them to consider. Buying them for cash in the post just seems more secure to me.
I know it's not evidence and there are legitimate uses for bitcoin but I can see the police basically regarding them as drug tokens.
(all this is just to be safe ; it's unlikely to come to that I think!)
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Guys,you are awesome. Thanks a million for the help, it is so so appreciated.
x
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Having said that I hadn't took into account that some bitcoin exchanges will accept western union transfer. You can do these by depositing money at a western union branch, I think without ID or anything. The downside is that to me this didn't seem much different from sending money through the post: you are trusting the person you transfer to to send the bitcoins. Swings and roundabouts really
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Guys,you are awesome. Thanks a million for the help, it is so so appreciated.
x
Hi Fluffy,
If you're based in the UK I offer a service selling Bitcoins for cash in the mail, which is one of the few ways for you to obtain Bitcoins anonymously (the other being selling products/services). Feel free to take a look at the link below.
If you need any more help getting started with GPG, please feel free to ask.
V.
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Hi, FluffyG, I know where you are cause I was there not too long ago. Just don't get discouraged, that's the main thing. You've done plenty with getting Tor to run and you're here, right? That's really good.
I'll try to help you as much as I can, point by point.
First, bitcoins.
The simplest way I found is an outfit called http://intersango.com. They're in the UK. Read the https://intersango.com/howto/ and it will tell you how to fund your account in pounds, after you register. Then you buy bitcoins and get ready to send them, INDIRECTLY, to your SR bitcoin address. WARNING: never, ever under any circumstances click, on any site, where it says buy at *market price*. You can get fleeced very fast. Instead, buy (or sell if that's the case) at the prevailing rate which must be listed plainly (for example, 1 BTC = $5.00 US)
The next step is to send the BTC to your SR account. DO NOT send them directly, no matter what others say about SR's own mixing pool or system, I don't trust it. Instead, go to Bitcoinfog http://fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion and register. You'll get a BTC address. Send the bitcoins to this address. After they arrive, put in a withdrawal order to your SR address. It will take quite a few hours and they will arrive in small chunks. It is very untraceable, very secure; they do charge for this service, but I believe it's well worth it. Now you've got your BTC!
Second, PGP.
Yes, it is very important to encrypt your orders (i.e., name and address). Again, I don't care what anybody says, I don't trust SR's technology to hide this fundamental personal information. I require all my customers to either encrypt or, if they really don't understand or want to be bothered with it, send the information by as secure an email as they can to my tormail address, or to my TorPM userid. I then read it and immediately delete it all.
Here's what you do, in a nutshell:
You go to http://www.gnupg.org/download/ and download the program. Or, if by any chance you're using Windows XP, you can get PGP 8.0.3
at http://foofind.com/en/download/UxjouGlOLiXGVEQq/PGP 8.0.3 Freeware.exe.html. This one is a lot easier to learn and use than the GNU. And I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling it may just work on other versions of Windows. You could try it out.
At any rate, you double click on the executable you downloaded, and proceed from there. You have to generate a key for yourself) the program does it automatically when you click that). What you wind up with is a key pair, actually, one public, one private. The private is very well hidden, it's tough to even find it unless you're actively searching for it. The public is the one you should share with anyone you want to communicate with. When you encrypt a message you want to share to so and so, you use SS's public key and encrypt with your own private key that you don't even have to get, the program does it automatically. Then you send the encrypted message in email or even in SR's PM system.When you receive an encrypted message, you just use your own key and the program knows it's from so and so and will use so and so's public key. Naturally this presupposes you already have so and so's public key. And even if you don't, the program would actively search for it on some of the public PGP servers where people upload their public keys and chances are it will find it.
Well, that's it. Some others with more knowledge and experience than myself may be able to improve on all this, but with this I think you can at least get started.
Good luck and happy buying.
goblin
Terrific help there, goblin. You are awesome. +1 for you.
Neutron Man