Silk Road forums
Support => Technical support => Topic started by: Fred Flintstone on March 04, 2012, 07:24 pm
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I have had a number of people ask me how to use the Silk Road. I got tired of explaining it to each person and decided to write a general walk through of the process. This is a guide for downloading tor, accessing SR, buying and transferring bitcoins with MtGox and Dwolla, and the basics of sending a PGP encrypted message with PortablePGP. It is still a work in progress so if anyone has suggestions or additions feel free to make them. I made it very simply for the computer-illiterate, going through most every step in painfully obvious detail.
If you know anyone out there who would like to use SR and you are tired of walking people through the process, you can just send them this guide.
Downloading Tor and Getting to the Silk Road:
1) Start out by downloading a tor browser https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en
2) Once you have your tor browser downloaded, open it. Tor browsers take quite a bit longer to load than regular browsers so it may take longer than expected.
3) Now you want to go to the Silk Road website using your tor browser: silkroadvb5piz3r.onion
4) Create a login and password - be sure to use a login and password that you do NOT use for anything else. As a safety precaution, you do not want the account tied to you in any possible way.
5) Now that you can look around the Silk Road, you will want to buy stuff. For that you need Bitcoins.
The quickest way to buy bitcoin
The quickest way to get bitcoins is from a bitcoins seller on the Silk Road. These sellers, located under "Money" or "Services" on the Silk Road main page, will sell you bitcoins for money - using Paypal, Cash, Western Union, Moneypak and other sources. They usually charge a fee somewhere between 5-10%. There is also some risk involved, so if you use this rout be sure and find a seller with a good rating. I have never bought bitcoins from a seller on Silk Road because the fee and risk are not worth it to me.
The most common way to get bitcoins is from a bitcoin exchange. While there and many exchanges, this is a guide for using MtGox. Buying bitcoins through an exchange, while there is less risk involved and a much lower fee, does take quite a bit longer.
How to buy Bitcoins using MtGox:
1) Go to https://mtgox.com/ and create an account.
2) In order to buy bitcoins from MtGox, you need to deposit money. Unfortunately, MtGox does not make it quick or easy to deposit money. The way I do it is through another website: https://www.dwolla.com/
3) Go to Dwolla and create an account.
4) After you have created an account on Dwolla, go to "Add Bank Account" and follow all the steps. It will take a few days for your bank account to become active.
5) Once your bank account is active on Dwolla, go to "Deposit Money" and deposit some money. It will take around a week for the deposit to go through. For a first time user, between waiting for your bank account to become active and making your first deposit, it will take up to two weeks until you can actually buy bitcoins. Since you only have to activate your bank account once, using dwolla in the future will only take between 5-7 days for your deposit to go through.
6) Once your deposit has gone through, go back to MtGox
7) Click "Funding Options"
Eight) Then make sure you are on the tab "Add Funds"
9) Select Dwolla as your "Funding Method"
10) Scroll down to "Account Number" and click the link made out of numbers
11) Enter the amount you want to deposit into MtGox, then type in all your Dwolla info and follow the 3 steps. After a few minutes, the money should be on your MtGox account.
12) Go back to MtGox and click on "Trade"
13) Buy some fucking Bitcoins
14) Sign on Silk Road and go to Account and where it says "to deposit bitcoins, send them to this address:" copy your address
15) Go back to MtGox and select the "Funding Options" tab
16) Select "Withdraw Funds"
17) Enter the amount of Bitcoins you want to send to the Silk Road, then paste the address you copied from step 14 and click Confirm.
It usually takes between a few minutes and a few hours hours for the Bitcoins to get from MtGox to Silk Road.
Once you have Bitcoins on the Silk Road, you can go ahead and start ordering. When placing an order it is best to use PGP encryption when sending the seller your address, but you are not required to. Getting PGP to work is is the only part of this whole process that may give you problems. It can be a pain in the ass but it is way safer than sending your address unencrypted over the Silk Road network where it could end up in the hands of some enemies.
There are a bunch of PGP (which stands for Pretty Good Encryption) programs that will work. Of the few that I have tried, Portable PGP is the easiest.
To get PortablePGP working:
1) Go to http://ppgp.sourceforge.net/ and download it
2) Install the program and open it
3) It will ask you to make a PGP key. Think of this like any other key, except this is used to unlock encoded messages. When you create your PGP key, do not use any real information. The name should be your Silk Road name (Pretend your Silk Road name ClownPenis) and the email you enter should be ClownPenis@fake.fake or something along those lines.
Your password should be long and include letters, numbers and characters.
4) Now, go back to the Silk Road and find something you want to buy
5) Add the item to your shopping cart
6) Go to the profile of the person selling the item by clicking on their name and scroll down until you see a big block of random text
7) Copy the text, including the heading and ending:
"-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
ALL THE SHIT IN BETWEEN
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----"
Eight) Create a .txt file using notepad (or the Mac equivalent), using the seller's name as the file name.
9) Paste the big block of text that you copied in step 7 into the .txt file and save it
10) Go back to PortablePGP and where it says "Public Keys" click the arrow pointing down so you can import a PGP key from a file
11) Select the .txt file you created and it should say:
"Public.bpg (Access is denied)" and their PGP key should show up in your list of Public Keys.
12) Still using PortablePGP, click the button that says "Encrypt"
13) Type in your address - if you are ordering from someone outside the United States, be sure to write "United States" at the very bottom
14) Where it says "Target," select the person who's key you just imported and click "Encrypt" on the bottom right corner
15) Copy the big block of text it creates (should look similar to a PGP key.) You have encrypted your address using the seller's Public PGP key. Nobody else is able to decrypt the address unless they have the password
16) Go back to the Silk Road and click on your shopping cart
17) Select shipping method and click go
18) Where it says:
"Please enter your name and address
as it would be written on a letter:"
Paste the big block of text you copied from step 15.
19) Enter your PIN and click "Place Order"
20) Wait for your order to arrive
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Nice walkthrough overall.
A few things:
1- I've found that it helps to walk people through 'ghosting' - I don't tell anybody the SR URL until I know that they have created a whole separate net-identity to deal with all things SR. The specific step in your process that makes me think of this is Dwolla, for which you need an email address (and a phone number? Is that still required? It's been a while). I usually have them make accounts that point to each other because otherwise it leaves a trail and someone will get pinched.
2- Remember that Dwolla needs to send mini-deposits into your account and you need to verify them before the account can be added. So I think you should have a total timeline in your guide. I tell people it's good to assume 2 or 3 weeks total before you'll see anything in the mail, start to finish.
3- PGP . . . I don't know if it's just my specific learning style but my eyes glaze over when I read PGP tutorials. I'd suggest directing them to the link on the forum with the *pictures*, which makes it SO much easier. For that matter, there are tutorials on all of this stuff you can link to, and probably 3/4 times I tell someone about SR they figure it out on their own. It's good to let that happen without holding someone's hand, you know? It means the proper motivation is there, and in the time it takes for a person to learn about SR and get everything set up, they will learn to love the community. In short, 3- send them to the forums. Then WE have them >:D
4- Just as a general organizational/writing tip, you say there are many ways to get bitcoins and then you only mention one:( ... From what I've gathered many people prefer the ease and the speed of buying MPs and getting them made into BTC through SR (for a price, of course). Might be worth detailing that.
But, yah. Good read, even if it's reproduced elsewhere (buyers guide..?) :)
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Very nice! :)
What about a "pitfalls - don't let this be you" guide? Things that shouldn't be done as a buyer.
Part pragmatic advice on what not to do and what to avoid and part etiquette advice concerning how to behave with vendors.
I was fortunate enough to start off with a top vendor(Pharmville). So things went perfectly smooth. I branched out with other vendors and had perfectly smooth transactions with them also. As for getting bitcoins, I went to bitcointalk forum to quickly learn all about it. Learning PGP was surprisingly simple once one understands the basics which are a private and a public key and which does what.
But a lot of new buyers I see making all sorts of mistakes that can be avoided with a bit of knowledge beforehand. I suppose, one would have to look about the forum and see what mistakes are being made and then compile them and add a "wrong way/right way" section to the guide.
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Dang, this is pretty much my exact method. Too bad I had to figure it all out by myself rather than having a nifty guide such as this one. The only difference is I use a different PGP program. :P
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Thank you for all the informative tips. This is helpful to all us noobs.
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Thanks for this info. I thought i had to dl that bitcoin program. I guess not. But i want to go the MP way and then find someone here on the site.
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Good guide.
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8) Cool starting point of this guide! Really wish I woulda had this 3 weeks ago before I went through each step feeling my way along the path as if I were blind... ;)
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Seems a nice straightforward guide i fell in a pit though :
4) Create a login and password - be sure to use a login and password that you do NOT use for anything else. As a safety precaution, you do not want the account tied to you in any possible way.
What about the pin?
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Seems a nice straightforward guide i fell in a pit though :
4) Create a login and password - be sure to use a login and password that you do NOT use for anything else. As a safety precaution, you do not want the account tied to you in any possible way.
What about the pin?
Go with a number that has meaning to you. I tried not to use simple shit like a birthday, my current check card pin number, etc.
For instance: I played a little basketball in college back in my day, whenever we were on the road my roomate had this 4 digit number he'd text me that meant "he was in the room getting some pussy". I have no fucking idea what the number ever meant, but the shit was engrained in my head so I chose that. LOL.
Get it?
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Thx for the respons. I tought the pin was for something different. It's ok now. Seems like prices went up a lot past decade :)
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FYI the pin doesn't have to be a four digit number. And, as with everything else where security is concerned, longer and mixed characters = better
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Thank you very much for this guide. The bitcoin explanation was particularly informative.
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2 more questions :
"Dwolla is a United States-only e-commerce company" How do europeans have to do it?
Anyone running that bitcoin client on a 64bit windows7 wich is standard on like all laptops as of today?
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Anyone running that bitcoin client on a 64bit windows7 wich is standard on like all laptops as of today?
Aye. Works the same.
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I tried to install it few times yesturday but had compatibility popups, redownloaded today and it works. Time to have a computer checkup i gues.
Thx for the info. Gonna see if can get some coin :)
Edit :
Silk Road, an online anonymous marketplace, uses Bitcoin.[14][58] In a 2011 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Drug Enforcement Administration, senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia called for an investigation into Bitcoin and Silk Road.[58] Schumer described the use of bitcoins at Silk Road as a form of money laundering.[10] Consequently Amir Taaki of Intersango, a UK-based bitcoin exchange, put out a statement calling for regulation of Bitcoin exchanges by law enforcement.[59][60] The hacking organization "LulzSec" accepted donations in Bitcoin, having said that the group "needs bitcoin donations to continue their hacking efforts".[61][62]
Now bitcoin seems to need real personal information. How safe is it?
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Based on speed of service till i get my BTC in my account, i think i'm going to use someone through the money services here at SR. sounds pretty quick.
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I've been doing this for what, 7 months or so now, and only just realised that I DON'T need to send my public key to the vendor along with my encrypted address? Woe is me... They must have been thinking WTF is this guy doing every time? I really wish someone had told me. I mean, I have ordered from Ivory about 10 times now! :-[
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Also, you should NEVER access MtGox with the Tor browser! Each time you have to do any of the steps with MtGox, close Tor and use your regular browser.
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Hello, I'm new to Silk Road and would like to buy Bitcoins so I can be able to pay and buy stuff. I'm following your guide, but since I'm from Europe I can't use dwolla. What can I do to buy Bitcoins? I've been searching around the internet and I can't understand what I need to do since I'm a bit of a newbie to banking jargon and whatnot.. Is Mt.Gox even an option?
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You should also recommend that instead of sending the coins directly from MtGox to Sr that they should run them through a mixer first. I use bitcoinfog.
For those not in the States you might want to look at intersango.com.
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This may help new sr customers.
My SR Journey so far.
Hi my heady friends, I thought I would give my experiences on my SR journey so far to give new customers some idea of how to proceed. I heard of this site from a BBC radio report one Sunday night and decided to give it a try, I have been a member for 1 month and spent approx £700 GBP.
I found and downloaded tor with no problems and joined SR (you will not find SR without Tor) the only problem being my oversight (not putting a pin/password in) but SR admin sorted this out quickly.
On entering the site it was like walking into a sweet shop as a kid, all that beautiful bud and I wanted to try them all, but I had no btc. So my first stop down the SR was the btc exchangers. Not many UK exchangers but decided to try drcashancarry. This took a leap of faith as I had to deposited cash (£300) into a bank account, and then wait for the btc to appear. After waiting 24 hrs for the btc i feared the worst, but the btc was there in my account the next day (give vendors time) and I have had another similar transaction since, his communication could have been better but I could not give a fuck as long as the btc turns up which it did. Another way I have obtained btc which is useful for UK buyers is using a paysafe card. This is available at most UK newsagents/shops who have a PayPoint sign displayed. You give the shop keeper your money(£100 pound limit but you can have more than one) and they give you a receipt with 16 figure code on it. Then back to SR and find a paysafe to btc exchanger, I have used Amsterdamshop for this with no problems, just send your code and wallet number via pm and your btc will be deposited in good time. If your shop keeper is unaware of paysafe cards print this following page and get them to scan the bar code:
http://www.paysafecard.com/uk/buy/sales-outlets/pin-print/
So now you have your btc who to buy from. If product is needed quickly go for domestic vendor but if you can wait try overseas. Buyer Beware- make sure you research a potential vendor , check out feedback first and then go to the forum to see what other buyers have to say about product and service. I did not do this last week with a new vendor to SR and may have been scammed but I will give them a week (domestic) before I out them. Remember 5/5 Finalised Early means nothing until it is updated , try small amounts first so potential loss is small (not like I did going for 7g off this new vendor). I have 26 transactions so far and this is the first suspect vendor but my fault for not doing my research. So to the good vendors who I have purchased from with no complaints;
happyhippy - Good quality strong green and quick delivery (AK47)
freshtouch - Not the strongest weed but pleasant smoke, maybe my expectations were to high having tried thai stick in the past which blew my fucking head off (wild Thailand)
Dutchshop - Standard Hash (commercial afghan hash)
Amsterdamgoods - Stronger than the standard hash (quality primera hash)
Soulrebel - Good looking buds nice pleasant smoke (8 mile high). I prefer 2nd purchase (grapefruit)
Planta - Sweet tasting weed pleasant smoke (sugar punch)
Marijuanaismymuse - top quality weed , beautiful looking bud . Wish he would move to the UK because shipping costs a lot but worth it if you want a treat.(purple Krush)
Onestopshop - Good looking bud and nice pleasant smoke (orange bud)
Cloneuk - Nice looking bud and pleasant smoke (Kush berry)
sweetLeafLondon - Nice tight bud, a little on the damp side but a good smoke, quick UK delivery(casey jones)
Organic buds - dry tight bud , good smoke (chronic)
Greengiant - top qulity hash ( cheese bubble hash)
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Thanks OldToker for the link! :)
And dayday, good insight and reviews
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Dayday, you might want to re-think your method of getting Bitcoins. The Vendors on this site that will sell Bitcoins charge a premium price (10-15 percent I believe). If you follow the guidance given using Mt.Gox you'll be paying no more than five percent even with the cost of a mixer. Learn the Bitcoin System and you'll save yourself a lot of money, or better yet, be able to buy a lot more drugs.
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15) Copy the big block of text it creates (should look similar to a PGP key.) You have encrypted your address using the seller's Public PGP key. Nobody else is able to decrypt the address unless they have the password
16) Go back to the Silk Road and click on your shopping cart
17) Select shipping method and click go
18) Where it says:
"Please enter your name and address
as it would be written on a letter:"
Paste the big block of text you copied from step 15.
19) Enter your PIN and click "Place Order"
20) Wait for your order to arrive
It's so brilliant, I love it.
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Hey Folks,
Try this and see if you are as pleased as I was. Go to www.wm-central.com. This is a Russian money changer site. I know I was skeptical about anything Russian, nothing personal. Any way you proceed through the GUI and the first thing it ask you is how many bitcoins you want. You fill out the rest of the information and get the order number. Then you send WU or MG to them and they deposit you coinage to your wallet. This to me was better than www.get-bitcoin.com. THERE WAS NO FEE, AND THE COINAGE WAS IN MY ACCOUNT WITH IN 24 Hr. This was my first try with these people. I am not trying to put anyone down but the money changers here are OVER worked. Did I mention there was NO FEE... I ordered 25 bitcoins was told the dollar amount to send, at the time it was about 5.17 USD/coin. The coolest thing about it was you tell them how much you need and they tell you what to send. No more converting and taking out the Changer's fees. It was really cool and NO FEE's.
Slide
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Hey, guys. I'm new and I really have no problem waiting a few weeks before I can make a purchase. Just curious about dwolla. Is it reliable to use the same account everytime I want to make a deposit or should I use throwaways? Also, would the money I'm depositing come straight from my bank account or should I find some other source to deposit money from?
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Dear, Fred i would like to thank you for your impressive and detailed guide.
Although I have few question about PGP encryption. Help a newbie, Please.
#1. I need to generate a new Key Pair, what is this for? ( I keep reading your guide over and over, and it just doesn't pop in my head)
#2. Should I use a fake Name and email to create the KEY Pair, or will this backfire on me at the end? (In case I need to recover acc or what at PGP)
#3. Is the "Pass-phrase" your password on GPG? And How many Numbers and letter should I use in "Passp-hrase" at the Least, to be protected.
Thanks
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Dear, Fred i would like to thank you for your impressive and detailed guide.
Although I have few question about PGP encryption. Help a newbie, Please.
#1. I need to generate a new Key Pair, what is this for? ( I keep reading your guide over and over, and it just doesn't pop in my head)
#2. Should I use a fake Name and email to create the KEY Pair, or will this backfire on me at the end? (In case I need to recover acc or what at PGP)
#3. Is the "Pass-phrase" your password on GPG? And How many Numbers and letter should I use in "Passp-hrase" at the Least, to be protected.
Thanks
#1 A key pair is a chunk of data PGP uses to en- and decrypt messages. As the word pair says it has two parts: a public and a private one. You will usually only see ever public keys around and only the creator of the key pair should have the private part (makes sense, doesn't it? Still some brains post their private key here on the forum). Now PGP works in a way, that you ENcrypt messages for a person using their public key, but only the possessor of both the secret key and respective passphrase can DEcrypt it. So if you encrypted your message and forgot what you wrote, you can only decrypt it again if you picked yourself as one of the recipients (PGP allows encryption for multiple recipients).
#2 there is no such thing as a PGP acccount and you can have as many keys as you wish - for anything SR related I strongly advise to use you real data, so law enforcement does not have too hard of a job. seriously, did you actually consider that? Don't know what you are going to do here, but for buying substances that are illegal under most jurisdictions I want my real name as far from anything connected as possible. You can create another key using your real name to look cool in front of your friends sending them encrypted messages though (after you explained 'em how to use that stuff ofc).
#3 your PGP passphrase is the password, that protects your PGP keypair even when your private key has been exposed. In a nutshell all messages encrypted FOR you (not from you!) are as safe as your passphrase is long. In general I recommend picking passwords or -phrases as long and complex as the respective system and your brain can handle. PGP can handle quite long passphrases, so if you know a long ballad by heart, go for it.
Hopes this helps a bit understanding how PGP works :)
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Dear, Unnamed42
Wow! Thank You so much for answering my questions. You made the answers very clear to me.
I will keep on practicing using PGP Keys and encryption.
And I hope my questions will be useful for other future SR members.
Again, Thank You Unnamed42.