Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: badboy333 on February 12, 2012, 11:14 pm
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Hey guys!
As you can obviously tell I am new ;) . It is also obvious why anybody uses this lol. At first I was rather curious about this. I fully believed that it was legit but I didn't want a visit from the local authorities. After a long 20 minutes i said forget it I dont care. Now, I set my account up etc etc. I understand you need bitcoins to pay for ''items'' (lol) . So i click on the bitcoins bit at the top. And I have no effing clue what to do. I wasted 2 hours scanning youtube and google trying to find answers. I'm a beginner to this. So if you could in simple steps explain what to do I would love that. When I say simple steps I mean like how to transfer the coins how to use them and most importantly, how to get them. I hope im not being to pushy I just want to get this done quickly as I have the week off!!!!!!
Thanks Guys!!!!!!!!
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Hello badboy!
I am in the same boat as you are! I've been spending an hour or two a day for about a week now, reading the FAQ's and forums.. Don't bother with google search- study the forum here and follow suggestions from the people who have aready used the Road. There is alot of info out there so it can be pretty confusing. And if youre not a computer wiz (I, certaintly, am not!) it seems very overwhelming. I'm feeling more comfortable with it all so I hope to make my 1st purchase soon. I suggest you read, read again, and re-read all you can on the SR forums before diving in.
Study!
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A tutorial I wrote up for all things SR. Security, bitcoins, how to buy, how to receive, etc:
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=9067.0
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Getting Bitcoins is indeed the biggest pain in the ass of this whole process. The crazy hoops you have to jump through were driving me nuts until I thought about the bigger picture. The whole point of SR using Bitcoins is that they're anonymous and virtually untraceable, so buying them means you're laundering your money.
If you think about it that way, as a form of money laundering, _of course_ it's a pain in the ass with lots of hoops. If it wasn't, it'd be easier to connect you with the money you're spending. It also makes sense from that perspective why PayPal and the credit card companies would want nothing to do with it. That said... It's still too confusing.
Here are the steps that I went through to get ahold of Bitcoins when I started buying things in earnest a few weeks ago. If you're in the US I think this is likely either the simplest mainstream course or close to it. People in other countries may have other options.
* If you're not in a hurry, sign up for a login at http://dwolla.com -- they're a little bitty PayPal competitor, with few features but a nice clean interface. Add and verify your bank account (this might take a day or two) and then transfer money to it from your bank (this will take several business days).
* If you ARE in a hurry, sign up at http://paxum.com instead. They're a lot more confusing, and you have to submit crazy amounts of documentation (which may take overnight to verify), but once you get all their crap in order you can add funds directly from your credit or debit card, and not wait several days for the bank transfer every time.
(NOTE: I went the Paxum route, and the first time I did the credit card thing I got a call from the bank about a "suspicious charge." I told them I'd authorized it and haven't had a problem since then.)
* Go to http://mtgox.com and sign up for an account. This is the big daddy of Bitcoin markets. (Make sure you're using your regular Web browser! Mt. Gox will shut people down for using Tor, due to some past problems with hacking.)
* Once you're set up on Mt. Gox, click "Funding Options" and transfer dollars straight into it from your Dwolla or Paxum account. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS about what to put in the message text! It may take an hour or so for them to notice the transfer, but eventually you'll see a positive balance in US dollars.
* Still on Mt. Gox, make a trade for however many dollars' worth of Bitcoins you can buy at the current market rate. Just go with the default price per coin, and it should email you in a few minutes that the trade is complete.
* Now we finally get to Silk Road. Sign up for a Silk Road login (if you didn't already) and click on the "account" link at the top. There'll be a line for "To deposit Bitcoins, send them to this address:" followed by a huge string of gibberish. Copy that gibberish to your clipboard.
* Back on Mt. Gox: click "Funding Options" again, then the "Withdraw Funds" tab. Put in the number of Bitcoins you just bought, and then paste in the long Bitcoin address from Silk Road. Click "Confirm" and then go have lunch.
(NOTE: If you want to be more cautious-slash-paranoid, you can download the Bitcoin software client at http://bitcoin.org and send the Bitcoins to yourself first, *then* send them to Silk Road. This is more complicated and not strictly necessary, but it does add more misdirection if any Powers That Be try to figure out how much money is going from Mt. Gox to Silk Road.)
* Some period of time later (maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours), your Silk Road account will get the Bitcoins you sent to it. You win! Buy drugs, get high.
Whew. Questions?
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Oh no, you wasted a couple of hours?!? Poor thing! :P. I found this place 3 months ago, and I wasted probably dozens of hours over the course of two weeks learning all this crap. Here's something I wrote in an earlier thread that I believe will help you.
The biggest hurdle to buying drugs on here is getting bitcoins. Here's the easiest, most straightforward way. Make an mtgox.com account. Mtgox is the biggest trader of bitcoins. After your account there is made, go to bitinstant.com, which is an official partner of mtgox. Use the payment method "Cash Bank Deposit." There will be a 5% fee, but it's worth it. You'll go through the steps, and it'll have you pick a bank near you and print out a bank deposit slip. Take that deposit slip to that bank, with the money, and after that transaction is over the money will instantly go into your mtgox account.
After the money is in your mtgox account, then you'll go to the "trade" section of mtgox, and convert your USD into bitcoins. Then after you have bitcoins into your mtgox account, go to "funding options" on the mtgox page, and select withdraw bitcoins. Then send your bitcoins to www.instawallet.org​. The coins will show up immediately on instawallet, but you'll have to wait about 30 mins before you can send them. Then you'll go to the Silkroad page, click on the "account" button on the top right, and get the address that you need to receive bitcoins. You'll then send the coins from instawallet to your Silkroad address.
There it is. It seems complicated, but I swear it's easy as hell. For your first few items, just buy cheap things, like a $50 items. This is just so that you get the hang of everything and build feedback and reputation for yourself. Just take and learn everything one step at a time. Here's the steps to buying something off of Silkroad,
1. Get bitcoins to your Silkroad account.
2. Find an item you'll want to buy. Make sure it's from a good, reliable vendor. If the vendor is ranked within the top 20, expect that package to take a long time since they get a huge influx of orders. In my experience, it's best to buy from someone with above 100 successful transactions, but not someone who gets 25 orders a day.
3. After finding the item you want, read the vendor's profile page. Does he require you to use PGP encryption to send your address to him? If so, the next step will be learning how to encrypt a message with PGP. That can be tricky, but feel free to post a thread here if you're having any trouble learning how to do that. Also, make sure to use your REAL NAME and a real address. A P.O Box is fine. If the seller sends you a tracking number, DO NOT check that tracking number on TOR. Most sellers don't send tracking numbers.
4. Since you're rather new, the seller may send you a message asking you to "finalize early." The "finalize" button will but found under the "orders" tab on Silkroad's main page. It's normal for a seller to ask a brand new buyer to finalize early, but you are at a slight risk. That's why you don't want to jump in balls deep with $500 dollar orders. Keep it small at first while you get a hang of things and build a rep.
5. Here's the hardest part of the whole thing.. waiting for your package to arrive. It will consume your mind, your soul, your very essence. You'll be anxious and excited 24/7 until you get the package. When it arrives, it's the hugest rush ever, it's probably a better high than the drug you're even getting. I think I'm addicted to just receiving orders at this point.
You can use your real name and email addresses for things like Mtgox and Bitinstant. Do not go to mtgox.com or bitinstant.com using tor, use them on your regular internet browser. Any questions?
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alright, I am apologizing now for highjacking your thread, but since you are brand spanking new, READ IT ALL. because it is for your benefit.
since a few kind members have already done a surprisingly good job with supplying you a necessary set of instructions for BTCs, I am going to tell you now before you have anymore questions regarding just about anything Silk Road related - SEARCH THE FORUMS before you ask any questions - especially ones as common as: "how to get BTCs" or "how to learn PGP" etc. etc.
I'm not trying to sound like a dick, but please, PLEASE, learn how to use the forum search tools effectively. it is there for a reason and can be rather helpful for basic questions such as this.
trust me, there are dozens and dozens of new members every single day. don't let my post count deceive you, I am still a noob myself. but I guarantee that 99% of your questions have been asked & answered at least more than a bakers dozen - just within the past two to three weeks. all of which that could, and should have been avoided just by simply searching the forums beforehand. it's all here man. literally, just about anything and everything that you want to/need to know - and then some. and if, against all probability, that you cannot find an answer to your question - then, and only then, should you propose it to the forums
since you sound like a nice guy, I'm going to warn you now: DO NOT QUICKLY RUN & JUMP INTO ANYTHING HERE and start buying shit left and right once you get BTCs. in fact, you should LEARN as much as you can about bitcoins even before you purchase a single one. that is the single most surest way of fucking up and getting a love letter - or worse - a visit from LE. read read read read. seriously. read as much as you fucking can before you even consider placing an order. read Silk Road's WIKI (which is linked to the homepage of the marketplace). go through each section of the forums: security, shipping, drug safety, rumor mill, product offers, tech support....read the shit out of it all. your best defense from the LE & scammers is KNOWLEDGE. and then, once you begin to feel comfortable, fucking read more - because you should NEVER feel comfortable here. always be paranoid. and always keep your guard. or you will most likely get scammed. I don't want to scare you. there are many trustworthy venders on here. but do your research.
only, after all of this, should you then consider placing an order. and even before you actually place an order - SEARCH THE VENDER here in the forums and do some more reading. learn about them. read reviews from others. make sure they are legit.
if you do all of this and prepare yourself, you will get through your adventure here on Silk Road with minimal problems. :) :)
alright. bedtime for me. 8) 8) 8)
-habitat
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I used bitinstant to fund my mt gox acct and make my first order. To me it's the way to go. I deposited my cash at the local branch I was directed to at 10 am and was ordering at around 3 pm. That was almost two weeks ago and I have been enjoying my first order from SR all weekend! Welcome, and habitat is right. Search the forums and almost anything you can imagine and stuff you can't is all there. Enjoy!
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Hey guys.. thanks for all the great info! I want to get bitcoins using the cash bank deposit at bitinstant.com. The problem is that I don't have a printer to print the deposit slip. Is there another way? I've decided that tomorrow I'll try making my 1st transaction If i can figure out the bitcoin thing. So what can I do if I don't have the deposit slip?
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You can email yourself the info and just write it down. They give you a print or email option. Then go into the bank and ask the teller for a BUSINESS ACCT deposit slip. Show her the info and ask her to help you fill it out. That's what I had to do also.
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Thank you!! Wish me luck in my 1st order tomorrow!!!
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Having trouble... my bitcoins have shown up on mtgox. from here i know i should send them to instawallet.org, but how? im not seeing any kind of option to do that. also ive been to instawallet.org and im not quite understanding how this works.. each time i visit the site there is a different wallet address... do i start from mtgox or from instawallet? so confused... maybe i am making this harder than in really is!!
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Thanks for your help! Instawallet is all good... now just have to send to SR... My understanding is that it can take a few hours btw wallet and SR acct. Why is this?