Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: applesauce634 on March 04, 2012, 07:25 pm
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So I'm new to Silkroad and Bitcoins (as of today) and I was wondering if I could get some tips/advice/general knowledge from you guys.
EX:
What is the approximate exchange rate for BTC to USD? Is it like $5/฿1?
What is the best way to buy BTC in small amounts? (As of right now there's like three things that I really really want on SR and the total is only like ฿2.00. (Slightly less.) Note: The only payment method I have is PayPal through my Savings Account.
How long has Silk Road been around? Just kind of curious ;)
And lastly, how did you find out about Silk Road?
Thanks guys ;)
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Welcome to the Silk Road!
Price of bitcoins?
The price of bitcoins fluctuates. It has been $4.50 and $5 for the past few weeks, currently sitting at $4.87 per bitcoin.
How long has SR been around?
SR has been around for almost a year I believe - I've been here since last July.
How did I find out about SR?
I found out about SR through a friend.
Here is a guide I wrote for using the Silk Road, PGP and buying bitcoins. Hopefully this will help.
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. There are a number of ways to get bitcoins.
Here is one way to buy Bitcoins:
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.
6) Once your deposit has gone through, go back to MtGox
7) Click "Funding Options"
[8)] 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 a few 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 PowderDick) and the email you enter should be PowderDick@fake.fake
Your password should be VERY 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 (click 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-----"
[8)] 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 the drugs to arrive
Hope this helps.
Another way you can buy bitcoins is from bitcoin dealers on SR - but they charge a price and there is more risk involved. Buying bitcoins from an exchange will give you the best price and is the most safe, but in return you have to wait for deposits to go through. Good luck!