Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Lee Baby Sims on February 18, 2012, 11:15 pm

Title: Some noob questions
Post by: Lee Baby Sims on February 18, 2012, 11:15 pm
Hello all, just getting started and trying to get all my ducks lined up in a row and all that. The main hangup at present seems to be acquiring a functional version of PGP. Are some of the freeware encryption programs sufficient and widely used enough to do the job? Also, how necessary is messaging the vendors anyway? Obviously there are situations that will arise in which I would want to talk specifics, but in the case of a reputable, well reviewed vendor, couldn't one just add to the cart, finalize, etc. and be good to go?
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: Lee Baby Sims on February 18, 2012, 11:17 pm
Also, when buying bitcoins through an exchange, is it advised that one access the site using tor? How can you avoid giving up personal info during purchase of bitcoins itself? Can you still do the whole cash purchase thing via Wells Fargo?
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: johnwholesome on February 18, 2012, 11:58 pm
If you want to buy BTC safe the only way is to use something where you can pay cash, or use a moneypak exchanger around here. you can also mail money orders or traveller cheques to most big exchangers.

OpenPGP for Mozilla Thunderbird does the job quite nicely.
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: Lee Baby Sims on February 19, 2012, 02:25 am
Coolio. Thanks for the replies guys. When I start buying bitcoins and they ask for where I want it sent should I send it to my SR account, the bitcoin client wallet or some other wallet?
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: brownbud on February 19, 2012, 02:44 am
For PGP I will recommend: http://ppgp.sourceforge.net/

As for encryption on SR, everything is already encrypted but it is better to encrypt your address just to be more safe.

When contacting vendors always use encryption when sending addresses or payment details.
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: johnwholesome on February 19, 2012, 02:56 am
Coolio. Thanks for the replies guys. When I start buying bitcoins and they ask for where I want it sent should I send it to my SR account, the bitcoin client wallet or some other wallet?

Well, despite being "anonymous", BTC is indeed a traceable currency. As a matter of fact, everyone and their dog can DL and read the block chains and all the transactions. To this effect, you always want to have as many layers in between transactions as you can. Meaning, don't send coins from an exchanger directly to SR. Either use a wallet on your PC and dump it right after (the transactions and coins are traceable, but not associated with individual IP addresses) or use various online wallets like instawallet.

What you want is "plausible deniability". And the longer your initial coins purchase floats around out there and gets tumbled around the better.
Title: Re: Some noob questions
Post by: MailMaxDev on February 19, 2012, 03:36 am
Coolio. Thanks for the replies guys. When I start buying bitcoins and they ask for where I want it sent should I send it to my SR account, the bitcoin client wallet or some other wallet?

Well, despite being "anonymous", BTC is indeed a traceable currency. As a matter of fact, everyone and their dog can DL and read the block chains and all the transactions. To this effect, you always want to have as many layers in between transactions as you can. Meaning, don't send coins from an exchanger directly to SR. Either use a wallet on your PC and dump it right after (the transactions and coins are traceable, but not associated with individual IP addresses) or use various online wallets like instawallet.

What you want is "plausible deniability". And the longer your initial coins purchase floats around out there and gets tumbled around the better.
+1
Send the money to an instawallet, then send it around a few times with different instawallets before you finally deposit it in your SR account.