Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Axions on January 28, 2013, 06:20 pm
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Hi All,
I'm brand new here and have a couple of questions that, if you have time, I'd like answered to achieve the safest possible experience - if my questions are stupid, please be constructive if possible. Before I go any further, if there are any questions that have been answered in previous threads which you know of, please post the link instead of rehashing old information - your time is valuable. I thank you in advance for your help.
1. What is the safest way for vendors and buyers to communicate? Is there any special software or Tor service that I should look into? If you could provide links too tutorials/downloads they'd be appreciated. tl;dr How do I effectively protect my anonymity here.
2. Bitcoins are a new concept to me and I've read that scams are rife. Can anyone recommend a reliable source or online service?
3. Is there any value in only using public wifi access points; if not, why not?
4. I'm interested in becoming a vendor here, having access to great natural mescaline, Diazepam and Zolpidem; are there any prerequisites to becoming a vendor? If there are what are they and how should I go about becoming meeting the criteria? If there aren't where should I look for vendor sign-up?
5. I understand how an escrow system works, but I'd like to know how it's implemented on SR. Are funds held by SR or a third party?
6. What's the safest way to receive a package? Should I use my real name and have it delivered to a friend's address, use any specific shipping options, or use pseudonyms delivered to my address?
7. If you have any advice that I have not specifically covered, please let me know.
Again,thank you for your help,
Axions
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C'mon, where else will I find this information?
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browse the forum ... dont be that lazy!
then come back with more concrete questions maybe ...
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Hi Sachi,
It's not a question of being lazy, it's a question of the speed of my connection. It's taking up to 10 minutes to load a page. If someone could point me in a general direction to find the relevant answers for myself I have no problem waiting for the load and doing the reading.
Thanks for the reply.
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Hi Axions, those are understandable questions. Although i only know two of them(im a newbie too)
1. The safest way to communicate is a thing called PGP. That is all i know, ive never used it before. Just search PGp
2. The way i used to get Bitcoins is with this guide http://www.scribd.com/doc/110005258/Buy-Bitcoin-via-Paypal-Paysafecard-Credit-Card-Ukash
The actual site name is virwox.com
the guides a bit comfusing as first. It just takes reading over and over again.( i used the paypal method and it worked fine. remember though that when you send the bitcoins to your SR address
it will take a while to tranfer. It took me 2 days. So dont be worried.)
6. Now, is it safer to send to your house or your friends? On my first purchase which was about 3 days ago. I had it sent to my address with my name to ensure that the package would
actually make it. I dont see the logic of sending it to a friends house because in a scenario that your package is compromised, your friend will just get caught instead and that doesn't fix anything.
Be as specific as you like. remember the more info you put, the higher chance your package will make it.
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Props danoobofmanmilk,
Your advice and links have helped a lot. I seriously appreciate the time and effort you've taken to reply.
It would be great to get a little direction from more experienced users too, but I'm slowly getting there in the forums. Perhaps an FAQ sticky in the Newbie discussion forum would be a handy time/frustration saver?
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when you get the 50 post you will be able to find all the info you need
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when you get the 50 post you will be able to find all the info you need
It seems counter productive to restrict access to information based on my number of posts. This course to action leaves me with very limited options for posting - I can either spam the hell out of the board to reach a post count; bleat wildly into the dark gleaning answers from people with a similar knowledge level to my own, or engage in banal topics which are more social than productive.
It makes sense to introduce an FAQ sticky, worded in language that is understood easily understood by newbies, that either answers questions or directs people to threads where these questions have already been answered.
To illustrate the point, I had no idea what PGP was and so missed the value of the PGP sticky. Now that I know that it's what you use to communicate securely, I'm doing my homework and figuring it out. I hope to send my first encrypted message shortly. :)
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Browse security/ shipping categories and you ll find plenty info there.
3) No need, tor is enough for anonymity.
4) If you really have natural mescaline you can make a killing here. There is however a fee for vendors at $500. If you are serious about it the profits will be much higher.
5) When you order something, the whole amount of btc goes to SR, they hold those coins until you hit "finalize" on your order. Then the coins to go the vendor minus the fees.
7) Be patient and study the forums, use the search function , especially before buying, search the vendor's page for reviews on the forums. Don't rely 100% on the feedback of the marketplace.
when you get the 50 post you will be able to find all the info you need
I think you can browse every section with less than 50 posts, you just can't post there.
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1. The SR message system is secure enough, but for sending your address during checkout, you should encrypt your message using the seller's PGP key, which is found in their profile. An online PGP solution can be found here.. https://www.igolder.com/PGP/ ..and is pretty self-explanitory once you're there.
2. mtgox is reliable and genuine, many people use this. Personally, I use blockchain, because I am from the uk, and Bitcoin purchasing options are a bit more limited for UK people.
3. I wouldn't have thought so. You are secure on your home network. Going to a wifi point for every order, is slight over-kill in my opinion.
4. There is a "become a vendor" button within your SR profile. I forget exactly where, but it's there. It gives detailed advice on what's required, how to go about it, fees, etc..
5. I don't know the answer to this question.
6. Most people recommend either using a different name, but at your current address OR using a drop (friend's house, other property etc). Personally, a drop isn't an option for me, so I just use a fake name at my real address. If you're getting domestic orders, customs won't be an issue (uk at least), but by using SR you have to accept that there is *some* small risk to you. A service such as this can never be 100% safe, in my opinion.
7. If you're UK based, you can search my posts for a ten step buying guide.
The only other advice I can give is,
a) research well but don't overthink.
b) check out seller's feedback and conditions.
c) never complete transactions outside of SR.
d) ask questions! Most people will be more than happy to help.
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You will need to get a pgp program to communicate with vendors/buyers on sr. PGP4usb, pgp4win, are 2 that I'm familiar with for Windows. Pgp4win is the one I've been using, but I've heard that pgp4usb is better. Get one set up, and read read read the instructions. In a nutshell, you create a certificate which produces a keypair ie. one pblic key and one private key. Share your public keys so people will be able to "lock" messages to you. Use the corresponding private key to "unlock" and read your message. Check out http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=107219.0 for the Newbie PGP club where people are practicing the fine art of encrypting yo shit. For me the trickiest part is making sure I don't let slip any details that could identify meat-me over tor or through my pgp. For example, don't make a public key with your gmail or hotmail address and then post it on here (if you don't know why, then read read read before you try vending!!!)....shit like that. Tormail seems really safe because you can't accidentally login from the clearweb... Also my pgp program doesn't require a real email address to create a keypair, although if you're planning to vend you may want to use a real email address in your certificates so that your custys can find you if sr ever goes down.
Check out the bitcoin forums for more info on bitcoins. You can go there over clearweb so it'll probably work faster for you...
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oh yea that's right my bad you can browse but not post. I thought people with veteran forum stats could not post here
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"a) research well" I WIN!!!!
" but don't overthink." I FAIL!!!
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"a) research well" I WIN!!!!
" but don't overthink." I FAIL!!!
lol. There comes a point when you just have to say; "fuckit" and give it a go. ♬
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Thanks for all of the valuable advice coming in, PathSeeker, android465764E and acider. Thanks for clarifying, Mike Hunt.
If PGP is used how safe is a service like hushmail? I'm based in S.Africa and our connections are not the greatest in the world. So being able to use a front facing web service would save me a lot of time. Tor is ridiculously slow here.
I tend to er on the side of caution and there's still a ton to learn here, before I'll be comfortable enough to start trading.
Thanks again, Great community here.
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Use bitinstant/mtgox for BTC (assuming you're in the U.S.)
Learn PGP
Use your real name and address unless you can convince someone to let you check their mail for them every day, like I've done in the past. Don't use a fake name with a real address, ever. Chances are too high that your package will be returned to sender, at which point it's probably lost and you're probably not getting a refund.
Escrow system is run by SR, money in escrow is held by SR, and you should always use the escrow system, even when you're new to the site. There are enough new vendors/trusting vendors that you can almost always find what you're looking for from a vendor who won't require you to FE. Don't finalize early, ever.
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Thanks for all of the valuable advice coming in, PathSeeker, android465764E and acider. Thanks for clarifying, Mike Hunt.
If PGP is used how safe is a service like hushmail? I'm based in S.Africa and our connections are not the greatest in the world. So being able to use a front facing web service would save me a lot of time. Tor is ridiculously slow here.
I tend to er on the side of caution and there's still a ton to learn here, before I'll be comfortable enough to start trading.
Thanks again, Great community here.
Any info encrypted with gpg is safe regardless of the service you send them over. But what are you planning to do with hushmail ? And what do you mean front facing web service? You can't avoid tor if you want to use SR. And unfortunately it's very slow by nature, sometimes a better circuit makes a difference, open vidalia control panel and hit use a new identity if you can't access any page for a while.
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I just remembered this guy, he's selling btc to S.Africans. I ve bought weed from him and I recommend him.
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/silkroad/item/d76597e545
Have in mind buying btc here is very risky, you can easily get scammed. Just an option if you can't find any other way.
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Don't use a fake name with a real address, ever. Chances are too high that your package will be returned to sender, at which point it's probably lost and you're probably not getting a refund.
Wow, where do you live? That's not how it works here in the UK. (Ō_o)
I've often used fake names. Never been a problem. The postman doesn't have a clue who might be living at the address, as-long as the address and postcode are correct, it's delivered.
Furthermore, in the UK, you can put whatever you want on the top line of the address.
I've sent gifts to twitter friends with names such as "The Captain Picard Appreciation Society", "Dirty Boy Santa", "Easter Bunny", "Tooth Fairy", "The Man in the Hat", "Big Gay Al" etc..
They all arrive with no questions asked.
Of course, I can't comment on postal services outside the UK. But speaking from my own experience, the name on the address makes fuck-all difference.
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Don't use a fake name with a real address, ever. Chances are too high that your package will be returned to sender, at which point it's probably lost and you're probably not getting a refund.
Wow, where do you live? That's not how it works here in the UK. (Ō_o)
I've often used fake names. Never been a problem. The postman doesn't have a clue who might be living at the address, as-long as the address and postcode are correct, it's delivered.
Furthermore, in the UK, you can put whatever you want on the top line of the address.
I've sent gifts to twitter friends with names such as "The Captain Picard Appreciation Society", "Dirty Boy Santa", "Easter Bunny", "Tooth Fairy", "The Man in the Hat", "Big Gay Al" etc..
They all arrive with no questions asked.
Of course, I can't comment on postal services outside the UK. But speaking from my own experience, the name on the address makes fuck-all difference.
Agree 100% on that.
I was reading that too often in guides when I started here and I was thinking, what the hell are these people talking about? The postman has no clue who lives in my apartment complex, and I haven't lost a package so far, and never will because of a fake name anyway.
Makes me wonder if everyone in US knows their postman personally.
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Lots of good info in here NOOBS