Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: MedGuad on November 22, 2011, 06:51 pm

Title: From TradeHill to Bitcoins to Purchasing -- Need help
Post by: MedGuad on November 22, 2011, 06:51 pm
I'm so sorry for posting this as it is very noobish, and with all the tutorialss out there this shouldn't be a problem but here goes:

I've been browsing silkroad for a month now.  I was finally able to get some funds into a Dwolla account, and then to TradeHill.  So I'm ready to buy bitcoins and make a purchase on SilkRoad (right?).

So what exactly is my next step?  I've been reading up on PGP encryption but there seems to be really easy ways to do it, and really hard ways, all using different apps.  Also when I'm ready to buy can I just send a PGP message to the seller or do I buy through silkroad?  This is the most confusing part for me :(  I'm also ready to buy bitcoins, but I dont' want to until I'm ready to order.

Thanks for any help! Again I hate to be such a noob about it but I want to make sure I do this right considering how much time I have put into moving cash into TradeHill.  I am ready to buy though!
Title: Re: From TradeHill to Bitcoins to Purchasing -- Need help
Post by: Sobchak on November 22, 2011, 07:51 pm
I'm pretty new here too, but here's what I did before making my first purchase. Did some research on reputable vendors here on the forum and read through seller profiles and feedback on the main site. Checked if they sold to new buyers or had any special instructions like only allowing small orders or finalizing early (which I'd avoid, but there's a lot of debate on the practice here). Once I found one that I liked, I just placed an order and included my PGP encrypted shipping address. A lot of sellers encourage contacting them if you have any questions, but it might take some time to get a reply depending on how much business they do. I placed my first order a week ago and my seller was helpful with my questions and I should be getting it any day now. I plan on making smaller buys to build up some SR rep.

You should move your BTC a few hours before you intend on making a purchase since it takes some time to transfer.

As far as getting your PGP setup, I used this guide which is simple and took me no longer than 5 minutes.
http://p3lr4cdm3pv4plyj.onion/guides/shepj.html

Hope this helps and gets you on your way. :)