Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: BritishSovereign on February 02, 2013, 05:21 pm

Title: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: BritishSovereign on February 02, 2013, 05:21 pm
I've seen a fair few topics in recent weeks (I've been stalking a while  ::) ) on my fellow Brits struggling to obtain bitcoins and some of you either don't understand the guide posted on the SR forum elsewhere, or have simply not seen it as you haven't read the topics, so I'm going to post this as it is pretty straightforward.

NB: This isn't a conclusive guide, and there are more anonymous ways to obtain bitcoins, but for the smaller purchasers (less than say £5,000 per year), it should do fine for you. This might work in other countries, but do your own research and understand what you're doing before going off on a tangent.



Step 1: Converting GBP to BTC

Fairly simple. I'd recommend avoiding MtGox as they're a centralised unit which are easy to manipulate and also quite probably watched by LEA due to the quantity of bitcoins they're pushing. My preferred place to obtain bitcoins is LocalBitcoins (https://localbitcoins.com). If your bank uses the FasterPayments system, your payment to another UK bank account should take at the very most 1  hour assuming you enter the details correct, with all of my payments so far taking less than 15 minutes.

Find a trader with a fair price, sometimes this may be +2/3% than MtGox weighted average, but usually you get hassle free service, no questions asked and with most of them, awesome customer service who are pretty flexible. Arrange to pay them via Bank Transfer which most of them accept and if you have online banking, this should be very straightforward to do. If you're struggling thus far to understand, I'm not sure how I can better explain this but bank transfers are pretty simple.

Once the cash has reached their account, then you should receive the bitcoins into your localbitcoins wallet, which is where the next stage will take over from.



Step 2: Covering your tracks

Ok, so we know bitcoin is pretty good in terms of anonymity, but let's not forget all transactions are visible for public view, and therefore LEA can view it too. Therefore, to ensure the link between your localbitcoins wallet and your SilkRoad wallet is difficult to identify (since it's not possible to achieve 100% certainty), we use a bitcoin mixing service known as BitcoinFog (http://fogcore5n3ov3tui.onion). They will take a 1-3% fee on all transactions but are damn simple to get to grips with.

Register an account with BitcoinFog and log into your account, which is where you'll be greeted with a welcome page. Reading it is optional, but I'd recommend reading everything you come across for the simple purpose of education in bitcoin and understanding your tools of business, as I'm sure you wouldn't expect a builder to use bricks if he didn't know how strong they were. To get to the page you need, go to the "Deposit" page, the link for which can be found in the top right of the screen, and once on the page, hit the "Get New Address" button at the bottom to generate your bitcoin address.

Now, head back to your localbitcoins account and click on "Wallet", which will present a page to you asking for an address and amount to send. Again, this is straightforward, enter the bitcoin address from BitcoinFog into the box and how many bitcoins you want to send, then hit send.

It may take some time, I generally find it takes no longer than 45 minutes, but the bitcoins will appear in your BitcoinFog wallet. You can now destroy the bitcoin address you just used by hitting the red X to the left of it on the deposit page, ensuring you use a fresh wallet each time (although this serves little purpose, I just like to think it's an extra layer of confusion any would-be investigator has to work through).

To withdraw the bitcoins in your account now, head over to the withdrawal page on BitcoinFog, again the link is to the top right of the page. The first box is asking for the total amount you wish to withdraw, again, pretty simple stuff, fill that in with how much you want to withdraw. The second box is the addresses you want to withdraw to. Now, if you're only buying small amounts, just head to your SilkRoad account page (http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/account) and get your bitcoin address from there. For extra security, you can add additional addresses and transfer the bitcoins into those disposable wallets before forwarding them onto your SilkRoad wallet, I'd recommend using EasyWallet (https://easywallet.org) through Tor for this.

NOTE: EasyWallets do not require an account and to access the wallet you only need that wallet's URL, therefore it is not safe to store bitcoins on these wallets long term or place a significant amount of cash in a single wallet, I place no more than £100 worth of bitcoins in any wallet which can be accessed online. Remember to write down the URL's to access these wallets later to forward the funds onto your SilkRoad wallet.

Timespan/Delay: Typically I set the delay to just over 6 hours after you'll log off from using Tor or the Internet in general. The only reason for this is that if I was in court and the evidence against me was bitcoin transfers at the time I could be seen online via Facebook or Skype for example at a reasonable hour (say 6pm), it's more likely to go against me than say a transaction at 1am, hours after my last online appearance. It's again, just another little niggle any potential adversary would have to unwind. As for timespan, if you need your bitcoins quickly or don't want to risk bitcoin price fluctuations, then you can set it as 6 hours, but if you have multiple bitcoin addresses and not in a rush, then 12-36 hours is a pretty safe bet.


Step 3: Waiting Time

So yeah, this is pretty much a game of waiting for the remainder of your bitcoins to trickle through to your SilkRoad account, depending on how long you've set the delay and timespan to distribute the coins over. Remember if any bitcoins are missing, to check the disposable addresses you've been using as BitcoinFog splits the transfers into many smaller payments. Once you've got the amount you ordered, delete the disposable addresses and make fresh ones for your next transfer.



Review:

LocalBitcoins ---> Bitcoin Fog ---> EasyWallet (optional) ---> SilkRoad Wallet
Total Time: 8 hours (Short) to 40 hours (Long)
Total Fees: Between 1.00-3.50%


Assumptions:

All the above security does assume BitcoinFog is not controlled by LEA. Whilst it won't totally compromise your security if they were, it begins to rack the odds against you. Of course, you're not really a big fish in their pond if they could control BitcoinFog as myself and others have used it for much bigger transactions for more sinister purposes, but it is something you need to be aware of. A threat which is possible, even if BitcoinFog is uncompromised is statistical analysis, which is where LEA monitor all bitcoin transactions and attempt to determine the path of bitcoins based on the time and size of individual transactions and how they link together (as a very untechnical explanation). However, if they had the capability do to this quickly amongst the sea of bitcoin transactions at the moment, I don't think SilkRoad vendors and buyers would last too long.


Feedback

I love constructive feedback so if you spot anything in this simplified guide, then let me know! This isn't intended to answer every question, but to give users who are new to bitcoin a stepping platform to work towards better security and of course should be accompanied by the use of PGP encryption, due diligence on vendors/products and of course, having your wits about you at all times.

~BritishSovereign
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: plus5 on July 02, 2013, 04:27 pm
I know this is an old post, but thanks for the guide Mr Sov
It's well written and I think it's rude of no one else to say so !
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: semolinaz on August 09, 2013, 05:17 pm
thanks, this has helped me piece things together more clearly :)
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: R90 on August 09, 2013, 11:23 pm
good plan. wish i'd found more of these when i needed them??! there def need to be more 'guides' collected in one place, rather than having to search all over for them - country specific ones are particularly helpful. it's such an ever changing thing it's impossible to get it all & keep up to date but props to all who try.

I would add (and most of this is stupidly painfully obvious to most but easy to get wrong if you don't know) -

-don't use your real info / e-mail etc on localbitcoins, use an anonymous e-mail not linked to you etc. otherwise you just defeated the point of anonymity. that probably is obvious.

-you've read a million forum posts. you're still confused. sometimes doing is learning. why not start out buying a low amount to 'train' yourself on this process with. this will help build your stats on localbitcoins and open up your options too - new buyers are fairly limited in what / who they can deal with, as the site seems to have a lot of scammers.

-different & very strong passwords for all accounts, wallets etc. BACK UP somewhere safe!!! if you lose your wallet information, it's tough cheese. your computer crashes - all your passwords are on it... your btc are gone for ever.

-always look for btc vendors on localbitcoins with very sound feedback, high numbers of customers and read back FURTHER than their first feedback page on localbitcoins - read as much feedback as you can. had i read more i would have learned that my chosen 'quick' vendor could be a bit slow from time to time. something i learned after i placed the order!

-for true anonymity meet your vendor in person, avoid the bank transfer. research this process in full before attempting. there are protections in place for both transaction methods on localbitcoins - the escrow for a bank transfer is probably stronger than the code system for meeting in person, but there is slightly less anonymity. the joy of watching your btc pitch up in your wallet without having left your bed is pretty intense.

-doing the bank transfer option on localbitcoins: choose your vendor (make sure to check how much escrow they will give you and how much they will trade to buyers with no stats), write in how many GBP you want to exchange, hit trade button. you'll see an invoice asking you to make your online bank transfer, do that via your bank and then confirm 'payment made' on localbitcoins. when the vendor sees the payment arrive in his account, he'll release the btc to you - make sure you choose a vendor offering full escrow for your amount.

-if the money doesn't come through in the time you expect it to, don't panic. don't start firing messages off chasing your vendor. they have a life too. probably. patience is a virtue through this whole process, it is quite slow. if the vendor sends you messages, you'll get an e-mail alert (something I didn't notice immediately).

-leave feedback for your vendor, especially if they have done you well. you're doing them and others a favour. they should also leave feedback for you.

-never assume your btc are safe online. research every service / wallet / vendor etc you use. a perfectly respectable site can change, or be a clever scam, or shut down taking your coins with it. don't leave them too long in services like localbitcoins or even bitfog.

-don't leave masses of btc in your SR account, just in case - sr could go down, u cud get phished etc etc. put in what you need. make sure you get the silk road back up links saved in case the site is put out of action again.

-keep learning. just when you think you've got it figured out, you'll probably find out you haven't. 

i hope that all sounds semi-sensible. correct me if wrong.

localbitcoins has made btc in the uk a damn sight easier than they were i think. long may it continue.

now, lets watch this sink slowly back to the bottom of the forum while everyone (myself included) spams their way to 50!
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: whocouldthisbe on August 11, 2013, 10:18 pm
Excellent, thank you :) I'd whittled the list of eWallets down to EasyWallet, but hadn't heard of BitcoinFog before. I had hoped to achieve a similar effect by routing through EasyWallet several times, but this should be quicker and more secure. Thanks a bunch! :)
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: nodialtone on August 11, 2013, 11:20 pm
I highly recommend localbitcoins.com, which seems to have plenty of people selling bitcoins in the UK.
Title: Re: Obtaining Bitcoins in the UK - Brief Overview
Post by: noshah on August 11, 2013, 11:44 pm
I use Bittylicious to buy my BTC check it out!

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https://bittylicious.com/