Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Euclid235 on July 11, 2013, 03:15 am
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Hello.
I would appreciate the time and energy of those experienced (and inexperienced) in a matter I hold dear;
the successful and safe use of SR. Paranoia is one of my greatest flaws, yet I would attribute it to a strength within this environment.
My first tasks to master are: the encryption protocol, the BTC market as well as its behavior/acquisition, and red flags involved during trade.
However, any more items of research would be much appreciated.
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Oh, you mean mastery OVER ineptitude. I thought you meant, using ineptitude as a tool to achieve mastery. :) It can be done; Blake said, "a fool who persists in his folly soon becomes wise." I think your way is better.
With respect to encryption, to get down to specifics, we need to know what platform you're using, and if you might be interested in trying Linux.
There are a bunch of places to learn about encryption, but the basic procedure is, people will give you their encryption key. They don't give anybody their decryption key, and their attitude is, they don't mind anybody sending them an encrypted message, as long as they are the only ones who can decrypt it.
So you will need software to import and keep track of keys for all the people you correspond with, encrypt messages you send out, and decrypt messages you get back. Windows, Linux, Mac all have different products and options.
The drill to send an encrypted message:
1. Write a note in word processing or text editor, save it as a plain text file.
2. Use your encryption software to encrypt that file using the recipient's key
3. Copy and paste the result to either a web page or an email or what have you.
Check out Tails linux. It's a pretty nifty application, cheap (can't beat free, I guess) and takes a lot of the headaches out of setting up a pretty durn secure system. Spend a couple hours reading all the stuff on there website, you will learn a lot and it's clearly written.
Tails also deals with the other whole angle on ecryption, namely how to cover your tracks and keep your data secure. That topic gets real complicated real fast. Look up TrueCrypt, their documentation is very illuminating. (You can look at TrueCrypt and Tails as two different options, which isn't precisely true but it's a good way to organize your thinking for now.)
Also look up how to do secure passwords you can remember, either here or Google.
There's all kinds of cool stuff in the security forum, sometimes you have to search for the tutorials but there are some good ones in there.
Paranoid is good. You need to completely separate the Tor world from the default world. You should have a complete Tor identity, with user names and passwords and email accounts you've never used before and never accessed without Tor. Once you have Tor set up, don't ever use it to access web sites you frequent without it, and don't ever access this website without it. For example, before you start googling up all that homework I gave you, decide now if you're going to use Tor or not, and then don't ever cross those boundaries.
Setting up my SR identity has been a great learning experience, in fact SR is a great experience even if you're just visiting and not buying. Buying contraband is scary and more than a little frustrating; joining the SR community is fun. I would say you have a good 40 hours of reading and computer work ahead of you before you're ready to order. Make the most of it, it's dorktastic stuff.
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Good info.
Also make sure things like your usernames and any information you give out (aside from shipping info direct to Vendor) don't point back to you in any way.
There subreddit's dedicated to bitcoin and SR are super helpful too.
Green Inc
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Oh, you mean mastery OVER ineptitude. I thought you meant, using ineptitude as a tool to achieve mastery. :) It can be done; Blake said, "a fool who persists in his folly soon becomes wise." I think your way is better.
I['d] +1 this. Oh, if only I could. In time! In time.
... Sorry, am I spamming? :(