Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency (digital currency) and a payment system. In order to receive some basic information, kindly invest 5 minutes of your time and go through the texts on the following websites:
⦁ bitcoinsimplified.org
⦁ bitcoin.org
Crucial Tips on Bitcoin
SAVE YOUR ELECTRUM SEED: It is important for you to write it down on a paper sheet or in a text file and/or remember it. Just make sure that you do not lose the access of your electrum seed even if you lose your Tails USB stick. Then it will be possible for you to recover all your Bitcoins.
Do I have to do something to receive Bitcoins?
No. All you need to do is just send the Bitcoins to one of the addresses that you can find under the “Addresses” tab. It is absolutely not necessary to fill-up the form under the “Receive” tab.
It is mandatory to use a new Bitcoin address for each and every transaction. You can choose from multiple ones under the “Addresses” tab. You must use them because it is free to use and create new addresses. Furthermore, it strengthens your OpSec, therefore do not use one Bitcoin address more than once.
Make sure that you have enough in order to pay for the shipping. A little surplus is also okay.
How Can You Buy Bitcoins?
There are two ways in which you can obtain Bitcoins. One, you can mine it that requires investment in the appropriate hardware. Two, purchase Bitcoins in one way or the other, which most of the people using DNMs do.
It is fortunate enough that there are many different ways in which you can purchase Bitcoins. Some can be easier and more convenient while others might take a bit longer but do not involve revealing your identity. As you are going to buy some illegal items with them, it is highly advisable not to have your identity linked to the Bitcoin you bought in the very first place. This also helps to prevent you from going through the hassle of attempting to obfuscate it later on.
The below mentioned are the descriptions of various ways to buy Bitcoins. The general thumb rule is not to visit these sites with the Tor browser or a proxy that does not belong to your country. The reason behind it is that you would not want to raise suspicion as buying Bitcoin is not illegal. So why would a user need to log in using the Tor browser? However, you can use the Wi-Fi of a cafe or any other network that does not involve your identity. You can also choose the VPN server that is located in your country in order to log in to these websites. This will help you to not raise suspicion but are still anonymous as long as your identity is not revealed to the websites.
It is your call to pick what path you want to go in order to obtain Bitcoins. If you are just a personal buyer, it would still be fine if you use a non-anonymous method such as a bank wire transfer, as long as you follow the instructions mentioned in the Sending Bitcoins Chapter too.
Can I Use Fake Names And Email Addresses?
Sometimes you need to provide a real name or various other identifying data in order to create an account on the Bitcoin exchange. While buying BTC is not illegal at all but still, you do not want to make it that easy for the law enforcement to investigate you. Thus, smart enough, you should use fake or throwaway data as long as you do not break the law with that data.
As for example, it is obviously better to create and use a new email address than using your existing one in order to create an account on the exchange. At the same time, do not purchase a fake ID in order to mask your real ID. Just keep in mind that you must not use obvious fake data such as names like “John Smith”.
Methods of Buying Bitcoins
LocalBitcoins (LBC):
LocalBitcoins.com is one of the famous methods of buying Bitcoins. On this website, you will be able to find a lot of sellers and the price per bitcoin they offer. You can also grab some amazing deals 9n Bitcoins. But you need to make sure and check the rate prior to buying them and do not simply get ripped off. It is best if you choose the sellers that already bear some positive feedback in the bid of reducing the risk of you being scammed.
There are many ways which you can implement to buy Bitcoins. The easiest and the fastest ones, for example, wire transfer are pretty common and the rates are much lower. However, that often comes with a disadvantage of losing your anonymity. Other methods include meeting face to face with a seller that is tad bit more time consuming and comparatively slower but can be more anonymous.
In general, you receive your Bitcoins within a very short span of time. After that, you can move your Bitcoins From your LBC wallet to any of the other wallets of your choice. You will find more information regarding this in the following chapters.
Three of the most frequently used and more anonymous payment methods include are:
⦁ In-Person – You meet with the seller in a public place and hand them the cash while they send you the Bitcoins. Also, make sure you follow all the required steps and take precautions before indulging in a cash trade. The main task is to select a seller that has a good background. Message them all your queries and they would extend their helping hand to make you understand what to expect. They would also carry a phone and laptop and will transfer the coins on spot. Once the Bitcoins are sent, it is impossible to reverse the transaction. You can also check the transaction on the blockchain using your laptop or phone. You can even use escrow.
⦁ Bank Deposit – After you open a trade, the seller gives you their bank account information. On receiving it, you deposit cash into their account, upload the proof of transaction through deposit slip and they send you Bitcoins. Some banks would also require ID from you in order to make the cash deposit into any bank account.
⦁ Cash in the Mail – As you send cash to the seller via the mail, they send you Bitcoins.
Paxful:
Paxful.com is a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform that is quite similar to LocalBitcoins where the buyers and sellers exchange directly and that Paxful provides escrow. It is possible to purchase coins without providing the ID verification, although the rates are very high usually.
BitQuick.co:
BitQuick.co is a user-based hybrid peer-to-peer exchange where it provides escrow services between you and the trader. You can also buy directly from BitQuick. This exchange will also sell you Bitcoins up to $400 without the need for ID verification. You can also trade with one of the individual sellers who sell Bitcoins on their platform via cash deposits at bank and credit unions, Western Union Transfer or MoneyGram payment. It could be compared to LBC and Paxful but with limited payment options.
Bisq:
Bisq is available from the Bisq.network (formerly known as BitSquare.io). It is an open-source desktop application that permits you to buy and sell Bitcoins in exchange for the national currencies or the alternative currencies and also supports cash transactions. The following has been quoted from their website.
Unlike traditional online exchanges, Bisq is designed to be:
⦁ Instantly Accessible – There is absolutely no need to register or take approval from a central authority.
⦁ Decentralized – There is no single point of failure and the system is P2P while the trading cannot be stopped or censored.
⦁ Safe – Bisq never ever holds your funds while the decentralized arbitration system and security deposits protect the traders.
⦁ Private – Only the trading partners exchange the personally identifiable data and all the personal data is stored locally.
⦁ Secure – Occurrence of end-to-end encrypted communication that is routed over the Tor network.
⦁ Open – All and every aspect of the project is transparent making the code open-sourced.
⦁ Easy – Bisq takes usability pretty seriously.
Mycelium Marketplace:
The Mycelium Marketplace (formerly known as “Mycelium Local Trader”) is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading marketplace within the famous Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet that is made available on the Android devices. There is a Mycelium Wallet for iPhones as well, but the Mycelium portion of the app is not supported by Apple. All you need to do is go to the app and head to the Buy/Sell Bitcoin section and then hit Mycelium Marketplace.
You will see any local Bitcoin traders for a specific area who has posted an ad on the Mycelium Marketplace and their feedback on the previous trades. All the trades are handled through the app but you get a chance to meet the trader in person at a public place in order to make the transaction (usually settled in cash) similar to LocalBitcoins in-person trade. Mycelium is headquartered in the EU while the app is used worldwide.
LibertyX:
LibertyX.com operates the largest US-based cash-to-Bitcoin onramp network. It permits you to buy Bitcoin in-person up to $1,000 per day over 13,000 local stores having only a phone number for SMS verification. To gain more information, kindly visit their website LibertyX.com.
Bitcoin ATMs:
Some places also contain Bitcoin ATMs that can be a pretty easy and reliable method of grabbing Bitcoins. All you have to do is simply search for “Bitcoin ATM Map” or “Bitcoin ATMs near <your location>” to check if there are some in your area. If you find one, check out their limits, the kind of identifications it requires for certain amounts, exchange rates and presence of cameras. Sometimes you need to physically visit the ATMs in order to get this information. Given are a brief list of the resources for your convenience:
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-atm-map
https://CoinATMradar.com
https://BitcoinATMmap.com
https://CoinMap.org
Other Ways:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins
Bitcoin Tumbling:
Bitcoin Tumbling is an intensely debated topic where people bear varied opinions on different aspects of bitcoin tumbling. These opinions include the best methods of tumbling, whether tumbling is necessary, if so then when it is best done etc. This chapter firmly sticks to the neutral perspectives based in the facts and common sense. It restricts taking part in the opinionated discussions related to tumbling.
Kindly also keep in mind that some of the tumblers are illicit themselves as they are obviously involved in money laundering and that they operate without licenses. Therefore, it can be said that depending on the tumbler it can be illicit to use it. At this point, you may question – Why do people then still use the tumblers ic then happen to break the law by doing it although specifically, they want to hide the fact that they break the law? Well, in this case, either they do not know that the tumbling that they are involved in is illicit or they would rather get convicted of “utilizing a tumbler” instead of purchasing the illicit goods they bought.
The charges would be such as to help a criminal enterprise by paying the tumbling fee to the tumbler operators or simple money laundering. It is to be kept in mind that this is not at all applicable to each and every tumbler. Law enforcement would still have to prove that you utilized a tumbler which they would solely be able to do if they happen to know the Bitcoin addresses of that particular tumbler (by arresting the operators and analyzing the seized data).
Furthermore, you are not the only individual using the tumbler. There are many more criminals having higher profiles that do it too. Thus, a tumbler also becomes a worthwhile target for law enforcement. You may also be affected if the tumbler provides you with the “hot” Bitcoins of a criminal who is already heavily under investigation.
What is Bitcoin Tumbling?
If you are not much sure about what tumbling is, kindly take out a few moments to read the Wikipedia article about tumbling. It is necessary to understand the below-mentioned parts.
Also, keep in mind that there is not just a single method to Bitcoin Tumbling. You can also use centralized services that you use through a website interface or even those tools that you need to install on your computer. Also, another fact is that tumbling is also not 100% effective or secure. It cannot guarantee your immunity to any sort of blockchain analysis. This means that the adversaries may still be able to track your money flow in spite of the usage of a tumbler.
Do I Require To Tumble Bitcoin? When?
This is by far the most debatable question about tumbling out there. The general consensus is that you do not need to hide the origin of your Bitcoins that the tumbling aims to do if your identity is not linked to them. This indicates that if for example, you bought them in cash via an in-person deal, your identity is generally not tied to them. This example is solely based on the assumptions that you did not show your ID or similar things. Suppose you would have bought them using your bank account, your ID would have been revealed as it would have tied to the Bitcoins you have bought since you would have a record of purchase against your name.
But due to the fact that you do not need to tumble when your identity is not linked anyway to the Bitcoins, it does not mean you can send them straight to any illicit online drug market. You have to follow all the rules and guides that are described in the Sending Bitcoins chapter. Otherwise, you are pretty much vulnerable to get your Bitcoin exchange account closed or even get prosecuted.
Note: You do not have to necessarily go through every station of the described path. In case you bought them anonymously, you have to make sure that there is a minimum of one wallet between the DNM and your exchange. This means that a path such as the Bitcoin Exchange -> Electrum on Tails -> DNM would still be fine if your identity is not tied to the Bitcoins. Obviously it is better if you follow the exact path from the Sending Bitcoins chapter but you can still take a shortcut without compromising your OpSec much here in case you think it is worthwhile.
Regardless of how you bought your Bitcoins, be smart enough and do not send them directly to any DNM. So what about the cases when my identity is tied to the Bitcoins? Do I still need to tumble? The simple answer to it is, it depends. If you are a normal buyer, that is you do not buy several pounds per month, then you do not have to worry about the adversaries looking down at the blockchain and analyze the data to track you down. It simply does not fit in your threat model. However, you might worry about how to send the money to the DNMs.
Since you are purchasing illegal goods with the Bitcoins you bought, the last thing you want is anybody knowing about your purchases. You can obviously prevent that and get plausible deniability so that you can claim that you have never bought drugs with the bitcoins you bought. You can do this by following the Sending Bitcoins chapter.
If you still are eager to tumble for additional peace of mind, you are free to do so. But keep in mind that the tumbling itself can be illicit as explained above in the Foreword. But what if you are a big buyer? Then it is worthwhile to tumble your Bitcoins as you deal with a large number of illegal goods and that you want to make sure that there is absolutely no nick in your OpSec through which law enforcement could nab you. The next segment would be highly helpful if you want to learn how to tumble and what to watch out for.
How Can I Tumble Bitcoin?
When you have already decided to tumble, you need to go through this path: Bitcoin Exchange -> normal wallet (e.g. Electrum on windows) -> Tumbler -> Electrum on Tails -> DNM. This way you do not directly indulge in sending the Bitcoins you bought to a tumbler that could get you into difficulties as explained in the foreword.
Important: If you are using a centralized tumbler, visit the tumbler website on Tails, store any of the information it provides you such as some tumbling services provide you with a PGP signed message having your details for your tumbling process and write down the Bitcoin address where you are required to send the Bitcoins to. After that boot your regular OS and send the Bitcoins to that address (as you have the Bitcoins that you want to tumble in your usual wallet such as Electrum on Windows). If the tumbler offers a random time delay and/or multiple output transactions, then use them.
It is additional while free OpSec strengthening only costs you a bit of time. If you fail to choose these options, it might serve as a trivial to spot your cleaned Bitcoins. Take for example, if you send 1 BTC to a tumbler, what all an adversary has to do is just to monitor the Bitcoin transactions over the next couple of minutes and reach out for a transaction that is as huge as 1 BTC minus the tumbler fee. Now he has found out the Bitcoins that you think are ‘clean’. The smart step on this is to use a random time delay and multi-output transactions whenever offered.
What Are The Tumbling Services Present There?
The most prominent kind of tumblers are the ones that are centralized and operated by anonymous third parties. You have to trust these and believe that they can clean your Bitcoins. You can find these on the superlist. But make sure that you do not use the links directly from the random or the other sources such as the websites that you might have found through googling “tumbler onion addresses” as they usually spread the phishing links. To cross-check the links you found out from the super list, follow the instructions.
The centralized tumblers are widely adopted as they are pretty easy to use and do not require much of the user actions. Nevertheless, there are also various other anonymization methods for transacting Bitcoins, such as ConJoin. However, when using the implementations of ConJoin (that itself is not a service which you can readily use but rather is a concept of how you can anonymize the Bitcoin transactions) or the similar tumblers, make sure to research about them beforehand. Suppose one project is abandoned and has not really received any updates recently, you must stay away from it as you may not get any benefits when using it or even compromise your OpSec in conducting it.
Cross-Cryptocurrency Tumbling:
Cross-Cryptocurrency tumbling is referred to as a do-it-yourself tumbling method that involves the exchanging of cryptocurrencies into others in order to break the link. A perfect example of this would be – you purchase Bitcoins and exchange them through the shapeshift to another cryptocurrency. You could then change it back to Bitcoin again, ideally utilizing another exchange. Alternatively, if you have exchanged your BTC to Monero (XMR), you can also make a Bitcoin payment using the xmr.to.
There are various ways to switch between several cryptocurrencies and achieve a somewhat tumbling-like procedure. The goal is to make tracing your money flow harder than ever by using the multiple cryptocurrencies. While this might sound easy and secure, there are some things that you need to pay extra attention to:
⦁ The exchange rates can make it too costly and not worthwhile.
⦁ The process can take up some time and the value of the cryptocurrencies you used could probably change in that period, to either your advantage or disadvantage.
⦁ Do not just use any cryptocurrency as some would offer pretty significant benefits over others such as rigid privacy and anonymity while some others can even compromise your OpSec if you will use them.
Setting Up Your Bitcoin Wallet
Electrum 2FA:
Do not use Electrum Wallets with two-factor authentication (2FA).
You might have been thinking that using two-factor authentication is good (undeniably it is) and must be equally good for Electrum on Tails too. But the truth is, it is not. This is because it 4equires you to bring your smartphone into DNM activities and install google apps on it which isn’t what you will want for an anonymous DNM wallet.
Plus your wallet will be secure enough if you keep the seed secured. You can safely keep the seed by writing down on a piece of paper, storing it in a secret location and in a .txt file in your persistence directory etc. You should use KeePassX for your wallet password. Follow the below-mentioned steps to create a normal wallet.
Using Whonix For Electrum:
If you are using Whonix, you would need a couple of minutes to install Electrum at first. Head to the Electrum website. Since you have set NoScript to disable scripts globally, you would see a page with least content. In order to fix this, temporarily allow the scripts for https://electrum.org simply by clicking on the NoScript symbol and then clicking the entry “Temporarily Allow https://electrum.org”.
Now for the installation, look for the line of tables that begins with “Linux” under the headline “Easy Installation”. You need to copy the first command under the instruction “Install Dependencies:”. Open the Konsole using the shortcut on your desktop and then press the command right-click on mouse -> select “Paste” -> press “Enter”. At this point, it will ask you for your password. You need to enter it and then confirm it by pressing ENTER again. Then the Konsole window will display a few lines. After the bottom line of the Konsole that begins with “[email protected]:~$” again, you need to copy the second command under “Install Electrum:” and execute that as well.
When the second command is also completed, you can close the Konsole window and press the home button at the bottom left of the taskbar. In the search field, enter “Electrum”, right-click on the appearing entry and select the option “Add to Desktop”. Then head to your desktop and start Electrum using the new shortcut. After this, you would receive an installation wizard that will ask you on how you want to connect to a server. You need to select “Auto Connect” followed by clicking “Next”. In the next step, you will rename your wallet. It is recommended to only use the default name “default_wallet”. After this, you have to click next, follow the steps mentioned under setting up Electrum.
Set Up Your Electrum Wallet:
It is fortunate that Tails already comes with an installed wallet. So all you have to do is to set up. In order to do this, just click on “Applications” on the top taskbar and select the category “Internet”. After this, you have to click on the “Electrum Bitcoin Wallet” entry in the list located on the right. On receiving the warning “Persistence is disabled for Electrum”, you either have to set it up first so that you do not lose your Bitcoins.
It should now definitely start an installation wizard. In the wizard, some questions will be asked and you need to answer accordingly which are described below:
What kind of wallet are you eager to create? Are you willing to create a new seed or restore an Electrum wallet using an existing seed?
You have to choose “Standard Wallet”. You have to choose “Create a New Seed”. After this, you receive a new seed. As long as you remember the seed, you can always recover your Bitcoins using that (even if you happen to lose your password or your USB stick with Tails gets lost).
So, make sure that you either remember the seed or write it down somewhere nobody can access.
Confirm the Seed: Now you have to type in the seed you have remembered or written down somewhere.
Choose a password to encrypt your wallet keys: You must not skip this step. Choose a strong password instead using KeePassX. In case you lose the password, you can always restore your wallet with the help of the seed and set a new password. You are almost there! Now you just have to make few changes in the settings.
⦁ For this, you need to go to “Tools” -> “Preferences” and check the checkbox against “Use Dynamic Fees” and also for the one against “Enable Replace – By Fee”.
⦁ Next, you have to switch to the “Transactions” tab in the new window and check for the option “Use multiple change addresses”.
⦁ Switch back to the “Appearance” tab and switch the “Base Unit” to BTC and change the “Online Block Explorer” to blockchainbdgpzk.onion.
⦁ Next you have to change the value of “Zeros after the decimal point” to something like 5.
⦁ Last but not the least, close the dialogue box clicking on “Close” and press CTRL+A so that you get the “Addresses” tab displayed that shows you all of your Bitcoin Addresses belonging to your wallet.
You need to follow the same procedure for your normal wallet such as the Electrum on Windows but you have to skip changing the “Online Block Explorer” value. Also, you do not need to set up the normal Electrum wallet in order to connect over the Tor network as its goal is not to hide the owner’s identity, unlike the Electrum wallet on Tails. Thus, everybody will be able to know that you have withdrawn Bitcoins from an exchange to your personal Electrum wallet which is the normal one. After this you can send them to the anonymous wallet, the Electrum on Tails.
Congratulations on successfully setting up your Electrum wallet on Tails!
Important Note:
Electrum possesses a list of several servers which it will ask in order to get the balance of the addresses that belong to your wallet. Law Enforcement (LE) could very easily set up such a server in order to collect information about what and when IP addresses ask for the balance of Bitcoin addresses. Thus, Electrum is not anonymous.
Nevertheless, if you use Electrum on Tails, the law enforcement would only know which addresses belong to that wallet but not the real IP address of the owner. This is because the IP address of a Tor exit node suddenly requests the balance of, take for example 20 specific addresses and that Tails route its entire internet traffic through the Tor Network. Due to this issue, it is very important that you exactly follow all the steps in the Sending Bitcoins chapter.
Got Questions on Electrum Wallet?
Check out their FAQ, documentation and google your questions. If that does not help you anyway, you can post your questions on /r/darknetmarketsnoob.
Is Your Electrum Wallet Not Starting?
⦁ First, make sure that you still have your seed for that wallet and can access it even though your Tails USB stick would get destroyed completely.
⦁ Then right-click on the desktop, open the terminal and type in “electrum” and press enter. Check if it loads. If it doesn’t, follow the below steps:
⦁ Make sure that the “Bitcoin Client” is checked in the list of data that will be preserved between reboots. Go to Applications -> System Tools -> Configure persistent volume to see the list.
⦁ One user has reported that doing a few reboots and then leaving it alone made the Electrum window pop up at last.
⦁ Some other users have reported that after the first step (Applications -> System Tools -> Configure persistent volume), they unchecked the Electrum option. Then they rebooted and checked the option again. To finish the process, they rebooted again and tested if the Electrum opens.
⦁ Reboot Tails and try to delete the “electrum” folder in the directory /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/. This is because it could be that the Electrum files are corrupted. Then you have to restart the Tails and see if you can open Electrum again. If you can , you will have to restore your old wallet from your seed. If this does not work, go to your /home/amnesia/ directory and then press CTRL+h, rename the folder to .electrum.bak. Finally, restart and check if Electrum opens.
How To Send Bitcoins?
This particular chapter deals in sending your Bitcoins from the exact source you got them (a Bitcoin Exchange) to a DNM, which is its final destination. Unfortunate enough, it is not that easy as sending them straight to the market deposit address. This is due to the fact that the exchanges have banned and flagged accounts in the past that already did that.
The Path of Electrum Wallet
Note: It has been described earlier that if you use Electrum, an attacker can check on which addresses belong to which wallet and which are the IP addresses that regularly keep up on these addresses.
Usually, the path you should send your Bitcoins is Bitcoin Exchange -> Normal Wallet (e.g. Electrum on Windows) -> Electrum on Tails -> DNM.
Also, note that the normal wallet and the Electrum wallet on Tails have to be separate wallets. So, you have to do the setup process as described previously twice – once for your normal wallet and next for your Electrum Wallet on Tails.
Did you buy your BTC completely anonymously?
If you have bought your BTC completely anonymously (as for example, on a BTC ATM that is devoid of cameras and requires no phone numbers), you must go:
Source (BTC ATM) -> Electrum Wallet on Tails -> Market
Otherwise, you would just reveal information unnecessarily with the ‘normal wallet’ in the default BTC sending path as described above. If you want to be extra cautious about it, you can go through this path:
Source (BTC ATM) -> Electrum Wallet #1 on Tails -> Electrum Wallet #2 on Tails -> Market.
In order to set up your normal wallet (“Electrum on Windows” in this case), just go to the Electrum website, download it and follow the instructions set out in the previous chapter to set up a new wallet.
This process is also included to add plausible deniability. You can always say that you have withdrawn the Bitcoins from the exchanges to your own wallet, i.e., the normal wallet. Then you sold them to any “anonymous stranger”, the one who owns the Electrum wallet on Tails, who then transferred them to the market. That way you do not at all incriminate yourself and have some plausible deniability.
On the contrary, if you would have gone to Exchange -> Electrum on Tails -> DNM, then it would have been obvious that you are the one who has sent the Bitcoins to the DNM. In this scenario, it has been assumed that the DNM deposit address is known. This is because no one would give the DNM deposit address to the Bitcoin (BTC) seller when purchasing the Bitcoins. This refers to that if you still claim that you have sold the Bitcoins to someone else after withdrawing them from the exchange to the Electrum wallet on Tails, the new buyer would have given you his deposition address of DNM. This is totally unlikely as you usually do not give out DNM deposit addresses when purchasing the Bitcoins, but rather one that just belongs to one of your wallets. Thus, nobody will buy that you sold the Bitcoins to a stranger which damages your plausible deniability.
With the recommended path, you can claim that someone else has sent the Bitcoins to a DNM and that the exchange will not ban your account as you did not send them to a DNM directly.
Note: Some darknet markets have a minimum limit of Bitcoins that you have to send for a deposit. Make sure to meet that requirement or else you could lose your money!
I have not sent my Bitcoins that way earlier, did I still mess up?
Probably you would be fine. But ensure you go through the path already mentioned above for every DNM deposit that you are about to make in the future. Also, you do not have to delete your DNM account or Bitcoin Exchange account. You need to have a great hold on the updated OpSec and practice accordingly.
Sending Bitcoins with Electrum Wallet
The Process:
In order to send Bitcoins from your Ethereum wallet to an address, just head to the “Send” tab and enter the destination Bitcoin address in the ” Pay to” section. When you are sending the Bitcoins make sure that you use the transaction fee that is dynamically created by Electrum. It is by default that it will get confirmed within 5 blocks. This means that you have to put the slider under the amount field in the middle. If you are anyway sending the Bitcoins from the usual wallet, you should have to get a receiving address from your Electrum wallet on the Tails at first. To do that, you need to go to the “Addresses” tab in your Electrum wallet on Tails and write down the value of one of the Bitcoin addresses that has been listed under “Receiving”.
Note: You can also double click on the space on the right of the address in order to change the label of the address. It is recommended that you label it as “Used <current date>”, so you know that you have already used it and do not reuse it.
After this, boot your usual OS again and start Electrum again. Now you can visit the “Send” tab again and send the Bitcoins to your Electrum wallet’s address on Tails. When you have received the Bitcoins on your Electrum wallet on Tails, you can repeat the same send process. But this time send them to the deposit wallet address that you have received from the market.
Manually Set The Fee:
You can also manually set the fee to ensure that the transaction (in short: tx) does not take too long to get confirmed. Utilizing the dynamic fee as described above is usually the best way to proceed. Follow the below-mentioned steps if you want to set the fee manually:
⦁ Visit bitcoinfees.21.co and allow JavaScript for “https://bitcoinfees.21.co” and scroll down to the bottom of the graphs. You would spot a sentence such as “The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 390 satoshis/byte”.
⦁ Open the Electrum and go to tools -> Preferences and uncheck the box against “Use dynamic fees” option. After this, you can set the transaction fee per kilobyte (kb) in the BTC/kB. If you see mBTC/kB, you have to switch to the “Appearance” tab and select “BTC” as the base unit from the dropdown menu.
⦁ Next, you have to change the value of the transaction fee per kb such as: If the recommended fee from the website is 390 satoshis/byte, set the fee to 0.0039 BTC/kB. This means that you have to append three zeros to the satoshis/byte value and as well as a point after the zero on the distant left. In case the website would have recommended 280 satoshis/byte instead, you have to set the fee to 0.0028 BTC/kB in the Electrum.
⦁ You are all set! Just click on the “Close” button.
Transaction Confirmation Issues
Transactions are not getting confirmed:
Bitcoin transactions get “confirmed” when the miners accept to write them in the Bitcoin blockchain. Generally, the confirmation speed depends on the fee you have attached to your transaction as miners prioritize transactions that pay the highest fees.
The alternative reason could be that the Bitcoin network is overloaded at that moment. What happens is sometimes a lot of unconfirmed transactions stack up, could be tens of thousands that you can spot in a specific .onion link. This needs to be processed that consumes some time, possibly several hours or even over a day. Same goes for your transaction as well. However, for the time being, you have to be patient and wait until done. Heading to /r/DarknetMarketsNoobs and posting about it would not be of any help, neither will your transaction get confirmed faster.
What you can do meanwhile is to check if the destination address of the transaction is correct, because if not you have to wait forever to get your Bitcoins delivered. Make sure that you use the transaction fee that has been dynamically created by the Electrum next time.
If you still want to know some other alternatives to speed up your transactions, below is the jam:
⦁ You can simply increase the transaction fee in the Electrum which is solely possible for the “replaceable” transactions. In order to create this type of transaction, you must possess an enabled “Replace by Fee” in your preferences, before you conduct the transaction. If it takes too long till this transaction gets confirmed, you can right-click on the transaction and upgrade the fee to make it get confirmed faster. This only works if you have not spent the full Bitcoin amount present in the wallet.
⦁ If you have sent the Bitcoins to an address that you do not control like a market, the best thing you can do is try the ViaBTC Transaction Accelerator. Although this may or may not work.
⦁ You can create a “Child pays for Parent” transaction with a generous fee. A CPFP is a new transaction that compensates for the smaller fee of the parent transaction. It can be done by the recipient of the funds, or by the sender, in case the transaction has a changed output.
All these are not that easy and eventually, you have to wait until the transaction gets confirmed.
Can I cancel a transaction that I have already made?
No. You will have to wait patiently till it gets confirmed eventually or the Bitcoin network rejects it.
Will I lose my Bitcoins in such a situation?
No, you won’t. You will just have to wait for some time until it gets confirmed or rejected.
F.A.Q. on Bitcoin Transaction
If the price of Bitcoin increases or decreases, does that indicate the listing on the Darknet Market (DNM) will become more expensive or cheaper?
The answer is not at all! The price remains the same in such conditions. Say, for example, if a vendor has a listing for $20 and the price of the Bitcoin drops, then the item will still be $20. Only the Bitcoin equivalent will change in this case. The vendor is supposed to lose money in this situation following someone’s purchase when the price of Bitcoin drops.
Is it necessary for both the Bitcoin Wallets to be online simultaneously?
Absolutely not. In order to make transactions, it is not mandatory or necessary to have both the Bitcoin wallets (the sending and receiving Bitcoin wallets) to be online. The transaction will be processed automatically but you have to make sure that you follow the tips in the following chapters.
What is Satoshi?
Currently, the Satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin currency that is recorded on the blockchain. On calculation, it is one hundred millionth of a single Bitcoin (or precisely, 0.00000001 BTC). Find more details in the guide.
