05-03-2017, 01:56 AM
Hello,
I have used BTC as payment method for years. It can be a bit confusing (and scary) at first but if you go with a prominent exchange the process is easier. Acquiring the coins or mBTC (if you divide by 1000 to more easily get your head around the purchase amount), for me, wasn't too bad. The difficulty really lay with the encryption part of the communication to the vendor, or PGP. Believe it or not, PGP simply stands for pretty good privacy. It is used by the military and is considered the gold standard.
So, once one has acquired the Bitcoin necessary for purchase, a couple of things may happen. If you are able to have first party contact with a vendor, you can directly send a BTC amount to an address they will provide to you, done through your exchange. It is easy to navigate this. However, many vendors will not communicate via email or any traceable method of contact (even encrypted exchanges such as safe-mail). They want all communication encrypted via PGP, and use a storefront or 'market' as a third-party intermediary. If you need to, for instance, provide an address, order specifications, etc., you must learn how to encrypt messages to the vendor and decrypt their responses, communicating via a messaging service that a market provides. This is very common, especially on the dark web, accessed via the TOR browser.
Now, if you use a 'market' on the dark web, you generally have to register at that place then fund an account. If you choose to do business with a vendor, you would simply transfer funds via a click from your account to that of the vendor. At that point you would have to use PGP encryption to let the vendor know where you wanted the item to be shipped. Prior to a purchase, you can use PGP encryption to ask any additional questions prior to purchase.
Shopping at a market on the dark web is akin to this: You know you want to buy an item at Bob's store, but Bob's doesn't take cash. They only take a pre-loaded secured Bob's credit card. The only way to load Bob's card is to use your cash to buy Joe's tokens. Once Joe has sold you his tokens (for cash debited from your checking account) you can use those tokens to load your Bob's card then make a purchase. Unfortunately, Bob's employees don't speak your language so you have to bring in a translator. Auugghh.
Now all this may sound terribly confusing, but if you take your time to learn and methodically go through the steps, it may work for you. It has for me, although IOP's are much simpler, and you can usually bypass the dark web. If they accept BTC in lieu of CC or WU, it really is easy. -dc
I have used BTC as payment method for years. It can be a bit confusing (and scary) at first but if you go with a prominent exchange the process is easier. Acquiring the coins or mBTC (if you divide by 1000 to more easily get your head around the purchase amount), for me, wasn't too bad. The difficulty really lay with the encryption part of the communication to the vendor, or PGP. Believe it or not, PGP simply stands for pretty good privacy. It is used by the military and is considered the gold standard.
So, once one has acquired the Bitcoin necessary for purchase, a couple of things may happen. If you are able to have first party contact with a vendor, you can directly send a BTC amount to an address they will provide to you, done through your exchange. It is easy to navigate this. However, many vendors will not communicate via email or any traceable method of contact (even encrypted exchanges such as safe-mail). They want all communication encrypted via PGP, and use a storefront or 'market' as a third-party intermediary. If you need to, for instance, provide an address, order specifications, etc., you must learn how to encrypt messages to the vendor and decrypt their responses, communicating via a messaging service that a market provides. This is very common, especially on the dark web, accessed via the TOR browser.
Now, if you use a 'market' on the dark web, you generally have to register at that place then fund an account. If you choose to do business with a vendor, you would simply transfer funds via a click from your account to that of the vendor. At that point you would have to use PGP encryption to let the vendor know where you wanted the item to be shipped. Prior to a purchase, you can use PGP encryption to ask any additional questions prior to purchase.
Shopping at a market on the dark web is akin to this: You know you want to buy an item at Bob's store, but Bob's doesn't take cash. They only take a pre-loaded secured Bob's credit card. The only way to load Bob's card is to use your cash to buy Joe's tokens. Once Joe has sold you his tokens (for cash debited from your checking account) you can use those tokens to load your Bob's card then make a purchase. Unfortunately, Bob's employees don't speak your language so you have to bring in a translator. Auugghh.
Now all this may sound terribly confusing, but if you take your time to learn and methodically go through the steps, it may work for you. It has for me, although IOP's are much simpler, and you can usually bypass the dark web. If they accept BTC in lieu of CC or WU, it really is easy. -dc