Could one use a locally installed wallet instead of a web-based wallet? oO In fact, I'm still a bit confused about the actual transaction process; when converting through ShapeShift for example, does your wallet need to be open at the moment of transaction? (I'm guessing not; as it should find the transaction on the blockstream itself?) Someone correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding ?
The easiest way to buy monero
Gingeropolous posted this 9 years ago
http://imgur.com/a/ElVrq
How to obtain monero
This is a guide to obtain your own Monero as of 20150919. This is perhaps the easiest way to purchase and hold Monero.
Step 1: Buy bitcoin
There are many ways to buy bitcoin. Perhaps the easiest way is through circle.com. Once you have purchased some bitcoin, you are ready to buy some Monero! Buying bitcoin is straightforward. Please goto circle.com and just follow the instuctions there.
Step 2: Set up a mymonero.com account
MyMonero.com is an online wallet for Monero, maintained by Monero Core Developer Riccardo Spagni (fluffpony). It is the easiest wallet to use. Simply goto MyMonero.com and click on the "Create an Account" button.
After clicking the button, you will see your private key. This key is what gives you access to your funds. Never share this key with anyone!
WRITE DOWN THIS KEY IMMEDIATELY!
Type in your private key in the box below, and click the button.
On the next page, you will see your address.
Copy your address to the clipboard by highlighting the whole thing and hitting ctrl+c (or edit menu, copy), or clicking the little icon next to your address. Save your address somewhere. This is how others will send Monero to you, and what you will use to deposit Monero into your account!
Step 3: Buy monero and transfer the monero to your new address
Go to www.shapeshift.io . On the righthand side, of the screen, click icon under "Receive" to select Monero.
Paste your address into the field under the Monero logo. Select the "agree to terms" button, then hit "Start"
In the new screen that pops up, copy the Deposit Address into your clipboard (select and hit ctrl+c or edit-copy)
Go back to your circle.com page, hit the "transfer" button, and paste the bitcoin address into the field Enter the amount of bitcoin you would like to spend.
You will get a text message verificaiton code. Enter code and hit send.
You will see the shapeshift change to "awaiting exchange"
Then it will change to COMPLETE!
After a while you will see it in your Monero account
Circle no longer provides a service to purchase Bitcoin so here's what I know as the current easiest method;
1) Buy Bitcoin at Coinbase.com.
2) Download the paper wallet generator at: https://moneroaddress.org and copy it to a USB stick. Run the paper wallet generator on an air-gapped computer that hasn't been used before or has had a clean installation of the OS. Backup and encrypt the paper wallet on multiple USB sticks, or print it, and store them safely in multiple locations. If you lose access to your paper wallet the funds will not be available to you and you wont be able to recover them.
3) Use Shapeshift.io to convert your Bitcoin into Monero. You will need the Public Address from your Monero paper wallet and a receive address from Coinbase.com (for refunds in case theres a problem with the Shapeshift transaction).
Shapeshift.io will generate a trade where you send a specific amount of bitcoin from Coinbase to a Bitcoin address they control. Shapeshift will then then send Monero to your paper wallet.
You now have a Monero paper wallet with funds in it.
To verify the funds are actually in your Monero cold wallet without making them hot, takes a lot of work and is a relatively complex process. I wont go into it here, except to describe how to load the cold wallet funds into a hot wallet as follows:
An easy way to use the funds from the paper wallet is via the Monero GUI client. If you already have a wallet open, go to Settings->Advanced and click "Close Wallet". Choose your Language and then pick the "Restore wallet from 25 word mnemonic seed" option. Enter the 25 word seed when prompted AND also enter a Restore Height of "1260000".
Notes: If you dont enter a restore height the Monero client will spend hours or days scanning the entire blockchain to find your cold wallet transactions and hence allow you to spend your Monero. The "restore height" pof 1260000 skips scanning the first 1.26 million blocks of the Monero blockchain, which as of now, have already been generated -- your paper wallet transactions will come after those blocks so there's no point scanning them all.
Once they are in a hot wallet, that means they are (more) vulnerable to being stolen or accidently spent, etc.
This guide is pretty outdated. There have since been new developments where you don't need to go through bitcoin anymore to buy Monero.
The easiest way to buy Monero now is:
- Go to LocalMonero
- Register (no email required)
- Find a trader for your desired payment method
- Complete the trade
- Withdraw from LocalMonero
Faster and easier than the method described in this guide.
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