Be your own bank already...Sheesh!
There was some interest in "paper wallets" in the comments of part 1, so i wanted to follow up and show this process.
At first, everything related to bitcoin is complicated, difficult to understand, and hard to work with. I like to say that: it's a steep learning curve, but it gets easy fast. And lemme' tell you, it's worth your while to pay attention now. A little bit of facility and a small investment into your own reserve currency could yield many and fabulous returns going forward.
So here it is, a quick start guide to printing your own money:
Get on your gonkulator and go here:
It should look like this
See all those RANDOM green dots on the screen? Grab your mouse and shake it all around -- you'll see the percent counter going up and the program working... once you hit 100% your ready to roll. You should see this:
Now you can print this "wallet" off and use it as is, but this one is more like a demo wallet for clarity (public key on the left -- and PRIVATE key on the right). Click over to 'paper wallet' on screen and you should see this:
Now go and print that motherfucker!
Now get out some scissors...
How much ink & paper do you have? Print a whole stack of 'em!!!
FA'HOCKING COOL HUH!!!?
The idea with making a stack of paper wallets is that you can load them with small amounts of btc, say 0.02 or about $100, or if yer a roller anywhere from 0.1 to say 1 bitcoin on each wallet. This way, when you wanna' call up some loot from your stash you don't have to "open" your whole stash. You just tx a bill to your phone app and go hog wild!
So let's examine a test case. Let's say @raybrockman wanted to start accepting btc for his awesome Steemit decals. All he'd have to do is print off a paper wallet and show the public key to his customer -- something like this:
Notice how the private key is covered? I would advise not ever taking pictures of your private keys on any smart device -- but polaroid the hell out of 'em if you want extra backup. (Note: all uncovered bills shown were destroyed.)
[By the way, Ray's decals are really cool. Well made and thick! These decals also have some kind of super adhesive on the back of 'em. I highly recommend getting in touch with @raybrockman and picking up at least one of these -- get the message out about Steemit, it'll only benefit YOU going forward!]
So, now Ray's customer sends the btc to the PUBLIC key, Ray checks the address on blockchain.info to make sure the money is there and then he sends the decal. Now Ray has a paper wallet with some btc on it. He can write down in ink, right on the bill, the date -- the $ value -- and the btc value. Then he tucks that bill away and get's busy with his next order. Anytime he wants, he just has to scan private key (of any loaded bill) with his phone app and "import" the wallet, and, Splish! Splash! Slide! He's got bitcoin on his phone ready to be spent on silver or gold -- or hell! He could even "buy" some dollars with it -- but who the fuck wants dollars anymore?
I hope this helps! By all means spend some time on the site and see what it has to offer -- it's all free!
[Paranoid Pro Tip:]
If you think you've got malware, or a 3 letter agency is slinking around in the foliage, you can do this: download bitaddress site to your browser, turn off your router/wi fi etc, go and generate a few wallets to get super random, print them on a (dumb) hardwired printer that doesn't have wifi/bluetooth/etc. Go ahead and print a bunch! Now, delete program from your computer and turn on your internet again -- these wallets are secure as fuck! The blockchain has never seen the private keys and nobody, no where, no how, can crack 'em. Personally, i think this is overkill, but it's an option i would be remiss not to have mentioned.
So there you go my friends. I just offered you a way to take control of your own savings. You are now outside of the Banksters controls and you can do WHATEVERTHEFUCKYOUWANT, WHENEVERTHEFUCKYOUWANT!
I tip my hat to #thealliance -- thanks friends!
Keep posting pics of your silver&gold here -- 'cause that's awesome too!
And come on by and checkout our Beavers & Maple Syrup & a million other good things here. We won't bite 😃🇨🇦
Cheers! from @thedamus