I believe it's our ethical duty to transfer away from fiat to something like Bitcoin. For a full description of why, please read "The creature from Jekyll Island" which you can find on my reading list on this website.
Do you know where money comes from? You might be interested to know that all money is debt, and that the system is built to fail.
This guide is for my newly orange pilled friends and family.
It would also be a suitable introductory guide for any individual who wants to start buying some bitcoin for the first time and take self custody of their Bitcoin.
This guide is not for a business. If you are a business and you want to start accepting BTC as payment, there are extra steps. Do not use this guide. Contact me on x.com if you want me to point you in the right direction for that.
This guide is also not for any person who wants to just buy $100 worth of BTC and then forget about it.
Conversely, this guide is for people who want to keep getting more and more Bitcoin over the years, and who want to store it safely and securely.
Taking control of your labour and money with Bitcoin can take time and energy. If you are thinking of investing any significant portion of your wealth to bitcoin, you need to be prepared to study and learn. These instructions are geared towards my family and friends who want to get started down this road.
NOTE: This is not a complete tutorial, it's just a tutorial on getting started.
The password manager I recommend is Bitwarden.com. Please do not start buying Bitcoin without this password manager. As you will come to see, there are way too many complex passwords to remember. In the cyber security space it is considered a requirement to use a password manager for sensitive information like your various Bitcoin account passwords.
I know it can be incredibly annoying to start a new practice like using a password manager. But the truth is that if you're not using one you will be considered "low hanging fruit" by hackers, malware and viruses. So might as well bite the bullet and start integrating a password manager now into your daily life.
Skip this step at your own risk. You have been warned and then warned again.
Sparrow wallet will be your main interface for interacting with your Bitcoin. From here you can receive, send, view history, and mix your Bitcoin. Click to go to the Sparrow homepage and download Sparrow wallet.
You should do this step first because when you buy bitcoin on the websites that we're about to talk about in the next steps,you'll need to have already set up a place to store your bitcoin, which in our case is Sparrow wallet.
Once you get sparrow wallet running, please take a moment now to save your recovery phrase in your password manager.
You have many options! If you live in the USA you can use Bitcoin Well or Coinbase.
In Canada you can use ndax.io or Newton.co
In my humble opinion it doesn't matter which one you use since your purchase amounts are going to be small and insignificant to start.
As soon as you buy your Bitcoin, move the coins into Sparrow wallet. Do not leave you coins on any exchange!!! This is a big deal! Exchanges are hacked and destroyed all the time. They are not safe!!
Unless you are visiting Bitcoin specific locations like El Salvador or Costa Rica, you won't have a lot of places to spend your bitcoin. That's OK. Just buy more and more and hold.
If on the other hand you want to start learning how to use bitcoin for daily transactions, you'll use Phoenix Wallet.