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How To Get Bitcoin

This tutorial is meant for beginners who just want to get a stake in the future of cryptocurrency.

1. Get a bitcoin wallet

    There are many choices out there, but I still like Coinbase for getting started.

2. Get some free bitcoin

    You can use Coinbase directly to buy bitcoins if you’re in a hurry. But if you only want to own a small amount to get started, you can use one of the free “faucets” that give away small portions of bitcoins for free:

  • BitcoinGet — Get your wallet address from your the “Account Settings” page in Coinbase. Watch some videos or do the other micro-actions they pay for. Make sure to do a few because you need to earn 60 µBTC to get a payout.
  • BitVisitor — Same as above, you should login with your bitcoin address. Click through the sites and collect at least 100 µBTC to get a payout. I think this site is more sleazy and boring to interact with, but it’s another option if you want it.

3. Get ahead of the curve by picking up some other coins like NXT and Darkcoin

    Bitcoin is definitely the dominant cryptocurrency right now — but that could change. And being early to the party is how people make 2-100x with their cryptocurrency investments.

  • Setup an NXT wallet — NXT is an upcoming coin that’s growing quickly and doesn’t use the exact same source code as bitcoin, the way most other alt-coins do.
  • Get some free NXT — This site takes awhile to use, but stick with their game for a few days. You need to earn over 1 NXT to get paid out.
  • Buy Darkcoin or NXT with Cryptsy — Three weeks ago, I predicted that Darkcoin would increase in value. Then it went up from $2.50 to over $10.00 in a week. Despite the higher price, I still like this coin. No darknets have started officially using it yet, and its anonymity makes it ideal for this use case. Darkcoin is already valued higher than Dogecoin and will continue to increase in value so long as developers can keep up with the code and it gets any kind of media exposure and adoption for real commerce.

Author Description

Louie Helm is a Machine Learning Engineer

10 Responses to “How To Get Bitcoin”

  1. June 8

    Tim Suetens

    Aha, I’ve been looking for a way to get into Bitcoin. I kind of forgot about it when Mt Gox crashed, but this might just help me start again.

  2. June 8

    Qiaochu Yuan

    I tried to buy some DarkCoin on your recommendation and the site I was using got stuck in a redirect loop.

  3. June 8

    Louie Helm

    Which site was that?

  4. June 8

    Austin James Parish

    Louie, I know this question may be dipping into some potentially complicated economics, but do you have any recommendations for going beyond this getting started level? IE if you have balances in multiple cryptocurrencies, how are you deciding how much to have in each? Once you’ve got these balances, what are you doing with them? (How frequently are you checking their growth and potentially converting some of it to USD?)

  5. June 8

    Christopher Rasch

    For play purposes, here’s the fastest way I know to get Bitcoin:

    1. Install Quickcoin:

    https://wallet.quickcoin.co/

    2. Ask a friend to give you a dollar’s worth of Bitcoin.

    Done! If you want DRK or NXT, then the easiest way is probably to open a cryptsy account, then buy them with your dollar’s worth of BTC.

  6. June 8

    Joshua Fox

    Thanks for that earlier tip. I carried out the whole workflow: USD in my bank to Coinbase btc to Cryptsy drk, then to a wallet on my laptop, then backing up and restoring the wallet. I did this with $10 as a test and then a larger purchase.

    There were some minor hiccups and if course if anything goes wrong in the technical steps there is no one to cover losses. But in the end it worked. Because of the weeks delay in buying btc in Coinbase,I did not gain from the price rise in drk

  7. June 8

    Christopher Rasch

    If you want to own more than play amounts, then I think opening an account at localbitcoins.com (for purchasing BTC immediately/privately), coinbase (PITA to set up, no privacy, but better prices and once set up, easiest way to buy BTC with USD), cryptsy (for purchasing altcoins with BTC), and blockchain.info (for storage) is probably the minimal pathway.

  8. June 8

    Matthew Piziak

    Qiaochu, Louie, Moolah was struggling with redirect loops for a fraction of their visitors a couple of weeks ago. I followed up with their developers and followed the bug tickets; the problem seems to have been resolved. Regardless I went with Cryptsy and now Poloniex instead.

  9. June 8

    Christopher Rasch

    BTW, thanks for turning me onto Darkcoin.

  10. June 8

    Kahn Equality Rad

    *headdesk*