I'm writing from my phone, so it'll be brief:
A wallet is not an exchange. You use an exchange to convert fiat money to bitcoin.
A decent wallet is created to manage bitcoin, it doesn't care about fiat money (although some wallets work together with an exchange, so it looks like the exchange is part of your wallet)

There are plenty of free wallets, the only wallets you want to pay for are hardware Wallets like trezor or ledger.

So
Fiat => exchange => bitcoin => decent wallet

If you spend funds using your wallet, the wallet will create a transaction, and it'll include a miners fee...

You don't activate wallets, off course you won't be able to send funds if you haven't funded an address belonging to your wallet.

I'd love to write a full walkthrough, but not from my phone.

If he has to pay money to get access to money that's actually his, it's a scam.

Never pay btc to somebody to "release" btc you already own, if somebody asked you to do this in a fiat setting, you'd call them a scammer and call the police in a heartbeat, but it seems like new users dealing with crypto get blindsighted by lack of technical knowledge and/or plain greed, and they get scammed by scammers that use tricks that wouldn't work if you were taking about USD or EUR...

Your brother should have received the funds in a desktop or hardware wallet OF HIS CHOICE, never trust an online wallet or exchange to hold your funds, but that's all hindsight now.

1 - mocacinno

Thanks 

No, you got it correct, the only thing is: without email addresses or bitcointalk usernames, I have no way to identify the winner... If the winner doesn't check his/her ticket and/or doesn't come foreward, I have no way of contacting him/her.

Sure, I'll organize a redraw on Friday, the previous winner has had sufficient time to contact me.

Nope, he\she never contacted me, and since most applications came from throwaway addresses, I didn't keep any of them, just a list of codes and btc addresses... I do still check my mail every couple of days just in case the winner pops up

Indeed... I remember the time where you could just spin up a testnet node and run cpuminer with one or two threads to solomine tBTC, but as it stands now, the diff was pushed to 10.5M with a block reward of only 0.39 tBTC/block. The time between 2 blocks is often ~20 minutes tough (at which point the diff drops to 1 for the next block), telling me that the person who pushed so much hashrate on the test network has since turned of his ASIC.
That being said, there's still somebody with an ASIC that's being active on the testnet, since i've tried mining with my geckoscience stick and my server (8 threads, old XEON's) and i can't hit a single block, so even at diff 1, somebody is hashing at such speeds they beat me to a diff 1 valid block long before my cpu or stickminer finds a valid block at diff 1.

10.5M means that somebody was mining with about 75 Th, it also means that an "old" S7 (for example) would generate:
(((((Hashrate (hashes/sec) * average block reward * 600 * 65535) / 2^48) / Difficulty) * 6 * 24)
(((((4700000000000‬ * 0.39 * 600 * 65535) / 2^48) / 10500000) * 6 * 24) = 3.51 tBTC/day

This while burning 1.25 KWatt * 24 hours * 0.3€/kwh = 9€/day

So, if you have an old S7, and you run it 24/7, 1tBTC would cost you ~2.6 euro's to mine because somebody tought it was funny to mine with a total hashrate of 75 Th...

I, for one, would applaud resetting the testnet once again... Hopefully this time people won't push the diff to such heights... It's a testnet for pete's sake... It's worthless, the dev's can pull the plug at any moment... I can't imagine why anybody would want to push the diff to a height where a simple dev can't just solo cpu mine some tBTC when he needs to test something...

1 - mocacinno

Thanks 

Just a quick question to the OP (or anybody else that knows the answer for that matter).

Why does my gut feeling tells me the minimum amount to participate in coinjoins only seems to go up?

• IIRC, the first time i looked at the wallet, the minimum amount was pretty low (my memory tells me it was like ~0.01, but i could be waaaay of).
• The first time i actually wanted to participate in a coinjoin, the minimum amount rose to ~0.05 (IIRC), while at the same time the price also went waaaay up. Since, at that point, i didn't want to risk 0.05, i used a trusted mixer instead
• The first time i actually participated in a coinjoin, the minimum amount was ~0.09
• At this moment, the minimum amount is ~0.11

In all fairness, i get why you don't want to have 0.001 BTC as minimum amount, you've promoted the coinjoin feature to be very cost-effective, and if you're building giant coinjoin transactions with a huge amount of inputs and outputs that have a value of ~0.001 BTC, you can't say you'll have a fee of 0.003% per anonimity set, and you wouldn't help your enduser nor the blockchain by creating thousands of 0.001-valued unspent outputs.
However, there's a big difference between 0.001 (~$8) and the current ~0.11 (~$850), and the fact that my gut feeling tells me it's just going upwards regardless of the average fee per vbyte or the fiat exchange rate makes me worry what minimum amounts we'll see in the future (i don't think that at this rate it'll take very long before we breach the minimum $1000 equivalent as a minimum amount to participate in a coinjoin).

Could the developers give some extra insight if they plan to make coinjoin more accessible for the broad public (people that don't have 0.11 BTC, or are unwilling to "test" out coinjoining with such a large chunk of money)? I, for one, wouldn't mind paying more than (0.003 * 51)% if that would mean i could participate in a coinjoin with 0.05 BTC instead of 0.11 BTC

I've found discussions on reddit talking about this subject, but i didn't really feel they completely answered my question (for example: https://www.reddit.com/r/WasabiWallet/comments/c2sizh/coinjoin_minimum_of_approximately_1100aud/)

Thanks for your kind words and the tBTC offer  

Full disclosure tough: i used to mine tBTC for a while a long time ago (when the diff was low and the reward was high, it was because i was developing a service and i needed a moving testnet blockchain, but i was the only one mining back then), and i do have a stash of >100 tBTC on my ledger wallet because of my historic mining operation. So i do have a stash that will sustain my faucet for a relatively long time, if you need your tBTC for anything you want to test, you don't have to donate it (offcourse) 

The reason i'm "hoarding" and hodling tBTC is because right now, it's really hard to mine any meaningful amount of tBTC at current testnet diff (10.5M) and block reward (~0.39 tBTC/block), so any tBTC i "lose" is very hard to replenish, and i do need a stash to keep my faucet running (at least for a while).

I do loan out tBTC in bigger chunks to anybody who asks for it (with collateral for anybody i don't know/trust, or without collateral for anybody else), so if you ever need any tBTC you donated back for tests, you just have to ask



I don't sell tBTC. If you need smaller amounts, you can claim them from my faucet (or from the other ~5 working tBTC faucets). If you need bigger amounts for any kinds of test, i do loan out bigger amounts without intrest, but because you're a new (unknown and untrusted) member, i'd need a big chunk of collateral. The collateral i'd require is MORE than what the tBTC costs to mine because you NEED an incentive to repay the tBTC... I'd much rather have the tBTC back than see you default and keep the collateral, cause even if i can keep the collateral, i'll have to use it to rent hashrate from nicehash or miningrigrentals, setup a tBTC pool, mine,...

tBTC is worth exactly $0/tBTC, but it's quite expensive to mine nowadays due to the high diff and low block reward, so if you want to continue this path, tell me how much tBTC you want to loan, and i'll give you an estimated collateral
Don't freak out when you see the collateral amount, you'll get the collateral back AFTER you return the tBTC, minus the transaction fees, minus the potential escrow fees

Hi KrogothManhattan,

I received my coin this morning in the mail!
Thanks a lot  

https://i.imgur.com/aX58tnJ

1 - mocacinno

Thanks 

I got a 1 month vouch copy from HostMeNow and i've reviewed his setup.

The setup process is easy enough, he has the needed infrastructure in place, so HostMeNow is able to offer and process what he promises in his OP.
It's basic shared hosting, cpanel with a couple plugins like softalicious. Everything works smoothly.
I've opened a ticket and got a reply in <24 hours, which is reasonable for a cheap shared hosting package.

The demo testsite:
https://mocacinno.tk/

This ^^^ seems to be directed at me, but AFAIK I have never spoken with you, unless you're an alt of the OP?

@OP: the month has already passed... I'd like to get my 5 tBTC back, I actually expected a PM from you asking for an address to send the loaned amount back, but since no PM came, here's an address you can fund: 2My1JoNGXhsfn2qfrSdWX99PLrqCocN8eSY

If this address remains unfunded for more than 48 hours, i'll have to tag your account and keep the collateral... But i'd much rather have the 5 tBTC back so i don't have to go trough the hassle of setting up a miner to mine tBTC...

@op: are you sure you understand the concepts this time, cause it looks like i already explained most of the things you're asking to you 3 days ago (well, the initial question was new, thus deseverved a new thread, but most of the additional questions you've asked were answered/explained before):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5230079.msg53955380#msg53955380

in my first reply in above topic, i even pointed to a more in-depth, beginner-level (simplified) post i made earlyer that should have explained some of the more basic concepts you still seem to struggle with:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5229700.msg53953744#msg53953744

It's not a problem if you don't get something, but it might be nice if you'd continue to ask questions in one topic untill you're completely sure you understand everything.
Setting up any kind of wallet can be dangerous if you don't completely understand what you're doing, especially setups like air gapped wallets or paper wallets.

As for the new quesion you asked (about updating your OS): i'd recommand NOT touching the internet with your airgapped device... Write the seed down, and when your OS becomes REALLY outdated, you can install a new version from an offline medium and restore your wallet using the seed (i'd use dd to clone the current OS to an offline medium before scratching it tough)

An extra tip i didn't give you before: check out the TESTnet... Do an airgapped setup using electrum on the testnet, fund it with testnet coins, spend the testnet coins, reinstall your os, restore electrum on the testnet using the previous seed phrase, play, learn, make mistakes (learn from your mistakes), repeat... Untill you're certain that you can fund, spend, transfer, scratch, restore,... without losing testnet coins. Only then move to the main net..

eventough i'm not the OP, i do think there are more topics that are heavily under-discussed on the forum that could have a place in a potential privacy sub-board... However, i don't think there are quite enough topics to open a sub-forum as it it...

For example:

• Which wallets have tor built-in on how to configure them
• How to configure tor for other wallets
• Tor pitfalls (like dns leaks)
• What are 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, & 14 Eyes Countries... And other problems with VPN providers
• What's a Sybil, am i safe from it when using tor?
• How do mixing services work, and what are their potential problems
• Coinjoin much?
• KYC and KYC-less trusted services?
• A good list of privacy-centered altcoins and their pro's and con's
• problems with giving KYC documents to untrusted partners
• Why i don't want my fingerprint on my identity card
• PGP, signing and encryption
• PGP and email, what's the correlation?
• Verifying signatures of wallets like electrum and bitcoind core
• encrypting for dummies
• keeping your seed safe
• anonymous reshippers
• Is chinese firmware safe on my cellphone?
• Setting up, updating, persistent storage, electrum... With Tails OS!
• ...

1 - mocacinno

As soon as you offer VPS hosting, i'd be willing to do a testdrive and write a small review (no need for a permanent VPS, i hire dedicated servers myself, so i have no need for a small extra VPS).

I could also review your shared hosting, but to be honest, i don't have anything i want to host right now that isn't hosted on my own hardware already, so i could basically spin up a wordpress site and report wether or not i was satisfied with the setup...

It wouldn't be anything for me... Just for your amusement, i added my decission tree in case KYC/fingerprint/irisscan/drivers licence/... are asked:


copyright: me!

Good luck with your project tough!

I never said i wanted to avoid a heartbeat, i said that it's MY heartbeat, MY fingerprint, MY iris... Unless my governement forces me to give this very private information to them, there is no way i'll willingly distribute this information to anybody else, let alone a private payment company. Even IF my governement ever forces me to do this, i'll vote for a political party that promises to destoy my information if they are elected.

Actually, since the new passports require a fingerprint, i'll probably already vote for any party that promises privacy...

What is bitcoin duration? Why would i ever make my fingerprint, irisscan,... public? I'm avoiding all KYC exchanges, i really would avoid any service that would require one of my parameters i can not change (like fingerprint)