How to use Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a great alternative to PayPal and other private payment systems. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency, which means that it isn't controlled by any company or any government. You can't be locked out of using it for any reason.

There are many ways to pay and receive money using bitcoins, but here's a common way to use it:

Contents 1 Sending money to someone using Bitcoin 2 Receiving money from someone using Bitcoin 3 See also 4 Resources

[edit] Sending money to someone using Bitcoin

1. Be sure you have a Dwolla.com account (Free) and a MtGox.com account (Free, instant)
2. Be sure your bank (checkings/savings) is linked to Dwolla.com (Free, 2-5 days)
3. Transfer an amount of USD from your bank to your Dwolla.com account (Free, 2 days)
4. Transfer an amount of USD from Dwolla.com to MtGox.com (Cost = $0.25, instant)
5. Buy some bitcoins on MtGox.com (Cost = 0.6% of trades, instant)
6. Transfer an amount of bitcoins from MtGox.com to the person you want to pay using a bitcoin address that looks something like this: 14LABtzbK85NbR2PKCeirDhkz97vFNFgoG (Free, instant)
7. The receiver will get the bitcoins, and you are done!

So if you transferred $1,000 your total fees will be about $6.25 (2 days)

[edit] Receiving money from someone using Bitcoin

1. Be sure you have a Dwolla.com account (Free) and a MtGox.com account (Free)
2. Be sure your bank (checkings/savings) is linked to Dwolla.com (Free)
3. Give the sender your bitcoin address on MtGox.com, to which they will send you the bitcoins.
4. Sell the bitcoins on MtGox.com (Cost = 0.6% of trades)
5. Transfer an amount of USD from MtGox.com to Dwolla.com (Cost = $0.25)
6. Transfer an amount of USD from Dwolla.com to your bank account (Free, 2 days)
7. You now have money in your bank.

Of course, if both the sender and receiver uses Dwolla.com, you can skip Bitcoin completely and just do a direct person-to-person transfer on Dwolla.com. So this example is a bit silly.

However, if the recipient is in another country, say India, then sending the bitcoins to TradeHill.com which allows for withdrawals into Bank of India is a very good solution.

[edit] See also

Is Bitcoin a pyramid scheme?

[edit] Resources

• http://www.weusecoins.com - Introduction to Bitcoin
• http://www.dwolla.com
• http://www.mtgox.com
• http://www.bitcoincharts.com
• http://www.tradehill.com

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