With the advent of the usage of bitcoins, a lot of people are now interested on how to use them when doing transactions online. Below are the steps on how to use bitcoins for your online transactions.
1. Acquiring bitcoins
Before you start using bitcoins as your chosen currency, you need to acquire them first. You can do so by buying bitcoins through online sites such as Xapo and Coinbase.
Other ways include buying bitcoins in large quantities through trade exchange, buying bitcoins through a live person offline, taking money out from bitcoin ATMs, mining bitcoins, and earning bitcoins through selling some of your belongings.
2. Setting up your bitcoin wallet
When you set up your bitcoin wallet, you don’t need to worry about third party access. For you to set up your bitcoin wallet, you can try mobile wallets, web wallets, hardware wallets, paper wallets, and advanced wallets.
Examples of mobile wallets are Mycelium, Jaxx, Airbitz, and BitPay. With web wallets, you can try Blockchain.info. Finally, with hardware wallets, you can either Ledger or Razor.
3. Creating a public bitcoin address
When creating a public address for yourself, you need to use the wallet that you created. In fact, you can use an email address that you are comfortable sharing with anyone. Also, keep in mind that a public bitcoin address is composed of a long string of alpha numeric characters.
4. Sending bitcoins to your public address
When using the functions “withdraw” or “send” in the platform where you have bought your bitcoins, you need to wait around 10 to 20 minutes for confirmation that you have successfully sent an amount of bitcoins in your wallet.
5. Using your bitcoins to shop, invest, and donate
There are a lot of things that you can use your bitcoins for. You can use them to invest, donate, buy things with merchants that accept bitcoins, and convert them to gift cards.
It is important to note that when using bitcoins, you need to be careful with every transaction you make. Contrary to the misconception that bitcoin transactions are not trackable, keep in mind that it a law enforcement agency could still find ways to track the transaction when it is done out of bad will.
