Fast Start Guide To Your First Bitcoin
Interested in bitcoin? Want to gamble with it? Why not? It is one of the safer methods! No idea where to get started with this?
Awesome! We have a place because this is where we come in! We figured out the hard work and we’re going to pass it along.
Okay, we’ll come clean. It’s not hard work. Very easy work, actually, but you didn’t come to us to discuss work ethics, so let’s just get right into it!
The 3 Steps To Get Started
- Creating a bitcoin wallet
- Put some funds into your wallet
- Transfer some funds to the casino of your choice
In a quick nutshell, those three steps will take you from not having any bitcoin to owning your first bitcoin and using it to play for real money at an online casino, sportsbook or poker site.
I’ll go over the details and nitty gritty below of each and every step.
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Create a bitcoin Wallet
If one looks around on the internet, you’ll find a million different options, most of which are actually totally free.
I personally like GreenAddress. However, there are a lot of bitcoin wallets you can choose from – you do not have to use GreenAddress.
This example I chose Greenaddress because of their reputation, their ease of use and because they are free, and you own your private bitcoin keys, (not the wallet!)
The landing screen at GreenAddress. You’ll see the clear, orange “Create your wallet” button on the right. Clicking this image will also take you to GreenAddress.
The landing screen at GreenAddress. You’ll see the clear, orange “Create your wallet” button on the right. Clicking this image will also take you to GreenAddress.
Here are a few rules I live by when using GreenAddress as my Bitcoin wallet.
- I treat GreenAddress as a ‘hot wallet’
- I ALWAYS use a wallet like GreenAddress between any gambling sites and an exchange
- I own my private keys
This is for bitcoin that I plan on spending soon. This is not where I would keep any significant amount of bitcoin any significant amount of time. For that I would recommend a hardware wallet like the Trezor or Ledger. A wallet like Greenaddress is much better than keeping your bitcoin on an exchange but a hardware wallet is my recommendation for anyone who might want to own crypto-currency now and in the future. After all, some economists call it the future of money.
Especially Coinbase! Why? Because it is against the terms of conditions of Coinbase to transact with gambling sites. Coinbase has and will shut your account down and you do not want that as they are a fast and easy gateway into and out of bitcoin.
Always bring your bitcoin back to your hot wallet between an exchange and the gambling site. Pay the mining fee build into bitcoin/crypto to send it to your wallet first. Do not deposit directly to a casino from your exchange wallet. Do not withdraw from a casino directly to your exchange wallet. Always pay the mining fee (minimal usually) to send the bitcoin to your wallet every time.
You do not want your exchange account shut down due to some rules that the someone else made up to protect you from your money. Once again, especially if you decide to use Coinbase, use a “between” wallet, as they are one of the bigger exchanges out there.
No one else has ever known them (and GreenAddress lets me do that) – I use GreenAddress because they never own or know my private bitcoin keys. Suffice to say you should 100% of the time control your bitcoin keys (the 24 words that you can use to recover your bitcoin if your wallet is ever lost). Whomever owns those 24 words owns the bitcoin.
Like with anything else, there are some shady sites out there that will try to issue you your bitcoin keys and “keep a record of them”. Nope. Do not trust these. Would you trust them to hold on to your real wallet with ATM and credit cards?
Actually, I tried to set up a dummy account with GreenAddress just to show you how it was done using screenshots of my Android phone. Turns out, I can’t! Taking a screen shot of the set-up process just brings up a black screen that even I can’t look at. This is a great thing! You don’t want that info floating around anywhere on the web! But, you’ll figure it out, it’s very intuitive.
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Create Your Exchange Account
This is where you’re going to buy your bitcoin. Again, there are so, so many options and different ways you can do this. If you can think of it, it exists.
You can buy it online, you can go out and buy it from a special “ATM”, you can meet someone online and set up a meeting to go buy it in person if you want to.
*Note – We do not recommend meeting someone online or sending cash if you’re buying a large amount of bitcoin, but you’re an adult. You do you.
If you do a simple Google search for “bitcoin exchange” you will find all kinds of places to buy your bitcoin. Me personally, I like Kraken.
A screenshot over at Kraken, showing you the current rate for bitcoin, as well as many other crypto-currencies they support.
A screenshot over at Kraken, showing you the current rate for bitcoin, as well as many other crypto-currencies they support.
Once you find yourself an exchange site you like, it’s simply a matter of buying the bitcoin and transferring it over to your wallet. Wherever you end up going, this process will be a little different depending on the site, but it’s going to be pretty much the same wherever you go.
It will simply be a matter of choosing “bitcoin” from whatever type of menu they use. The last time I bought from Kraken it was a drop-down menu, their site has been updated since I did that!
Decide how much bitcoin you would like to buy. Many people are a little apprehensive about bitcoin because of the price. As of this writing, 1 bitcoin is almost $10k! However, it is broken down by the exchange and anyone else selling or buying. It is not unheard of for someone to buy, for example, 0.0021 bitcoin at a time, (right now, about $20 worth).
After choosing the bitcoin and the amount, you will be asked for the address you would like it sent to. For the simplicity of this article, we’re going to assume that you are using a wallet that you can access with a PC.
Simply find your address on your wallet and copy it. Do not try to type it out, the address is going to be long and complicated and any mistakes just might send your bitcoin somewhere else! And *poof*! You now have bitcoin on your wallet!
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Depositing bitcoin at an Online Casino
There was a time when one would take their bitcoin from their wallet of choice, put it back into an exchange, and then deposit at a casino. However, times change. Now, some casinos may still want you to do so, but most don’t. This includes what is by far one of the most trusted casinos we promote, Bovada.
Here in just a moment I’m going to list some of the greatest casinos we support, trust and use ourselves with crypto, but just so that you can see what’s going on with depositing your crypto at Bovada.
First things first, you would head on over to Bovada and create your account. No worries, this is a super simple step. Take a look at this image and you’ll see that you’re only asked for simple, basic info, and nothing that wouldn’t be asked by virtually any casino.
Now that you’re all signed up, you’re ready to make a deposit and start to win some cash of your own!
You should be all logged in to your account. Look to the upper right hand corner and you’ll see a little icon of a persons silhouette. Click that and then click “deposit”.
Now you’ll choose what kind of deposit you would like to make, obviously, you would click “bitcoin”. From here, you’ll do one of two things depending on what kind of wallet you’re using.
Number One
If using a wallet that is connected to your smartphone, (all OS’s are supported), this will be pretty easy.
You see that giant QR code that says “Scan the QR code with your bitcoin wallet”? Yup. That’s it. Scan, choose your amount, you’re ready to go!
Number 2
If using a web based wallet, you can just open it up, and you can copy and paste the address shown under, “Send your bitcoin to this address”, choose your amount and now you’ll be ready to go! *Note – If you are going this way, make sure that you do copy and paste the address. Don’t try to re-type it by hand. The address is long and if one mistake is made, your money could potentially end up somewhere else with no recourse to get it back! Don’t let that scare you, just make sure you copy and paste, that’s all.
Now, You know I am always honest with you guys. You see that big button that says, “LAUNCH BITCOIN WALLET”? That’s never done anything for me. Literally. Clicking it does nothing, but, I’ve personally just made my deposits from my phone scanning the giant QR code.
Conclusion
And that my friends, is what you need to know about making your bitcoin deposits at Bovada, or really any trustworthy online casino.
If you decide to use the sites that we have recommended to you, you’ll be fine. These are all sites that are dependable and trustworthy. They have earned our respect and we use them ourselves. If you want to check out a review of Bovada as well as some others that we like and use, just check out these links.
And don’t go far without also taking a look at –