Welcome to Bitcoin, for those interested in Bitcoin but aren't exactly sure what Bitcoin is and how it works, I have pooled some information that will assist you so that your Bitcoin experience is as easy as possible. To get started it is worthwhile to watch this video we use coins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo Another video that covers Bitcoin in much finer detail and is well worth a watch as it covers a lot of information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx9zgZCMqXE So now you are interested in using Bitcoins. Managing your Bitcoin, Firstly you will need something to manage your Bitcoin, we call them wallets. A wallet comes in different forms. Such as an application that runs on your smart phone or computer, a website that stores manages your Bitcoin and there are what people refer to as hard wallets or cold storage. Hard wallets store the information required to access Bitcoin physically like written on a piece of paper. For your first Bitcoin wallet I would recommend these applications to manage your Bitcoin as there are a lot of wallets to choose from. For Android phone and tablet users Bitcoin Wallet (this is my favourite). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet&hl=en For iPhone users Blockchain https://blockchain.info/wallet/iphone-app For your computer there is Bitcoin QT Supporting Windows, MAC OSX and Linux, however the initial scan can take a day and over 10GB of download so it is not the most ideal first wallet. http://bitcoin.org/en/download As an alternative Blockchain.info offer an online wallet where they host your Bitcoins on their servers allowing you to access your Bitcoin where ever you have internet access. https://blockchain.info/wallet

Once you have downloaded you first wallet you will have a Bitcoin address it will look something like 1394SSNDwkUmcVCfmxVqLtQE85gXqa77c2 This is a public address and is used to check the balance of a Bitcoin wallet, and as a receiving address of your Bitcoin. When sending Bitcoin make sure the address is exact as transactions are irreversible. Make sure you back up your wallets and do so in a secure way so that your private key data can be recovered if lost and not stolen if your computer is compromised.

Getting your Bitcoin, There are many different ways to get Bitcoin but the simplest in Australia is to purchase them off someone who already has them. The largest exchange available at the moment is Mt Gox https://www.mtgox.com/ however I have not used their service. In Australia we are able to use http://www.coinjar.io/ They allow you to purchase Bitcoin via electronic transfer at an competitive rate. They are the easiest to use service that I have come across. It is good to check multiple places to see where you will get the best rate of exchange. Buying person to person can be done through https://localbitcoins.com/ where individuals identify the area they operate in with the amount of Bitcoin they have available some even allow for electronic transfer.

Other online services include https://www.btradeaustralia.com/ opperates similar to coinjar and https://btcmarkets.net/ which is a more of an open exchange similar to mtgox. There are also events known as Satoshi Square where people will congregate to exchange and talk about Bitcoin. It is worth looking at multiple exchanges to find which will give you the best rate however keeping in mind how much trust you allow a company or person to have with your money. Buyer Beware.

Trading Bitcoin, Most applications that manage Bitcoin will use 3 methods of inputting address's to send Bitcoins to. The first and least efficient is directly writing the address into your application which is very cumbersome as you have to write each letter and number and capitalisation counts and I wouldn't recommend it, you could also copy and paste but make sure you get the public key correct. Secondly using a QR Code which is similar to a Barcode they look like this

a QR code that scans to the address 1394SSNDwkUmcVCfmxVqLtQE85gXqa77c2

a QR code can be scanned by the application and the address is imported to your wallet. Thirdly is using Near Field Communication or NFC this is where the two devices are held near each other and the address is wirelessly transmitted from one device to another in what is called "bumping". This is not as common as using QR codes as not as many phones have NFC where they all have cameras. Once you have the address you select the amount of Bitcoin you wish to send and hit send. In moments the transaction will appear in the receivers wallet. If you are sending to Business they will usually need a number of confirmations before they release their goods. more on confirmations is available in the FAQ link at the bottom

The Short and Long of it If you are looking to buy and sell Bitcoin there are multiple services that offer leveraged trading one example would be https://btc.sx/ which allows for trading with a 10:1 leverage. As for analysis of the Bitcoin markets http://bitscanner.blogspot.com.au/ provides in depth market evaluation of Bitcoin. If you want to look at the movement of Bitcoin across multiple markets in real time an excellent website is http://bitcoinity.org/markets There are multiple apps that provide alerts on price movements and other factors.

Security, A few important things to note when creating a login for a website to exchange Bitcoin or manage your Bitcoin wallet use two factor authentication also known as 2FA where available. 2FA is having a secondary pass code to access your account and make changes where the pass code is a digitally generated once use token. Most sites like Coinjar and localBitcoins have 2FA enabled using Google Authenticator. Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2&hl=en iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/google-authenticator/id388497605?mt=8 This is set up during or after creation of your account. Another note on security is do not use PayPal when selling Bitcoin as there have been many cases of people refuting that they never received their purchase of Bitcoin and PayPal reversing the transaction even where the seller provided evidence of the transaction.

More information, For more information on Bitcoin I would recommend reading the Frequently Asked Questions page at Block Chain Info https://blockchain.info/wallet/bitcoin-faq Ask questions or check out the trending articles on Reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin Check out the Bitcoin forums https://bitcointalk.org/ and if you're still a bit stuck there is the Getting started Wiki https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Getting_started

Now that you have successfully started using Bitcoins and you wish to show your appreciation feel free to tip me 1394SSNDwkUmcVCfmxVqLtQE85gXqa77c2

Regards, EgoJ