CREATING A BITCOIN WALLET

We'll create a basic and trusted wallet with blockchain.

First, a simple online wallet on desktop.

DESKTOP ONLINE WALLET:

Visit blockchain.info/wallet and click “Sign Up”
Blockchain.info wallet Sign Up.png

They will have you enter an email address and password. This is like a typical online website account, please choose a strong password but one that you will remember. Do not store easily on your computer for security reasons since there is money involved that can't be returned to you in the rare chance your computer is stolen, hacked or email is hacked or read (by a person or virus/robot) etc. I do not think you can change your password.

Follow the on-screen instructions and login. Normally your browser will keep your "wallet identifier" which is like a username but not quite. It normally saves in your browser unless you delete cookies. You can make your account more secure by verifying your email address which will have you verify login attempts through your email. You can also enable 2-factor authentication to verify via text to your mobile phone.

You can easily backup this online wallet to a file for recovery later if for any reason you cannot access the blockchain login at any point in the future.

You can access this kind of wallet from a Mac or PC and any computer that has an internet connection.


MOBILE ONLINE WALLET

On iPhone open the App Store Apple App Store LOGO

Or for Android open Google Play Google Play Store LOGO

Find the Blockchain wallet app with this Logo:
Blockchain Wallet App LOGO

Download and install. It will have you create a wallet with your email and password and then a special 4-digit PIN to login from your phone. The difference here from the desktop wallet is that you can open the wallet to send bitcoin or get a receiving address with just a 4-digit PIN instead of your regular account password. In this sense it's less secure, so keep that in mind.


DESKTOP SOFTWARE WALLET [More Under Your Control]:

Electrum wallet from Electrum.org is fairly easy to use and straightforward. Instructions are similar for Mac & PC. Electrum wallet which requires no syncing the blockchain (normally a multi-day process). If you'd like the original bitcoin wallet see Bitcoin Core from Bitcoin.org

From the website click the "Download" page on the top. For Windows PC I would use the "Windows Installer" version. Download and install following the basic instructions but see below so you don't miss correct settings.

MAC WALLET:

For Apple computers download the OSX Executable.

Open the image (.dmg) file and you can then drag Electrum into your applications (Open Finder and click applications on left).

Control+Click and then click "Open" on the Electrum app and select Open once again on the dialog box the first time (necessary because it's a third party application).

For Both Mac & PC continue to setup electrum wallet:

Follow the on-screen directions; you can name your wallet (more wallets can be created later). Choose standard wallet. Click 'Create a new seed' and choose Standard (not Segwit) seed type.

Very important: write down your wallet generation seed on paper and store in your safe. DO NOT store in digital form for security reasons (if you're hacked).

If you'd like to learn more from square one you can start with the official bitcoin site getting started page:

https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started

BASIC TIPS:

  • Receiving addresses are what you give people so they can send bitcoin to you.
  • Private Keys are the ways to UNLOCK your bitcoin, never gives those. Also don't store in a digital format unless you know how to encrypt them at least.
  • Backup your wallet. Blockchain online and all wallet software will have a backup function. If you need help there, ask a bitcoin expert for instructions or contact me below.
  • Sometimes bitcoin network can have a backlog of transactions. If you sent a transaction and it's not showing up right away you can sometimes have to wait an hour, multiple hours or even more in rare cases. You can alleviate this by increasing the transaction fee but this is more of an advanced feature where you don't want to mess up.

Designed by Mike Parker, Bitcoin Consultant for Future Money Trends