Bitcoin buying guide

Before you start with Bittylicious

There's only one thing you need before buying Bitcoins with Bittylicious - a wallet in which to store your Bitcoins. Bitcoin wallets enable you to send and receive Bitcoins with other users, and each user or business in the Bitcoin ecosystem has a wallet.

Wallets can be generated online (web wallets) or by running a Bitcoin client on your own machine (local wallets).

Web wallets

This is the easiest way to get started in the Bitcoin world.

Web wallets host your bitcoins. This means that you are trusting the company that hosts the wallet to look after it on your behalf. In many ways, this is more secure than looking after the wallet yourself, but it does mean that it is possible for them to lose your bitcoins following any incident on their side.

There are a few providers, but these are some of the biggest ones and we recommend these:

• blockchain.info
• Coinbase

Note that these providers might also offer a way to convert money into Bitcons. You're welcome to do that, but you'll usually get a better price using Bittylicious. We recommend you just use the above sites for their wallet functionality alone.

Local wallets

These are more complicated to set up, but involve you being in full control of your Bitcoin wallet. This is great in many ways, but unless you're competent that your computers are secure and you're relatively tech savvy, we wouldn't recommend doing this. If all goes wrong and your computer explodes, you've probably lost your Bitcoins.

• bitcoin-qt - the full Bitcoin client. Takes a very long time to get synchronised but is considered the de facto Bitcoin client.
• Multibit - a secure, lightweight, international Bitcoin wallet for most popular operating systems.
• Electrum - easy to use,lightweight Bitcoin client for most popular operating systems.
• Armory - an advanced Bitcoin wallet for most popular operating systems.
• Android Bitcoin Wallet - an easy to use Bitcoin wallet for Android phones.

Buying Bitcoins

Now that your wallet is set up, you need to generate a Bitcoin address. Each wallet has its own way of doing this but it should be relatively straightforward. A Bitcoin address will look something like 19Qbest5y8t5qZhJ36PhUWNUYeDroL6BkF.

Step 1 - What do you want to buy?

Step 1 - Your requirements

Here, you simply copy and paste your Bitcoin address into the top box and type in how many Bitcoins you want into the second box.

The number of Bitcoins you can buy at any time is limited by our calculation algorithm. If you register your email address and perform various validation requirements, you can buy more.

Once you have entered the details, click Get some coins.

Step 2 - Make the payment

Step 2 - Make the payment

This screen presents all the details you need in order to make an bank transfer from your bank account.

You will need to log into your online banking with whatever bank you use (e.g. Halifax, Santander) and make a transfer. This will usually be under a heading like Make a funds transfer or Pay a person. This page tells you what sort code, account number and name this payment is going to, and it also provides the reference. It is essential that you copy and paste this reference into the Reference box in your online banking.

Only when the payment is completed according to your online banking should you click I have made payment.

Step 3 - Wait for payment to arrive

Step 3 - Waiting for confirmation

Step 4 - The Bitcoins are on their way