Hi everybody,
One of our members in the group chat was generous enough to type up a quick guide for purchasing bitcoin. This method is through coinbase since it's one of the more popular exchanges, but there are other resources all over reddit if you cannot use coinbase for whatever reason.
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How to use Crypto a (basic) guide:
Make sure you have an active bank account with an active debit card. Credit cards/Visa gift cards sometimes work with the popular exchanges but that is never a guarantee. It is easiest to use a debit card.
In choosing your exchange the easiest option for someone new is going to be either Coinbase or Cashapp. We'll cover Coinbase as if you know how to use one you know how to use the other.
When making an account on Coinbase at inception you have to go through the normal rigamarole. This will be the same as many other account making processes you have done before. HOWEVER be sure to use your real name, address, ssn, phone number whatever they ask of you. If not this leads to problems further down the line (aka you might not be able to buy and if you are you can't do shit with the coin you buy.) This goes for any major exchange, Cashapp, Gemini etc.
So now that your account is made you have to provide further proof of identity. Once you go into your account settings you will see that you are at "level one" and you have some restrictions on buying, trading etc. You will have to provide them with things like your address, ssn, photo of the front and back of your ID etc. etc. They are in essence a bank and operate like one. Your info is safe with them and you are good to just give them what they ask. You will need to regardless to have higher limits and full use/move-ability of your crypto. (This process may take them a day to verify your info before they "level up" your account.)
Once all that is said and done and you have your "highest level" account. You can add your purchasing method. The easiest and quickest way to do this is with your debit card. To link your debit card you provide your card information and they will make two small verification charges (less than $1) on your account. They will tell you what amounts from those charges to enter to verify your card.
Now that you have your card and account all setup. You want to click on that enticingly thicc, big blue "trade" button on the top right corner, enter the amount of cash of want to convert to btc (+1.99 for the Coinbase fee and in general you want to be putting in 5-15 more dollars than what you actually want to buy to cover any transfer fees, and fluctuations in coin value before your purchase) and purchase! The purchase should be relatively instant and now once you go to your account you will see your available balance of (money/btc). If they are not the same amounts just wait a bit and they will sync.
Now everything is done exchange side and you have purchased your crypto. Now you want to get a wallet to move it to. Your best choices are either Electrum or Wasabi wallet (I personally prefer Wasabi but both are great open source trustable pieces of software). Once you download these wallets the setup up if very straight forward. You make a password and a recovery key. MAKE SURE you store that recovery key somewhere safe. Write it down on a piece of paper and store it somewhere good (the wallet itself will tell you this).
Now that your wallet is all setup and ready to use somewhere on it will say "send" and "receive" click on receive and once you generate the address (wasabi will require you to label it) it will show you a long string of numbers and letters. That is your wallet id for receiving coins for that transaction.
Now go back to Coinbase, go to your portfolio and click on send, enter the amount you want to send, and the wallet receiving address you just looked at. Once you have all that info in there you are ready to send to the wallet. Sending to a wallet depending on the amount of coin your sending coin can take some time. Sometime it takes minutes, other times it takes hours it is all luck of the draw in my experience.
Once the coins in your wallet and your transfer on Coinbase goes from "Pending" to "Complete" you are all ready to use your coin!
Where ever you are purchasing from with Crypto at the end of the transaction they will show you a wallet address. Go into the wallet you sent your coins to go to send. Select your coins (again in Wasabi you must give your transaction a label) stick the wallet address the company you are buying from sent you into the address area, set the fee you want (controls the speed at the which the transaction goes through) and click send! (Most wallets will require you to type in the password you made to create and access the wallet to send coin.)
Now you just completed your first crypto purchase and you should get a confirmation of your completed order from said company whenever they decide to send it out.
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Special thanks to beef for taking the time and writing this all up!
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