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Crypto VPN | 2 Best VPN’s To Use When Sending, Receiving, Or Exchanging Bitcoin
In this article, I am going to share with you why it’s best to use a VPN with all of your bitcoin related dealings with a crypto vpn. I recently had an experience where I was sending and receiving some bitcoin with a friend of mine and I was in a rush and I forgot to enable my VPN to process the transaction.
At first, I didn’t think too much of it, but then I received an email indicating that it detected me sending it from a different IP address. This was a blunt reminder that even when you aren’t conscious of it, all of your dealings on the internet are being watched and recorded by your ISP, and in some cases, even the wallet or exchange you are sending or withdrawing your coins from.
This is why using a VPN is not only important for your everyday internet browsing, but particularly when you are dealing with sending, receiving, or exchanging bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Before I get into the meat of the article, I just wanted to remind my readers that I recently wrote an e-book that details the 5 best ways to secure your cryptocurrency. This is an in-depth guide that goes into the best tips and tricks for managing your cryptocurrency and specifically the best practices on how to store and diversify your holdings. Click HERE to check it out, it’s free!
So let’s get right into what a VPN is, and why you need one! Let’s go!
What Is A VPN?
A VPN (or Virtual Private Network) is designed to obfuscate or block your current IP address, which includes your ISP and your current location from being tracked online. Why would I need this? Well, as you probably already know, the internet is an amazing place, but it surely isn’t private. Your ISP is watching your web pages, knows your location, and can even report what you are watching and doing to the authorities, if they so choose.
This is NOT ok, as your privacy is an unalienable right. There is no reason they need to know this information and should not be strong-armed into handing it over to the authorities for any reason. This is where a VPN comes in. VPN’s are not only used for every day internet browsing, but can also used for torrenting, streaming services (like Netflix and Hulu) and also when making any financial transactions, namely crypto transactions.
With a VPN, you can cloak your location, the website’s you access, any downloads or uploads you have engaged in, and much much more. This is ideal if you want privacy for whatever you decide to do online, and the best part is, most VPN providers don’t even log what you do, so if they are contacted by authorities, they can’t even hand over anything anyways.
Why Do I Need A VPN For Bitcoin Transactions?
As mentioned above, without a VPN, all of your interactions or actions you take online are recorded with your ISP and they log all your websites, and what you do on those websites. This means, that if they wanted to, they can see your passwords, watch your private information, and use it against you. This doesn’t mean they will, but take into consideration if they get hacked. There is nothing blocking a nefarious character from taking your personal information and using it against you.
When it comes to bitcoin and crypto transactions, privacy is the MOST important thing. Period.
Do I Need A VPN For Trading On Bitcoin Exchanges?
Yes. Most exchanges (especially U.S. exchanges like Coinbase, and Bittrex) are in bed with the government and the IRS, so they are tracking what you do, where you are, and can provide a lot of identifying information. If you consent to this when using an exchange, that’s on you, however, when you use a VPN, you can take your physical location layer out of the equation. Additionally, you may want to use services like Bitmex for leverage trading or an exchange like Bitfinex that does not allow U.S. IP addresses. This would be a work around for you to gain access to products and services that are not available in your jurisdiction.
Can I Pay For A VPN With Bitcoin Or Other Cryptocurrencies?
Yes. I recommend using either NordVPN or ExpressVPN, as I use both personally. They are not based in the U.S., so they are not subject to any of the regulations or over-reaching by our government, so that is a huge relief and provides peace of mind. You can click the link below to get 75% off Nord VPN and ExpressVPN below, and I believe they offer a free-trial as well and a 30-day money back guarantee!
**CLICK HERE TO BUY NORDVPN AT 75% OFF**
**CLICK HERE TO BUY EXPRESSVPN AT 75% OFF**
Additionally, you can pay in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies when you sign up for either of these. To me, that’s a HUGE plus because it demonstrates the companies’ values and I always like to support organizations that promote using bitcoin and other crypto in every day commerce. I have a review video I did below that goes over these in a little more detail, but both are top-notch and trusted and used my millions of people for various uses. This is designed for people that value their privacy and anonymity. (Satoshi would be proud!)
Is There A Free VPN?
There is ONE that I have used in the past called Tunnel Bear, but it only allows up to 500MB per month for free. If you exceed that amount (which isn’t a lot), you will be required to upgrade and pay either a monthly or yearly fee. I used this as a starter VPN, and is the best free VPN I’ve personally used. You can use the link below to get signed up for free, and if you decide to upgrade, it will provide you 58% discount on your service.
**CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TUNNELBEAR FOR FREE**
Crypto VPN: Conclusion
Overall, you absolutely need a VPN for all of your crypto-related dealings and the options for NordVPN and ExpressVPN also have free mobile apps, so you can make sure it’s enabled on your phone if you prefer to send/receive on a mobile bitcoin wallet as well, so there is no excuse to not use one.
Trust me when I say, no matter how much of a hurry I am in, I will never forget to enable it again, and it’s just as simple as a click away, so it’s very easy to use. On a side note and on the topic of mobile apps, If you are looking for new an interesting ways to earn free bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies), you can download the LIFE INFO APP.
This app pays you in bitcoin rewards on purchases you are making anyways, and also gives you an instant discount on everything you buy. There is no reason NOT to do this, as there is no catch, and you save money. If you’re buying these items anyway, you may as well save money and earn bitcoin for free. I will leave an in-depth review of this HERE for you to check it out and will answer more of your questions, but I strongly recommend you check it out.
What do you think? Do you use a VPN for sending and receiving bitcoin? Let me know in the comments below!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin (2020)
In this review, I will be going over the 3 best ways on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin in 2019. There are 3 trusted sites (and one app) that are used to buy gift cards very easily and it happens almost instantly. You can choose whether or not to email you the redemption code for the gift cards digitally via email, or you can choose to have them shipped as a physical card to your friends or family if you are going to use it as a gift.
It all is very easy, and more importantly, it proves that there is real world utility for bitcoin (in case you didn’t know that already). Let’s get right to the best ways to go about this below!
Before I get to these 3 options, I will recommend you first check out the LIFE INFO APP. This does the reverse and allows you to earn free bitcoin AND save money on thousands of merchants, just like the resources below. I HIGHLY recommend using this free app, because it’s a great way to start accumulating bitcoin for free while saving money on purchasing items you are already buying anyway. I will leave a link to the review that explains this free app HERE.
DOWNLOAD THE LIFE INFO APP TO START EARNING BITCOIN
How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin
#1 GYFT.COM
This website offers a fully functioning website and a full service mobile app as well, but you can get pretty much any type of gift card you can think of. It’s essentially the Amazon of of buying gift cards and the selection is huge. It covers anything from pizza gift cards to department stores, like Macy’s to Best Buy to Cruises and Airlines.
This really is one of the largest sites that allows you to buy gift cards and isn’t fully dedicated to bitcoin. (we’ll get to that option below). You can actually buy these gift cards with any payment method, but bitcoin is an advertised method for doing so. I have used it once on this site and it’s fairly straight forward with scanning the QR code with my phone and authorizing with my BitPay wallet.
This probably has the largest selection of gift cards, but one thing I wish they did was incentivize the use of bitcoin by offering a discount for purchasing these gift cards, but for them it just appears to be another payment method.
If you want to save money and get discounted gift cards with bitcoin or bitcoin cash, I would recommend trying out Purse.io, which is Amazon built on top of a new platform that specifically deals in bitcoin payment. You can check out my review and recap in this article I wrote HERE.
#2 BITREFILL.COM
This is a site that I love using because it was built specifically to help propel bitcoin being used in commerce specifically. Not only that, you can buy gift cards with Bitcoin, but you can also use several other altcoins as well. You can also top up gift cards on your phone in any denomination you need and it offers over 750 different gift cards, so it has a VERY large selection, just like above.
You can also use Lightning Payments for ordering bitcoin as well. This is a new development, but one that is very welcome. I just downloaded my first wallet for the lightning network and it was really fun to see it in action! Granted, I haven’t tested it out on a purchase here, yet.
However, I plan to do that very soon on my next gift card purchase. I always try to support businesses that support bitcoin payments, but especially ones that were built on the promise of bitcoin being a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that was developed by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto.
Overall, this is probably my favorite place to buy gift cards when I pay with bitcoin or any other altcoin, because of it’s dedication to this cause. I also had a smooth experience and had the physical cards shipped to me within 3 days and arrived on time and as described.
The one thing that also makes this different, is you can pay your phone bill and cable bill with bitcoin. How? Well, you can purchase a specific gift cards amount, say $94.36 if that’s your phone bill amount, and use that to pay your monthly Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint Bill. Pretty neat.
Also, you can do this with your cable bill if you use Cox or Xfinity if you’re in the U.S. The same thing applies where you can purchase a gift card for an exact amount and use it when you go online to pay your bill. Pretty cool if you ask me!
#3 BITPAY WALLET APP
This is my number one go to mobile wallet because of it’s utility. I also have a visa card that I can load up my bitcoin on directly, so it’s all managed and very easy to use in the app. But, it also offers integrations with Coinbase and you can buy gift cards directly from your wallet there.
The only downside is, it supports only Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). If you are using any other cryptocurrencies with your day to day spending, then I would go with something else, but I use this one every single day, because the user experience is top notch.
In terms of gift cards, here is an article the wrote when it was rolled out last December HERE. Ultimately, it doesn’t quite have the features or selection that the other two offer, but when you use this mobile wallet for the debit visa card and for other everyday spending, it makes it easier to manage it all in one place..
It covers some larger name retailers like: Uber, Delta Airlines, Hotels.com and Amazon. There are other options, and they are adding more all the time, so keep an eye on that. Overall, I personally use this option the most as I mentioned above I have a lot of services integrated with this wallet and I’ve never had a bad experience.
CONCLUSION
These are the easiest steps on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin! Overall, I have a clear favorite in the list above in terms of specifically buying gift cards and that is Bitrefill.com, but that does not mean the other options are bad. I have personally used all 3 of these and they all have a good user experience.
The difference lies in their business models and the personal branding and position in the marketplace. They are all reputable and I can recommend all of them, but I still have a soft spot for “Bitcoin Companies” in general, and that’s just an emotional leaning on my part.
If you ever need to see some previews of get some other commentary, watch the video I did above that goes over this and shows you how to go about this process. Give these a try when you have a holiday, birthday, or any other type of event when a gift card would be appropriate. you won’t regret it.
What do you think? Are there better ways to buy gift cards online? Let me know below in the comments!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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How To Buy Bitcoins With Paypal Instantly (2020)
In this article, I will tell you how to buy bitcoins with Paypal instantly. Some of us on our journey for buying our first bitcoin, we look at the funding source from which we want to pay for it. In some cases it may be your bank account, in others it could be with a debit or credit card, but what if you have some funds sitting in Paypal and you would like to use that as a payment method directly?
hLuckily, this can be done and some methods are more legitimate than others. I am going to include the best ways (in order) to do complete this process, but keep in mind that Paypal will include additional fees to buy bitcoin that can range from 10-20% more than the actual price you agree to, as Paypal is factoring in the risk of a charge back into the purchase price. Let’s begin!
#1 BUY BITCOIN ON ETORO VIA PAYPAL
Step 1 – Open Your Account
– Visit the eToro homepage- Click the ‘Join Now’ button- Fill out the sign-up page, accepting the terms and conditions and privacy policy before clicking ‘Create Account’
Step 2 – Deposit Funds with Paypal
– Log in to your eToro account- Click on the ‘Deposit Funds’ button- Submit the amount you wish to deposit and select your currency- Select your deposit method – in this case, PayPal- You’ll then be redirected to the PayPal website- Log in to your PayPal account- Review your transaction details- Verify the details and complete the transaction by clicking ‘Pay’
Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!
- Visit the BTC markets page on eToro
- Click the blue ‘Trade’ button in the top right-hand corner
- Alternatively, you can click ‘Buy’ next to Bitcoin if you have added it to your Watchlist
- Enter the amount of Bitcoin you wish to buy in fiat currency
- Set stop losses and ‘take profit’ parameters- Click ‘Open Trade’
#2 BUY BITCOIN ON COINBASE VIA PAYPAL
*Disclaimer: Using the e-wallet via Coinbase (web or iOS) requires you to be a U.S. investor. If you are not an American, you can still link your Paypal account to Coinbase, but you can’t physically buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum. In order to use PayPal for non-US customers is to swap your Bitcoin for a fiat currency and transfer this back to your Paypal account.*
- Visit the Coinbase homepage
- Click on the ‘Sign Up’ button in the top right-hand corner
- Complete the sign-up form and hit the ‘Create Account’ button
- Activate your Coinbase account by clicking on the confirmation link in your sign-up email
Step 2- Deposit Funds with Paypal
- Log in to your Coinbase account
- Click the ‘Settings’ tab on the left-hand side
- Click ‘Add a Payment Method’
- Click ‘PayPal Account’ and verify your PayPal account using the on-screen prompts
Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!
- Log in to your Coinbase account
- On the Dashboard, click the ‘Buy/Sell’ button at the top of the page
- On the Buy/Sell window, click the Bitcoin button
- Choose your preferred payment method e.g. PayPal
- Specify the amount of Bitcoin you want in your fiat currency
- Hit ‘Buy Bitcoin Instantly’
#3 BUY BITCOIN IN PERSON VIA PAYPAL (LOCAL BITCOINS)
Step 1 – Sign Up (If you haven’t already)
Click this link for a direct way to do this! – SIGN UP
Step 2 – Filter for Paypal
Paypal Tips:
- High feedback scores are important. The closer to 100 percent, the better.
- Look at the number of trades and trade volume. Again, the higher, the better.
- Consider the trade limits to be sure the seller can fill your order.
- Look at the payment window to see how long you have to complete the transaction.
- Read any terms the seller might have. In some cases, the seller will also require a minimum reputation score for the buyer. If this is the case, you’ll have to make some small purchases to increase your reputation if you want to use that specific seller.
Step 3 – Confirm Transaction
This is documented in case of a dispute, but as long as you follow the tips above, that is unlikely. You can also negotiate to meet in person to initiate this process, if needed.
CONCLUSION
There are still other options to buy bitcoin with Paypal online, but those other options I have not personally used or tested and therefore, I cannot speak to how legitimate the entire process is. For your reference if you want to see what some other options are, I will link them below for you to take a look. Well, there you have it. Three tried and true ways to buy bitcoin online with Paypal and usually goes pretty quickly. This is a good option if you have funds sitting in Paypal and want to convert it into the far more valuable currency of the future.
NOTE: The other sites I will list below will allow other options for credit cards and other payment methods as well.
If you found this helpful or you have any other suggestions on other sources to obtain bitcoin securely and easily, please comment below!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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