Anyone have experience with any libre crypto wallet or exchange?

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andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

I have been given some brave coins and some LBRY coins and I'm not sure what to do with them. And my daughter works for a tech company and says she's going to be sending me coins eventually.

I'm reading that I'm supposed to set up a wallet or an account with a crypto exchange or something. I'm totally lost with all this stuff.

I have a bad feeling that the popular wallets and exchanges are probably as evil (or worse) as Microshaft and Fraudbook and Gaggle and Crapple and friends.

Does anyone have experience in dealing with these coin things? Any libre wallet/exchange/whatever thing I should be looking into, in your opinion? I don't know where to begin looking for information. When I just generally search for "libre exchange" or "libre wallet", I get search results that do not look trustworthy. I see one called "bisq" that's supposedly libre and peer-to-peer that looks interesting.

Thanks in advance! I'm sure some of you are way ahead of me on this stuff, any info is much appreciated.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

My experience is that coins are evil, and crypto coins are crypto evil.

Also, I have noticed that Trisquel has been shipping with the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet installed for quite a while now: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest.

My experience ends here. Good luck!

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

>"coins are evil"

I had been thinking about going money-less. As a newbie communist, I've decided that all forms of payment and trade are evil burdens placed on us by our capitalist oppressors. A person is not really alive until they are starving to death and being spit upon by their neighbors.

>"Also, I have noticed that Trisquel has been shipping with the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet installed for quite a while now: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest."

Ahh nice! Aren't you the smart one? Have one of my obsessive bourgeois upvotes. Hopefully it will fulfill your proletarian desire for approval and acceptance in a cruel and un-caring world. At least it will momentarily fulfill my bourgeois desire for meaningless and worthless contributions to my fellow human.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> going money-less

What a weird idea. Surely coins are the mischief, but banknotes come in quite handy. I have started making secret plans for Bitnote, it should be skyrocketing soon. I am ready to sell you the first few batches if you can pay upfront...although I have a nagging feeling that there is a hidden evil twist in it that might only be waiting for our next move to extend a tentacle or two and bring us to such unspeakable misery that being spit upon by our neighbors will be sweet memories.

> look into kraken.com

But remember: if you gaze long into the abyss...

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Hey,

I have been searching for FLOSS ways to deal with crypto coins too (mostly to try and make a buck or two, ahaha). There are not those many alternatives, though I did find a few projects here and there...

As for your questions, you need a "wallet" to hold coins. It could be a physical usb drive that acts as a wallet, or an online wallet that you only access through software (browser for example).
An exchange is only necessary if you want to trade (sell, buy, swap, lend, stake, etc) your coins. Usually your exchange will act as a wallet and you can use it as such (though there are risks involved in doing so).

For an exchange I would suggest you look into kraken.com
I have used it and it's very new user friendly. To start it's the best one IMHO.

Keep in mind any of these will ask for your KYC which means ID card, a utility bill to prove where you live, etc. It's normal, and I was also afraid when I started, but understood in time that I wouldn't trust a company that didn't want to be secure in its dealings.
Hope this helps you, I will say however that you should do your own research and study before you move into a decision.

Oh and you can use NoScript and only authorize scripts for the main domain in most exchanges that should be enough. There is a lot of analytics running that you can block that way.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

This is good info. And kraken.com surely sounds like as trustworthy of a name as anyone could possibly come up with.

Which wallet did you end up using, if you don't mind me asking?

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

I been using kraken's built in wallet.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> LBRY coins

Again, I think you should buy my Bitnotes instead, but otherwise you might possibly find this MIT licensed stuff interesting:

https://lbry.com/get
https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-desktop#install
https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.lbry.lbry-app

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Ahhh, so I already have a LBRY wallet and I didn't even know it.

Very cool. I wonder what I do with it?

That still leaves brave coins and the coins my daughter is wanting to give me. Brave wants me to use something called "gemini", but it's not the good, useful gemini where you browse for people's capsules and stuff. It's something that appears to be in business with Samsung, and looks super sketchy in a Samsung/Fakebook/Microshaft/Crapple kind of a way.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

I am not allowed to use Gemini. They are not operating on Tatooine as of today. Typical Federation scum, using patents and all.

All this coin business smells of squids anyway. Good food!

> I wonder what I do with it?

Our domestic economy rule is: "accept everything that can be eaten, or traded". So if you are not sure how to eat these coins, and if marinated squids are not your cup of tea, you should not accept the burden to trade them yourself. Myself, I accept peanuts and bananas exclusively. All the rest is futile hoarding triggered by dragon sickness. If a currency cannot buy me peanuts or bananas, it is worthless.

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

I'll do my best Gollum impression: "what's bitnotes precious?"

GNUbahn
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Joined: 02/18/2016

You are probably already aware of what is in the abyss but allow me to lead your attention to these to blog post by Drew Devault:

https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disaster.html

https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/07/The-next-chat-app.html

Enjoy!

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

No, but right now I'm not looking for the negative perspective, because I'm going to have to increasingly deal with digital coins whether I like them or not. What I'm trying to do right now is get some suggestions on if there's such a thing as libre wallets and exchanges in order to deal with the stuff. I like the idea of an AGPL licensed peer-to-peer exchange like bisq, and I need to get up to speed on the electrum wallet.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

I would also like to learn how to use that Electrum thing, for purely academical purposes. I feel a bit stupid never to have used it while an old friend of us seems to have managed to configure it long ago, and is probably still waiting for anyone to send him a dime or two.

EDIT: I have now configured my Electrum Bitcoin Wallet, and stand ready to receive payments.

qrcode.png
andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

Can you post a how-to series of steps?

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

Step 0: click on the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet in the 'Internet' category of your favorite applications menu.

Step 1: click "Ok" or "Next" until you get your wallet configured. You will mostly need to give it a name, and to have a pencil and paper ready to write down the seed (a series of easy-to-remember words) so you can enter it for confirmation when prompted.

That's about it. The qr code I attached has an empty amount, I would not want to become a billionaire by mistake.