Four Steps To GIFTING Bitcoin
As the holiday season draws closer and you sit there struggling to think of the best gift ever, you may have made a HUGE oversight by not considering the latest craze taking the world by storm — Bitcoin!
Whilst Bitcoin is taking the world by storm for the incredible potential profits to be had, we mustn’t lose sight of Bitcoin’s raison d’être.
Individual participant control over your own system and finances.
As such, gifting people Bitcoin at any stage during the year can be viewed as a symbolic gesture that when you take into account the reason for Bitcoin’s existence, is actually rather endearing.
A friend of mine asked how to buy and share Bitcoin for her father for Christmas. The process was — well, if you have ever tried to buy Bitcoin and move it around, you already know!
The gift of financial freedom and individual sovereignty currently costs a pretty satoshi. On a purchase of £30 GBP ($40 USD) we spent HALF on mining fees even when trying to avoid them using the best crypto hack ever! Remember that gifts don’t need to be big extravagancies, and you can buy and own fractions of a Bitcoin…
It got me thinking — just how many others are wondering how they go about doing the same, however, providing more creativity in the gift rather than just sending someone .0001 Bitcoin and saying Merry Christmas ya filthy animal — the rest was eaten in fees!
TLDR: crypto’s awesome for a gift and gets people involved — here’s how:
Step 1 — Funding Your Purchase
Generous gifter first needs to send money to an exchange. Don’t forget, the aim is to pay little to no fees. If you don’t already have an account on a cryptocurrency exchange, check out my guide to opening one here.
Step 2 — Buying BTC
Buy BTC on the exchange, or if you know someone you trust, feel free to ask them to buy you BTC or buy BTC from them — allowing you to skip the exchange completely.
Step 3 — Setting Up Gift Wallet
Download a wallet that you’ll use as the “Gift Wallet”.
My suggestion is to use one of the following:
GreenAddress (iOS, Android, Chrome — Free)
I personally prefer this wallet, due to the fact you can have multiple wallets within one app (much like a bank), as well as it also incorporates many fundamental properties that a Bitcoin/crypto wallet should have i.e. Full control of your Public/Private Keys, decentralised validation, 2FA for transactions & full control over fees plus a bunch more. More info can be found here.
Jaxx (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux — Free)
Mycelium (iOS, Androud — Free)
I’ll step through the process for GreenAddress.
- Create Gift Wallet
Once the app is downloaded, go ahead and step through the wallet creation screens.
You should write down the mnemonic passphrase and store in a safe place. THIS ALLOWS ACCESS TO YOUR BITCOIN. DO NOT SHOW TO ANYONE! (unless we are at Step 4)…
2. Create Gift Account
Once set up, go to menu (top left of the screen) — SETTINGS > ACCOUNTS > CREATE A SIMPLE ACCOUNT > Name it what you like!
3. Wallet Address To Send BTC To
Next hit the “Show URL and address” button to obtain your wallet address.
4. Transfer BTC From Exchange (or person*) to Gift Wallet
Use the wallet address to transfer the BTC you just bought. The reason I use GDAX is because it allows zero fee trades AND withdrawals, so it’s all part of the masterplan to gift BTC without giving the miners a gift!
*Using a person would incur a mining fee, unless they have BTC already on GDAX.
At this stage you should have; 1) a gift wallet 2) BTC in your gift wallet 3) paid zero fees.
Step 4— Giving The Gift of Financial Freedom
Now there are a couple of things to consider here:
- Is the person you are gifting BTC to responsible or not!? This may seem like an odd thought process, however, with Bitcoin/cryptocurrency — you are your own bank! You have no one to fall back on incase something goes wrong i.e. your phone is lost/stolen, your computer or other device holding your Bitcoin breaks for whatever reason and you haven’t backed your sh*t up. As such, it is imperative (and I don’t say this lightly) to not become one of the increasing number of people who LOSE THEIR BITCOIN!
If they are responsible we will go down one path, if not, we will take another.
2. How creative are you going to get with your gift?
Passing On The Gift
Let’s take the “responsible” recipient first. You have several choices to pass this gift on:
Paper Wallet
Take the mnemonic passphrase and write it out on a nice piece of paper or a card. Send in the post — exactly the same as when your granny sends money in the post, except this time we are getting with the times and sending crypto!
This will allow the recipient to download the app and restore the BTC you purchased. Job done — gift of financial freedom given!
Messenger
Take the mnemonic passphrase and send via an encrypted messenger (Telegram, Whatsapp, iMessage , Cryphr— no, not email!). Things to consider here are that yes, these apps are technically encrypted, but remember that anyone with this passphrase can then restore the wallet and spend/take your BTC. So do this with caution, I would highly recommend you then go through the process of creating a completely NEW wallet when the recipient receives it and transfer the balance there. (Yes, it’s a slight inconvenience, however, its a small price to pay for decentralised individual sovereignty and the process will get better with time). This may incur a mining fee.
At the very least, delete the message afterward!
For an irresponsible recipient, a child or just someone you don’t wish to provide control over the funds to, you may do the following:
Watch-Only View
Do not provide the passphrase to restore the wallet, instead we will create a “Watch-Only” login. This allows you to see the BTC but not touch — window shopping if you like.
Hit Custom Login > Add The Username & Password you wish to provide the recipient with (although this can’t be used for anything bad, try not to make it too easy).
Send the recipient the username and password for the gift wallet. Again, you may wish to be creative in the way you provide the gift — see the previous suggestions above.
All the recipient has to do now, is take the credentials > download the app > hit “Show other logins” > Enter the credential est voila!
Mind blown
One final thing to point out here, is that although people may not spend on the Watch-Only login, they are still able to SEND BTC to the address. This may be a fantastic way to create a savings account*, allowing anyone to contribute to it.
Get creative, have a lot of fun and enjoy this sensational financial revolution.
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*This does not constitute financial advice, and you should carry out your own due diligence.
