Note: Because the world of crypto moves quickly, the information here can become obsolete. This guide was last updated on 2024-01-07.


What is Bitcoin?

If you are interested in a readup on what Bitcoin actually is and how it works, there is a decent article on [en.wikipedia.org] Wikipedia, as well as a [bitcoin.org] FAQ. Most of this information is also directly applicable to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) which was forked from Bitcoin (BTC) in 2017.

Or if you don't care to read, there's always this cheesy video:



Essentially, the Bitcoin network is a distributed ledger of transactions, generally referred to as the blockchain. Everyone who owns coins on this network has a so-called "wallet", usually stored online or on their computer or mobile device. This wallet stores the secret keys required to spend any coins that, according to the distributed ledger, are owned by it.

Whenever someone wants to spend coins, they use their wallet's secret keys to cryptographically sign a transaction telling the network to update the ledger by transferring a specific number of coins from their wallet to another wallet. This transaction is then broadcasted to the network. After the transaction has been confirmed and validated through a process called "mining", the distributed ledger is updated, which means the coins have been permanently and irrevocably transferred to the other wallet.

This explanation is highly simplified. If you want technical details on how the system works, see Further readings below.


Buying coins from exchanges

The most common way to obtain some coins is to use an exchange. Exchanges allow you to trade traditional fiat currency (like US$ or Euro) for coins, and vice versa. [bitcoin.org] A non-exhaustive list of exchanges can be found here.

Globally, the most reputable Bitcoin exchange is arguably [www.bitstamp.net] Bitstamp for both bank transfers and credit card purchases, but you may want to look up an exchange in your own country. Typically, in-country bank transfers are cheaper than international ones, and verification tends to be easier.

If you live in the US, the most convenient place to buy is probably [coinbase.com] Coinbase. They also service a few select European countries, and allow you to buy with bank transfers or credit cards.

Other major exchanges include [gemini.com] Gemini and [kraken.com] Kraken, but there are many others. Make sure to do your research if you go with a less well-known one.

After purchasing the coins, you can withdraw them directly to the address found on your E-Hentai donation page. See Sending the donation below for more information.


Buying coins from other forum members

There are people on this forum who will donate on your behalf in exchange for site currency, and while we cannot endorse anyone in particular, they usually advertise on the trading forums.

When setting up the trade, you must use the "Send Wallet Address PM" function found on your E-Hentai donation page, and have them send it there directly. Trading site currency or items for coins sent to other addresses is not allowed.


Buying coins from ATMs

In cities or larger towns, there is a chance that you can find a Bitcoin ATM where you can exchange physical banknotes for bitcoins. One way to locate these is with [coinatmradar.com] Coin ATM Radar.

When making the purchase, you can simply let it scan the QR code directly from your phone by loading the E-Hentai donation page directly, or by saving the QR code image or taking a picture of it beforehand. Alternatively, you could print the QR code and scan the printout. The ATM should then send the coins to your E-Hentai wallet address directly. See Sending the donation below for more information.


Buying coins from P2P/non-KYC services

There are peer-to-peer exchange services that let you buy coins in exchange for cash, gift cards and the like without having to fork over your personal information. Examples include [bisq.network] Bisq, [learn.robosats.com] RoboSats, [hodlhodl.com] Hodl Hodl, [agoradesk.com] AgoraDesk and [localcoinswap.com] LocalCoinSwap.

Many other anonymous exchange services can be found listed here: [kycnot.me] KYCnot.me

We cannot however vouch for any particular service or trader, so do your own research.


Sending the donation

Whether you use an exchange or an ATM, or you use your own wallet, you simply withdraw or send the coins you want to donate directly to the address found on your E-Hentai donation page. After a short wait, usually no more than one hour, they will be available for use.

Important: this is not a custodial service, and it is deposit-only. This means it is not possible to transfer coins out from this wallet, so make sure to not send more than you want to donate. Formally, the actual donation is made in BTC or BCH at the time it is included in a block, and is equal to the transaction's output to your E-Hentai donation wallet address. All donations are final, and refunds of applied donations or any unspent balance will not be granted - no exceptions. The actual coins have likely been spent on servers already, and the balance displayed on your account does not generally represent actual coins in the site's wallet.

If you make a wrong deposit, do not spend it, and contact me via PM no later than 24 hours after the first confirmation. Include a refund address, and optionally the fee you would like to use for the transaction - if you do not provide one, I will use a next-block confirmation fee estimate. The transaction will then be returned to you, sans network fees. We are not responsible for lost or delayed coins if you specify the wrong address or an insufficient fee.


Applying the donation

After the coins have been marked as confirmed on the donation page, you have to apply it as a donation before it will actually do anything. You do this by entering the amount you wish to apply in the "Apply BTC/BCH as Donation" field, then click "Apply Donation".

The exchange rate is based on the live rates from major exchanges, which goes through an algorithm to make it significantly more stable. Generally the site's rate will be between 1% and 10% higher than what you see on exchanges, depending on the recent price history. The site's rate will usually only change by at most +/- $100 (BTC) or +/- $1 (BCH) every 15 minutes, and will not change unless the site's rate is less than 1% above or more than 10% above the live rate.

When a donation has been applied, the rate used is final and cannot be changed.


Donating other cryptocurrencies

We can manually accept many of the major native coins/cryptocurrencies if my hardware wallet supports them. The most notable accepted coins are Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Monero, Cardano and Solana. For instructions, PM Tenboro.

We do not accept non-native "tokens" issued via smart contracts, including but not limited to stablecoins, "wrapped" coins, meme tokens, NFTs, cryptokitties, any kind of simian, or similar silliness. We also do not accept impostor pseudo-cryptocurrencies with centralized issuance and/or consensus, like Ripple (XRP).


*** The information below is not necessary to make a donation, but can be useful if you have further interest in Bitcoin ***


Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins

or; why keeping your coins on an exchange is a bad idea.

NYKNYC is a core tenet of Bitcoin that basically means that if you do not directly control the private keys that can be used to move said coins on the blockchain, you do not actually own the coins.

If you buy bitcoin on an exchange, the balance they show you is little more than an IOU - a vague promise that you will be able to sell or withdraw said amount of coins at some point. Said promise can be withdrawn at any point for any number of reasons. Often this is because the exchange goes bankrupt because its crypto holdings were stolen due to a hack, or an intentional theft of funds by its owners, or because the exchange's funds were seized by some higher-level authority, or because the exchange itself arbitrarily confiscated your funds citing regulatory reasons ("KYC/AML").

Examples of this are legion, like MtGox way back in 2013, and FTX and Celsius Network in recent years.

In other words, buying bitcoin and storing it on an exchange is just like having fiat currency in a regular bank account, except without all the regulatory safeguards.

As such, we strongly recommend using your own Bitcoin wallet, rather than storing your coins on an exchange long-term.


!!! HERE BE DRAGONS - READ THIS FIRST !!!

No matter what type of wallet you use, it is imperative that you maintain the security of the device that stores the wallet (your private keys), and that you write down and securely store (NOT ON A PHONE OR PC) the recovery seed for the wallet.

Failure to do either, or entering it on any sort of network-connected digital device, will almost certainly eventually cause any coins stored in the wallet to be irretrievably lost.

If someone gains access to your private keys or recovery seed, they can use it to transfer your coins elsewhere, and there is no way to get them back. If both the wallet and its recovery seed are lost, so are the coins stored in it. There are no charge-backs available nor any authorities you can appeal to.

IF ANY PERSON, PROGRAM, APP OR WEBSITE EVER ASKS YOU TO PROVIDE THE RECOVERY SEED FOR YOUR WALLET, YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR COINS IF YOU PROVIDE IT.

THIS STILL APPLIES IF WHATEVER REQUESTS YOUR RECOVERY SEED LOOKS FAMILIAR TO YOU, OR CLAIMS TO BE FROM SOME OFFICIAL AUTHORITY, OR INSISTS THAT IT IS URGENT/NECESSARY/MANDATORY TO PROVIDE IT, OR WARNS THAT YOUR FUNDS ARE AT RISK IF YOU DON'T.

Scammers will tell you ANYTHING to obtain your recovery seed. Trust No One. Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

We strongly advice against investing money you cannot afford to lose in any cryptocurrency. While they work perfectly well as a medium of exchange, there are a number of events that could cause you to lose everything.

Your money is your own and you do what you want with it, but people have been known to lose their life savings to hackers, phishing, data loss, platform collapses, or high-risk margin trading.


Creating your own Bitcoin wallet

It's important to note that you don't have to bother with any kind of wallet if all you want to do is use Bitcoin to donate; you can use the wallet address shown on the E-Hentai donation page directly. Instructions on this page assume that you do this.

This wallet address can however only be used for coins you want to donate. If you wish to hold some coins yourself for investment purposes or future use, you have to create your own wallet for this. There are [bitcoin.org] numerous options to choose from.

Note that software wallets are only suitable for very small amounts of coins. For larger amounts and longer-term storage, using a hardware wallet is absolutely necessary. I personally recommend getting a [trezor.io] Trezor for this.

For desktop computers, [electrum.org] Electrum is a light-weight wallet implementation that can be used for holding small amounts of coins, and also works with hardware wallets for storing larger amounts. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

For Android devices, [play.google.com] Bitcoin Wallet is probably the most used one. [play.google.com] Electrum also has an Android version available.

iPhone users can for example use [itunes.apple.com] Blockchain Bitcoin Wallet.


Mining coins

Due to the advent of [en.bitcoin.it] ASIC miners, mining bitcoin on commodity hardware has been impossible for some time. Specialized hardware is required, and mining bitcoin directly is therefore not feasible for most people.

There are however a number of alternative cryptocurrencies that are specifically designed to be ASIC-resistant, and that can be profitably mined with a GPU. Sites like [whattomine.com] WhatToMine and [www.coinwarz.com] CoinWarz have calculators and comparisons on what altcoins are currently the most profitable with commodity hardware. Googling "how to mine <insert coin>" is your friend for guides on how to set it up for any given kind.

For example, coins like Monero can still be profitably mined with a modern CPU, depending on your electricity price. You can check the current numbers using [www.coinwarz.com] this calculator.


Further readings

The original Bitcoin paper from 2008 is available [bitcoin.org] here, which covers the basic functionality of the network.

You can find more high-level information on the [en.bitcoin.it] semi-official Wiki.

For a thorough explanation of Bitcoin starting from a high level overview and going down to a detailed description of exactly how every little bit works, read the (highly technical) book [github.com] Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

There is more extensive in-depth information intended for developers and people who want to know exactly what they are dealing with available [bitcoin.org] here.


If you have any other questions about the donation process, or the technology and other things related to Bitcoin, please feel free to ask.