Merry Christmas Dogecoin

Posted December 24, 2018 | View revision history

Hello family. I want to give you dogecoin. But you are technological luddites, so I’m writing these instructions.

Hello internet visitors from the future!This blog post was written for my immediate family. Sorry to disappoint.

What? What is dogecoin?

It is digital cryptocurrency with a vibrant community. It’s comfy and easy to wear. You want it. Here is a brief introduction, and here is the community subreddit.

It’s money? How much is it worth?

Use a site like this to check. Currently though, the market rate is 1 Doge == 1 Doge.

Gimmie dat dogecoin

You will need a “wallet” to store your dogecoin in. Once you have a wallet, I will send money to it.

  • Download the application “Multidoge”, following the instructions here. You can use this to manage your wallet.
  • Launch Multidoge. It will create a wallet file for you on your device.
    • The file will have a .wallet extension. This file holds the “key” (the private key) to your dogecoin. Anyone who can read the contents of this file can spend your dogecoin.
    • So, password-protect your .wallet file. From the file menu, choose File > Add Password. Choose a password and keep it secret, keep it safe.

      This password will be used to encrypt your `.wallet` file with AES 256, a strong encryption algorithm. When a file is encrypted with strong encryption, its contents are indistinguishable from random data. The same key, derived from your password, can reverse the encryption to obtain the plaintext of your wallet key again, so that you can spend your dogecoin.
  • If you lose your wallet file, encrypted or not, and if you do not have the secret key stored within the wallet file, you lose control of your dogecoin. So, you should back up your key, which will let you restore your wallet should you ever lose it.
    • Do Tools > Export private keys.
    • Take note of the “Export file” location – this is where you keyfile will be saved to
    • Choose to “password protect export file” – this will encrypt your keyfile. You can choose the same password as you chose for your wallet, or you can choose a different one. Just don’t dadgum forget it.
    • You now have a backup of your key, which is what gives you control over your dogecoin.
      • Optional: You can send me a copy of your keyfile, and I will store it for you as a backup.
        • If you want to share it with me, then install the secure communication app signal and send me a message.

          Messages sent over signal are confidential in transit via encryption (unlike text messages), and are not stored on any server in plaintext (unlike gmail et al).

          You can optionally tell me your password too, although lol don’t do that. Use a password manager or something.

  • Tell me your wallet “receiving address.”

    • Once you have your wallet, click the “request” tab and copy the “your address” field. It will be a long sequence of numbers and letters. This is like your unique mailing address. You can have many of these all in one wallet. This key is public – anyone can see it, it is not secret. It can only be used for you to receive dogecoin.

Once I know your address, I will send you dogecoin. Much wow!

All images stolen from the internet.

Tags: cryptocurrency

Dave Eargle is a Senior Consultant in Cybersecurity Assessment at Carve Systems. More about the author →

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