Quest 2: Get on board!

The next step is to complete the guide of setting yourself up for the journey. Some tasks might already be a little bit technical but pay close attention to the instructions and you’ll be fine.

OBJECTIVE: Gear up!
OBJECTIVE: Install a fresh Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 LTS
OBJECTIVE: Join the Bitcoin Plebs community(Progress images)
OBJECTIVE: Download, verify and Install Tor browser(process similar to Mullvad browser)(Progress images)
OBJECTIVE: Start using Sparrow wallet(Progress images)
OBJECTIVE: Configure Sparrow to launch in signet mode(Progress images)

Important notes:

You will encounter highlighted terminal code like this:
cd ..
There is a copy button on the right side of the code box. You can use that but MAKE SURE TO INSPECT CODE BEFORE HITTING ENTER IN THE TERMINAL!

💡Means you will be briefed with basic theoretical knowledge before you go on your objectives. The gist of it will be clear just from these concise descriptions but I will include links here and there to decent additional sources for you to go and learn even more if you like.

Anyone serious about Bitcoin and IT security recommends a Linux operating system. Laptops and Desktops have stronger computational capabilities so they are better suited for Bitcoin operations than mobile phones.

OBJECTIVE: Gear up!

Get a decent new or used Laptop/PC that you dedicate to bitcoin. Main parameters:
1. At least 4GB RAM
2. 1TB SSD. Many laptops don’t have that much SSD capacity by default but it is easy to get an SSD-case with a USB connector
  1. SanDisk is a decent brand. Get the 2.5” size
  2. Ugreen is one option for the case. Look for UASP support and make sure the SSD fits in
3. USB stick, at least 8GB to install Operating System
4. Place the computer somewhere safe in your apartment and use a wired internet connection
You can compromise by using a machine with less RAM and SSD because most quests are designed for bitcoin testnet, a simulated bitcoin environment. However, once you want to change to mainnet for the real deal, you will need to meet the above requirements

OBJECTIVE: Install a fresh Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 LTS

💡 Learn about the Linux terminal
If you get stuck Ubuntu website has a guide too(with images)
The commands in the guide are not always exact because program versions and file names can vary. Text in <angle brackets> mean you must replace that with your version. Use tab completion often to avoid having to type much and get the commands right
Download the desktop image on whatever operating system your machine is running right now
Download and install Balena Etcher, a great software to burn images. Linux instructions:
1. Download the Appimage for Linux x64 from the website
2. AppImage files are portable programs. They can be run without installation
3. Make the file executable
```
chmod +x balenaEtcher<version>.AppImage
```
4. Run the software from command line in the Downloads directory
```
./balenaEtcher<version>
```
5. If you haven’t dealt with AppImage files before it will most probably complain about missing libfuse. Just install it in this case
```
sudo apt install fuse
```
6. Try to run it again
Burn the image on the USB drive
Reboot your computer from the USB stick and select the first option: “Try or install Ubuntu”
Select “Minimal installation”
Select “Erase disk and install Ubuntu”. Follow instructions
Name your user and choose a strong, dedicated password
Leave it on the default “Require my password to login”. Continue
Complete the process
Once it is done, go for these options for your privacy:
1. Don’t connect social accounts
2. Don’t send any usage info to canonical
3. Switch OFF location services
Install updates when Ubuntu prompts you
Set up Firefox
1. Make it the default browser
2. Make DuckDuckGo your search engine, it is more private. In the settings search bar you can easily find this setting
Quick tip: To launch an application press the “Super” button(mostly with windows icon) and start typing the name
Quick tip: Add to favorites (left column) makes things convenient. by Super –> Type name –> Right-click –> Add to favorites
Don’t bloat this system too much with unnecessary apps because it is a risk. Try to keep it restricted to software you need for bitcoin

OBJECTIVE: Join the Bitcoin Plebs community(Progress images)

💡Learn about the nostr protocol that allows you to connect to the bitcoin plebs community
💡Learn about the concept of public key cryptography
Start taking notes on anything new and noteworthy: techniques, commands, configurations, resources etc.
1. Open “gedit” and create a text note file “bitcoin plebs notes”
2. Don’t use it for private keys or passwords!
3. Don’t use Google keep or any other non-encrypted cloud-based note app for delicate information because you create a security and/or privacy risk! Keep very sensitive notes offline, encrypted and create backups from time to time. More tips on this later…
Install the Alby extension in your browser
Create a new Alby account. Lightning address too.
Backup your password:
1. In a Password manager
2. You can even write it in a paper notebook
Pin the Alby extension in the browser
Navigate to Discover in Alby and find the Nostr section. You can do the same if you click on your account in the top-right corner and select Account settings
Generate a new nostr private key. It will automatically also generate your public key
You must keep this key as safe as possible! Therefore write it down in your Password manager and/or your paper notebook
Now all your nostr-related data is handled by Alby. Alby can handle all browser-based nostr client permissions wherever it is installed as an extension
Go to the Coracle (or your favorite) nostr client. It is a stable browser-based client with great features
Log into Coracle automatically with Alby:
1. Click Login
2. Click Login again for a simple login process
3. Confirm in Alby to allow Coracle to read your public key
4. You can edit permissions and automatic actions in Alby for Coracle and other clients
In Coracle, go to the Relay section in the left menu then go to Browse Relays and setup to connect at least to these relays:
```
wss://bitcoiner.social
```
```
wss://nos.lol
```
```
wss://relay.nostr.band
```
```
wss://relay.snort.social
```
```
wss://relay.damus.io
```
Go to the Search section in the left menu. Follow my account if you have any questions. Search the nip05 identity or my account public key(npub)
```
five@btcplebs.com
```
```
npub16p8v7varqwjes5hak6q7mz6pygqm4pwc6gve4mrned3xs8tz42gq7kfhdw
```
Share your experience about this program on nostr:
1. Follow the hashtag #bitcoinplebsorg
2. Create a note in Coracle (or your favorite nostr client)
3. Use the hashtag #bitcoinplebsorg in your note
4. Now others who follow this hashtag can see your notes and start a conversation!
You can also use the nostri-chat widget located in right corner of the web page to post directly to nostr with the right hashtag added automatically!

Send your first nostr note:

“Hello, fellow Bitcoin Plebs! #bitcoinplebsorg”

You can install Damus(iOS) or Amethyst(Android) on your phone
Run a nostr client on your phone:
1. Alby cannot handle phone apps so you will have to initialize these apps by putting your nostr private key in the smartphone
2. DON’T PASTE YOUR PRIVATE KEY IN CLOUD-BASED NOTE APPS AND DON’T SEND IT VIA EMAIL OR ANY OTHER UNENCRYPTED MEANS!
3. Type in character by character or send it to your device in an encrypted way, e.g. a Signal Note to self message. Signal can be installed on desktops and has a mobile app too
If it went fine, shortly you can see the same profile info and messages you sent on your desktop.
Other Nostr clients with microblogging features:
1. Primal: Polished web-client
2. Iris: Works in Browser and on Android
3. Snort: Browser-based

Note: The feature set of different nostr clients can be different depending on what and how they are implemented. Basic messaging should be available on all clients but e.g. Lightning zaps(small amounts of bitcoin sent to another user) are not included on all clients. More info on feature set of nostr clients

Posting: Beware that there is no central authority on nostr to remove content from all relays. Therefore, there is no 100% surefire way to delete content from nostr relays!

Data backups: You are using multiple relays to store your data redundantly but there is no guarantee that this data will be preserved by relays forever. You should connect to at least one trustworthy relay that stores your data. Furthermore you may create data backups every now and then or even run your own relay for automatic backup purpose

Moderation of discussion: Nostr pushes many functionalities to the client side. This also means that there is no real way for anyone to moderate any discussion single-handedly. In consequence, there is no automatic curation of people and topics that you are interested in

You can choose to use your own content-filtering methods though:

Some of this happens already based on what relays you are connected to(they don’t store anything people send)

Following/unfollowing people and #hashtags

Blocking and/or Reporting people in most clients. Blocking should discard any messages sent to you from that person by the clients and reporting a person signals to your social network that you found someone abusive for some reason

Joining or leaving public group chats

There can be automatic message filters implemented in clients. They could be beneficial if they filter spam but this gives also way to discard things you would want to keep. Always check moderation policies of the clients you are using and opt out if you are uncomfortable with the app developer’s choices. Or even better, fork their open-source projects and implement your own! ;)

Tor

The Tor browser is a powerful privacy tool to fend off snoopers trying to monitor our online activities and potentially do us harm. A bitcoin pleb cannot let this happen. Browsing anything bitcoin-related in clear-net comes with some privacy risks.

Tor is great for looking up simple info but can be a painfully slow experience and time is the scarcest of all things. Instead you can browse with Firefox or Mullvad browser coupled with Proton- or Mullvad VPN service enabled on the desktop. VPN is great but choose wisely because many of the services out there are just a fraud and you trust them not to log your activities and they can start logging without notice anytime the government asks them to do so.

OBJECTIVE: Download, verify and Install Tor browser(process similar to Mullvad browser)(Progress images)

💡 Learn about Verification of digital information
Your Ubuntu came with a handy tool to use for encryption and verification: GPG(Gnu Privacy Guard, implementing the OpenPGP standard). Open a terminal to use it
1. Super + start typing “terminal”(add to favorites with right-click)
Go to the website of the Tor project. It should be a simple https website(check the little lock icon in the address bar)
Go to Download Tor Browser and select Linux
Download the signature file as well
In the terminal navigate into the download directory
```
cd ~/Downloads
```
Verify Tor Browser (use man <command> where you are unsure)
1. You download the public key(or get it by any other means) of the developer(s) and import it in gpg
```
gpg --auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys torbrowser@torproject.org
```
2. You verify the signature of the file against the public key
```
gpg --verify tor-browser-linux64-12.0.5_ALL.tar.xz.asc
```
3. Note: Verification processes can vary for different software but the fundamentals remain the same
Install Tor browser with the command line method according to instructions:
1. Run the command to extract the archive
```
tar -xf tor-browser…. <press Tab to complete>
```
2. Go inside the extracted directory
```
cd tor-browser
```
3. Make the desktop file executable
```
sudo chmod +x start-tor….<press Tab>
```
4. Run Tor browser. First time run it with a command argument to register the desktop app
```
./start-tor-browser<press Tab> --register-app
```
5. You can now launch Tor browser using the Super + <typing> method
6. Add Tor browser to favorites

When you are doing anything bitcoin-related the most interaction is going to be with your bitcoin wallet software. This is the brain coordinating your efforts to manage and monitor your funds. One of the most popular wallets today is Sparrow wallet. It allows for ease of use while implementing advanced features. Learning bitcoin starts with Sparrow wallet in my opinion. So let’s start to use it!

OBJECTIVE: Start using Sparrow wallet(Progress images)

Open Firefox browser and navigate to the Sparrow wallet website(clearnet link)
1. Download is very slow on Tor browser but you can try
Go to Download and navigate to version 1.7.6 in previous releases(known working version with the this course)
Download these files(click “show all assets” to expand the list)
- sparrow_1.7.6.1_amd64.deb(debian 64-bit linux package, no server in name!)
- …manifest.txt file
- …manifest.txt.asc file
Verify the downloaded software according to instructions:
1. Import Craig Raw’s(developer of Sparrow wallet) public key
```
curl https://keybase.io/craigraw/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
```
2. The manifest file contains the hash fingerprints of the different releases. If you view the file you can see the release you downloaded is also listed. If we can trust the manifest file then we can generate a fingerprint from our downloaded Sparrow file and compare that fingerprint with the one listed in the manifest file. If the fingerprint we generated matches the one listed in the manifest file then we can trust the downloaded software and go ahead with the installation
3. To trust the manifest file you have to check its signature against Craig’s public key
4. Go to Downloads
```
cd ~/Downloads
```
5. Verify the manifest files signature:
```
gpg –verify sparrowsparrow-1.7.6-manifest.txt.asc
```
6. Now verify that the manifest file contains the exact fingerprint of our release. We ignore missing releases in the list that we did not download
```
sha256sum -c sparrow-1.7.6-manifest.txt --ignore-missing
```
7. To sum up this kind of verification visually
Now we can somewhat trust this software so let’s install it
1. The most used packages are installed using Ubuntu’s predefined package repositories but since Sparrow is custom Software let’s install the downloaded “.deb” package manually
2. In the directory where sparrow was downloaded run this command
```
sudo apt install ./sparrow_1.7.6-1_amd64.deb
```
Sparrow wallet is now installed but don’t launch it just yet!

Bitcoin plebs have a wonderful training ground to hone their skills in a safe environment. It is called bitcoin testnet. These are bitcoin networks that function almost the same as the “mainnet” - i.e. real-money version, just they are for testing, learning and experimenting with fake-bitcoin. There are multiple testnets for different purposes. The one you will use is quite new and it’s called “Signet”. This special Signet called “Mutinynet” produces blocks every 30seconds instead of the 10min usual block time. This makes it better for learning purposes.

OBJECTIVE: Configure Sparrow to launch in signet mode(Progress images)

The easiest way to make Sparrow always launch in signet mode is to set a so-called “environment variable” which is just a fancy term for “I want this program to run with these special parameters”
In the terminal edit this file that contains important things to run at startup
```
nano ~/.profile
```
At the bottom insert this line to force Sparrow to launch in signet mode every time
```
export SPARROW_NETWORK=”signet”
```
Then insert another line allowing you to launch Sparrow from anywhere in the terminal not just where it is actually located /opt/sparrow/bin
```
export PATH=”$PATH:/opt/sparrow/bin”
```
Save the file: ctrl + o –> enter
Exit nano: ctrl + x
Restart your computer for it to take effect
```
reboot
```
Now you can launch Sparrow and add it to favorites
On first launch it gives you an initial mini-tutorial. At the end you can configure your server settings
This setting is also available from File menu
In the Server settings connect Sparrow to the Mutinynet signet server
1. Select Private Electrum as Server Type
2. Edit the URL and Port field, respectively:
```
45.79.52.207
```
```
50001
```
Press the “Test Connection” button and follow the logs
After the connection was established, click Close
In the bottom-right corner you have the Server switch turned on and color blue
Hover over the icons with your mouse to check additional info. In Sparrow you can hover over many things and it will give you great additional insights
If Sparrow loses connection for any reason and you cannot re-establish it, you can try this alternative node:
- Onion URL:
```
e2zh2kfz7zhov4ruas52iyghw6uxgi6dy22rzlnnmao4hmxcvxfiq6ad.onion
```
- Port:
```
50001
```

Congratulations! You are all set!

Next Quest