If you already took the orange pill and have opened your eyes to the promise of a decentralized internet on top of Bitcoin, you might want to share that greatness with some of your friends and family. But how do you share Bitcoin with someone else? Or how do you buy it for them? If they do not know how it works yet and is new to it.
Well in this blog we tell you, step by step, how you can buy some Bitcoin for someone else. So that you can give it as a gift and boost the adoption of BTC a little bit as well.
But if you are planning to give your friend/partner/family member some BTC does make sure that they first understand a bit about how Bitcoin works or had some practice with crypto. So that they will not lose their coins. And they are prepared to handle the financial freedom and responsibility that blockchain tech brings to the people.
Things you will need
To get started with Bitcoin, your gift receiver will need to first have a Bitcoin wallet. So make sure that they install a good wallet that can receive Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency that you would like to gift them. If you need to find one you can go through all the Bitcoin wallets here.
When your friend has the right wallet for them they can start receiving some BTC. You now only need a good crypto exchange where you can buy some BTC and an account on it. And of course, some currency to exchange for BTC. Which probably comes from a bank account or if your using a Bitcoin ATM could also come from your wallet like cash.
Where to buy crypto
You can buy Bitcoin from many places. The most common way of getting your hands on some crypto is through a crypto exchange. There exist many crypto exchanges and all of them have their own pros and cons. If you are not too familiar with the crypto exchange landscape, you could probably best start with some of the larger and bigger exchanges. Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin are some of these larger platforms. With all of them having multiple millions of users.
Another way to get your friend some coins is by buying them at a Bitcoin ATM. Just make sure you send them to their address after. But you could also buy some BTC directly peer to peer from a P2P marketplace. On P2P marketplaces, you would have to directly deal with a person that wants to buy or sell their coins for cash. This process keeps the privacy of both the buyer and the seller, as their transaction will not be linked to their government identity.
The 5 steps to buying Bitcoin for someone else
Now you know what you need and know where to buy it. We can take a look at the 5 steps of buying BTC for someone else.
Step 1 – Make sure the other person has a Bitcoin wallet
Step 2 – Make sure the other person understands what they will receive and how it works.
Step 3 – Purchase some BTC from an exchange, ATM, or 3rd person.
Step 4 – Send the BTC to their address.
Step 5 – Make sure the other person creates a backup to their wallet.
Giving Bitcoin on a hardware wallet
If you preferred to give your friend some Bitcoin as a surprise gift. You could give it already pre-stored on a hardware wallet. This way, you could gift the BTC as a physical item. Which you can wrap and decorate.
To do this, you could basically use any hardware wallet. But as most of them are very expensive, the present would also become quite expensive. Depending on what your budget is you could also try to go for a hardware wallet like Ballet. The Ballet hardware wallet (which we reviewed) comes at a very decent price. But the nice thing with this hardware wallet is that you can send your crypto to it without having to use it or seeing the private key. As long as the security sticker on the wallet is still on. No one could have seen the private key. This way, the receiver will know for sure that the wallet is safe to use.
Keep in mind tho that if you intend on sending BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain. The transaction cost can sometimes be quite high. Meaning that if you want to gift someone $10 worth of BTC. You could probably better give it in another way. Because the Bitcoin transaction fees will most of the time exceed 1 dollar.
Tipping small amounts of BTC
If you really want to gift someone some small amount of BTC or send someone a tip for whatever reason. You could best do this over the lighting network. With the lightning network, you can send the smallest amount of Bitcoin (one Satoshi) to anyone at almost no cost(, or no cost).
This will make it possible to send that one friend $10 worth of BTC without them having to pay 10%+ in transaction costs when they want to use it. To do this on the lightning network, you will only have to withdraw your BTC to the lightning network if you take it out of an exchange. Do make sure that your crypto exchange also supports lighting.
If you want to just let someone try them selfs to get started with Bitcoin on lighting. You could also set them up with apps that let you earn BTC on the lighting network. With small lightning games that pay out their user’s small amounts of BTC each time they play. This way starting with BTC can be fun and free.
This can also work as a great way to gain some Sats to then donate to your friends if you do not want to buy them any.
Final word
We hope this blog taught you how you can buy some BTC for your friends and how and where they can store it. If you still have some questions related to this blog or any other crypto topic. Feel free to reach out to us on our socials. So that we know what to write about the next time.
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