Bitcoin OTC

You can, and should, create a GPG-key-based identity with the bot. This gives you a verifiable and exportable identity on the order book and the rating system.

The guide on this page is the authoritative one, but some enterprising folks have made prettier ones, with pictures and all. In the future, we hope to have some videos as well. This section has a list of such guides.

IRC is a protocol for Internet text messaging in real-time. It's been around since the 80's and is still a popular choice of chat protocol today. #Bitcoin-OTC is an IRC 'channel', or 'chat room'. On IRC there are bots, or automated programs that perform a specific function. 'Gribble' is a bot in #bitcoin-otc that handles the ratings/trust system and other useful Bitcoin related functions.

GPG is an encryption and decryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. In Bitcoin-OTC's case, we use it for channel authentication to 'gribble', our channel ratings/trust bot.

If you are new to GPG, you will need to create a key, then upload it to a keyserver, before you're able to identify to the bot. First, generate the key by running, in a terminal (or command prompt):

gpg --gen-key I recommend choosing the 4096 bit "RSA and RSA" key type. This is usually the first option in the list. On versions of gpg 1.4.9 and earlier, option 1 is "DSA and Elgamal" - so choose that one if you are using an older version. I also recommend not setting an expiration date. (If you do set the expiration date, remember to extend it regularly.)

Note the key id for generated pubkey. You need the 16 digit pubkey id for registering with the bot, you can get it by running the following command in a terminal:

gpg --list-keys --keyid-format long Among the lines of output, you will see one looking like this:

The key id is the 16 digits following the slash.

Now, upload your public key to some keyservers:

gpg --send-keys --keyserver pgp.mit.edu YOURKEYID gpg --send-keys --keyserver subset.pool.sks-keyservers.net YOURKEYID Note: any keyserver will work, but these are used by gribble to search for keys, so using these will reduce the time needed for gribble to discover your key.

And that's all there is to it!

Safeguarding your key

Your GPG key is your identity in the online world. Keep your private key safe from both destruction, and leakage to others. Use a strong passphrase on your key, and make a backup offline and/or offsite. The file containing your private keys is secring.gpg, and the file containing your public keys is pubring.gpg. Guard them similar to how you would your bitcoin wallet. Just as importantly - do not forget your passphrase, as that is tantamount to losing access [forever] to your key. Either write it down in a secure location, such as a notepad in your safe, or an encrypted password storage application.