How to Create and Fund a Bitcoin Account (Wallet) in Nigeria (2020 Update)

How to Create and Fund a Bitcoin Account (Wallet) in Nigeria (2021 Update)

In this post, you would learn how to create and fund a Bitcoin account(wallet) in Nigeria.

I bought my first Bitcoin in 2016, and since then, I have been educating people on what Bitcoin is, how it works, and how to keep it safe.

By the end of this post, you would have created your own bitcoin wallet and funded it.

I also have bonus content on how to trade bitcoins profitably at the end of this post.

Post Summary

Bitcoin is the First Decentralized Cryptocurrency.

What this simply means is that Bitcoin is;

A Currency i.e., money. You can use it for the exchange of goods and services
Crypto because it is encrypted, thus secure and anonymous.
Decentralized because no one has sole control of it, not even the creator. And
Bitcoin is the first of its kind.

It was created by Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows his identity — if he is one person or a group of persons besides him, himself, of course.

To learn more about bitcoin, you can go through our Bitcoin tutorial here.

In this post, I will walk you step by step on how to create your Bitcoin account while making sure you understand it.

To achieve this and to make sure we are on the same page all through, here is what I will cover:

1. Differences Between a Bank Account and a Bitcoin Account.

Note: There is nothing like a “Bitcoin Account.” The correct term is “Bitcoin Wallet.” I started out using “account” so that you can relate it to the bank account.

Three persons have access to the money in your bank account; You, the Bank, and the Government.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, was designed so that only you have access to your bitcoins, not the government, not the creator of bitcoin, only you. This is why it is called a Wallet. You can relate this to the wallet in your pocket as only you have access to the money in it unless you give it to someone.

That said, it is also worthy to note that if you created a bitcoin wallet on an exchange, that exchange might have access to that wallet. You only have sole access to your wallet if you are using a cold wallet.

Talking of wallets, let’s look at the types of Bitcoin wallets there are.

I hope you are following?

If you have a question at any point, write it down and ask me in the comment section.

2. Types of Bitcoin Wallets

There are basically two types of wallets:

Cold Wallets
Hot Wallets

Cold wallets

These are wallets that are not connected to the internet and thus are hack-proof. There are 3 major types:

Desktop wallet: — This is a program downloaded to the desktop computer. The problem with this wallet is that you may lose your wallet if your computer crashes or gets destroyed. To avoid this, always back up your wallet. There is a story of a man who threw away his computer hard drive only to later discover he had 10,000 BTC in it. That bitcoin is lost forever.
Paper Wallet: This is when you print the Private Key and Public key to your wallet on a Paper. The danger here also is that you will lose your bitcoin if the paper gets destroyed.
Hardware Wallet: This is the safest bitcoin wallet. It is a hardware device usually shaped like a USB flash drive or a mini smartphone. The great thing about this device is that even if it gets destroyed, stolen or you lose it, you can always buy another device, enter your passphrase and recover all the bitcoins in the previous device. On the downside, hardware wallets are not free, you have to buy it.

Note: Bitcoins, in reality, are not stored anywhere; what is stored is the Private key and Public key. The Private key is what you use to access your bitcoin in the bitcoin network; anyone who has your Private key controls your bitcoins. The Public key is what you use to generate a bitcoin address. The bitcoin address is like a bank account. It is what you give to someone to send you bitcoins.

Also read: 6 Best hardware wallets for Bitcoins and other Cryptos.

I hope you are still with me, anytime you feel lost, leave me a comment and I will get back to you.

Now let’s check out hot wallets.

Hot Wallets

These are wallets that are connected to the internet; also known as ‘Web wallet’ or ‘Online wallet’. They are mostly provided by bitcoin exchanges. Thus, 2 persons have access to your Bitcoins on a hot wallet; You and the Exchange. The exchange does not give you your Private key but lets you create a password to access your bitcoins.

A Bitcoin Exchange is where you can buy and sell Bitcoins.

Hot wallets are most convenient since you can access your Bitcoins from any internet enables device anywhere.

Unlike cold wallets where you lose your Bitcoins forever if you lose your private key, hot wallet providers will give you another password if you forget your password.

For added convenience and ease, most hot wallets have an app for Android and iOS.

Sounds all good, right? Yeah, but don’t get too comfortable. This convenience comes with a price.

Hot wallets are online wallets, thus they are susceptible to hackers. A hacker can guess your password, trick you into giving it up or hack the exchange.

Early Bitcoin investors have lost their Bitcoin in this way. The most notable one is the hack of MTGox in 2011 and 2014 where a total of 750,000 BTC (worth $350 million) was stolen. Investors holding their Bitcoins on this exchange lost their Bitcoins.

Now, don’t be scared. You can actually relax because hot wallets now have more sophisticated features to ensure that your Bitcoin is safe.

This includes 2FA: — even if a hacker has your password, he will still not be able to access your wallet unless he is also physically holding your mobile phone.

Also, exchanges like Binance now put funds aside from its profit as insurance against hack and lastly, Bitcoins exchanges are now registered and regulated.

That’s said, here are the top 5 hot wallets that I recommend. They have never been hacked and have maintained their reputation. They all also come with a mobile app.

The safety rule here is: if you have Bitcoin worth millions of Naira, get a hardware wallet. If you are just starting out and your Bitcoin is worth a few thousand in naira, you can use a hot wallet.

Easy so far, right? By now, you are almost a pro on the matters of ‘Bitcoin wallet’.

Now let’s look at how to create one.

3. How to Create a Bitcoin Wallet Step by Step.

In this section, I will walk you through how to create a Bitcoin wallet on Luno.

Luno is one of the best platforms to create a Bitcoin Wallet in Nigeria.

First, I made a 7 minutes video to show this, and then I also have it in written form step by step.

https://medium.com/media/5ee1867237b24bca1c13fbb9b3015430/href

You can read my full review of Luno here: Luno Review and Comparisons

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Sign Up

Click Here to visit Luno Official website
Once there, click on ‘Get started‘
Enter your email address, choose a strong password, select your country and click on “Sign Up”

An email will be sent to you, it might take up to 2 minutes to arrive.

(You can also sign up using your Google or Facebook account)

Step 2: Confirmation

Open the email and click on the confirmation link to confirm your account.
(you will be redirected to a page to enter your phone number)
Enter your phone number and confirm it by entering the code sent to it.

Step 3: Complete Level 1 Verification

Once you have confirmed your email and phone number, click on “Set Up Profile” to upgrade your account level to level 1.

Your account verification level after email and phone number verification is level 0.

You will not be able to create a bitcoin wallet at this level until you upgrade to level 1.

You will do that by setting up your profile.

Here are the steps

Enter your names
Verify your ID by entering your BVN
(Note that Luno does not have access to your bank account through your BVN they can only verify your name through it. So have no fear in entering your BVN)
Choose what you intend to use luno for.
(Your answer here doesn’t really matter. You can choose ‘trading’)
Enter your date of Birth and click ‘NEXT’.

In case you were not redirected to the profile page, you can always locate it by going to Profile — Settings — Verification

Step 4: Locate your Bitcoin Address

Click on ‘Wallet’ (This will take you to the wallet page for bitcoins and other cryptos. By default, you will see bitcoin and your local currency wallet. You can add other coins like Litecoin, Ethereum, etc)
Click on Bitcoin
Click on Receive
Click on Create wallet
Give it a Label (you can give it any name you want it doesn’t matter) and click create.

Once this is done, your wallet address will be displayed as in the image below. You can copy it and send to someone to receive bitcoin.

Note that you can create as may wallet address as you want.

Great! You now have a bitcoin wallet.

Let’s look at how to fund it with bitcoins.

Create a Luno Account

4. How to Fund a Bitcoin Wallet

There are two ways to fund your bitcoin wallet on Luno:

Send someone your bitcoin address to receive bitcoins
Buy Bitcoin with your local currency (e.g. naira) directly on Luno

To Buy Bitcoin on Luno, there are 2 main steps;

Deposit Naira into your Luno Naira wallet on either by bank transfer or card.
Buy Bitcoins with money in your Luno Naira wallet.

(I also made a step by step video on how to do this at the end of this section.)

Here are the Steps

Naira Deposit on Luno

Step 1: Click on ‘Wallet’
Step 2: Click on the NGN wallet
Step 3: Click on “Deposit”
Select either Paystack or PayU to deposit naira either by bank transfer or card respectively.

Once you have done this, the money will available in your Naira wallet immediately.

To buy Bitcoins on Luno

Step 6: Go back to ‘Wallet’ and click on ‘BTC’
Step 7: Click on “Buy”
Step 8: Select payment method (in this case NGN Wallet)
Step 9: Enter the amount and click “Next” and Confirm it.

Your transaction will be processed and the bitcoin available in your bitcoin wallet.

Note: There are two ways to buy Bitcoins on Luno:

Instant Buy/Sell
Exchange

Transaction charge at the instant Buy/sell is 2% or more

Transaction charge at the Exchange is

0% if you are a Maker
0.75% if you are a Taker

A ‘Maker’ sets the buy or sell price. A ‘Taker’ buys or sells at the set price.

I explained these in detail in this video on how to fund a bitcoin account on Luno.

https://medium.com/media/f64cb9baf6ebb8ff5ea6a81e5f7990f6/href

That is all!

You have successfully created and funded your Bitcoin account (wallet).

Easy, right?

Make sure to download the Luno app; it will make managing your wallet much easier for you.

As you grow in the crypto space, you will find it necessary to have an account with more than one exchange/wallet provider.

Therefore, I will not end this section without referring you to these exchanges as it is vital in your crypto journey.

So, go ahead and also create an account with these exchanges:

Quidax (This is very similar to Luno. I have a bonus section at the end of this post that talks about how to do the above on Quidax)
Binance (This is the biggest crypto exchange in the world in terms on trade volume. it supports the Naira)
Remitano: (It is the safest P2P exchange)
Blockchain.info ( One of the earliest and most secured BTC hot wallet)

Further Read:

5. Frequently Ask Questions (FAQs)

I will continuously update this section with your questions.

Is it free to register a bitcoin account?

Yes, it is totally free, you can sign up with Luno or Quidax for free.

Is it safe to enter my BVN on Luno and Quidax?

Yes, it totally safe. No one has access to your bank account through your BVN, they can only verify your name through it. Also, Luno and Quidax are regulated by the CBN and they don’t share your BVN with a 3rd party.

6. Conclusion

Finally, we have come to the end of the post. I promised you a bonus content which I will give you soon.

But before that, let’s do a quick recap of what we have learnt. So far, we learnt;

The difference between a Bank account and a Bitcoin Wallet
We shouldn’t say Bitcoin account, rather say Bitcoin wallet
Types of bitcoin wallet, their Pros, and Cons
How to create and fund a Bitcoin wallet

I told you earlier to note down your questions and comments.

Now is the time. Tell me in the comment section:

Was this tutorial simple enough and did you learn anything new?

Have you created your Bitcoin wallet? Or maybe you have a question.

Let me know in the comment section below.

Now the Bonus: How to earn free Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is one of the most important developments in the 21st century. Everyone needs to know about it and we can do this by sharing the knowledge.

I have done my part by creating this content; now it’s your turn. Share this post on your favourite social media so that more people can be informed. Once you share, the bonus content (How to earn free Bitcoin) will become available.

Cheers!

PS:

How to Trade Cryptocurrencies Profitably

If you want to learn how to trade cryptos profitably, you can do that by enrolling in course.

go to www.ctmastery.com to do so. You can also join us on telegram:- https://t.me/ctmastery

Bonus Content: How to Create and Fund a Bitcoin Account in Nigeria on Quidax.

7. How to Create a Bitcoin Wallet on Quidax Step by Step

I will be walking you through how to create a Bitcoin wallet on Quidax. You can watch the 4 mins video or follow the steps written below.

https://medium.com/media/ecdd9b0a30a01549aa8ce119d353fe3a/href

Step 1: Sign Up

Click here to go to Quidax
Depending on if you are using a mobile phone or computer, click on ‘Create Account’ at the top right corner or ‘Get Started’
Fill in your info
Click ‘Create Account’ at the bottom

Make sure you entered your correct email address and phone number because you will need to confirm it.

Step 2. Verify Account

Click ‘Continue to your account’
Go to your email to verify your account
Verify Basic information by uploading your ID cards and Proof of residency
Enable 2FA for added security (Optional)

Note: If you don’t verify your basic information, you cannot buy or sell Bitcoins worth more than N20,000. However, you can send or receive Bitcoins of any amount without verification.

Step 3: Locate your bitcoin address:

Click on ‘Wallet’ (This will take you to the wallet page for Bitcoin and other cryptos)
Click ‘Receive’ in the Bitcoin section to view your Bitcoin wallet
From the image below, the section marked ‘3’ shows your Bitcoin address. You can use ‘4’ to generate more bitcoin addresses (Bitcoin sent to any of the addresses you created will be received in the same wallet)

Note that we have created a Bitcoin wallet, let’s look at how to fund it.

Create a Quidax Account

4. How to Fund a Bitcoin Wallet on Quidax

The Steps to funding a Bitcoin wallet on Quidax is similar to that on Luno. The 9 minutes video I did below gives all the details.

https://medium.com/media/e5d802078d8f44394f3dcbc2b601fbf9/href

Originally published at https://www.nigeriabitcoincommunity.com

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https://medium.com/media/3b6b127891c5c8711ad105e61d6cc81f/href

How to Create and Fund a Bitcoin Account (Wallet) in Nigeria (2020 Update) was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.