(2/2 Continued)

• Confirm with the vendor which cryptocurrency they accept. We will proceed with BTC for this example.
• Confirm the address to which you are supposed to send the cryptocurrency. I’ll assume you’re using a desktop computer. The vendor will likely have a QR code with a line beneath it that has the address in text form. You will copy this address in text form.
• On Kraken, add this address as an approved withdrawal address. Go to Transfer crypto → Withdraw → select Bitcoin → Network: Bitcoin → Add new withdrawal address. The direct link on my browser is https://www.kraken.com/c/funding/withdraw?asset=BTC&assetType=crypto&network=Bitcoin&method=Taproot, please confirm that your link matches. Provide a description of the address.
• Important: you must ensure the address you enter is correct or else the funds will be lost and irrecoverable. Ensure that you copy and paste the address exactly. Once you’ve copied and pasted, go back and verify character by character that the addresses match (or at least the first 5-7 characters and the last 5-7 characters, ideally the whole address, though). This is the number one step where people mess up and it’s really heartbreaking because there’s nothing that can be done about this.
• Save the address in Kraken.
• Now, confirm the amount that must be sent to the vendor. Depending on their rules, they may have ~30 minutes of time where the price is locked. If not, you may have to buy more BTC than you need just to be safe when sending to ensure you have enough. Remember that the total amount you must buy is the amount requested by the vendor PLUS the withdrawal fee, currently 0.0004 BTC for Kraken.
• Purchase the required amount of BTC. Remember that you must purchase enough to cover the vendor price plus the withdrawal fee. This can be done as either a market order (gets filled immediately, but at whatever price the market is currently at, plus slippage), or as a limit order (price certainty, but not immediate). This is a matter of risk tolerance and the size of your purchase. If your purchase is rather small, it might be okay to just do a market order. If you’re buying thousands of dollars of BTC, you should use a limit order. You can read about the different types here. You can read more about market and limit orders on Wikipedia.
• Edit: You may need to change the interface to be able to do a market or limit order. You can use either the classic or the pro interface. The classic interface is likely all you need. I got to it by clicking the nine dots in a square next to the account symbol and navigating to Kraken Classic → Trade → either Simple or Advanced depending on what you wish to do… Simple is probably fine. The link shown in my browser is https://www.kraken.com/u/trade/new-order. If it’s showing the wrong cryptocurrency, you can change which cryptocurrency is shown with the spyglass just under the Trade menu option. It should show some cryptocurrency pair like BTC/USD or ETH/USD.
• Once you have completed the BTC purchase, send the cryptocurrency quickly to ensure there is not too much price change between purchase time and sending time. Once again, head to the withdrawal page in Kraken (for me it’s that same link as above where we added the vendor’s address), and select the proper withdrawal address for the vendor.
• If you’re paranoid like me, confirm once again the address to which you’re sending the funds as they are truly and utterly non recoverable once sent.
• Confirm again that the amount of BTC that must be sent to the vendor and copy and paste it into the Withdrawal amount field.
• Select Withdraw BTC and review the transaction information to ensure everything looks correct. You should see the name you entered for the vendor’s wallet, the beginning and end of the vendor’s address, the network should read Bitcoin, the withdrawal amount should be correct, the withdrawal fee should match the fees posted by Kraken at the link above, and the total should be the sum of the two BTC amounts.
• Once you’re happy with the transaction (and once again, you know that it is all correct because it is impossible to undo cryptocurrency transactions), you can confirm the withdrawal.
• Different cryptocurrencies have different processing times that are a function of their technology. Just know that it likely won’t be instantaneous. Wait the required time and verify with the vendor that they received your payment. You’ll likely get a notification before it’s confirmed that it is pending while they wait for the proper verification time. BTC, as an example, has a waiting time of approximately 40 minutes.
• Once you are done with your transaction, assuming you don’t wish to use cryptocurrency ever again, you can sell off the rest of your BTC and transfer the rest of your US Dollars back to your bank account.
• Ensure you keep a record of your transactions for tax purposes, and be sure to check the box on your tax form that says you transacted cryptocurrency in the year so Uncle Sam doesn’t ask any funny questions. You shouldn’t have too much in the way of capital gains or losses, but if you only did one transaction in the year, you can likely use a free cryptocurrency tax service to calculate any numbers you need to put on your 1040 / into your tax software. An example would be Koinly or Crypto.com Tax (again, please be sure to verify you’re on the correct URLs, don’t take my word for it).