First Taste of Cryptocurrency

Entry 0: before the start

A few months into my first job out of university was the first time in my life I had some money to put into savings and investments. Being a “responsible adult”, I went to my bank to open a saving account and ask about investment options. With the current amount I had I was given a single option for a savings account with the generous interest rate of 0.01%. Even with the relatively low current inflation rate I would be losing money if it just set there over time. I asked about other investment options and the banker said they had options that would give around 3% interest rate but the minimum investment is $50,000. As I did not have anything close to that amount I opened the savings account and put some of my money there.
From this point on I was in a search for a way to invest my money that could give me some higher returns so I started looking at the stock market for options. After a few days of thinking and researching where I should put my money my cousin suggested I put some of it in cryptocurrencies. Of course I knew what cryptocurrency was. Like many people I first heard of cryptocurrencies and blockchain when I finally sat down and started looking into Bitcoin. I told my cousin, that I'm not sure I could put $8,000 (the price of bitcoin at the time) with something that is this volatile. That’s when I learned that bitcoin can be divided and bought in much smaller increments.
I started doing research on bitcoin and downloaded the Coinbase app, an easy to use application to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and the recently added Bitcoin Cash (other coin may be added to Coinbase in the future). Using my limit at the time I bought $250 of Ethereum at the price of $480 on November 28th, 2017. I began checking the price multiple times a day, and pretty much the whole time until December 9th Ethereum was losing value. At the same time Bitcoin was going from $9,700 to over $16,000.
I started doing more research into cryptocurrencies, by watching YouTube videos and reading reddit posts, mostly from r/CryptoCurrency. I learned several crucial things about cryptocurrencies that got me absolutely hooked.

• Many cryptocurrencies are completely decentralized, meaning no one person or company has more power to control it than any other person or company who chooses to; while everyone has the complete power over their own share of the currency.
• There are many different cryptocurrencies, and they are not just different in name and coin value, they have unique features, capabilities, security levels, and are created to achieve different goals.
• The blockchain, a new technology that is behind Bitcoin and many of the other cryptocurrencies, which allow the currency to exist in a decentralized, fair, and secure manner.
• And of course, the unheard of rapid rate of growth cryptocurrency has been experiencing.

I plan on diving deeper into these points and many other over the next several weeks.

Suggested reading: The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order.

This book is great for beginners as it is written in simple language and explains the concepts and history of bitcoin, blockchain, and money.

Thanks for reading,
Bittron