Once you venture in the digital currency such as bitcoin, you’ll be required to have a “wallet”. A wallet is where the digital currency is stored and it’s mandatory to have one irrespective of the exchange you use. In order to access Bitcoin, you’ll be required to have a wallet. The wallet helps in storing your private key, which is a 256-bit string secret number. The private key will give you the liberty to move across the marketplaces. Irrespective of the exchange, you used to buy your Bitcoin the private key allows you to access your wallet no matter the market place you use meaning that, you are not tied to a particular exchange.
There are several types of wallets, which includes software and hardware wallets. Software wallets are important applications which enables you to connect with your traditional bank accounts. We have several software for instance, Coinbase, which is most convenient as it is attached directly to its exchange service, the other one is Mycelium which is a popular mobile wallet and there is also Electrum. On the other hand, hardware helps in used to store the private keys of the user and it resembles a flash memory stick. Some people consider hardware wallets as secure since it disconnects from the Internet.
Having chosen your favourable wallet and marketplace, here are the steps to follow:
- Create your wallet. You can use Coinbase, Exodus, Mycelium, or blockchain. For more information, visit the site of the wallet you have chosen and sign up. In this step, your name, email address and password will be required.
- After choosing a software wallet, the next step will be to download the app which you can download from Google Play or Apple app store. This will be contingent on whether you have IOS or Android operating system since some wallets are designed for desktops while others for mobile devices.
- Go to the exchanges you chose for instance Coinbase, Poloniex, Binance, CEX.io, Kraken, Bitfinex, BitPanda, or BitStamp and register with the exchange. You’ll be required to enter your name, email address and password. However, most exchanges will ask for your bank account in order to buy your Bitcoin.
- Go to the exchanges section and select “buy”. From the options, select the amount of bitcoin you intend to purchase. Considering the recent high prices of Bitcoin, you can find yourself buying less than you intended which can go as far as less than one bitcoin.
Bitcoin is divided into eight decimal points which means you can purchase 0.5 Bitcoins, 0.02 Bitcoins or even 0.00000001 Bitcoin according to your budget. You can buy Bitcoins using credit card, bank transfer or even cash depending on the exchange.