(this and the following is Not financial advice…)
So you have heard the buzz about Bitcoin but you think you may have missed the boat. Are you aware that there is an entire market full of alternative cryptocurrencies called Altcoins? Many of these altcoins have unique value propositions or make improvements beyond what Bitcoin does. There are cryptocurrencies that offer enhanced privacy, there are coins that are more of a platform for distributed computing, there are coins that are tokens that run on a platform of some type, and there are many coins that might best be labeled as sh*tcoins.
Each of these individual altcoins could be the next bitcoin. It is already not uncommon to see 500% + gains within a week on many altcoins. With a certain amount of common sense and a little time spent researching, you could easily find many winners. The market often moves together and we are currently (as of Dec. 2017) in a bull market. A monkey throwing darts at a list of cryptocurrency coins could get rich at the moment, nothing lasts forever though.
If you are excited about this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity, read on…
You may be wondering how you buy Bitcoin or altcoins and this is a good question. For U.S. residents Coinbase is the big name. Coinbase allows you to buy a few different cryptocurrencies (only 3 as of Dec. 2017) with fiat dollars. You can link your bank account or pay with a credit card. The fees are slightly less for bank account but there is a verification period delay. To sign up for Coinbase visit: https://www.coinbase.com/join/5958179b4024d209927415a0
When you have a Coinbase account you can purchase any amount of crypto (although they have weekly limits). Let us assume you buy Bitcoin as it is the most widely used and the most well-known. You may notice that 1 Bitcoin is rather expensive but don’t worry it is divisible into decimal amounts that make it affordable to anyone. I would Buy only what you feel you can lose but enough that you can potentially make a decent profit.
Coinbase is an exchange and they only offer a limited amount of coins to choose from. You can stick with Coinbase if you are happy with their choices or if you only wanted to invest in Bitcoin.
You will probably want to move your initial Bitcoin investment to an exchange that offers a greater amount of choice. An easy to use exchange that fits this requirement is Binance. Binance at last check allows you to create an account with limited paperwork although to move large sums of Bitcoin you would need to provide them identification. To sign up for a Binance account click here: https://www.binance.com/?ref=11067528
Binance allows you to transfer Bitcoin into your Binance account from Coinbase. You just need to make sure you send it to the correct address. Bitcoin wallets have Public Keys and Private Keys. Private keys should never be shared because when you know the private key, you own the money. The public key also points to the wallet where the money is but the public key does not allow you to control the money. When you send the Bitcoin from your Coinbase Bitcoin wallet to your Binance Bitcoin wallet you would copy the public key (of Your Binance Bitcoin deposit wallet address) into the send to area of your Coinbase app or website when you chose to send funds. It will take a while depending on how heavy traffic on the Bitcoin network is. Sometimes 30 min. sometimes hours. You will eventually get an email from Binance saying your deposit was received or you will see your balance change in you funds.
Now you have Bitcoin on the Binance exchange. Now you have many options of different coins to choose from. I suggest doing research at sites like http://www.coincheckup.com and honestly if you stick with coins in the top 30 or so you may be safer than if you pick a lot of stuff at the bottom of the list.
This is obviously just the bare bones info you would need to get started investing in crypto but enough topics were mentioned in this guide that if you did not understand something or heard a term you were unfamiliar with you can easily research that aspect and increase your knowledge and understanding up to a point where you eventually get comfortable with this technology and the various aspects of trading and safely holding. Google is your friend. Keep learning and Don’t miss the biggest invention in finance since gold…
And FYI the end goal is not to hold all your cryptocurrencies on an exchange as the exchanges are the ones that control the private keys. You should consider holding your cryptocurrencies in a hardware wallet like a Ledger Nano S or a phone app wallet like the Jaxx wallet although these types of apps are less secure than a hardware wallet. If you just want to trade though you may be ok keeping your coins on the exchange just be aware of this...