How I get into Cryptocurrencies

I knew about bitcoin since 2011 when it was use in the Dark Web. Because it was heavily traded in illegal stuffs in that market, I avoid bitcoin, which I think will be banned by the authorities sooner or later. Whenever people introduce me to bitcoin, I just brushed them away, never really understand what actually the technology behind it, except it was a virtual currency of some sort.

Somewhere in January 2017, a friend introduced me to Ethereum, another type of cryptocurrency. I am quite attracted to the concept of a blockchain, but sadly it was promoted through a Ponzi-type investment scheme which I totally rejected. Ethereum price was around $5-7 at that time, I probably would have bought some cheap Ethereum at that time if its not of the ponzi-style scheme!

Then in November 2017, after a friend teased me for not knowing what bitcoin is all about, I decided to do some research on it. Well, I am an IT guy, been on the Internet since 1995, I feel embarrassed that I dont really know what the new hype is all about. So I challenge myself and subscribe to an online course in Udemy called Certified Bitcoin Professional: Pass The Certification Exam by Ravinder Deol to get a better understanding about bitcoin and its technology. The course is simple, but amazingly well presented and I feel fascinated at how the blockchain technology works, it only took me 3~4 days to complete the course! I am sold!

I am quite excited with what I learned from the course, and I want to invest some Ethereum and see how things work. So I ask a friend, @ihsan, to help me out. He already trading Ethereum through Luno, an online exchange which accept direct bank transfer to buy/sell ETH and BTC. With his help, I got myself register in Luno and bought a RM100 (approx. USD$25) worth of ETH, that’s was my 1st crypto investment!

Browsing the Internet and doing more researches on altcoins, I came across another interesting crypto token called Ripple (XRP), I am impressed with the Ripple concept and use case, so I decided this will be my next investment. To buy Ripple, I need to open an account at Binance Exchange, so I tranfer about RM1000 into Luno, bought Ethereum with it, and send my Ethereum to Binance and buy Ripple (XRP) at 22cents a coin! Within the next few weeks XRP went up to $3.84 in January 4th 2018 and I make some good profits with my small investment!

Thats how I started, I am quite new in the cryptocurrency world and there are so much to learn and earn. I will post some other time how I get into Initial Coin Offering (ICO), my view of the future of blockchain, etc. Stay tuned guys!

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