No amount of reading will truly get me comfortable with purchasing crypto. I am a hands on learner. I just have to do it. Which is the advice I have gotten from a few people. So as much as that unnerves me, that is what I did. I still don’t understand what is really happening though.
I went to a friend that is a programmer and heavily into crypto. He knows way more than I probably ever will and was kind enough to walk me through the process and try to explain things in a way that a noob could understand.
My first concern was using a VPN, even though the privacy provided by a VPN will be negated by the services I use. I have a paid subscription to Windscribe. So that is what I set up. Well, that is what my friend set up. I have a Linux operating system and am so new I need help when setting up any software that requires the Terminal.
I was recommended Coinbase and Changelly as point of entry into crypto. They are both not what they seem.
You must have a VPN to use Coinbase if you are not physically in the US. You must have a VPN set up and running through a US location before signing up if you are doing it from outside the US. I signed up initially without the VPN and even with the VPN now running, that account cannot be used because Coinbase knows my account was set up in a country other than the US. After the VPN was set up and running properly, I created another account and this one will allow me to buy and sell. At least in theory, I have not tried it yet.
Changelly will not work properly without a US VPN set up either. You can access the site without a US based VPN, but the exchange rates wont show up. And without that, how could you possibly purchase.
The wallet I chose at the recommendation of my friend was Electrum. A software program that exists on my computer and requires a key to access. We both agreed that having a wallet that exists somewhere in the either of the internet is probably not the best option. I am also tacitly against hardware wallets for storing large amounts of crypto. There is nothing that you could tell me that could convince me that a Nano S is a good idea for large holdings.
I decided to use Changelly because the site did not ask for an ID and a selfie like Coinbase did. The fiat payment part of the transaction was handled by Simplex.com. Simplex is a payment processor like PayPal, but they charge a 5% fee (minimum $10). Changelly charges a 5% fee as well. I have had nothing but problems with Simplex. I initially used my debit card for a purchase. That was declined. So I went with a credit card. I tried 4 times. Each time the transaction was declined by Simplex because the billing zip code did not match, or some such nonsense that the bank could not explain to me. I tried every variation and could not get my purchase to go through.
Overall I am not impressed by these supposed points of entry to the crypto market. It would appear that they are just tools of control. Limiting access to those that the government wants to keep tabs on. Almost like these exchanges are tools of the Fed.
If crypto has not saturated the human populace, then why are there so few points of entry? Why are there so many bars to entry? Why is it so difficult to maintain one’s anonymity? The most obvious answer? Crypto is just another game played by the power brokers in the world. A target on the forehead to anyone that appears to think outside the lines of typical western governmental philosophy. There is money to be made in crypto for those that pay attention and protect themselves, but I posit that most people will be spit-roasted eventually. That knowledge will not stop me from continuing in my quest to gain entry into this shadow game.