introducemyslelf: noob's way to a secure, private and anonymous Linux work environment for crypto investors

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Hi, Steemians, I just joined and noticed that Steem offers a host of incentives to increase productivity, share knowledge and experience. I'm a complete newbie in crypto/blockchain technology and using Linux and other open source resources for just over a year. I will share with you in this and following few posts some of the things I learnt about privacy, anonymity and security after Edward Snowden's revelation of NSA and its international intelligence partners’ secret mass surveillance programs and capabilities.

Privacy and security

Following a few not very complicated steps gives a secure work environment in the age when corporations, governments and cyber-criminals are all trying to steal users' private data. Most useful security topics are:

1. Operating system - why Linux?
2. Everyday applications and other utilities
3. PGP, hashed password, privacy friendly email services
4. VPN, anonymity, TOR
5. Crypto wallet security
6. Android OS security

Scam and hack at individual level has become commonplace in crypto-news. Exchanges too fall victim of security breach. Now that I own some crypto coins from GPU mining that I recently started, I feel the value of privacy even more.

Crypto investment

Fundamental analysis is the analysis and evaluation of underlying asset's value; in our context it's primarily a cryptocurrency's application scopes and future potential. In addition, holding only one or a few assets (same for crypto asset) isn't a good investment policy. Diversification of assets reduces risk, so I want to try out some of the R language's strengths in Quantitative Finance and Econometrics. Note that my goal is long-term investment, not day-trading or speculation; analysis objective is to sell some of my mined coins, buy other cryptos and convert a fraction to fiat at the right time. I plan to however do intra-day trading with with a very small fraction of my portfolio (2-5%) which I'll we prepared to lose should market plummets. I'm only slightly familiar with financial models and R's financial analysis capabilities; I will write as I learn. Stay networked!

Feedback

Communities like StackExchange sites, GitHub, etc. have been tremendously helpful to my learning. Since I do not have any formal training in computers, my posts are bound to be incomplete or even downright wrong. In all cases, please tell me (and the entire Steem community) about things that can be improved. Cheers!