There has been a huge interest in crypto currencies lately. To make it easier for the newcomers, I’ll just call them “currencies” for the rest of this piece.
There is a possible Bitcoin fork in the horizon and a lot of people are curious about it and the fact that even mainstream financial managers and news outlets are covering stories on it and other cryptos has created a big buzz for these currencies and many individuals have been looking for ways to get in on it but they just don’t know how. I will do my best to keep it short and simple and give some examples on how to get in and hopefully make it easy for all to own some.
If you are still on the fence you are probably on a couple of the following scenarios:
a) You think it is too late to get in since Bitcoin is over $2,000 or,
b) You think that since it has gone down a few hundred dollars in the last couple of weeks it is on its way to the grave.
Both, in my opinion, come from not having enough history or understanding of cryptos, and Bitcoin, in specific.
If you are in camp “a”, I will tell you that you will be wishing you had gotten in once bitcoin hits $5,000, and then again when it hits $10,000, or $100,000… you’ll see that a $2,000 price tag is actually not a bad one. Especially when you can buy fractions of bitcoin. (I’ll get into this later).
If you are in camp “b”, this is actually the perfect time to buy and hold! There is something very important about being a contrarian investor… buying when people are selling and afraid has been a good technique for many people. I’d suggest you get some and HOLD.
Let’s start with the basics.
I would suggest you go to coinbase.com and open an account with them. These guys are one of the few gatekeepers (I dislike this part) but they can be a stable and secure way to obtain your bitcoin (and eth, and ltc). They will ask you a lot of questions to open you account but your information will be secure.
Something to keep in mind, these guys are extremely persnickety about rules, so I suggest you use coinbase ONLY for buying and selling bitcoin and then you send your bitcoin to a different wallet to spend it (or even save it).
Coinbase offers a great option to use a VISA card… you can get the card from shiftpayments.com for only $10USD and they send it to your mailbox in about 5 days. You can spend up to $1,000 per day with no fees. If you just buy gas, food, or pay your electric bill with this card you will be fine. I’d suggest you move some of your money to bitpay.com and they offer a similar card, albeit with a few fees for converting and transferring… yet they are not as strict on rules.
I keep repeating this since I got my account cancelled with coinbase for two possible things: one, I think, is because I sell kratom and the second possible one is because I bought a Kevlar helmet from an online retailer… either way, I’d suggest you exercise caution when you use your currency with coinbase/shift card.
Mycelium is a wonderful app that I use to keep the bulk of my savings. They have an excellent option to keep your money off the internet, which is called “cold storage”. What this does is it allows you to take your savings into a cold wallet, which improves your level of security manifold. Note that this is not completely necessary but it is highly suggested and I can do a whole guide on how to do that soon.
Lastly, I told you I would talk about buying fractions at a time. I think this point is very important to make since a lot of people think they can only buy 1BTC at a time. What I always suggest is that you buy at least $10USD per week and when it dips, like it did these past two weeks, you buy even more. Maybe $100 or more if you can afford it.
Bitcoin will continue to do ups and downs but ultimately will keep going up, therefore, do not fear a 2 or 3 hundred-dollar drop. Au contraire, welcome it and buy more if able. You’ll thank me for it later.
If this was helpful, throw me some satoshi when you are set up (15RbiT1RzUgRmAMgptXGCDdyRT76ZXkVK8) or buy some of our wonderful KRATOM… it is the best!
Also on my website: Tips for crypto beginners - a guide https://emancipatedhuman.com/tips-for-crypto-beginners/