Quick Who, What, When, Where, Why And How Crypto Guide

So, if you're already a self-proclaimed enthusiast and bitcoin-booster, then this article isn't going to tell you something that you don't otherwise know, though you'd probably have appreciated it when you were just looking into the world of cryptocurrency like a orphan looking through the window of a Dickensian shop.

This is a piece for all of those that are unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, from what they are, to why people invest in the various iterations, and beyond. It's also a piece for those that are looking in on the market and seriously want to get involved to some capacity.

Over the span of this instructional little guide, you'll find out some of the best ways that you can buy your first amounts of cryptocurrency, what to buy, where to buy it and how to go about storing it.

You're Never Too Old To Buy Your First Bitcoin

For those that haven't heard the adage before now, what veteran investors would say of cryptocurrencies is that the best time to invest in them was eight years ago, with the next best time being right now.

And really, when taking into consideration the fact that one Bitcoin is divisable to 100 million places, there's more than enough of it to go around, while also allowing new investors to invest as much or as little as they want.

While this guide will put a particular lens on Bitcoin, you shouldn't feel pushed to just back the horse that we refer to, there's a whole world of other cryptocurrencies out there, these include coins with specific features that Bitcoin doesn't sport, such as Smart Contracts (Ethereum) or a focus on privacy (Monero).

While there are a large number of people within the market that purchase cryptocurrency in order to make it into a long-term investment in the same way as gold. But there are others that utilize these same cryptos to facilitate private online purchases, others that use it as an offshoot of a savings account and others still that want to use it as a hedge against inflation, which otherwise poses a longer-term risk to the fiat-based economies of nations.

Put simply, it's this: there is no ONE right answer for why you should buy cryptocurrency, even if it's just buying some out of an unusual sense of curiosity for the technology underpinning it, purchasing a small volume of any crypto is a good first step to understanding it.

Now, depending on where you live and the people that you engage and talk to on a daily basis, you'll hear a certain amount of positive and negative press. They each may have a personal preference for various cryptocurrencies, in nations like Nigeria and Venezuela for example, the public may have a far broader knowledge and affection for the likes of Dash and ZCash. While many Asian countries are very enamored with cryptos like Ethereum (ETH) or Ripple (XRP).

What should you prefer? Really, that's a question that you're going to have to ask and effectively answer by yourself. Find out what these cryptos are used for, their strengths, weaknesses and future applications, from there, you can make a decision on what to invest in more effectively, and better spot the digital wheat from the crypto-chaff.

What To Know Before You Buy

While it's not exactly anyone's pre-ordained place to tell you what exactly to buy in terms of cryptocurrency, there are a number of cryptos you'd do well to side-step as a first purchase, at least. One of the early stage warning signs? Any cryptocurrency or booster that tells you that it's ‘certain' to go up in price, and / or promises a lush ‘guaranteed return' on your initial investment.

Here's another lesson, just because a friend made an excellent return off a particular coin, doesn't mean you should go into the same coin guns blazing, in fact, more often than not, it's a sign of a crypto with something to be suspicious about it.

No, if you're also contemplating the prospect of dipping a toe into the cold waters of cryptocurrency, there's a move that is certain to be followed swiftly by complete immersion – and you're hopefully doing so for reasons other than just benefiting from what's been sold to you as a ‘get rich quick' scheme. While it is likely that certain crypto assets will appreciate in value significantly over the coming years, others will stagnate or may even die off altogether.

The cryptocurrency market, and each of the numerous coins that inhabit it, are still relatively new compared to their older counterparts in the stocks and commodity worlds. As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the market cap of a coin (the price per coin multiplied by its total public circulating supply), the higher the volatility will be.

This is all because small market cap coins have a much lower market liquidity, meaning that even modest transactions of small quantities of coins can significantly alter the price, and have a much smaller pool of users investing in them. In stark contrast to this is Bitcoin, which can be regarded as the gold standard of cryptocurrency, having been around from the very beginning and boasting millions of users.

Where To Buy Cryptocurrency

Alongside the pondering of what to buy precisely, followed swiftly thereafter should be the small question of WHERE to buy it. There are an increasingly large number of coin exchanges that new and experienced investors can get their fill of various cryptocurrencies at.

This issue is, however, that these can prove to be more than a little counterintuitive, especially if you've never seen the likes of one before. Some variations that prove to be a little more user friendly seem to be LocalBitcoins.com, which is perfectly usable if you don't have a credit card. This site is an extremely popular peer to peer marketplace where you can buy crypto assets such as Bitcoin Core.

Along with LocalBitcoins.com, you have others such as LocalBitcoinCash.org, both of which allow you to enable purchasing cryptocurrency through methods such as bank transfer, paypal and cash.

For other alternatives, one of the more popular, well-known and widely recognized exchanges would be Coinbase, or digital apps such as Circle in the US, or Wirex in Europe. In order to take full advantage of these exchanges, however, users are required to to submit identification documents before you can make any purchases.

Bitcoin Cash

To ensure you’re not being overcharged, check Coinmarketcap or our own Satoshi Pulse for the latest prices on all major cryptocurrencies. As an alternative to that, if you're buying cryptos such as BTC, BCH, or ETH, you can simply type in this code or the full name of it into Google along with the accompanying fiat currency in order to find out the most recent exchange rate.

It's worth pointing out that when you're buying cryptocurrencies from sites such as LocalBitcoins or Coinbase, you will be charged a premium of anything from 5-7% over the market price, this is where exchanges manage to make their profits. Similarly, credit card purchases incur a fee. Aside from a handful of countries where access to cryptocurrency is limited, you should not be paying more than a few percentages above market price at most, however.

Where To Store Your Cryptocurrency

So, now that you've purchased your cryptocurrency from one of the previously mentioned coin exchanges, it will be credited to a built-in wallet that is directly associated with your existing account.

Now, you could simply just leave this amount of crypto in that wallet if you'd like to, allowing you to quickly sell it should the need arise, but that's generally not recommended, simply because there's a very diverse level of security that's available to users that keep their coins on an exchange-based wallet, while other, more secure alternatives exist.

For starters, until you start to use it by sending it to friends and family, purchasing various items, goods, and services, you can't exactly get a full grasp of the benefit of using cryptocurrency or how it works in general. And for another thing, using the built-in wallet provided by the likes of Coinbase or Circle is unwise because if your account should get compromised – or the entire platform suffer a major hack – you could lose all your funds.

So, one of the best things about cryptocurrencies is that, unlike fiat currency, which is stored in a bank account that is yours and yours alone, you can actually take this same amount of crypto that you invested and take it wherever you go. What this means is that, no matter who they are, friend, foe, government or otherwise, no-one has the power to touch those assets in any way.

One of the popular wallets that you have is the Bitcoin.com wallet, which serves 3 million people, it's a popular choice for storing bitcoin and bitcoin core. Meanwhile, other popular mobile apps / wallets that offer you a remarkable degree of security and custody over your chosen asset/s include BRD and Edge. These pieces of hardware operating under the presumption that you're intending to hold these cryptos for a long time, and won’t be needing to access it frequently, you may prefer to use a hardware wallet.

When it comes to the world of cryptocurrency, there is always going to be more that's worth knowing, and there are plenty of guides on our website in order to help better acclimate you to whatever features of the market you want to know about. The only costly thing you can do when it comes to buying crypto is to not do your research before you dive in.

It's important to always stay as informed as much as you can, and once you’ve got skin in the game – or rather coins in your wallet – you’ll begin to appreciate the power of cryptocurrency.

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