Getting started with Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
- How to Buy Bitcoin
- How to trade Bitcoin with other cryptocurrencies
- How to store your cryptocurrency safely
- Can I recommend any coins?
Hi,
If you landed on this page, you probably know me personally already 🙂
Many people know I’ve been “into” Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies since 2016 and started working in the space in 2017.
Because of this, several friends have asked me how to buy crypto, trade it and store it safely.
So, I wrote this very short guide – hopefully useful to you.
Feel free to contact me if I can help further 🙂
Usually I help people with this one-on-one.
I’m going to recommend some platforms / tools with my affiliate links. I recommend them because I have used them, I have a good overview of what’s out there, and these are the best. If you use my affiliate link, it costs you nothing and I may earn a small commission.
But I recommend them because they are the best/safest services I know of.
(I’m skipping over WHAT is Bitcoin / Blockchain / Cryptocurrency, and I’m skipping over WHY it’s important, amazing, and revolutionary.
I’m going straight to HOW to buy, trade, and store crypto safely.
For the ‘What’, I suggest Andreas Aantonopoulos’ book, Mastering Bitcoin, and for the ‘Why’ see his book, The Internet of Money. Saifedean Ammous’ book, The Bitcoin Standard is excellent for the economic argument for ‘Why Bitcoin’)
1. How to Buy Bitcoin
How to turn your national currency into Bitcoin depends on your country.
If you’re from USA, Europe, Australia or these countries, use Coinbase:
If you’re from New Zealand, Canada, and anywhere else, use Binance Jersey:
2. How to trade Bitcoin with other cryptocurrencies
Okay, so you got some Bitcoin and now you want some other coins.
(Please don’t ‘daytrade’ unless you know what you’re doing – you’ll lose money like I did!)
I believe there are a few other good coins from solid projects. If you ask me, I’ll recommend you a couple.
There are many exchanges. The best is Binance.
Send your Bitcoin there and swap (some) of it for the other coins you want to invest in.
Please don’t leave your coins on the exchange forever though. The whole point is to have sovereignty over your own money! (Not your keys, not your coins).
So once you’ve traded for the coins you feel good about investing in, store them on a hardware wallet.
3. How to store your cryptocurrency safely
Hardware wallets are the safest place to store your Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The big 3 hardware wallets are Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey, though others are coming out.
Personally I use a Ledger Nano S and I can recommend it strongly.
I am told that the next model, the Ledger Nano X is very good too (more features).
Just use common sense to store your passwords, back up phrases etc. And keep it all offline!
4. Can I recommend any coins?
Obviously I’m not a financial advisor. I’m just a guy (you probably personally know) who’s been following crypto for years, been to a lot of blockchain conferences, gained and lost by trading/investing, and works with a few crypto companies.
That said, here are just a few beyond Bitcoin (which is my #1 recommendation) and they are all free:
SoMee – social media on the blockchain. Sign up at somee.social and earn cryptocurrency for posting cat videos (or hopefully something better).
Energi – ambitious project by the founder Tommy who I’ve followed for years. We’ll see how big it grows but so far it’s really impressive. You can earn free energi tokens with their Earndrop.
HEX – this is a certificate of deposit on the blockchain. Designed by Richard Heart with optimised game theory so people hold it, stake it and don’t sell it. We’ll see…
I don’t recommend buying this, but if you have Bitcoin you can get free HEX with a few steps. Worth a shot in case it becomes big.
I suggest these 3 because they are new, so they have lots of room to grow, and they are free for you.
Hopefully something useful here. Let me know if it’s not clear or I can help further.
Peace, love, crypto,
– Rafa
