If you are reading this blog, I am assuming that you have heard of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and would like to try investing with cryptocurrency. Yes, I said invest because cryptocurrency will be the currency of choice in the future. Cryptocurrency is seeing more and more adoption on a daily basis, but it is currently being used as a store of wealth more so than a currency.
As you have probably seen in your initial investigations, there are over 2000 cryptocurrency coins and tokens listed on CoinMarketCap.com. Many of the coins are failed projects, but some are winners. I would like to assist you in your initial research and investment endeavors.
Before you start investing with cryptocurrency, please do not make the mistake that I did. You will need to do some research first and gain some basic understandings of cryptocurrency. I am sure you have heard of Bitcoin, which is probably the safest investment for beginners. But there are many other good options out there. You will need to decide if you are a speculative investor (high risk) or looking for a store of wealth transfer similar to gold.
Speculative is pretty straight forward in my opinion, extremely similar to penny stocks. You may experience great gains while on the other hand, you may lose everything in one day. Now store of wealth (recommended) is very different. You are transferring your traditional government controlled fiat currency to a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, which is not controlled or regulated by any government. I like to think, “The money for the people, by the people, for the people”.
Now that I have stressed research, I would like to suggest some currencies that I personally recommend for the novice investor. I am sure you have heard of the first one; Bitcoin which is traded with symbol BTC that was created by Satoshi Nakamoto. No one really knows who this person is, but this individual or organization (conspiracy theory) released a white paper in 2008 describing how to create and implement Bitcoin, which also created Blockchain technology. Bitcoin has been around for over 10 years and has a proven track record of profitability, but also has had some extreme fluctuations in price never happen quite often.
The second recommended coin is Ethereum that trades under the symbol of ETH. Ethereum was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and went live on July 30, 2015. Ethereum is a public open source blockchain, and the keyword is open source. You will hear the term token and ERC-20 token thrown around quite a bit in the cryptocurrency world. All you need to realize is that these currencies, which there are many of them resided on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Remember that word open source and how I mentioned that there are many failed projects and up and comers? Many of these currencies will be found within the Ethereum Blockchain, but you only need to remember one thing, Ethereum is at the top of the food chain.
It is important for you understand that when investing with cryptocurrency, some currencies are decentralized like Bitcoin and Ethereum. No one person or organization is in control of its future. The centralized currencies are quite different and have usually been created by businesses to resolve various problems in the financial world. . That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just something you should realize before you invest.
Ripple (XRP) is an excellent example of this. This cryptocurrency was created by Ripple Labs and they are attempting to establish a faster and more reliable payment protocol for the banking and business institutions of the world. They may accomplish this goal and are quite popular, at one point they were the number two cryptocurrency currency. Just remember this; it was created by a business and run by a business which makes it centralized. Someone could hypothetically hit a switch and it would be gone forever.
Some other cryptocurrencies that I suggest for you to look into are Neo, Cardano ADA, VeChain VET, Tezos XTZ, Basis Attention Token BAT, Kyber Network KNC, and COTI. These are just some of the promising currencies out on the market right now, but this can change quite quickly because the technology is improving on a daily basis.
Okay, I think you should have the basic gist concerning cryptocurrencies that you will be investing in at some point of time. Now let’s talk about some research websites that I personally use and suggest. I have had good experiences using Coinmarketcap.com, Investing.com, Cryptocompare.com, Tradingview.com, and believe it or not Youtube.com. Remember you are responsible for your own research and don’t go off any one person’s opinion. Similar to marriage, it’s relatively easy to get into cryptocurrency but no so easy to get out without a loss if you make the wrong choice.
Investing With Cryptocurrency