So you have heard about that bitcoin cryptocurrency that can “make you rich in few years”(well, it is possible, but that is not the most interesting aspect of bitcoin). You want to buy bitcoin but are not sure if you really can because you don’t know much about it. This article tries to answer few question you might ask and provide you with some basic information.
• Is bitcoin legit or is it used only by criminals and hackers?
• Is bitcoin price really important and predictable?
• Why you should avoid centralized bitcoin exchanges like Coinbase
• How can you join the bitcoin revolution?
• How to choose the best bitcoin wallet for storing the cryptocurrency
• Where to find the most useful bitcoin news
• How and where you can buy bitcoin
• Why is buying and holding bitcoin best long-term strategy for keeping and increasing your wealthIs Bitcoin Legit?
Bitcoin as new technology and internet of money and value is here. It has been changing the world since its creation a decade ago. Although still in its infancy, just looking at bitcoin price one can tell the cryptocurrency is in high demand. People are interested in bitcoin because of many reasons and all of them relate to bitcoin revolutionary properties which are lacking in the current more and more obsolete and out of date financial system.
The answer to question “is bitcoin legit?” is not much of importance. It never has been, is not and will not be important factor for bitcoin. Bitcoin is safe and has been working perfectly 100 % of time since its birth. There has been many attempts by mainstream news outlet reporting on bitcoin to mark it as a tool for criminals, terrorists and law-avoiding felons. The true is its transparent blockchain network makes bitcoin not convenient tool for hiding many high valued transactions. It is no secret anymore that the best way to launder money is through existing fiat money and banking infrastructure.
Bitcoin is legal in most countries in the world though there are some that made it illegal like in India where people are prohibited to buy, hold or sell bitcoin. Does this legal status of bitcoin make it unusable and unusable? Not at all! Even in jurisdictions with high regulation or complete ban of bitcoin the cryptocurrency works just fine. Usually bitcoin price is even higher in this environment.
One just need to buy bitcoin peer-to-peer from people selling it or use decentralized bitcoin exchanges which are popping up every day taking care of people disgusted by centralized exchanges demanding more and more private personal information when opening account, withdrawing money or sending transactions.
Services not enforcing KYC/AML requirements do not care about your name, ID, permanent address nor color of your socks. You should use bitcoin wallet where you hold your private keys and do not store your bitcoin in online wallet. Bitcoin is not safe in that case. No, buying and storing bitcoin at Coinbase exchange is not recommended for so many reasons that to describe them all is out of the scope right now.
Should I Care About Bitcoin Price?
Bitcoin price is what most people and bitcoin enthusiasts care about. Checking bitcoin price today and every day has become kind of habit in the cryptosphere. You can find live bitcoin price chart or widget on every major bitcoin news outlet. What is bitcoin price in usd today, bitcoin/euro exchange rate? You can check bitcoin price live in the chart right here:
What will be the bitcoin price one year from now and end of the year? That is what people are interested in mostly. Only a small part of bitcoin users does not really care about bitcoin price or future bitcoin price predictions as they see bitcoin predominantly as protocol, information or payment system.
New bitcoin price charting analysts wanna make a living of their subscription services predicting the next price move. Bitcoin is highly speculative asset whether you like or not. It is revolutionary technology currently finding its place in distorted and corrupted financial world where asset prices are artificially inflated. Bitcoin presents a hedge against debt and inflation driven society.
And that is why to predict future price of bitcoin is easy. It must go up. A bold prediction, right? Also some people like to say it is not bitcoin going up but fiat currencies like dollar, euro going down to their “intrinsic” value, which is zero.
Therefore the current bitcoin price in terms of dollar or euro is meaningless and what matters is how much bitcoin do you own. Is it more than one bitcoin? Very good, you are part of very narrow group of early adopters, who will be Warren Buffets of cryptoeconomy. Do you own more than 0,1 BTC? Still good, your future well-being doesn’t have to rely on pension handouts and your retirement is more or less secured (depending on your age).
Why U Should Not Use Coinbase exchange
Coinbase exchange is probably the most used crypto service out there. One can buy or sell many cryptocurrencies even with debit or credit card. If lots of people buy and sell cryptocurrencies in this exchange that means it must be the best one, right? Wrong!
Firstly, using any centralized crypto service is dangerous for you. They will ask for your personal data which are stored on their servers, that means easy target for hackers to steal and further sell these data about you to other parties. But that is only one of many reasons why not to use crypto exchanges like Coinbase. They use so called blockchain analysis software spying on your bitcoin transactions and checking your bitcoin origin or next use of bitcoin after you withdraw the cryptocurrency. It can result to shutting down of your account even if you don’t do anything illegal.
You say you don’t care about privacy and prefer comfort and ease of use? OK, fair enough. Then be aware that Coinbase exchange holds private key to your bitcoin. That means your bitcoin is not really yours because you don’t own the private key. Maybe you have already heard the saying “Not your key not your bitcoin”. Sometimes it comes from people who have taken hard lesson to learn what that means while losing money in real or staged accidents. The history of bitcoin is paved by big thefts, freezing of exchange accounts and hacks of centralized services.
Besides all of this Coinbase exchange has long history of behaving anti-bitcoin, anti-business, unethically towards crypto users. Some people call it Conbase for a reason. Simply said it is not the service bitcoin users would need at best and can get hurt or lose money there at worst.
Never forget, with bitcoin you are your own master, your own bank. Swiss bank in your pocket. If you don’t care properly about your money, someone else will but not for your own good.
How To Join Bitcoin Revolution
Bitcoin is revolution. Bitcoin brings freedom to financial world same as books brought freedom of thought a centuries ago and internet came with more freedom of information few decades back. You can join bitcoin revolution too and not only passively watch how it has been changing the world as we know it.
How can you participate in bitcoin revolution? There are many ways: if you are a software developer, learn how to code in bitcoin protocol and build useful applications. If you don’t know how to do programming stuff, learn it and you can earn money in bitcoin. If your expertise lies in field other than coding, try to provide your services for bitcoin reward.
Earn your income in bitcoin, learn how to use it, test the best and safe bitcoin wallet that is most convenient for your needs, run bitcoin node, send and receive bitcoin payments, learn what is Lightning network or how to increase privacy of bitcoin you hold. If you are good at teaching and explaining things to audience start providing your own learning course (of course only after getting enough theoretical and practical knowledge about bitcoin).
Even if you are an employee in company with your mundane boring job you can join bitcoin revolution. Just set up your own bitcoin wallet and buy regularly certain amount of bitcoin for your fiat money income. Preferable way of buying is cash person-to-person (bitcoin meetups, friend of friend of friend from btc community), decentralized bitcoin exchange like Bisq or at bitcoin ATM.
If you don’t mind using “good money” for payments try to use bitcoin services in your place and pay it with bitcoin. So you can regret later why the hell you’d throw away coins for spending and not saving it for future:)
The ways to join bitcoin revolution:
- Acquire bitcoin by accepting bitcoin payments, mining bitcoin or purchasing bitcoin
- Engage in services for bitcoin
- Provide solutions for bitcoin acceptance
- Leverage bitcoin technology
- Invest in bitcoin or bitcoin economy
Choose The Best Bitcoin Wallet For Your Needs
Bitcoin wallet is a device where you store your bitcoin. Same as with traditional fiat money there are many kinds of wallets. You can store money in a bank, i.e. coinbase bitcoin wallet. As mentioned above this approach seems to be safe but it is not. Same as with your money in bank, it is not really yours. The bank has final say over whether it allows you to send a payment or make withdrawal or at what conditions.
Centralized bitcoin exchange like Coinbase can reject your transaction for whatever reason it comes up with. The more and more strict KYC/AML regulations allow these services to freeze your money if they think the transaction is suspicious for some reason or does not comply with their rules.
Again, it has nothing to do with how bitcoin works and all with how these third parties control “your” money. Try to use bitcoin peer-to-peer as much as you can and you will realize bitcoin runs smoothly and without any problems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, during weekends, holidays.
Best bitcoin wallet is the one with which you own your private key to bitcoin. Bitcoin wallet consists of list of bitcoin addresses. When choosing the right bitcoin wallet you should figure out what will you use bitcoin for. Is it for saving for the future? Try to buy hardware wallet like Trezor, Coldcard or Ledger which you will use not so often.
There are also cheaper solutions than hardware bitcoin wallets. If you have free notebook you can download desktop bitcoin wallet like Electrum or Bitcoin core and use it only for bitcoin transactions without connecting the machine to internet (Of course, first learn how to use it securely and what is the exact approach). Nowadays you can use them also in combination with hardware wallets.
There are also bitcoin paper wallets, which are not actually wallets (storing more bitcoin addresses) but only pair of bitcoin keys (public in the form of bitcoin address and private key). Some people do not recommend using paper wallets saying they are not secure enough. Be very careful when generating paper bitcoin wallet.
If you want to use bitcoin wallet for smaller day to day payments or just temporary moving of bitcoin, you can find and download some secure bitcoin wallet from bitcoin.org website. Beware of less known bitcoin wallets apps in IOS or Android app store in your smartphone and always check bitcoin wallets reviews before installation. Store only the amount of bitcoin equal to your amount of fiat you would carry in traditional wallet.
Do not forget: security first! Learn properly how to use all devices, solutions, approaches. Start with small money and only after you feel like you know what you are doing make bigger transfers. Most crypto accidents where people lose bitcoin happen not because of hacks or thefts but lack of safety in own personal procedures and methods. It is more probable you lose or forget your password than get hacked. Remember, bitcoin is here to be the money only you manage, not some other persons you don’t even know. Not your key (password, seed) not your bitcoin.
What Bitcoin News Sites To Follow
Bitcoin is new kid in town and many people are still not familiar with how bitcoin works, how to profit from it, how to use it, why to use bitcoin or how to buy and where to check the crazy bitcoin price. It is for your own good and wisdom to follow a credible bitcoin news sites and sources.
The most prolific stream of bitcoin ideas, news, concepts or current bitcoin price development and expectations one can find on #bitcoin (#BTC, $bitcoin) and again on @bitcoin twitter. Although most bitcoin twitter posts are directed to a bit advanced audience, you should not give up on trying to understand them if you are a beginner.
One can also find great stream of bitcoin news on reddit though be careful. There is the real Bitcoin Reddit channel and then there is also fake Bitcoin channel occupied by Roger Ver and his bitcoin cash cheerleaders. If by chance you don’t know, bitcoin cash is one of bitcoin hard forks splitting bitcoin and de facto another shitcoin used by almost nobody.
There are more than many crypto news in this space, most websites only waste your time and energy as they write about shitcoins and disregard info about bitcoin on purpose. Often these news sites promote some hidden agenda, i.e. shilling for one of several thousands of shitcoins they hope people would buy so they can sell to them for higher price.
There is growing number of quality bitcoin podcasts or bitcoin youtube channels one can follow. You can choose bitcoin show for an entertainment, education, investing, trading, programming, technical stuff or other purpose you are interested in. Just use google when finding some podcasts, youtube shows, bitcoin price news, bitcoin news sites or twitter bitcoiners. You will quickly find out there are so many good quality sources of bitcoin information that you have no chance to catch up with all of them. As always the final choice of crypto news is up to you.
Buy Bitcoin and Forget About Price
Maybe you are well aware of the saying: “The best time to buy bitcoin was yesterday. The second best time to buy bitcoin is today.” You might say we are really exaggerating here now, but it is true. Bitcoin price has been going up since it started trading almost ten years ago. Yes, bitcoin price is volatile as some talking heads like to say. And there was even two years in bitcoin short history when bitcoin price declined year over year. But even half-blinded human being can see steep appreciation by several millions of % on the long-term chart. Buy bitcoin now.
Bitcoin price has been and will be going up long-term (in relation to euro, dollar or other fiat crypto shitcoin, (yes I mean the shitcoin you own also) because of its four year halving cycle. That is the most important bitcoin fundamental feature which impacts on bitcoin price. You can speculate with usual strategy of trying to buy bitcoin low and sell it high. But you would lose money after all. Even most successful investors can’t time the market to pinpoint the exact bottom or top. Buy and hold bitcoin. Forget about bitcoin price.
Bitcoin is not only financial asset people speculate on. It is new technology, revolutionary technology. It is internet of money, the very basic layer upon which further layers of finance and value transfer will be built on. Besides of those properties bitcoin is a store of value. It is coming at the time when all other assets are devalued with more and more debt in the economy. Bitcoin is the ultimate tool for protecting your hard earned money and giving you freedom to use it when you want, where you want and how you want. Buy bitcoin now.
Buy bitcoin and hold it. Where to store bitcoin? Of course in your own bitcoin wallet. That means a wallet where only you or parties you trust own private keys. Bitcoin wallet can use multiple private keys when spending coins (so called multisig wallet) and it is convenient if you want to distribute the risk of losing a key.
Where to buy bitcoin? The most popular way how to buy bitcoin is bitcoin exchange. However it is also the least privacy protecting way. There are many pitfalls not obvious to user at the start. As mentioned previously, the most comfortable way does not equal the safest option. If you really have no other possibility how to buy bitcoin, just exchange your dollars or euro there and immediately withdraw bitcoin from an exchange to your own personal wallet. Yes, you can buy bitcoin with credit card, debit card for higher fee. There is also possible to buy bitcoin with paypal, though most sellers do not allow it because buyer can take the fiat payment back later and scam the seller.
If you prefer to avoid all the hustle and risk related to sending your personal information to a service, buy bitcoin in bitcoin ATM machine. Yes, you pay higher fee there but you purchase bitcoin to hold it for several years at least if not forever, right? Your privacy, your safety, your keys are more valuable than additional few percent you pay for bitcoin at ATM. Especially when bitcoin price is going to increase 1000x in future.
Should I Buy Cryptocurrency Now?
You should buy cryptocurrency right now, if you don’t own any yet. And by cryptocurrency we mean bitcoin, not one of many useless and valueless cryptocurencies listed on Coinbase exchange for example.
Many people think they should buy one of those other crypto shitcoins because bitcon price is too high and they can not afford the whole bitcoin. And that is the reason they are searching for cheap cryptocurrency to invest. That is plainly wrong assumption.
Bitcoin is divided into eight decimal places. The least unit of 0.00000001 BTC is called satoshi. That equals to about 0.0001 USD right now. Do you still think you can’t afford to buy fraction of bitcoin now? And instead putting your hard earned money into unlimited number of altcoins which will not exist few years or decades later or will be totally worthless?
The main reason you want to buy bitcoin is its limited number. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoins and currently has been already mined about 18 million BTC. No other cryptocurrency has such limit on the total number of units and that is why bitcoin is the best cryptocurrency for storing your money.
Buy and Hold Bitcoin
Did you buy small amount of bitcoin? OK, well done. Now make sure you store the cryptocurrency in your own bitcoin wallet and do not leave money at bitcoin exchange. The safest method or strategy how you grow your bitcoin investment, insurance, wealth (insert here your purpose of purchase) is HODLing with regular buying in smaller amounts (so called stacking sats).
You don’t have to stress over where is bitcoin price right now, if or when it plunges down. Also you don’t care if it is too high. You only buy certain amount once per month, per week or whatever time period suits your needs. So called dollar-cost averaging buying helps you avoid emotional ups and downs related to newbie trader mentality.
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