I was writing a crash course for my film-industry buddy here in Hollywood on how to get started in crypto. It started as a 3 sentence email... but ended up being this. As... all crypto enthusiasts tend to do, I wrote a blizzard of words. Anyway, I sent it in an email and decided to copy and paste it over to here in case anyone else wants to learn a little bit about it. It doesn't go too in-depth. Hence, FOR NEWBIES.
Step 1:
Read these quick articles to get started, it won't fry your brain.
Bitcoin (BTC): https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-explained-five-year-old/
Ethereum (ETH): https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/11/28/ultimate-2000-word-plain-english-guide-ethereum/
Litecoin (LTC): litecoin is essentially digital silver. It's much faster and the most stable of the crypto's.
Coinbase is a good place to start. Over christmas they stopped allowing people to join because of the influx of people... it should be okay now.
Step 2 (and final step): Read this.
Here's an explanation of everything put together:
Cryptocurrency is digital money. Plain and simple. The word "crypto" scares people, but the only time its ever "encrypted" is when its sending to someone else, or when you are receiving it. It's actually keeping your money safe. Other than that, the entire world can audit anyone. It's open to the entire planet to see. Borderless, trustless, low fees. The granddaddy of crypto is bitcoin, aka THE BIG KAHUNA.
The best way to describe bitcoin is: digital gold. It uses a "proof-of-work" algorithm which means that.. you actually gotta have computers work for it. By solving digital puzzles for each transaction in a worldwide competition. It's slow, vast and expensive-- much like building the Egyptian pyramids. Every other new coin that comes out nowadays is nothing like it. However, there's really no need.... one set of pyramids is enough to set history.
The next comparison to bitcoin would be Litecoin; which is digital silver. It's spent and used like the way it was intended to. People hold their gold but are willing to spend their silver. It's currently worth about .001 digital gold, and its faster, cheaper and stable. I use this to send to cryptocurrency exchanges quickly. I sell it back to bitcoin and I buy other currencies at a low (this is more advanced but as soon as you buy any of the big 3 here.... you'll research on your own. Ive known people who bought bitcoin at $5, Ethereum at $.30 cents... currently I've bought some other cryptocurrencies for 5 cents and I've been waiting for it to break a dollar. Some have, some haven't). Keep in mind, a lot of these cryptocurrencies run on a similar "blockchain technology"- developers use the bitcoin tech (it's open source for the world to use for free) to develop their own contribution to the digital age. Every once in a while, someone like Vitalik Buterin comes and creates Ethereum, KAHUNA #2.
Ethereum is essentially... natural gas. Unlike the precious metals, it uses gas to run transactions. When you buy Ethereum, you are buying Ether. This Ether is used to run the Ethereum Network, and you can run programs using it. Heck, you could run your own script if you want! It can get confusing so I'll stop there for now. Ethereum is the world's first decentralized (no central control by anyone) supercomputer. I can use it on vending machines. One day I'll be able to lock doors and write a smart contract with someone Airbnb renting a place and the doors stay locked unless they paid the deposit. Stuff like that is about to change the world fam.
Overall, it's still in its infancy. Less than 1% of the world's money is in this. It's for the people. It's at about 600 billion dollars right now as I'm writing this. It hit 817 Billion over a few weeks ago. You bet governments are trying to regulate it. They've been laughing at it for the past 9 years... whether they like it or not, the technology is here to stay. Can't stuff baked bread back to the yeast. If they want to destroy it, they're gonna have to destroy the internet. Good luck with that.
bitcoinobituaries.com is a site that has the world calling bitcoin "dead" or "scam". A total of about 236 times last I checked. They don't understand that it's been 10 years and it's never been hacked and I'm pretty confident to say... it never will. Because of the technology and the way it works. After being dead for 10 years... it's still here. Wonder why? haha.
Disclaimer: The market is super volatile and I personally, never sell. But it's very easy to get FUD and FOMO in this game. You've only lost if you sell at a loss. Unlike the stock market, it's not uncommon to watch the market dip 35%, 50%, 75%. I've endured about 5 huge dips so far since I've been in June 2017. However, its not uncommon for it to go up 35%, 50% 75% in a day. The market has gained 700% since I've been in. Reddit has a huge cryptocurrency community such as /r/ethtrader and /r/bitcoin to give you inspiration when it dips. Fake news scares always come out as well to get people to sell. A lot of tactics in this game since its a world currency.
Lastly, don't put in what you're not willing to lose 100% of. I'm in the game long-term, and the discipline I've learned investing in the crypto market has paid off. Always do your own research. My buddy Gio, creator of Cryptonauts, told me to invest in Ethereum last year when it was around $140-170. He was in Peru at the time when I called him. I put my entire lifesavings in there without thinking twice. Before researching. I honestly didn't mind if I was going to lose it because I had been homeless with $0.25 in my bank account just two years prior. It paid off. I guess I got lucky but... I would always research before doing that.
By the way, if you want to go to a conference February 24, 2018 in New York City or March 24, 2018 in Los Angeles.. I'll hook you up with tickets =)
Happy Digital Asset Hunting!
- Capt. Crypto
