Heya, Steemers (just made this up now), I bring to you my first actual post! This post is for those who don't know what's a Bit, Coin, or BitCoin. Or have vague knowledge. Or anyone, for that matter.
I recently purchased a bit of bitcoins (Bad pun. Sorry.) with 50$. And then I decided to spend 35$ in trading. The fomer was a bad choice, and the latter was a worse one.
First of all, Bitcoin prices are fluctuating GREATLY now. Here is a chart of BitCoin in the last few months -
It is fluctuating like a jumping kid on a weight measuring machine, maybe even more. When I bought BitCoin, it was about 11,000$. Now it is 8,000$. Loss #1.
Loss #2: I decided to try trading. And I found out I sucked in trading BIG TIME. It is not a thing for new comers. In the beginning, it might seem you are earning profits. But the future has different plans for you. You'll keep losing money until you have 0$ in balance left. It is not for beginners.
Also, did I mention Bitcoin transactions are slow, and the transaction fees was huge? When I initally bought Bitcoin, I accidentally used "next block" transaction fee for a $2 purchase, which, at that time, was around $4. I paid $4 fees for a $2 purchase. I once tried a $0.05 transaction fee, and it took a WEEK for the bitcoins to arrive. Basically, it's a pain to use it properly.
This way, I lost around 40 precious dollars. I converted the rest to my country's currency.
Okay, so this rant was about negatives. There are some benefits too —
- Payments are anonymous. Although most day-to-day users don't need to care about this.
- This is a filler point because I can't think of any more benefits. Sorry.
I am not saying all cryptocurrencies are bad. In fact, there are many better ones. But I am saying that you should NOT buy/trade Bitcoins atleast until the prices have stabilised.
TL;DR: If you are a newbie to the cryptocurrency world, I suggest you stay away from it, at least for now, and specifically stay away from Bitcoins. If you need it urgently for anonymous transactions, that's fine, but don't store Bitcoins unless you're a pro. If you're not a pro, then I can say with 90% accuracy it will be a loss.
If you like this post, please upvote it and resteem! A follow will be nice too :). If you have something to share or want to comment on my newbie-ish writing skills (this is my first actual post :D), please comment! I will be grateful.
Thanks for reading,
Soham.