Hello, again! I wanted to include a picture for this post but really have nothing Bitcoin related, so here I am in Switzerland. lol
So this post is going to be all about crypto, however I've been so inspired by other people on Steemit that I've decided I'm not going to talk just about this topic but share more of my world with you. I've fantasized many times about getting paid to learn crazy random things and I'm thinking maybe Steemit is part of the answer. Anyway, I'll discuss that later. Today I just want to share what I've been doing so far with cryptocurrencies.
I am a late-comer to Bitcoin, but now I'm trying to get up to speed, as I realize that digital currency is probably the way of the future. Who knows how long Bitcoin itself will exist, or the other ones that are around right now. I'm sure governments will take over and create their own and completely defeat the purpose. Anyway.
Years ago I tried to figure out Bitcoin, but all I knew was that you had to make it somehow, and I just couldn't sort that out. These days, it's gotten quite easy to buy it and other cryptocurrencies. It's renewed my interest in trading, so I've been spending a lot of time learning about it and accumulating it (though I still don't have a whole Bitcoin) and learning to read charts again.
Because now that I've been absorbed in this process I sometimes get asked about what I'm doing with Bitcoin, I thought I would just write a blog about it. I will be posting updates as I learn more and want to share more. I don't want to make this an extremely long post, I just want to tell you what I've been doing, personally. If any of it appeals to you as something you're interested in trying as well, you can follow my (affiliate) links to explore the companies I'll be mentioning. Some of these links will give you bonuses for signing up (and I would be so appreciative of you using my links, as I get a little bonus too!) and I will mention that as I go along.
First! Maybe you want to understand a little about blockchain. I recommend starting with this video, or looking for another on YouTube that makes sense to you.
Right, now then.
It seems the 'gateway' app to Bitcoin is Coinbase. It's a website, and an app. I usually always use the app to check on prices when I'm not at a computer. I made my first purchases here, because it is very easy to do so. You can purchase directly from your bank account, or load money into a USD wallet on the platform. Either way, expect several days for your money or your purchase to show up. The downside to Coinbase are the fees, and the time it can take for purchases. It's pretty expensive to buy and sell there (think about $14 per $1000 purchase), which is why when I discovered their partner site, Gdax.com, I started buying there, where you can buy for either a fraction of the cost, or even for free. The problem is that there, you can't buy straight from your bank account the way you can with Coinbase. You have to transfer money to it, or use your Coinbase funds, or even transfer Bitcoin/Bitcoin Cash/Litecoin/Ethereum (all the coins they support) from elsewhere to trade. But the great thing is, if you place Limit orders (which are filled when they reach the price you want) then it's free. It's also cheaper to transfer funds out from Gdax to other websites. This is a trading platform, candlesticks and all. Not as basic as the Coinbase app. But it's easy to get the hang of.
You can sign up for Coinbase (which is linked to Gdax so it makes it easy to sign up there, too) by using this link (yep, my affiliate link!). You'll also get a bonus $10 worth of Bitcoin when you start investing using my link (and I get $10 too!)
Next up I think I'll tell you about another platform where you can buy more “penny stock” coins. On Gdax and Coinbase you can buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. But on something like Binance.com you can get new, cheap coins like Iota, Ripple, or Verge. With Bitcoin being so much more expensive than other coins, you might want to start with some of these, as the investment can be very low but the potential can be quite high (probably not as high as Bitcoin though). I've been trying to find some good, reliable sources of information on various new coins to invest in and I will share them as I find them. The ones I mentioned above are some that I've invested in so far.
So the other platform I've been using is Binance (click the link!). I don't think you get any bonuses for using my link, but I do get a commission on your trading fees if you use it.
Binance also has an app, however it's not in the app store and you'll have to download it here (for iOS), and then verify it in your settings.
Some others that offer smaller coins are bitstamp.com (not an affiliate link) or hitBTC.com
Gemini.com was also recommended to me, and I've used it a bit, however they limit you to depositing $500 USD per day with a monthly limit of $14,500. And weekends don't count. However, once you deposit the money, you can instantly trade with it, and even transfer your crypto out, I believe. They only offer BTC, ETH and LTE however. But if you're in a rush to buy something under $500, and don't want to pay enormous Coinbase fees and have no balance at Gdax, I would turn to Gemini. They do charge a small fee, but nowhere near what Coinbase charges.
Another that seems popular is Bittrex, however it's been overwhelmed with new users lately and I have not been able to make an account. As soon as I can, I will, though, because I want to see which works best for me.
Now, it's advised to not store all of your Bitcoin on these platforms, as any website has the possibility of being hacked, or your password stolen, etc.
There are several ways of storing Bitcoin, which are outlined in this great blog post:
I initially downloaded an app to store mine, but then ordered a Ledger Nano S. It's still in the mail so I'll let you know what I think of it later. You can buy it on Amazon (watch the price, I've seen it go for between $115-125 lately for one), or you might actually be able to get it cheaper from their website. When I went to the website, everything was listed in Euros, and I had to get it shipped from France because the English version was unavailable in the US, but it still came out to be only about $70 before shipping.
Another popular one is the KeepKey, also on Amazon... but it's a bit more expensive:
Now for some fun stuff. Although I want to buy and hold several cryptocurrencies, I also wanted to know what else I could do with them. I always like to make my money work for me when I can, and to create passive income (I have some other links that have nothing to do with crypto that I can share in another post).
Like I said before, day trading is an idea that interests me, but I know it takes some skill, and although I'll be working on it, I'm also impatient. I wanted to know if there was a safer way to play around with earning money with crypto besides me losing it all buying high and selling low. I discovered a few websites that seem to be legit that work with trading bots to give you a return on the money you loan them. There have been scams and ponzi schemes out there and I'm not 100% sure about any of these, but I felt it was worth the risk, so I put some money into the two that seem most trustworthy.
The first is Bitconnect. You can learn a little about them here:
I started with a $500 investment. You have to first buy Bitcoin, then transfer it to their site, exchange it for their coin, and then loan it to them. I did this a few weeks ago and have earned over $100 back. Some of it I reinvested, but then I decided to start taking some profits as well. Some I turned back into Bitcoin and some as cash. Soon I want to put more money into this to create a real income off of it. They have a few different tiers, and the more money you put in, the faster you're able to get your capital back. My $500 is locked up for about 300 days.
The second one is USI Tech. It's a similar concept, though they mine Bitcoin. I've found many videos on YouTube with interviews with the owners of the company, which is reassuring to me (if they show their faces, they can't anonymously run off with the money!), such as this one:
Their website is here:
I started with the minimum $60 BTC investment but just recently put in a few hundred more, since 40¢ a day (in Bitcoin) isn't very impressive. I put my second batch (of about $600 worth of BTC) in over the weekend, when they aren't mining/trading, but checking in Monday night I'd already made about $10 in Bitcoin!). What I like about this is that it's all in Bitcoin. I was concerned with Bitconnect that I might fall behind with Bitcoin, since I'm trading it in and wouldn't get the same amount of Bitcoin back at the end if the price of Bitcoin had changed since I invested. If Bitcoin goes up, which is most likely will, I will have lost value.
Of course, if Bitcoin goes down that lessens the returns no matter what, but at least with Bitconnect and USI you're earning more Bitcoin and/or more money rather than just letting it sit there and go up and down.
At the moment, I prefer USI, though I'm trying out both services.
With USI, I can be multiplying my Bitcoin, rather than letting it sit in a wallet or a trading platform (and at the moment, losing value). And if I want the cash, then I can just sell the Bitcoin. I'm going to reinvest some, and take out some, but I haven't really settled on a concrete plan to strike a balance I'm happy with.
EDIT: Jan 6, 2018 Members of USI in the US and Canada received a notice canceling their partnerships with USI as affiliates. I got the notice too, as I am in the US currently. Still figuring out what this means for people with US/Canadian accounts but I'm going to be verifying my status as a French resident as quickly as I can!)
And now back to the post...
My goal is to pay myself back for what I've invested in coins already, while gaining more coins, and also making an income I can use right away. So I'm setting myself up to do that. Although I do try to keep in mind that the whole thing is very risky. Bitcoin and other coins are very volatile. But as they say with loans or stock, if you want to earn more, you have to take more risk.
Now, you can also get into mining, although I haven't invested much in this. I bought a $35 contract with Genesis Mining but don't check in often. I'm mining Ether there, because a Bitcoin contract wasn't available. To date, I've made what is equal to about $2.25 worth of Ether there so far (this is after about a month). I've hesitated to invest more into that, but I might later.
The company I signed up with is Genisis Mining:
If you sign up with my referral code, you get a 3% discount on the contract you choose:
GuHxp0
Trading crypto... If you know what your doing, you can trade crypto yourself, or with a trading bot. The one I'm most interested in is called LeonArdo. I haven't invested yet, but it's only a $129 one-time fee. Since I don't know a lot about it, I want to refer you to someone who does. I ran across this man on YouTube, and if you buy with his affiliate code and send him an email, he'll give you access to his trading tutorials. I plan on doing that, myself.
If you use "bitcoint" as the referrer you will get access to his LeonArdo trading tutorials. Be sure to email him at bitcoinguvnor at gmail dot com once you sign up.
If you also want to try it out before making a commitment to buy, you can get the demo version, which I just downloaded and will be toying with myself.
If you want to try out trading manually, get to know the terminology and get yourself a strategy. So far, I haven't been very good at this, so I'm still studying. This might be the next strategy I try, probably on a small coin in small amounts. With something like Bitcoin it just hasn't seemed worth it to me to trade in small amounts, so I'd rather play around with cheaper coins at the moment.
That's about all I have to report for now. I hope it was helpful in some way! I'll be checking back in to share my progress. If you have any suggestions for me, please feel free to share! I'm currently trying to find one good source of information for news on cryptocurrencies, new coins to watch, trading tips, etc. An app or a website with an app would be ideal, so I could check it on my phone or even get alerts. If you know of one, please let me know!
Talk to you soon!