A Beginner’s Guide: An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies

Introduction: invest in cryptocurrencies

The first cryptocurrency to emerge was bitcoin, which was built on Blockchain technology and was probably launched in 2009 by the mysterious man Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time of writing, 17 million bitcoins have been mined, and it is estimated that 21 million bitcoins can be mined. The other most popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Golem, Civic and Bitcoin hardforks such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.

Users are advised not to put all their money in one cryptocurrency and try to avoid investing at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble. It was observed that the price suddenly fell down when it was at the peak of the crypto-bubble. Because cryptocurrency is an unstable market, users must invest an amount they can afford to lose because no government controls cryptocurrency because it is a decentralized cryptocurrency.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, predicted that bitcoin is real gold, and in the future it will dominate all currencies such as USD, EUR, INR and ASD, and in the coming years will become a world currency.

Why and why not invest in cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to appear, and after that about 1,600+ cryptocurrencies were launched with some unique features for each coin.

Some of the reasons I felt and wanted to share were that cryptocurrencies were created on a decentralized platform – so users don’t need to transfer cryptocurrency from a third party from one destination to another, unlike fiat currency, where a user needs a platform like Bank for transfer money from one account to another. A cryptocurrency built on highly secure blockchain technology, and an almost zero chance of hacking and stealing your cryptocurrencies until you share your important information.

You should always avoid buying cryptocurrency at the highest point of the cryptocurrency bubble. Many of us buy cryptocurrencies at the peak in hopes of making money fast and falling victim to the hype bubble and losing our money. Users are better off doing a lot of research before investing money. It is always good to put your money in several cryptocurrencies rather than one, as it has been observed that few cryptocurrencies grow larger, some on average when other cryptocurrencies fall into the red zone.

Cryptocurrencies to focus on

In 2014, 90% of the market is for bitcoin, and the remaining 10% – for other cryptocurrencies. In 2017, bitcoin still dominates the crypto market, but its share has fallen sharply from 90% to 38%, and altcoins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple have grown rapidly and captured most of the market.

Bitcoin still dominates the cryptocurrency market, but not the only cryptocurrency you need to consider when investing in a cryptocurrency. Some of the major cryptocurrencies you should consider:

bitcoin

Lightcoin

pulsation

Etherium

Throne

Civil

Great

Money

Where and how to buy cryptocurrencies?

If a few years ago buying cryptocurrencies was not easy, now users have many available platforms.

In 2015, India has two main bitcoin platforms – the Unocoin wallet and the Zebpay wallet, where users can only buy and sell bitcoins. Users should buy bitcoin only from the wallet, but not from another person. There was a price difference in the buying and selling rate, and users had to pay some nominal fee to complete their transactions.

In 2017, the cryptocurrency industry grew significantly and the value of bitcoin grew spontaneously, especially in the last six months of 2017, forcing users to look for alternatives to bitcoin and surpassing 14 lakhs in the Indian market.

Because Unodax and Zebpay are the two main platforms in India that dominated the market with 90% market share – dealing only with bitcoins. This allows other organizations to grow with other altcoins and has even forced Unocoin and others to add more currencies to their platform.

Unocoin, one of India’s leading cryptocurrencies and blockchain companies, has launched an exclusive UnoDAX Exchange platform for its users to trade multiple cryptocurrencies besides bitcoin trading at Unocoin. The difference between the two platforms was that Unocion provided instant buying and selling of bitcoins only while on UnoDAX users could place an order of any available cryptocurrency, and if it matches the recipient, the order will be executed.

Other major exchanges available for cryptocurrency trading in India are Koinex, Coinsecure, Bitbns, WazirX.

Users must open an account on any exchange by registering with an email ID and providing KYC details. Once their account is confirmed, you can start trading coins of your choice.

Users should research well before investing in any coins, and not fall into the cryptocurrency bubble trap. Users need to explore stock market trust, transparency, security features and more.

All exchanges charge a certain nominal commission for each transaction. There are two types of fees – maker commission and tucker commission. If you want to transfer your cryptocurrencies to another exchange or to your personal wallet, in addition to the transaction fee, you need to pay a commission. The fee depends solely on coins and exchanges, as different exchanges have a price difference module for transferring coins.

Major altcoins other than Bitcoin

As mentioned above, Bitcoin dominates the market with a market share of 38%, followed by Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Exchanges such as UnoDAX, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bitstamp, have listed many other coins such as Golem, Civic, Raiden Network, Kyber Network, Basic Attention, 0X, Augur, Monero, Tron and many others. If any of the coins match your portfolio, you should buy it.

But you have to put money in a market that you can afford to lose, because the cryptocurrency market is very volatile and no government controls it.

When to buy?

There are no hard and fast rules when buying a favorite cryptocurrency. But market stability needs to be explored. You don’t have to just be at the peak of a cryptocurrency bubble or if the price is constantly falling. It is always considered the best time if the price has been stable at a relatively low level for some time.

Method of storing cryptocurrencies

Before buying any cryptocurrency you need to understand how to keep your cryptocurrency safe.

Typically, all exchanges provide storage where you can safely store your coins. If you keep cryptocurrencies on exchanges, you cannot transfer their user data, password, 2FA.

Paper wallet, hardware wallet, software wallet – these are some of the channels where you can store your cryptocurrency.

Paper Wallet: Paper wallet is a standalone cold storage method for storing your cryptocurrency. It prints your private and public key on a sheet of paper where the QR code is also printed. You just need to scan the QR code for future transactions. Why is it safe? No need to worry about hacking your account or attacking malware. You just need to keep the paper in a locker and, if possible, keep two or three pieces of paper under your complete control.

Hardware Wallet: A hardware wallet is a physical device on which you keep your cryptocurrency safe. There are many forms of hardware wallet, but the most commonly used hardware wallet is USB. If you keep your cryptocurrency in your hardware wallet, you just need to remember that you should not lose your hardware wallet, because after losing it you will not be able to get your cryptocurrency.

One known incident is when a person has extracted 7000+ bitcoins and keeps it in their hardware wallet and keeps it in another hardware wallet. One day he threw away a hardware wallet in which he kept his cryptocurrency, instead of damaged hardware, and he lost all his bitcoin.

What can you buy in cryptocurrency in India?

Most people believe that buying and selling any cryptocurrency is just for investing and making high profits in the long and short term. Influencers and bitcoin investors believe that in the coming years bitcoin will dominate all fiat currencies and will be adopted as an international currency.

Dell is one of the largest e-commerce businesses that accept bitcoin as payment. Expedia and UNICEF are other examples.

In India Sapna Book Mall accepted bitcoin as payment through Unocoin trading service. People booked movie tickets through BookMyShow or topped up their cell phones with the Unocoin platform. They have reportedly stopped service but plan to start again soon.

Conclusion:

Cryptocurrency is a growing investment sector and it has yielded more profits than in the past real estate, gold, stock markets, etc. You can buy cryptocurrency and keep it for the long term to make a good profit, or go for the short term to make a quick profit, as in the past we have seen many coins grow by 1000% +. Because cryptocurrency is an unstable market and is not controlled by the government. You need to invest that amount in any cryptocurrency they can afford to lose.

You can store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, paper wallet, software wallet if you do not want to keep on the exchange with which you trade.