The DOs and DONTs of investing in Cryptocurrency

I found this guys videos very very helpful to understand the market,
If this advice is slightly off topic feel free to delete

He also provdes free courses for learning how to understand crypto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-KTx2ty18

DeVore wrote: »

DO learn what public/private key encryption is and how blockchain works... you are going to need to understand the operation of both to get anywhere (and to secure your investments!).

At a very very (very!) high level... here's something I wrote for the Institute of Directors in Ireland's blog on the two fundamental concepts behind Cryptocurrency.

https://www.iodireland.ie/news-events/blog/bitcoins-and-blockchains-directors

What's your prediction on the future of the blockchain? 
Personally I think smart contracts are going to re-develop how the world works!

Dohnjoe wrote: »

Don't move very large amounts in one go

I kinda know your reasoning for this -- the possibility of making an address error etc when transferring a large amount. It probably does make sense to take very small amounts for safety reasons.
However, people should be aware that carrying out micro-transactions can be expensive in the long run. You are paying a transaction fee per each transaction. And equally significant, a lot of folk don't realise that when you do eventually "spend" that bitcoin you are paying an even higher fee because the Spend fee is calc-ed on the number of outputs that make up that Spend. I.E., if you withdraw ten amounts of, say, €20 worth of BTC from the exchange, then to spend that total of €200 in one go entails a tx fee based on the number of outputs (10 X €20's).

Is there a handy "how to buy your first coin" guide yet?

Kraken has about 3 times the BTC-EUR volume over Bitstamp

Bitstamp is very simple to start using if you want to dip your toe in the water. You can deposit directly from an Irish bank account with no fees and trading fees are relatively low (0.25%). Withdrawing back to your bank account only costs 0.90c per transaction.
Downside is it has a limited number of coins as listed above by Will56.
I was also very confused at the start and set up a wallet on blockchain before realising I didn't really need it if I just wanted to buy some coins. That said I've since withdrawn some bitcoin to buy something on fasttech so it has been useful.

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

You are quite right in being concerned about losing your coin -- more clever and experienced people than us have been conned, scammed, and thieved of their crypto assets.
You truly do need to become acquainted with protection and good practice before you even consider spending even a lowly €10 on crypto. Security is everything. You alone are responsible for you holdings as against fiat where your bank is responsible. I refuse to discuss Bitcoin with any of my friends until they educate themselves on security.

A brief outline I would advise to you:
Read up about wallets.
Do not store any crypto on a web wallet, a cloud wallet, an exchange wallet, or on blockchain.info. Do not ever store your coins on your PC.
Either use a paper wallet, or a hardware wallet. If going for a paper wallet, you should use an air-gapped computer to generate it or better still a computer that has never been connected to the internet. Alternatively to paper or hardware wallet, you could consider Electrum or Mycelium. I can't vouch for them, I have never used them.
All of this stuff is widely available to learn on Youtube or the net in general. Let Google be your friend.

After this, you can much more confidently approach buying your first crypto. As the poster above says, this step is quite straightforward.

Pro_gnostic - Depends on your coin type though, I have my BTC/ETH/LTC (which make up about 70% of my holdings) secured with a hardware wallet, but my neo is on the desktop neo gui wallet, and I also have small amounts of XRP, Vertcoin & ARK on desktop wallets.

Unfortunately there's no hardware support for this right now afaik.

pro_gnostic_8 wrote: »

That is one of the reasons I don't dabble in these and other alts.
I won't touch anything that is not supported by Trezor. Perhaps that approach locks me out of some potential big gain on some obscure alt ............... but I do sleep soundly at night. :P

The likes of neo and ripple have large enough market caps to warrant them being supported though.

Whelo79 wrote: »

I second this. I can't get my head around the best way to go about it with wallets and encryption and all that stuff. I'm actually afraid I would end up losing it all stupidly somehow.

I found this guide to be pretty good, I'm still a beginner myself but it got me started!

https://howtobuybitcoin.io

Dardania wrote: »

Etherum available from the Swedish NASDAQ also for the last week: http://www.nasdaqomxnordic.com/etp/etn/etninfo?Instrument=SSE144581&name=Ether%20Tracker%20Euro%20XBT%20PROVIDER 

By the same guys that do an ETN for BTC: https://xbtprovider.com/

How does this work, I assume they're not operating as an exchange ?

"If you don't have possession of the private key, you don't own the coin".
These paper derivatives are something like rehypothecated gold -- you are holding nothing but paper. If the proverbial ever hit the fan, you could end up with nothing.
Worse, these instruments go against the philosophy and principles of crypto -- you can't "spend" them, transfer them, run them thru the blockchain. Crypto is intended to be disruptive of the stock market and the establishment system -- not to be a part of it.
Just an opinion.

Still Ill wrote: »

Ok, just looking into this before possibly investing soon. Currently have a small amount of bitcoin (just a few hundred) on etoro. Just wanted to have a look at that to start with. I'm interested in buying some actual bitcoin to keep in a wallet along with some other coins. I've read that storing online and on mobile are the least secure methods, so would be more interested in desktop or hardware... So here's the question I have. What happens if you have one of these wallets and your hard disk/USB storage messes up? Are you just completely screwed or is there some sort of retrieval method?

When you first setup a hardware wallet you are presented with 24 keywords which are used to generate your private keys. You must write them down and store in a secure location. These can be used to retrieve the keys on a replacement wallet should the original get lost. The protocol used for this is open source and is not vendor specific. So you could retrieve onto a soft wallet as a temporary workaround while you are waiting for your replacement to arrive.

Dardania wrote: »

My problem with adopting crypto is that it isn't as user friendly (yet) as what it is trying to disrupt. There are too many potential mistakes and pitfalls that new users can make,

You are absolutely correct ! Anyone who says that direct involvement in Bitcoin is straightforward deserves a caning. Even buying bitcoin has a degree of difficulty -- it's not easy and it's certainly not instantaneous. Storing it securely in offline wallets using Linux O.S. with Tails usb sticks etc is a nightmare for the non-tech savvy folks. I get that.

And you are also correct that buying into a derivative like above is easy and fast. It simplifies the path to participation of many people into crypto without the learning curve needed to become directly involved in bitcoin ownership. It comes as no surprise that, for instance, the shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust trade at a premium of 50% ABOVE the value of the Bitcoin that it is tracking. When the SEC eventually gives the green light to bitcoin ETF's in the U.S., it will explode the rate of take-up in Bitcoin. The millions of American Mom-and-Pop investors will have at last a painless entree into crypto.

So yeah, ETN's, ETF's and other derivatives have a purpose; they make the experience of exposure to crypto a safe and easy one. Just that it's not for me, I'm not happy with giving custodianship of my coin ownership to a third party. I also want the benefits that direct ownership allows -- the transference aspect, the borderless conveyance, the censorship-resistance etc etc.

We're both singing off the same hymnsheet, I guess. Derivatives will suit the new incomers to crypto whilst direct ownership will suit others.