Since the middle of December last year, bitcoin has grown by more than $ 14,000, several times updating its historical maximum. Such a rapid rise in the cue ball rate is attracting more and more investors. Perhaps you, too, would like to try your luck and join them, but are afraid to make a mistake and do not know where to start? Sit back, 112.ua has prepared a mini-instruction that will help you easily integrate into the world of cryptocurrencies.
In 2020, bitcoin grew by more than 300%, and already in January 2021, the cryptocurrency rate managed to update its historical maximum as much as five times, for the first time exceeding the $ 40 thousand mark, especially since, according to analysts, by the end of the year crypt can reach $ 100 thousand
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Yes, now this prospect seems to be nothing more than the fantasies of speculators, since the digital currency market is characterized by extremely high volatility (rate fluctuations). Therefore, no one can guarantee that after some time the "cue ball" will not fall into the cryptocurrency winter again.
But one way or another, one thing remains indisputable - the future belongs to digital money. And 40 million people already live in this future using the most popular cryptocurrency - Bitcoin.
Do you want to join them? Follow our instructions. Let's start.
Before talking about buying a crypt, do your "homework"
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Step 1 - self-education.
Before you make any serious investment, you need to do a certain "paper" job: to understand what a digital currency is; how it works; how it differs from the existing financial system; what are the risks of investment and what are its advantages.
Be clear about the purpose of buying cryptocurrency
Step 2 - I want to buy a "crypt" to ... What?
After you understand what you are dealing with, it is worth answering the most important question, which in many ways will indicate the algorithm for further actions: "Why do I need a crypt?"
For you, this is an investment, an alternative to international transfers, a payment system or trading - making money on the rise and fall of the cryptocurrency rate.
In each case, subsequent actions may differ from each other. For example, you can buy not all bitcoin, but only a part outlined by your goals and budget (even for 1 UAH).
"As the hryvnia consists of kopecks, so bitcoin consists of satoshi. Only if 1 hryvnia = 100 kopecks, then 1 bitcoin = 100,000,000 satoshi, and you can buy any amount of satoshi," explains the co-founder of the Citadel agency, CMO Bitzlato.com, CMO Monolith.money Dmitry Kryshtal.
At the time of this writing, 1 bitcoin costs UAH 964,500, respectively, for 1 hryvnia you can buy 0.00000104 bitcoin.
If the question of buying concerns only the desire to be involved in something big, you can purchase a physical "cue ball" (a coin worth about 50 UAH). Yes, you can show it to all your relatives and get certain emotions, but remember that this is just a toy that feeds scammers.
"Bitcoin is a code, information in the register. It cannot be expressed physically. Yes, there are collectible coins, cards and other more or less successful attempts to express Bitcoin in a tangible object, but this is not exactly what you need if you just want to invest or use bitcoin for trading, "says Dmitry Kryshtal.
Choose a way to store the crypt
Step 3 - create a wallet. Most of the sites where you can buy or sell cryptocurrency provide a personal wallet where your funds are stored.
Decide on the storage method: cold wallet, hot wallet, exchange or trustee. The previous step will help you with this. If you haven't paid enough attention to it, you better go back and think it over. Why is this so important?
The fact is that when you buy a cryptocurrency (for example, the same bitcoin), no interest is charged on it. He just lies there. And you either use it in everyday life, paying for services and goods, or give it to the stock exchange or someone else to manage, expecting additional income, or you do not touch the "cue ball" at all, hoping to get speculative earnings due to its rise in price.
If you have chosen for yourself the path of active use of crypto, start a "hot wallet". A digital wallet like this is a classic way to store cryptocurrency. It is customary to keep the bulk of the income on it, which will be available for use at any time.
With the help of such a wallet, you can pay with bitcoins even for ordinary purchases. To illustrate, in Ukraine, a fairly large percentage of imports from China are paid for with cryptocurrency - for them it is instant, cheap and safe.
"If you come to the" 7th kilometer "in Odessa or to" Barabashovo "in Kharkov and offer to pay with cryptocurrency, the seller, if it is large enough, will accept it with pleasure. Since he can immediately pay with it for the purchase of a new one.
Vara, "says Mikhail Chobonyan, founder of the KUNA.io cryptocurrency exchange, in a comment to 112.ua.
If you have chosen the way of making money through trading, you give your cryptocurrency to the exchange or to a trustee.
"This way of storing the cue ball is the most risky. Because if something happens to your counterparty, he goes bankrupt, hackers attack him and write off all cryptocurrencies from the account, this will become a big problem," the managing partner notes in a comment to 112.ua investment company HUG'S Eric Nyman.
But what if you do not want to use crypto in everyday life or take risks, hoping for exchange trading, the best way to store digital currency for you is a "cold wallet".
"This is the safest way. You download it to some medium, a flash drive, something that does not have access to the Internet and is only with you. Very large amounts of money are stored on such" cold wallets ", like cash, dollars or diamonds in bank cells. The main thing is to remember the password later, "the expert adds.
And the password thesis is no joke. Despite the fact that for many of us, forgetting a password is a common thing, in which with the help of a few manipulations we can easily recover it. In the world of cryptocurrencies, everything is much more serious. So, for example, the programmer Stefan Thomas is not laughing. A man 10 years ago wrote down the password for his wallet on a piece of paper that he lost. Then bitcoin was worth less than $ 10, but today Stefan's wallet is worth $ 240 million.
A similar situation happened with James Howles. The Briton mistakenly threw his hard drive from a laptop into the trash in 2013, which contained an electronic wallet with 7,500 bitcoins worth $ 287 million. Now the man asks the authorities to allow him to look for it in a landfill.
Co-founder of Citadel agency, CMO Bitzlato.com, CMO Monolith.money Dmitry Kryshtal also speaks about the advantages of a "cold wallet". According to him, this kind of storage will also protect your funds from hackers.
"For your own security, cryptocurrency (especially in large amounts) is best kept on a personal offline wallet that can be bought on the Internet (for example, a special USB drive)," says Kryshtal.
We decided on the goals and wallets. Let's move on to the most important thing - to buy.
Make a purchase in any way convenient for you
Step 4 - choose a payment method and complete it.
You can pay for cryptocurrency in any way you think of. For example, the first ever recorded purchase of something for cryptocurrency was the purchase of 2 pizzas at Papa John’s for 10,000 bitcoins, which can also be considered a kind of exchange. Most often, cryptocurrency is bought either for non-cash funds or for another cryptocurrency (exchanges). There are also cases of cash payment.
There are three main ways to buy bitcoin:
Stock exchange
Centralized exchanger
Platform for p2p exchange
For cash, a "cue ball" can be bought in the exchanger. It is enough, while walking around Kiev, to pay attention to all exchange offices. Many of them adorn the cue ball logo. Often they work according to the principle "you give cash and they immediately transfer the required amount in bitcoins to you," and the same goes in the opposite direction.
"How reliable it is is another question. After all, even with the exchange of the usual currency, incidents occur. Sometimes it turns out that everything is fictitious. In any case, there is such an option. Or you can find someone on the Internet who needs a reverse operation," says Mikhail Chobonyan.
Also, one of the most popular ways to buy or sell crypto is centralized exchangers, which set the buy and sell rates themselves. In this case, the operation is paid with a card. They differ from ordinary foreign exchange offices in that the activities of such organizations are not regulated in any way. You do not see a physical seller, and all transactions are made at 100% prepayment - there is no guarantee that a fraudster will not be on the other side.
An alternative to exchangers are p2p exchange platforms (they provide a platform for trading between cryptocurrency holders and buyers), such as Bitlazo, LocalBitcoins and Monabey.
"In this case, you will be able to find a more profitable offer for yourself, since the creators of ads will try to make their course the most profitable so that the client responds to his ad. In other words, due to market competition, it is more profitable for a client to buy cryptocurrency from sellers, and not at the exchanger, "explains Dmitry Kryshtal.
To buy bitcoin on such platforms, you need to go through identity verification and SMS authentication (bind your phone number). Next - indicate the desired cryptocurrency and select the ad you like at the price. After that, you pay for the purchase and expect your "coin".
For non-cash funds, you can also buy a "cue ball" using special platforms for buying and selling bitcoin in Ukraine: Kuna, BTC Trade, Bitxfy mobile wallet, Best Change aggregator and others.
"You can register on any of the crypto exchanges, go through verification
yu, if these are Western or Eastern exchanges, or register on our Ukrainian exchange (there is no verification yet), get a hryvnia from your card (Visa or Mastercard of any bank), buy a crypt and start trading it if you think that you have the ability and skills for this, "says Mikhail Chobonyan, founder of the KUNA.io cryptocurrency exchange.
But, according to Dmitry Kryshtal, despite the fact that it is better to make money on the growth or fall of the cryptocurrency rate on exchanges (the functionality is much wider than that of exchangers and, most importantly, it is possible to sell coins instantly at the market rate), not all exchanges accept fiat (non-cash) funds. And if they do, then they set quite high commissions for deposit and withdrawal, and also prescribe a limited way to replenish the account.
"In such cases, again, it is better to turn to centralized exchangers or p2p exchange platforms, where you can buy cryptocurrency and send it to the exchange immediately," the expert says.
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And what about commissions? Centralized exchangers can be compared to currency exchange - they both earn on the difference in the purchase and sale rates; p2p-sites have their own earnings from the commission paid on each transaction.
Also, a commission will be charged for transferring cryptocurrency from one wallet to another (for example, you want to withdraw bitcoin from a p2p platform to an exchange). This commission is related to the nature of cryptocurrency movement.
“Imagine that bitcoin is a passenger, and two wallets between which you need to transfer coins are two banks. In order to transfer bitcoin from one bank to the other, you need a boat with a boatman - a miner who provides this transfer. For this he receives an award - a fixed commission, "explains Kryshtal.
The commission for the purchase of "cue ball" is about 1.5%, which, according to Mikhail Chobonyan, is comparable to the commission when transferring from card to card in different banks.
"It should be borne in mind that the cost of a" crypt "on the Ukrainian market is slightly less than on the world market. In fact, you buy without commission if you calculate all the costs," the expert adds.
Where is the best place to follow the market rate? After you become the proud owner of the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, you need to track its market rate. Since the bitcoin rate is very volatile and changes every second, and there is no single correct rate, to understand the approximate market rate it is worth looking at the rate on major exchanges. For example, on Binance, where you can see in real time at what rate Bitcoin is being traded.
Caution and attentiveness above all
Zero Step, or Epilogue.
Having understood the technical side of buying a cryptocurrency, it is worth talking about the human factor, namely, inattention and gullibility. After all, even a slight oversight in the case of a crypt can lead to collapse.
On exchanges, this is easier: you create an order to buy or sell cryptocurrency at your own specified rate, or automatically sell at the market. The exchange will do everything for you and there is not much to worry about.
If we are talking about p2p-exchange (carried out between people) - we need to keep our ears open. First of all, pay attention to the rate and how much it corresponds to the market. Second, find out about the seller's rating and the reliability of the site as a whole, read the reviews. And third - do not get fooled by scammers. How to protect yourself? Follow 3 simple rules:
Do not trust SMS notifications of receipt of funds - they are easy to fake. To verify the transfer, go to your bank's website (or application);
The support service will never write you first for any questions;
“If you receive a message from a 'support agent', you can be sure that it is a scammer,” says Dmitry Kryshtal, co-founder of Citadel.
In any suspicious situation, please contact support.
Good luck with the world's most successful cryptocurrency!