Getting Started with Cryptocurrency
You may have heard alot of news about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the press recently. People are making money investing and trading, you might be interested in making money yourself.
All investments come with Risk, Cryptocurrency is very high risk. You should be clear and accept this when deciding to get involved with Cryptocurrency.
To get involved in any investment you should set aside an amount of money that you can comfortably afford to loose.
Currencies you buy should be stored in a hardware wallet such as a Trezor so they are protected against theft.
If you want to trade the highs and lows then you need to register on an exchange. I recommend bitstamp as they accept funds direct from your bank so you can start buying.
Other exchanges don't accept funds direct from your bank, they only accept cryptocurrencies. So you over time you will register on multiple exchanges, this will be controlled by the currencies you are interested in.
A good source to select cryptocurrencies is a site called www.coinmarketcap.com
The site displays a list of currencies in order of market cap, this means the coins are listed in order of highest total value.
Selecting the top Bitcoin link will display the following information and a price chart so you can see past performance.
The next tab of interest is Markets
This list shows the number of exchanges and the currency pairs that are currently available to trade Bitcoin.
If we find the Bitstamp exchange from the list I will show you the process of registering.
Bitstamp allows you to buy Bitcoin with USD (US Dollar) and EUR (EURO) You cannot trade with sterling however, when you transfer funds to the exchange you can send USD or EURO from your bank account.
Select the bitstamp link to display information about the exchange.
This shows detailed information about the exchange and the current activity.
It is trustworthy to use the link to the exchange so you can start the registration process.
To register you will need an email address, I recommend creating a brand new email address for every exchange you register on. Your password must be secure, such as V:e,a+r-:y3,Y]}b.
I use this site https://passwordsgenerator.net/ to generate highly secure passwords.
You should buy a book to store all your emails and passwords in so they don't get lost, keep the book in a secure location and let a trusted family member or accountant know about your records so funds can be recovered in case of accident or sudden death.
When you have an email address you will need to get some identification documents to prove who you are.
You will need a passport or photo id card and a utility bill or bank statement to prove where you live.
Pictures should be taken on a mobile device, do not scan on a flatbed scanner as they maybe rejected.
The verification process can take a couple of days to a few weeks depending on how busy the exchange is.
First step to registering is to pick the type of account you want.
For this example we will go through setting up a Personal Account.
Enter you details, then read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you agree then click Open account, if not please stop here.
Bitstamp will send you an email with your account number and a temporary password to login.
Login and change the password to something more secure, don't use the same password you used for you email address. Create a new secure password and write it down.
The next part is to submit your identification documents, we will cover that in the next installment.