So here we are. You're ready to finally buy some digital currency and step foot into the world of cryptocurrency. While there are many guides online, some can be overwhelming to newcomers. I hope that this one is accessible to everyone and encourage you to reach out if you have any questions.

It is important to take note that this article is not financial advice. I am not a professional trader and don't represent any firm. The intention of this article is to share my experience with how I got involved in cryptocurrency.

Step 1: Research

The first thing you need to do before you dive right into the market is research. You're putting real money on the line and you need to be sure you believe in the currencies before making a decision. Reading the news and forums is a good place to learn more about current trends and coins. I personally like using Reddit crypto, Cointelegraph, and Coindesk. Be very careful about fake news while researching as they can greatly hinder your judgement.

Look to learn about the blockchain technology that goes behind cryptocurrencies and ask yourself the following questions throughout your research:

Is this the technology for the future?

Can this go grandscale?

Is there applications to this product?

These are some examples of data you should be looking for while researching different cryptocurrencies. Looking at the top coins on Coinmarketcap gives you a feel for how particular altcoins (alterations of bitcoin) are doing and links to their websites.

Look to find a couple of different coins that you like the technology in. Putting all your investments into one coin is dangerous as you're putting everything on the success of one company/team. With today's volatility, anything can go wrong (or right) and happen that can sharply affect the prices of coins. For example, news came up about Tron plagiarizing their white paper that pulled the price of the crypto down by double digits. If you had all your money in just Tron, you would suffer greater losses than if you had diversified.





Step 2: Buying your first coin

There are many ways to start buying your coins. You can bank transfer money into an exchange with a low transaction cost or use credit card to instantly start buying your currencies. The easiest way (and what I did) is to buy one of the coins on Coinbase directly with your credit card. Coinbase currently offers Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. If you're looking to just buy one of these four coins, you can do so straight on Coinbase. There is a verification process for your credit card and if you want to increase your weekly buying limit.

One tip is using a referral first before buying on Coinbase. Referred users and referrers will both get 10 USD worth of bitcoin when the new user buys 100 USD worth of cryptocurrency. If you don't have a friend with a Coinbase account, you can use mine to get referred.

Quick warning about Coinbase: if you’re outside of the U.S. Coinbase will not let you sell your coins from their platform. To sell coins from Coinbase, you’ll need to send them to another exchange and sell them there.

Step 3: Choosing an Exchange

If you're looking to buy some of the altcoins you researched earlier, you need to make an account on one of the many exchanges currently available. To find which exchanges your coin is placed on you can simply click on the markets tab (shown below in red) to find the exchanges that your coin is being most regularly traded on.

Be sure to take a look at the fees and rules on every exchange you sign up for. Some exchanges (such as Binance) have stopped accepting new investors for the time being but will be open again soon.

Most exchanges will have some sort of verification process so you can expect a couple of days wait before you can actually start making trades. I personally use Kraken, Bitfinex, Liqui and Binance.

Step 4: Transfering your Coinbase coins to your Exchange

By now you should have purchased some cryptocurrency on Coinbase. I strongly suggest against using Bitcoin to transfer between exchanges as the cost can be over 20 USD per trade and can make a huge difference to your portfolio if you're not careful. Litecoin is my favourite cryptocurrency to use for transfers as it's fast and charges a fraction of Bitcoin's fees.

Your exchange will have a tab where you can deposit funds. Click on that and find Litecoin. You will get a long randomized address that is your key to getting your funds from one exchange to another. Now, on Coinbase, click on Accounts then send Litecoin (shown below)

Here, you can put your address that you copied from your exchange and press send to make the transfer go through. The whole process takes some time but if you did everything right (copying the address properly), your coins will successfully be transferred.

Step 5: Buying Altcoins

Now that you have one of the four Coinbase coins on your exchange, you need to see what your coin pairs with. Most coins pair with Ethereum and Bitcoin. If you transferred with another currency, you first need to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum. Then you can use those to purchase your Altcoins straight from your exchange. There is a small fee associated with these transactions that vary between exchanges. This process is usually rather straightforward. Your funds tab on your exchange should now show which coins you currently hold.

Step 6: Safely Storing your Assets

Exchanges are not the best place to store your cryptocurrency as there is a chance that hackers get into the exchange and steal your assets. The safest place to store your coins are on a hardware wallet. These USB type encrypted wallets safely store your coins and have safety protocols to guarantee no one can take your coins. The Nano Ledger S is the best hardware wallet I have come across so far.

Be careful in trying to buy these hardware wallets from other websites besides their own as you never know who had it before and if they still have access to the contents of the wallet.

Step 7: Tracking your Progress

There are many tools and apps that aid in tracking your portfolios progress. On the web, I like using Coins to get pie charts and overviews of my portfolio. I also use Mammon as a desktop tracker.

The App Store (and Google Play) also have great apps such as Delta and Blockfolio that make it easy to track your worth in easy to read graphs. Some of the numbers you get from these will vary based on averages so the most accurate way to check your worth is by checking what your specific exchange values your coin at.

Step 8: Trade Responsibility

This new market for digital currencies is young and very volatile. It's very different fundamentally to stock trading and much more risky. You shouldn't use this form of trading as a primary source of income but rather as an experiment that can have fruitful rewards. Be very careful before investing large amounts as no one can predict what these coins will be worth 5 years from now.

Thank you for reading my LinkedIn article and I hope it was helpful! If you liked this, I encourage you to connect with me and stay in touch.

Disclosure: The author participates in cryptocurrency markets and holds long positions on many cryptocurrency assets.

Article edited by LinkedIn Campus Editor: Will Lawrence

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