I am not a financial advisor or an expert. I am a crypto enthusiast and would like to share this technology with as many people as possible. All of my content is my opinion based on my knowledge and experience in the field.I am not soliciting anything, and am providing this content for information purposes. Always do your diligence before making an investment, and invest what you can afford to lose!
I appreciate constructive criticism and look forward to engaging you in conversation via the comments.
Cryptocurrency is a digital asset planned to be used as an alternative to Government issued (FIAT) currency, that has no tangible object representing its value, and operates on a decentralized digital platform which entails the use of various encryption techniques used to regulate it's own issuance of currency(for example by rewarding mining, distributing through ICOs, Airdrops, etc) and to verify and process the transactions on the network.
In other words, it's a form of digital cash, managed by a secure network, that isn't owned by any majority (in the sense of issued coin and consensus power) and isn't based on trust.
Another great aspect is it will permit millions of people that have no access to traditional banking or financing to have a cheap, fast and reliable network to use. There are many countries that could benefit from this tech.
There are more than 1516 cryptocurrencies as of now listed on Coinmarketcap .
All the information related to the currency, like account balances and transactions, is found on a "blockchain", a continuously growing account of all the related records, organized in" blocks", which are linked and secured using cryptography. Various coins use different encryption algorithms, for example, Bitcoin uses SHA-256.
Depending on the consensus used for the algorithm, on the one hand, we have a network formed and maintained by so-called "miners", people that own a computing device (or several of them) dedicated to performing the calculations required to maintain the encryption used on the network, by solving the "blocks" that will become part of the blockchain. In exchange for their computing power, they get some currency in exchange. This is referred to as "Proof of Work" consensus, where the work is the miner's computing. Bitcoin is an example of a mineable coin.
On the other hand, we have "Proof of Stake" consensus and its variations, where coin-holders are used to reach consensus. This can be obtained by staking a certain amount of crypto, or by simply owning some crypto. Examples are NXT, Cardano (ADA), EOS and DASH. These are the most common so far.
There is also a third type of consensus worth noting, used by NEO, called "Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance"(click to read a well-explained article by fellow Steemit user 
As far as the user is concerned, you basically hold NEO and in change get GAS (which appears to be worth half the value of NEO or so). This way there is an incentive to keep NEO (securing the network) as you can sell the GAS generated.
Therefore your assets are safe on the blockchain, and their safety is linked to your ability to backup your wallets and/or recovery passwords/seeds/passphrases (which is used to lock/unlock your private keys).
Unlike the traditional sense of "wallet", in the crypto world, it is your access to funds on the blockchain. In truth the crypto stays on the blockchain, so you don't actually "have them" inside your wallet, but have access to them. Your wallet usually will have a public key, which is your "account address" (where you can receive funds) and a private key, which you will encrypt with a password because you don't want anyone to know it, unless you want them to own your wallet.
Essentially this means you have complete control over your funds, and no other person or entity can tamper with them unless they obtain your wallet file(containing the private key) and/or password/seed (which allows you to directly recover your funds). This depends on the Cryptocurrency and the technology it uses.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer(P2P), decentralized, global payment system based on the cryptocurrency. It was presented as a Whitepaper in 2008, a document outlining the project's intentions, by an anonymous developer that presented himself under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto". To date, we don't know who this person really is, although some have claimed to be the Bitcoin founder.
A bank transfer can take from 3-15 days or longer depending on where the two parties live and have exorbitant costs, making it prohibitive for many to interact across the world.
Bitcoin is supposed to be much cheaper and considerably faster than using traditional banking, and as mentioned, does not rely on any trust in a corporation/bank/government, but solely on the network itself. This makes Bitcoin dangerous as it removes power from central banks and government (through money supply). Banks are aware of this and are already trying to take prohibitive measures (as shown in this article) to make it costly or outright ban their clients from purchasing cryptocurrency from known exchanges.
An interesting thing to note is that Bitcoin does not have formal leadership, and its success is linked to the community developing it. Also, it's open-sourced, meaning anyone can edit the code and suggest the new changes, and anyone can review the changes. Consequently, this implies a group of people may decide to change certain aspects of Bitcoin and make their own copy of the crypto, by "hardforking", splitting off from the original blockchain, while copying all the data prior to the block from which the split happens.
An example of this is the fork Litecoin(LTC) , Bitcoin Cash(BCH), and Bitcoin Gold(BTG).
Bitcoin is in my opinion the first attempt to eliminate central banking, by empowering each person with the ability to manage their funds without using a middleman and by providing a store of value that is independent of Central banks and their respective economies. Bitcoin has a set amount of coins circulating, which will never expand, therefore it will not suffer inflation, or depreciation by fueling the supply with more coins (like central banks do).
Bitcoin lately has seen a spike in transaction times and fees, which prompted the development and the rollout of the
Bitcoin is definitely considered a big player in the crypto space, and currently has a market dominance of around 30%. Right now the vast majority of cryptocurrencies are valued against Bitcoin.
There are a few ways to purchase cryptocurrency. Currently, the vast majority of exchanges only offer crypto-to-crypto trading, and only a few offer Crytpo/FIAT (USD/EUR) pairs. My understanding is this will change soon, as more exchanges are implementing various other Crypto/FIAT pairs, thus also reducing the dependency on Bitcoin when determining the value of the crypto.
Also, exchanges that currently offer USD and other FIAT pairs usually don't have many other altcoins (all other crypto but Bitcoin), except for the big market capped ones.
Personally, I use two exchanges to buy with FIAT, both are regulatory compliant (to the possible extent) and have a solid record. Both of these exchanges offer use of credit cards, bank transfer, and other alternative forms of payment. They also both offer Security features like 2Factor Authentication :
There are daily, weekly and monthly limits and the amount of money you can deposit, which can be raised with time and verification.
Simply put, altcoins are any other crypto aside Bitcoin. Although the name may appear dismissive, don't be fooled, as some of these Alts are poised to introduce tech that solves some of Bitcoin's major problems, like scalability and transaction times/fees. Potentially some may be preferred over Bitcoin in the long run, due to the evolving technology.
Once you have purchased your major cryptocurrencies with FIAT, you need to WITHDRAW your funds to another exchange in order to trade them for other cryptocurrencies.
I use the following exchanges to date:
Each exchange offers the possibility to keep your funds in their wallets. Some offer two different wallets, one used to trade, one used like a storage (like HitBTC).
However I recommend using a hardware wallet if you plan on purchasing a decent amount of Crypto. They're great because your private keys are never exposed. The best hardware wallets are:
You will receive a recovery phrase when you initialize the device, which will allow you access your funds on another ledger in case yours gets damaged, stolen or lost. DO NOT LOSE IT .Also it is secured with a 4-8 number PIN, so noone can take your funds without knowing it. It is also advertised to be unhackable, and once initialized you can use it even on a compromised computer.
To the point. In order to withdraw your crypto to let's say to your hardware wallet, you need to be logged into your exchange account, and open the related wallet app for your device (The ledger has certain Desktop or Chrome apps to interact with the Blockchain, for the supported coins).
Go to the crypto you want to withdraw, and look for the "withdraw" function. It will then ask you to insert the address you want to send your funds to, and to specify the amount to send (withdraw). This will be the address of your hardware wallet or other exchange wallet if you want to purchase other cryptocurrency.
To obtain your "RECEIVE" or "DEPOSIT" address, go to the exchange account you want to fund or use whichever app associated with your hardware wallet . In the exchange wallet, copy the "deposit" address of the coin you want to receive. On your ledger there wll be a "receive" function, and the address will also be displayed on your device display for extra security (in case somehow your desktop app is hacked and it generates an address not owned by you). Copy the address you want to fund into the "withdraw" address box of the exchange, and triple check if it's correct (if wrong, you risk losing your coins forever!).
You can now send your funds, minus a transaction fee. Some exchanges charge you an extra fee on top of the network transaction fee, so be mindful of that when making trades and moving funds.
