The First Steps-
• Set up a secure way of storing passwords. If you lose crypto passwords, you lose crypto forever.
Digital wallets and exchanges have no password recovery option.
When you control your own money, you control your own fate.
• Go to https://coinmarketcap.com
On the main page you will see the high market cap coins listed. Click the “View All” tab on the right. That will show you the rate of change over the past 7 days. Crypto prices swing. A coin might be 50% down from it's high over the past 24 hours, but still up 300% over the past 7 days. This is a long bull market. We like it when the prices pull back. It gives them a chance to shake out weak hands, consolidate, and find new support levels after massive gains.
• Search in the search bar for a crypto or click on one.
Begin with Bitcoin, Litecoin, then Ethereum.
This will take you to the charts, information, and exchanges where this coin is traded.
• Click the ‘website’ tab on the right.
This will take you to the main website of the project. There is usually a video or a very simplified explanation of the project on the first page. The further you scroll down, the more technical the language. Read what you can then skim what you don’t understand. You will begin learning more about the structures as you listen to interviews and read white papers and articles.
• On the projects website, look for the white paper and/or roadmap.
Not all projects have a white paper. Some have a working product.
Most of these projects have yet to test or even invent their new protocol ideas. They are rolling out the ‘upgrades’ for testing as they become available. When you buy early into one of these token sales you are participating in the project’s test phase. A new blockchain will usually release a cryptocurrency and a simple wallet. For example Cardano’s (ADA) wallet requires you download their whole blockchain with the current wallet. That will change to a cleaner, quicker protocol with more use case features in a future upgrade.
The roadmap will provide a proposed schedule of anticipated releases. Track their progress on Twitter and Telegram.
• Examine the development team members on the project.
Most projects have great marketers but no notable programmers. These ‘sh*tcoins’ will rise in value in relation to the overall bull market (a rising tide lifts all ships). When the big shake-outs of cryptos happen, projects with no utility or use case will be recognized as overvalued and quickly fall in price. Some will just start a downtrend to zero.
Choose tokens with well-known developers from former successful projects. It is hard to find good developers.
One of the most important factors to growing a cryptocurrency is achieving ‘Network Effect’. Currencies gain in value with use (liquidity). Crypto communities will promote prominent developers and good tokens will achieve Network Effect by peer-to-peer education as opposed to expensive marketing attempts. In contrast, crypto communities self-police by exposing possible fraud and scams.
You will discover many tokens in articles, analysis, and interviews.
• The next step is to register for Twitter and Steemit accounts.
The developers of cryptos post up-to-date news and status reports on twitter. Search your tokens and their core developers and subscribe for updates.
Follow me on twitter @CrypticShanna.
• Look up articles on Steemit.com.
Steemit is a social media content platform built on a blockchain.
New STEEM is created by the network and distributed to the people who create, commentate on, or upvote content. Upvoting curates the best content. You can exchange STEEM for other cryptos and USD.
• Search your crypto on Steemit
You will see many articles like ‘Litecoin for beginners’, or ‘Everything you need to know about Litecoin’. If you learn something, upvote! If you want to save for future reference or share, re-post.
I recommend this way of earning cryptocurrency to kids, teens, and broke people. With use, they discover that cryptos are blind to age, race, and borders as they are anonymous and decentralized. Built into crypto communities is public debate of how technological innovation can solve societal problems beginning with societies biggest problem: The Banksters.
Our children are entering a world where money is no longer a construct of authority. To have the ability to create money is to be a sovereign being.
Blockchain technology eliminates dependency on intermediary agencies.
There is wide diversity in the technical features between cryptos to represent the diversity of thought and culture around the world. We now transact on a global, borderless platform void of bias and prejudice. It is a system where interpersonal, peer-to-peer communications are based on mathematic protocols as opposed to trust in each other or a third party intermediary.
• Begin research with the high cap coins: BTC, LTC, and ETH.
There is a reason so much capitol is flowing into the high cap coins. Discover their benefits and coins which align with your vision of the future. Vote by investing in the coin. Vote by using the coin. Vote by participating in crypto communities. Use of the new system will make many old ‘legacy’ systems obsolete, but don’t worry, many of these antiquated systems are dying anyhow. As old systems die we have a new, technologically advanced system to convert to.
*XRP is a centralized banker coin. You have a choice between participation in centralized economies or a decentralized economies, depending on the particular need for security and privacy.
• Join crypto communities on YouTube, Twitter, Steemit, and Telegram.
o Research community recommended coins.
Steemit and Telegram are blockchain alternatives to centralized social media. Your content is immutable on the blockchain, it can’t be censored or shadow banned.
Be aware of pumps, ponzi’s, and paid for schemes. YouTube or Steemit, ‘How to avoid scam coins’, ‘How to set up a stop/loss; stop-limit’, ‘Cryptos: avoid beginner mistakes’, ‘How to avoid mistakes in crypto investing’, ect. Research community recommended tokens thoroughly.
• Sign up on an exchange and trade USD for some cryptos.
The best way to learn about cryptos is to own and use cryptos.
Coinbase is the United States’ largest and most trusted exchange. They are the easiest to use and currently have the highest fees.
Please use my referral code –
https://www.coinbase.com/join/59e20b051345da00f1a8f4d5
Buy or sell $100 of digital currency or more and we will both receive $10 of free Bitcoin from Coinbase. Exchanges are slow and jam up when everyone is in a buying frenzy. Be patient. Just get in!
o Do not buy all time highs.
o Buy when red. Cryptos bounce. They typically test former highs after a moonshot.
o Buy low, sell high.
o If you do get in on a high, just hold. A year or even a month from now, you will be glad you did. You can always buy in again at lower prices to reduce your dollar cost average.
o HODL! (Hold On For Dear Life!) Most crypto investors are long term value investors also known as HODLers.
As soon as your transactions clear out of pending,
• GET IT OFF THE EXCHANGE AND INTO YOUR PRIVATE WALLET!
This will be your first cryptocurrency transaction on the blockchain. Disclaimer: you do not have to use an exchange. You can personally find a seller of the coin and make a transaction. If you prefer the ease of an exchange it will cost you in fees and vulnerability. When you buy on an exchange your money goes into their pool of assets. Your crypto is only allocated to you when you transfer your crypto off the exchange. Protect your private keys like cash! Giving someone your private key is giving access to your crypto.
• Download a wallet.
I use Exodus and Jaxx wallets. I am looking into cold storage digital wallets.
There are how to’s for wallet installation on YouTube and Steemit.
Exchanges run on Internet Protocol (IP). While they use the best forms of security on IP, they can and have been hacked!
• To transfer: Go to Coinbase > Accounts > Wallet > Send (paper airplane icon on the mobile app)
Enter amount then hit ‘send’.
In the ‘To’ field paste the address copied from your wallet. CHECK OVER THE ADDRESS CAREFULLY! It has been estimated that 4 Million Bitcoins have been lost from people losing their private or public keys and sending coin to a miscopied public address.
*Note: Coinbase reports transactions of $20,000 and above to the SEC.
If this article was helpful please upvote! If this information helps make you and your progeny rich beyond your wildest dreams, or you anticipate that it will after careful examination, consider a positive exchange of energy to my Litecoin or Bitcoin public addresses.
My Litecoin Public Address: LUN2tDjto3ATnWetYYThcgFsRrWGASrnfc
My Bitcoin Public Address: 1NvSffd9E3UCuBKabz3adBve5syb3G18KU
Crypto Research Basics
Shanna Rhodes
1/22/2018
