I'm not a financial advisor. I'm not even particularly good with money, but I do know my $BTC from my $ETH, $RUNE from my $COTI. I'll give you the quick and not very detailed lowdown on Bitcoin, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies in general, so you can sound a bit knowledgable in the bar.
There has been a lot of chatter on the wires about cryptocurrencies, but what what are they and should you care?
The answer is yes and no!
Let's start from the beginning.
Satoshi Nakamoto is to blame for all this crypto craziness. It's the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and also devised the first blockchain database. To date they still haven't sold any of their coins, even when $BTC was pushing $70K a coin. At the time of writing this, it's down to $20k.. Aiiiya.
Bitcoin is just one of thousands of cryptocurrencies. Most of those thousands of currencies aren't currencies at all, merely trading tokens, 'shitcoins' or junk. They can be bought at an exchange, like regular FIAT -'normal', and then stored in a 'wallet', which is the equivalent of a bank account, except you own the bank.
These coins are traded over something called the blockchain. As the name suggests, the blockchain is just a series of blocks of information. Every-time a transaction occurs, it's saved on one of these blocks. Once the block fills up, it's closed and added to the last full block, building up an electronic bicycle chain of information for every transaction that's ever occurred on that particular chain. This information is in plain sight and can be accessed by anyone and no individual controls it. The idea is called decentralisation. This is definitely the way forward as it gives the consumer the control.
Should I invest in Crypto?
Should you invest in Bitcoin and other cryptos? Just like any other investment, the price can go up and down, but especially with crypto; often as much as 10-15% a day. Great if you're trading a leveraged long in the right direction, otherwise you're headed to a swift liquidation. There are a lot of 'experts' on Twitter who will convince you the direction of the market, what's about to happen and where the markets will be in a year. I implore you to IGNORE all of these people. Trade the chart; check the volume on the coin - how many people are buying; whether the coin is going through a bounce after a dip - a reversal from the previous direction be it up or down. It does mean you have to sit in front of a computer screen for 15 hours a day but the rewards can be great.
Some people believe we're still very early to this technology and its uses. Others say there are no real world uses for the coins and it's all a ponzi scam.
Whatever your thoughts, you can't deny assets like #KIN $KIN are working hard to provide a solution to a digital world by providing a coin you can trade online, then use as a currency in a video game to buy stuff, then gain $KIN as a reward for watching ads in various apps but then crucially be able to take this $KIN into the real world to buy a coffee/ house!
On-ramping is getting your foot in the door of crypto investing. There are loads of ways to buy your first coin. I use FTX, Binance and KuKoin for trading as they have a good spread of coins available. The platforms can look a little daunting at first but after watching a few YouTube videos you'll soon get the hang of it. This guy seems good and not particularly invested in a single group or coin.
Just don't forget to keep some money in stable coins/ FIAT to buy the dip, of which there will be many!
Got any questions, thoughts or suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.