A 2017 loaded with cryptocurrencies and opportunities for this 2018

The Bitcoin went from $1025 to overcome the $19,000 price level. Ethereum closed the year above $700. Trading is a new fashion and lifestyle. Thousands of people had thought that cryptocurrencies were a kind of "geek thing," and those thousands now see crypto in a different way.

Hello Steemians, I hope everyone is having a very happy Steemit. If you are just landing on the platform, please feel free to look at the guides within my profile. Don't forget that never hurts asking whenever you have doubts or need for help.

Great things have happened inside the cryptoverse¹ in this new sun spin. In order to share some of the best and the worst, I will talk about the most important aspects from my own experience. The idea is that you may take the best and leave the rest. I really wish a true economic growth for all of us in this new year 2018. I will not simply talk about cryptocurrencies, but about other aspects that I have had the joy of experiencing and learning.

1: Cryptoverse, is the digital ecosystem that gathers all cryptocurrencies.

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Opening the eyes to the crypto-realities

At the beginning of 2017, I was on British soil making my own role as a caregiver. While working there, I could learn a lot about what it is to care for another person 24 hours a day, I still had some time to do internet research. I began to notice the different tendencies of people about cryptocurrencies. Something caught my attention and it was a particular phrase that said something like:

"Using Bitcoin we can be our own banks."

That sentence led me to investigate using the free time I had, to deepen. A mixture of economic revolution with a new reality in the handling of worldwide finance, captivated myself. Every moment was an excuse to read more articles, predictions, enter hundreds of pages of faucets and online mining systems. Opening an account in the official cryptocurrency forums was a fascination and a must I learned from the crypto-veterans. I remember that I even hired a couple of free servers to mine in the cloud (and of course they banned me, knowing that I was using the resources for that purpose). Probably it has already happened to you or you are in that process of cryptocurrency fever, and that is why I understand you.

Ideology versus tons of information

When we are beginning to soak into crypto, is very common to end up with severe headaches. It is a lot of information that, step by step and according to each person rhythm, get fulfilled. Although the content is very extensive and actually covers many areas², the ideology is fascinating. I dare say that, on a more idealistic and subtle level:

"Cryptocurrencies are giving away opportunities for thousands of people to act as their own financial entities. The blockchain technology allows accounting to become transparent, efficient and secure. This movement can make a 180 degrees economic turn. Its practical applications surpass the current technologies."

Whether we observe its practical application or its ideological bases, at this historical point, we can not deny its benefits.

2: If you have not realised it yet, understandings about cryptocurrencies involves understanding finance, global economy, stock markets, marketing strategies, blogging and advanced computer systems. In addition, practical and technical knowledge that often varies by currency or technology among other topics.

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Taking 100% advantage of crypto

One night, UK time, while watching(shocked) a contribution of coins in real time, I made the determination to leave the job I had and devote myself to dig deep into the cryptocurrencies. The fact of seeing with my own eyes a project called gnosis, raising more than $ 12,000,000 in 12 minutes, led me to ask to myself:

If people worldwide are already taking an incredible profit, why not dedicate myself into this? seriously?

That night under the moon light, near to the city of Gosport, my eyes took a new brightness. My ...

C'mon @theghost1980, leave the poetry to real poets. Stay focus...

• To take advantage of the cryptocurrency benefit, you must establish a plan. Understanding what you want to do and how to carry it out. This is essential and necessary.

• Taking benefit is linked to minimizing the risks. I continue to emphasize that the easiest way to start is to deepen on what you already know and what you love doing. For example, if a lawyer wants to take benefit from cryptocurrencies, I suggest He/She may starts by going deeper into the laws around cryptocurrencies. For those who have not yet realized, laws about crypto are still virgin.

• Study is key and a must. Cryptocurrencies do not have strong regulations and that is why you should not trust your investments to third parties unless you investigate. It is much better to learn it by yourself, even if it takes more time.
  Among the ways to take real benefits with crypto we have: trading, mining, education, making of new projects, joining existing platforms (for example, Steemit) and ICOs. This to name the ones that I have experienced.

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What does work according to my experience of 2017

Based on my results, I can tell you some important points that do work and explain a bit about.

1. Trading. Trading translated as "trade or purchase" refers to the activity of speculating, maintaining, buying and selling cryptocurrencies. I suppose many remember the films of stockbrokers who shouted "buy/sells". Trading is an activity that must be taken with great respect. It is not just buying for buy and selling for sell. A person who is engaged in cryptocurrency trading: studies signals, analyses the fundamentals of a currency, learns of possible movements and recognizes the best times to buy and sell. I won't lie you. In mid-2017 when I started trading in poloniex, I was very lucky but I did not analyse. To be honest I didn't know what I was doing. A person who makes trading thinking that he/she is going to a casino can lose it all in the blink of an eye. The gains in trading are overwhelming, as the losses are as well. I will never be tired of repeating that if you want to earn money by trading you must study and dedicate hours of your life with commitment, investing only, what you are willing to lose³.

2. Mining cryptocurrencies. This area is craziness for many people right now. Certainly those who benefit the most are those who know how to take advantage of the miners, and those who manufacture or trade those machines. The cryptocurrencies have a unique ability and that is that they can be created through complex mathematical algorithmic computational programming processes. Basically is that each computer is a mini computer with graphic processors units, which allows them to find new coins. This process is known as cryptocurrency mining and literally creates new currencies. In my personal experience, advising people worldwide, I know that many people think that it is about connecting a miner and letting it "mining" on its own. And it's not quite like these people believe. The process must be monitored and very well executed, in addition there is better miners than others, among other details. The mining can be carried out in the cloud, connecting to websites that have physical equipment. Some of those websites are large companies that rent or sell, the use, access and rights to the miners. I do not lie to you if I tell you that you can make money but, knowing the risks involved and knowing how to handle them in your favor⁴.

3. ICOs. Initial coin offerings are a very smart way to take benefits from cryptocurrencies. Each person must investigate to know if it is worth it or not the risk of investing. An example that I bring up is coins like STEEM, which we use on the platform. People who bought Ripple(XRP) last year, when Ripple was cheaper, now they can enjoy good money.

4. Cryptocurrency portfolio. Many people think in the long term and that is why we use a trading method called Long. A long position in cryptocurrencies is when we acquire a currency and keep it until that currency increases in price. I have placed it as a separate option because although it is within the trading_, you must acquire a different mentality and play with a long-term capital. The earnings of a person who had purchased ADA from November 2017 until today, would have been more than 100%.

Disclaimer: every person must carry out their own analysis and decisions. My experiences have had gains and losses and I do not offer them as a recommendation. The hardest thing to do when you posses crypto-portfolio is to hold and wait for price increases in the future.

3: You can read somewhat contradictory that "what you are willing to lose", but, is the way to simply risk what will not affect you negatively. Protecting your investment capital is key. Limiting losses is vital and necessary.

4: I currently consider that the "easiest" way to mine cryptocurrencies is through platforms like Steemit. In Steemit we are mining new STEEM coins when publishing, voting and commenting on articles.

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What does not work according to my experience of all 2017

• Some passive earnings systems. Any system that offers you huge amounts of money in a very short time, is likely to end in fraud. It happened to me with the "beautiful people" of WeiFastPay. They promised to make a profit by trading and managing my capital. The result: I lost more than 1.5 BTC, but, I gained pure and hard experience.

• Mining systems in the cloud, offering greater payments than to have a physical equipment. The systems that offered me great profits at an equal or lower cost, than having equipment in physics, have been scams. Whenever you find very good options to be true, you must analyse them very carefully. The physical mining equipments demands electric power and consumes in equal measure.

• The excessive greed. I consider that we must be ambitious in life to be able to progress but, greed to a high degree, can cloud your instincts and reduce your capacity for reasoning. This can lead to bankruptcy. A master of trading that I admire a lot, always says that the days when he feels that greed is the Boss of his trading, he prefers not to trade.

• Investing without knowledge. At this very moment, 90% of the scams related to cryptocurrencies, concentrate their strength in ignorance. It is because thousands of people do not know much or do not know at all, that they can attack and hit hard to steal their money. In this 2017 I had at least 5 or 6 scam experiences. In some I lost no more than $100 and in others much more than that. That is why I do not stop being cautious and keep myself studying about the things where I want to put my money.

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Conclusions and recommendations for a new crypto-year 2018

• Study and research until your head, although it hurts a lot, has the necessary understandings.
• Watch those who are succeeding in the areas where you want to be successful.
• Invest only what you are willing to lose.
• Save money in order to have an investment capital. Saving/spending are habits.
• Deepen your passion and become an expert with commitment, professionalism and a very good vibes.
• Learn how to manage your own money. Learn how to read signs and graphs. Learn to be independent. If you leave the responsibility to a group that gives you the signals to trade or, you give your capital to someone else to make it grow, you handover your truth power.
• Trust your skills and lean on them. If you spend your life talking about what you do not know, what you do not have, what you can not do, the health you lack, the opportunity you lost, how do you think you will be able to focus on what you can do and what you have right now?
• If you think money falls from heaven, then ask God. If you believe that money will come from your work while you improve your relationship with such precious good, then work. Be that as it may, you must do your part since no one will come to help you get ahead.
• I have been in several countries and always the same conclusion comes to me: It does not matter where you are but what you are capable of doing wherever you are. I am in Venezuela and I do not give up. I will work until I can and I will give my best. Create your environment and seek on how to move forward.
• If you are lucky enough to have family that supports you, friends that are already trading, acquaintances that already know about cryptocurrencies then, get close to them. Gifts are not valued as much as those that have cost us blood, sweat and tears.

Thanking you for your time to read this "little article", I wish you much success for this prosperous new year 2018. STEEM ON, boys & girls.

PS: Google translator is my "friend". I am not an english gammas expert, as you can read and see but, I won't stop growing my profile in Steemit and giving you all the best content I can.