Crypto for beginners

This post is an effort to help those who are starting to venture into understanding cryptocurrency.
As someone who has got into crypto half a year ago and going down this deep rabbit hole, I've grown to love the underlying technology and now I have a change in mindset on the future of currencies.

There were many things that I had to learn on my own, but I'm here to share what I've learned to ease you into the world of Cryptocurrencies.

Ready? Let's go!

What are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrencies are a medium of exchange, they are created and stored electronically in the blockchain, and encryption techniques are used to control the creation of these units and to verify and confirm the transfer of funds.

Cryptocurrencies unique properties lie therein, they are:

Irreversible - Transactions can't be reversed
Pseudonymous - Possible to know the real identity of users but not easy
Fast and global - Transactions are confirmed in seconds/minutes
Secure - Only the owner of the private key can send cryptocurrency
Permissionless - You don't need permission to use cryptocurrency

To understand crypto better, let's take a look at the first decentralized digital cash system - Bitcoin

What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin was developed by an unknown inventor; Satoshi Nakamoto. He developed Bitcoin as a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
The link below is a great resource to explain Bitcoin in depth and also includes the Bitcoin Whitepaper (An informational document)
Bitcoin [http://lopp.net/bitcoin.html]

Another important aspect to understand is blockchain and the underlying technology behind it.

What is blockchain?
Blockchain technology contains a distributed ledger of every transaction ever made stored across an immense network of computers, which is why Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, which brings along with it a number of advantages, such as:
Secure (Harder to be hacked as compared to banks)
Durable
Transparent (Transactions are available on the blockchain)

Now that you know more about Cryptocurrencies, let's move on to where you can get them!

Where can I buy Cryptocurrencies?
1) Coinbase
On Coinbase, you can link your debit card, or depending on your country, you can link a bank account to your Coinbase.
The Cryptocurrencies that are available for purchase on Coinbase are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

If you purchase $100 USD or more worth of Bitcoin through this link you'll get $10 USD worth of Bitcoin for free! https://www.coinbase.com/join/5a1682b34cb8fb03473fae3e

Pros: High liquidity and buying limits, easy way to get cryptocurrencies (BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH)
Cons: Purchases with bank transfer might take up to 5 days to process, higher fees compared to Gemini

2) Gemini
On Gemini, you can purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Further details on how to register and buy cryptocurrencies on Gemini in the link below
https://blockonomi.com/gemini-review/

Pros: Low fees
Cons: Takes some time as you have to wire transfer fiat o Gemini

These are two recommended exchanges to exchange your fiat money (USD, EUR, JPY, SGD) into Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash as of now, however, there are more exchanges and platforms that will be coming out that will include more pairings of fiat to top 100 Cryptocurrencies!

What are Altcoins and where can you get access to them?
Basically, Altcoins are short for Alternate coins, and these are all the coins that are not Bitcoin. There are many different Altcoins with different use cases, goals, and purposes, as well as technology.

To get Altcoins not available in Coinbase or Gemini, you can send your crypto from these wallets to a centralized exchange.
You can find out how to

Currently, you can purchase Altcoins in centralized exchanges such as:

1. Binance

Which currencies to invest in?
Always do your own due diligence when you look for coins to invest in. It is important that you do a fundamental analysis of coins.

Questions to ask:

1. What are the qualifications of the team, are they real people?

• Check their LinkedIn, whether the people are real, their connections, whether they list the project on their LinkedIn

1. Look at what is the problem and what the team is trying to solve
2. Read the whitepaper

• At this stage, you want to make sure their ideas aren't just vague ideas but are concrete and based on actual research

1. Verify the statistics on the whitepaper
2. Check if the team has a working product

• Do they have a wallet?
• Do they have a beta app or real life working product?

1. Check if the team is keeping to its roadmap (if it is not, how can you trust the project with your money?)

• Are they on track with their roadmap?

1. How active is the community?
2. Check if there are any scandals related to the team

If everything checks out, you are ready to invest!

Crypto news and resources
Cryptocurrency News Aggregator: https://cryptopanic.com/
Cryptocurrency News: https://cointelegraph.com/ & https://www.coindesk.com/
Cryptocurrency live rates: https://www.livecoinwatch.com/ & https://coinmarketcap.com/
Cryptocurrency reviewers and influencers:
Datadash
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCatR7nWbYrkVXdxXb4cGXw
Join Telegram discussion here - https://t.me/joinchat/GXEWy0LIjjDvRxbnGeSfPw
Twitter - https://twitter.com/DataDashLive

Boxmining
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxODjeUwZHk3p-7TU-IsDOA
Join Telegram discussion here - https://t.me/Boxdatamining
Twitter - https://twitter.com/boxmining

Cryptocurrency trend analysis:
Philakone
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/philakone1
Twitter - https://twitter.com/PhilakoneCrypto

Tone Vays
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbiWJYRg8luWHnmNkJRZEnw
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ToneVays

Secure your email
In the crypto world, security is everything. Get a free encrypted mail account here at https://protonmail.com/

Recommended Wallets
Just like how you keep your money in physical wallets, there are also crypto wallets, such as:
1)Exodus Wallet https://www.exodus.io/
I like how sleek Exodus Wallet is, and it also shows you your current holdings in a simple and beautiful chart

1. MyCrypto https://mycrypto.com/
   MyCrypto is a fork of MyEtherWallet. Basically, the founders had a disagreement and they have spilt, but most people use MyCrypto, their dev keeps on improving the system and works hard on it!
   On MyCrypto, you can access your funds through Trezor, Nano Ledger S, or even through Json files or private keys.

That's it for now, I hope you've found this useful! If you do, please upvote, thank you!