Introduction: Invest in cryptocurrencies
The first cryptocurrency to emerge was Bitcoin, which was built on blockchain technology and was probably launched in 2009 by a mysterious man named Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time of writing this blog, 17 million bitcoins have been mined and it is estimated that only 21 million bitcoins can be mined. Other most popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Golem, Civic and Bitcoin hard forks such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.
Users are advised not to put all their money in one cryptocurrency and try to avoid investing at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble. It was seen that the price suddenly fell down when it was at the peak of the crypto bubble. Since cryptocurrency is a volatile market, users should invest an amount that they can afford to lose as no government can control cryptocurrency as it is a decentralized cryptocurrency.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple predicted that Bitcoin is the real gold and in the future it will dominate all currencies like USD, EUR, INR and ASD and become the global currency in the coming years.
Why and why not to invest in cryptocurrencies?
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to emerge and since then around 1600+ cryptocurrencies have been released with unique features for each coin.
Some of the reasons I came across and would like to share, cryptocurrencies were built on a decentralized platform – so users don’t need a third party to transfer cryptocurrency from one destination to another, unlike fiat currencies where the user needs such a platform. like a bank, to transfer money from one account to another. Cryptocurrency built on very secure blockchain technology and almost zero chance of hacking and stealing your cryptocurrencies unless you share your important information.
You should always avoid buying cryptocurrency at the peak of a cryptocurrency bubble. Many of us buy cryptocurrencies at their peak hoping to make a quick buck and fall prey to the hype of the bubble and lose our money. Users are better off doing a lot of research before investing. It is always a good idea to invest in multiple cryptocurrencies rather than just one as few cryptocurrencies have been seen to grow more, some on average, when other cryptocurrencies fall into the red zone.
Cryptocurrencies in the spotlight
In 2014, Bitcoin holds 90% of the market, with other cryptocurrencies holding the remaining 10%. In 2017, Bitcoin still dominates the crypto market, but its share has fallen sharply from 90% to 38%, while altcoins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple have grown rapidly and captured most of the market.
Bitcoin still dominates the cryptocurrency market, but it is not the only cryptocurrency to consider when investing in cryptocurrency. Some of the main cryptocurrencies you should consider are:
Bitcoin
Litecoin
Pulsation
Ethereum
Throne
Civil
Golem
Monero
Where and how to buy cryptocurrencies?
While it was not easy to buy cryptocurrencies a few years ago, now there are many platforms available to users.
In 2015, there are two main bitcoin platforms in India – Unocoin wallet and Zebpay where users can buy and sell only bitcoins. Users should only buy bitcoins from their wallet, not from another person. There was a difference in the buying and selling rate and users have to pay some nominal fee to complete their transactions.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency industry grew dramatically and the price of Bitcoin rose spontaneously, especially in the last six months of 2017, which made users look for alternatives to Bitcoin and crossed 14 lakhs in the Indian market.
As Unodax and Zebpay are the two major platforms in India which dominated the market with 90% market share – which only dealt with Bitcoin. This allows other entities to develop alongside other altcoins and has even led Unocoin and others to add more currencies to their platform.
Unocoin, one of India’s leading cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, has launched an exclusive UnoDAX Exchange platform for its users to trade multiple cryptocurrencies apart from trading Bitcoins in Unocoin. The difference between both platforms was that Unocion only provided instant buying and selling of Bitcoins, while on UnoDAX, users can place an order for any available cryptocurrency and if it matches the recipient, the order will be executed.
Other major exchanges available for cryptocurrency trading in India are Koinex, Coinsecure, Bitbns, WazirX.
Users have to open an account with any exchange by registering with email id and submitting KYC details. Once their account is verified, you can start trading the coins of your choice.
Users should do their research well before investing in any coins and avoid getting trapped in the cryptocurrency bubble. Users should research the exchange’s trust, transparency, security features, and more.
All exchanges charge some nominal fee for each transaction. There are two types of payments – creator fee and baker fee. In addition to the transaction fee, there is a transfer fee to be paid if you want to transfer your cryptocurrencies to another exchange or to your personal wallet. Prices are purely coin and exchange dependent as different exchanges have a price difference module for coin transfers.
Major altcoins other than Bitcoin
As mentioned above, Bitcoin dominates the market with a share of 38%, followed by Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Exchanges like UnoDAX, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bitstamp have listed many other coins like Golem, Civic, Raiden Network, Kyber Network, Basic Attention, 0X, Augur, Monero, Tron and many more. If any of the coins suit your portfolio, you should buy it.
But you should invest money in the market that you can afford to lose as the cryptocurrency market is very volatile and no government can control it.
When to buy?
There is no hard and fast rule when to buy your favorite cryptocurrency. But it is necessary to investigate the stability of the market. You shouldn’t, but at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble or when the value is continuously collapsing. The best time is always when the price is stable at a relatively low level for some time.
A method of storing cryptocurrencies
Before buying any cryptocurrency, you need to understand how to keep your cryptocurrency safe.
Generally, all exchanges provide a vault where you can store your coins safely. Do not share your username, password, 2FA details when you store cryptocurrency on exchanges.
Paper wallet, hardware wallet, software wallet are some of the channels where you can store your cryptocurrency.
Paper Wallet: A paper wallet is an offline way to cold store your cryptocurrency. It prints your private and public key on a piece of paper that also has a QR code printed on it. You just need to scan the QR code for your future transactions. Why is it safe? No need to worry about your account being hacked or a malware attack. You just need to keep your piece of paper in a locker and if possible keep two or three pieces of paper in your wallet under your complete control.
Hardware Wallet: A hardware wallet is a physical device where you keep your cryptocurrency safe. There are many forms of hardware wallet, but the most commonly used is the USB hardware wallet. If you store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, you just have to keep in mind that you should not lose your hardware wallet, because once you lose it, you will not be able to get your cryptocurrency.
One famous case where a person mined over 7,000 bitcoins and stored them in his hardware wallet and stored them in another hardware wallet. One day he threw away the hardware wallet he was storing his cryptocurrency in instead of damaged hardware and lost all his bitcoin.
What can you buy in cryptocurrencies in India?
Most people assume that buying and selling any cryptocurrency is only for investing and getting high returns in the long and short term. Bitcoin influencers and investors believe that Bitcoin will dominate all fiat currencies and be accepted as an international currency in the coming years.
Dell is one of the largest e-commerce companies that accepts Bitcoin as payment. Other examples are Expedia and UNICEF.
In India, Sapna Book Mall accepted Bitcoin as payment through the Unocoin merchant service. People used to book movie tickets through BookMyShow or top up their mobile using the Unocoin platform. According to the report, they have stopped the service but plan to launch it again soon.
Conclusion:
Cryptocurrency is one of the growing investment sectors and in the past it has given better returns than real estate, gold, stock markets etc. You can buy a cryptocurrency and hold it for the long term for a nice profit or go short term for a quick profit as we have seen many coins grow by 1000%+ in the past. Since cryptocurrency is a volatile market and the government does not control the industry. One should invest an amount in any cryptocurrency that they can afford to lose.
You can store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, a paper wallet, a software wallet if you don’t want to store it on the exchange you trade with.