Beginner's Guide: Introduction in Cryptocurrencies

Introduction: To Invest in Cryptocurrencies

The initial cryptocurrency which makes the existence was Bitcoin which was built on Blockchain technology and probably it had been launched in 2009 2009 by a mysterious person Satoshi Nakamoto. At that time writing this website, 17 million bitcoin had been mined in fact it is believed that total 21 million bitcoin could be mined. The other most popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Golem, Civic and hard forks of Bitcoin like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.

It is advised to users to not put all profit one cryptocurrency and stay away from investing at the peak of cryptocurrency bubble. It's been observed that price has been suddenly dropped down when it's on the peak of the crypto bubble. Since the cryptocurrency is a volatile market so users must invest the total amount which they are able to lose as there is absolutely no control of any government on cryptocurrency since it is really a decentralized cryptocurrency.

Steve Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple predicted that Bitcoin is really a real gold and it'll dominate all of the currencies like USD, EUR, INR, and ASD in future and become global currency in coming years.

Why and Why Not Invest in Cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin was the initial cryptocurrency which had become and thereafter around 1600+ cryptocurrencies has been launched with some unique feature for each coin.

A few of the reasons which I have observed and would like to share, cryptocurrencies have been created on the decentralized platform - so users do not require an authorized to transfer cryptocurrency from one destination to another one, unlike fiat currency where a user need a platform like Bank to transfer money from one account to another. Cryptocurrency built on a very safe blockchain technology and almost nil chance to hack and steal your cryptocurrencies until you don't share your some critical information.

You should always avoid buying cryptocurrencies at the high point of cryptocurrency-bubble. A lot of us buy the cryptocurrencies at the peak in the hope to make quick money and fall victim to the hype of bubble and lose their money. It is best for users to do plenty of research before investing the amount of money. It is usually good to put your cash in multiple cryptocurrencies rather than one as it has been noticed that few cryptocurrencies grow more, some average if other cryptocurrencies go in the red zone.

Cryptocurrencies to Focus

In 2014, Bitcoin holds the 90% market and remaining cryptocurrencies holds the rest of the 10%. In 2017, Bitcoin continues to be dominating the crypto market but its share has sharply fallen from 90% to 38% and Altcoins like Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple has grown rapidly and captured the most of the market.

Bitcoin continues to be dominating the cryptocurrency market but not the only cryptocurrency that you need to consider while buying cryptocurrency. Some of the major cryptocurrencies you need to consider:

Bitcoin

Litecoin

Ripple

Ethereum

Tron

Civic

Golem

Monero

Where and How to buy Cryptocurrencies?

While some years back it was not easy to buy cryptocurrencies however now the users have many available platforms.

In 2015, India has two major bitcoin platforms Unocoin wallet and Zebpay wallet where users can purchase and sell bitcoin only. The users need to buy bitcoin from wallet only but not from another person. There is a price difference in buying and selling rate and users has to pay some nominal fee for completing their transactions.

In 2017, Cryptocurrency industry grew tremendously and the price tag on Bitcoin grown spontaneously, especially in last half a year of 2017 which forced users to look for alternatives of Bitcoin and crossed 14 lakhs in the Indian market.

As Unodax and Zebpay will be the two major platforms in India who have been dominating the marketplace with 90% of market share - which was dealing in Bitcoin only. It offers the chance to other organization to cultivate with other altcoins and even forced Unocoin and others to add more currencies with their platform.

Unocoin, one of India's leading cryptocurrency and blockchain company launched a special platform UnoDAX Exchange for his or her users to trade multiple cryptocurrencies apart from trading of Bitcoin in Unocoin. The difference between both platforms was - Unocion was providing instant buy and sell of bitcoin only whereas on UnoDAX, users can place an order of any available cryptocurrency and if it matches with the recipient, the order will be executed.

hamyarcrypto to trade cryptocurrencies in India are Koinex, Coinsecure, Bitbns, WazirX.

Users have to open an account in any of the exchange with signing-up with email id and submitting the KYC details. Once their account gets verified, one can start trading of coins of their choice.

Users need to research well before investing in any coins and not fall into the trap of cryptocurrency-bubble. Users must research the exchange credibility, transparency, security features and more.

All Exchanges charge some nominal fee on each transaction. There are two types of charges - Maker fee and Taker fee. In addition to the transaction fee, one has to cover the transfer fee, if you want to transfer your cryptocurrencies in other exchange or your private wallet. The charges solely depend on the coins and exchange as the different exchange has difference price module for transferring the coins.

Major Altcoins apart from Bitcoin

As mentioned above, Bitcoin is dominating the marketplace with a 38% market share followed by Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Exchanges like UnoDAX, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bitstamp have listed a great many other coins like Golem, Civic, Raiden Network, Kyber Network, Basic Attention, 0X, Augur, Monero, Tron and much more. If the coins match your portfolio then you must buy it.

But, you must put the money in the market which you can afford to lose as cryptocurrency market is very volatile no government has control over it.

When to Buy?

There is absolutely no hard rule when to buy your favorite cryptocurrency. But one must research the market stability. You ought not but at the peak of a cryptocurrency bubble or once the price is crashing continuously. Always best time is known as when the price is stable relatively at a low level for some time.

Cryptocurrencies Storage Method

Before buying any cryptocurrency one must understand how to keep your cryptocurrency safe.

Generally, all of the exchanges provide the storing facility where one can keep your coins safely. One must not share their user details, password, 2FA once you hold cryptocurrency on exchanges.

Paper Wallet, Hardware wallet, Software wallet are some of the channels where one can store their cryptocurrency.

Paper Wallet: Paper wallet is an offline cold storage method to keep your cryptocurrency. It prints your private and public key on a bit of a paper where QR code is also printed. You have to just scan the QR code because of their future transactions. Exactly why is it safe? No need to worry about the hack of one's account or attack of any malicious malware. You merely need to keep your piece of the paper safe in a locker and if possible keep 2-3 bits of paper wallet all in your complete control.

Hardware Wallet: Hardware wallet is really a physical device where you retain cryptocurrency safe. There are lots of forms of hardware wallet but commonly used hardware wallet is USB. When you keep your cryptocurrency in hardware wallet you merely need to retain in that mind that you ought to not lose your hardware wallet as once it is lost you can't retrieve your cryptocurrency.

One famous incident, where a person as mined 7000+ bitcoin and stores within their hardware wallet and kept it with another hardware wallet. One day he threw the hardware wallet in which he stored his cryptocurrency rather than damaged hardware and he lost all his bitcoin.

What can buy from cryptocurrencies in India?

A lot of people assume that buying and selling of any cryptocurrencies are simply for the investment and getting the high returns on a long and short-term. Influencers and bitcoin investors are believing that in coming years Bitcoin will dominate all the fiat currencies and will be accepted as International currency.

Dell is one of the largest e-commerce business accepting bitcoin as payment. Expedia and UNICEF are other examples.

In India, Sapna Book Mall was accepting bitcoin as payment using Unocoin merchant service. People were booking movie tickets through BookMyShow or recharging their mobile using Unocoin platform. According to the report, they have stopped the service but planning to start again in near future.

Cryptocurrency is one of the growing investment sectors and contains given nice returns than real-estate, gold, stock-markets, etc in past times. You can buy the cryptocurrency and hold for long-term to get nice returns or go for the short-term for the quick profit as we have seen the growth of many coins in 1000%+ in past. Since the cryptocurrency is a volatile market and no control of government on the industry. One must invest the amount in any cryptocurrency which they can afford to reduce.

You can store your cryptocurrency in hardware wallet, paper wallet, software wallet unless you desire to hold in the exchange from where you are trading.