Introduction: Investing in Cryptocurrencies
The first cryptocurrency in existence was Bitcoin, built on Blockchain technology and probably launched in 2009 by a mysterious person, Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time of writing this blog, 17 million bitcoins have been mined and it is estimated that 21 million bitcoins can be mined in total. Other most popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Golem, Civic and hard forks of bitcoin such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.
Users are advised not to put all their money into one cryptocurrency and try not to invest at the peak of a cryptocurrency bubble. When the cryptocurrency was at its peak, it was observed that the price suddenly dropped. Since cryptocurrency is a decentralized cryptocurrency, users have to invest the amount they can afford to lose because there is no government control over cryptocurrency.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak predicted that Bitcoin is the real gold and will dominate all currencies like USD, EUR, INR and ASD in the future and become a global currency in the coming years.
Why and why not invest in cryptocurrencies?
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to emerge and since then more than 1,600 cryptocurrencies have been released with some unique features for each coin.
Some of the reasons I’ve experienced and wanted to share are that cryptocurrencies are created on a decentralized platform – so users don’t require a third party to transfer cryptocurrency from one destination to another. a Bank-like platform to transfer money from one account to another. Cryptocurrency built on highly secure blockchain technology and the chances of hacking and stealing your cryptocurrencies are almost zero unless you share some of your critical information.
You should always avoid buying cryptocurrencies at the high point of a cryptocurrency bubble. Many of us buy cryptocurrencies at the peak hoping to make a quick buck and fall victim to the bubble hype and lose money. For users, it is better to do a lot of research before investing. It is always better to put your money in more than one cryptocurrency instead of one, because few cryptocurrencies grow more, while other cryptocurrencies enter the red zone, some are average.
Cryptocurrencies to focus on
In 2014, Bitcoin occupies 90% of the market, and other cryptocurrencies occupy the remaining 10%. In 2017, Bitcoin still dominates the cryptocurrency market, but its share has dropped sharply from 90% to 38%, and altcoins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple have grown rapidly and captured the majority of the market.
Bitcoin still dominates the cryptocurrency market, but it’s not the only cryptocurrency you should consider when investing in cryptocurrency. Some of the main cryptocurrencies you should consider are:
Bitcoin
Litecoin
Fluctuation
Ethereum
Tron
Civic
Golem
Monero
Where and how to buy cryptocurrencies?
Although it was not easy to buy cryptocurrency a few years ago, now users have many available platforms.
In 2015, there are two major bitcoin platforms in India where users can buy and sell bitcoin only Unocoin wallet and Zebpay wallet. Users should only buy bitcoin from their wallet and not from another person. There was a price difference in the buying and selling rate and users had to pay a certain nominal fee to complete their transactions.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency industry grew a lot and the price of Bitcoin increased spontaneously, especially in the last six months of 2017, forcing users to look for Bitcoin alternatives and crossed 14 lakhs in the Indian market.
Unodax and Zebpay only dealt with Bitcoin as they were the two major platforms dominating the market with 90% market share in India. This gives other organizations a chance to grow with other altcoins and even forces Unocoin and others to add more currencies to their platform.
Unocoin, one of India’s leading cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, has launched its exclusive UnoDAX Exchange platform for its users to trade several cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin trading on Unocoin. The difference between both platforms was that – Unocion only provided instant buying and selling of bitcoin, whereas on UnoDAX, users can place an order for any available cryptocurrency and if matched with a buyer, 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 on any exchange by registering with email id and providing KYC details. Once their account is verified, anyone can start trading the coins of their choice.
Users should do their research before investing in any coin and should not fall into the crypto-bubble trap. Users should explore exchange reliability, transparency, security features and more.
All Exchanges charge a certain nominal fee for each transaction. There are two types of fees – Maker fee and Taker fee. If you want to transfer your cryptocurrencies to another exchange or your personal wallet, you must pay a transfer fee in addition to the transaction fee. Since there is a difference price module for transferring coins in different exchange, the fees depend only on the coins and the exchange.
Major altcoins besides Bitcoin
As mentioned above, Bitcoin dominates the market with a market share of 38%, followed by Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Exchanges such as UnoDAX, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bitstamp have listed many other coins such as 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.
However, since the cryptocurrency market is highly volatile and no government has control over it, you should put money into the market that you can afford to lose.
When should you buy?
There are no hard and fast rules for when to buy your favorite cryptocurrency. But market stability needs to be investigated. You shouldn’t do it at the peak of a cryptocurrency bubble or when the price is constantly crashing. The best time is always when the price is relatively stable at a low level for a period of 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 storage facility where you can store your coins safely. When you store cryptocurrency on exchanges, you should not share user information, password, 2FA.
Paper wallet, hardware wallet, software wallet are some of the channels through which cryptocurrencies can be stored.
Paper Wallet: A paper wallet is an offline cold storage method for storing 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 future transactions. Why is it safe? No need to worry about your account being hacked or any malware attack. You just need to keep your piece of paper safe in the closet and if possible keep two or three paper wallets under your complete control.
Hardware Wallet: A hardware wallet is a physical device where you securely store cryptocurrency. There are many forms of hardware wallet, but the most commonly used hardware wallet is USB. When you store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, you just need to keep in mind that you shouldn’t lose your hardware wallet, because once it’s lost, you won’t be able to get your cryptocurrency back.
A famous case where a person withdraws 7000+ bitcoins and stores it in a hardware wallet and stores it in another hardware wallet. One day, instead of damaged hardware, he dropped the hardware wallet in which he stored his cryptocurrency and lost all his bitcoin.
What to buy in cryptocurrencies in India?
Most of the people think that buying and selling any cryptocurrencies is only for investment and to get high returns in long and short term. Influencers and bitcoin 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 businesses that accept bitcoin as payment. Expedia and UNICEF are other examples.
In India, Sapna Book Mall accepted bitcoin as payment using Unocoin merchant service. People used to book movie tickets through BookMyShow or recharge their mobile phones using the Unocoin platform. Reportedly, they have suspended the service but plan to resume soon.
Result:
Cryptocurrency is one of the growing investment sectors and in the past real estate, gold, stock markets etc. gave good returns compared to You can buy crypto and hold it long for nice returns or you can go for short term returns as we have seen many coins grow 1000%+ in the past. Since cryptocurrency is a volatile market and the government has no control over the industry. One should invest in any cryptocurrency that one can afford to lose.
If you don’t want to store your cryptocurrency in an exchange from where you trade, you can store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, paper wallet, software wallet.