Introduction: Invest in cryptocurrencies
The first cryptocurrency to emerge was Bitcoin, which was built on Blockchain technology and was probably launched in 2009 by the mysterious person Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time of writing, 17 million bitcoins have been mined, and it is believed that a total of 21 million bitcoins could be mined. The other most popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Golem, Civic and Hard Fork Bitcoin such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.
Users are advised not to put all their money into one cryptocurrency and try to avoid investing at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble. It was noticed that the price dropped sharply when it was at the peak of the crypto bubble. Because cryptocurrency is an unstable market, users must invest an amount they can afford to lose because there is no government control over cryptocurrency because it is a decentralized cryptocurrency.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, predicted that Bitcoin is 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 be created and after that about 1600+ cryptocurrencies were launched with some unique characteristics for each coin.
Some of the reasons I’ve experienced and would like to share, cryptocurrencies are created on a decentralized platform – so users don’t require a third party to transfer cryptocurrency from one destination to another, unlike fiat currency where a user needs a platform like Bank to transfer money from one count on others. Cryptocurrency built on very secure blockchain technology and almost no chance of hacking and stealing your cryptocurrencies until you share some critical information.
You should always avoid buying cryptocurrencies at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble. Many of us buy cryptocurrencies at their peak in hopes of making money fast and falling victim to hype bubbles and losing their money. It is better for users to do a lot of research before investing money. It is always good to put your money in multiple cryptocurrencies instead of one as it has been observed that few cryptocurrencies grow higher, some on average if other cryptocurrencies go into the red zone.
Cryptocurrencies for focusing
In 2014, Bitcoin holds 90% of the market and other cryptocurrencies hold the remaining 10%. In 2017, Bitcoin still dominates the crypto market, but its share fell sharply from 90% to 38%, and Altcoins like Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple grew rapidly and occupied most of the market.
Bitcoin still dominates the cryptocurrency market, but it is not the only cryptocurrency you need to consider when investing in cryptocurrencies. Some of the main cryptocurrencies you need to consider:
Bitcoin
Litecoin
Ripple
Ethereum
Throne
Civic
Great
Money
Where and how to buy cryptocurrencies?
Although it was not easy to buy cryptocurrencies a few years ago, users now have many platforms available.
India 2015 has two main bitcoin platforms Unocoin Wallet and Zebpay Wallet where users can buy and sell only bitcoin. Users must buy bitcoin only from the wallet, but not from another person. There was a difference in price in the buying and selling rate and users have to pay some nominal fee to complete their transactions.
In 2017, the cryptocurrency industry grew tremendously, and the price of Bitcoin rose spontaneously, especially in the last six months of 2017, forcing users to look for alternatives to Bitcoin and surpassing 14 lakhs in the Indian market.
How Unodax and Zebpay are the two main platforms in India that dominated the market with 90% market share – dealing only with Bitcoin. This gives other organizations the opportunity to grow with other altcoins and has even forced Unocoin and others to add more currency 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 more cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin trading in Unocoin. The difference between the two platforms was – Unocion provided instant bitcoin buying and selling only while on UnoDAX users can order 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 must open an account in any stock exchange by logging in with an email ID and submitting KYC details. Once their account is verified, you can start trading coins of your choice.
Users need to research well before investing in any coin and not fall into the cryptocurrency bubble trap. Users need to explore the credibility of the exchange, transparency, security features and more.
All stock exchanges charge a nominal fee for each transaction. There are two types of fees – Maker fee and Taker fee. In addition to the transaction fee, you also need to pay a transfer fee if you want to transfer your cryptocurrencies to another exchange office or your private wallet. Fees depend solely on coins and exchanges, as different exchange offices have a price difference module for coin transfers.
Major Altcoins other than Bitcoin
As already mentioned, Bitcoin dominates the market with 38% market share, followed by Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. Stock exchanges like 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 others. If any of the coins fit your portfolio, you need to buy it.
But you have to put money in the market that you can afford to lose because the cryptocurrency market is very volatile and no government has control over it.
When to buy?
There is no hard and fast rule when buying your favorite cryptocurrency. But market stability needs to be explored. You should not except at the peak of the cryptocurrency bubble or when the price is continuously falling. The best time is always considered when the price is stable at a relatively low level for some time.
Cryptocurrency storage method
Before buying any cryptocurrency, you need to understand how to keep your cryptocurrency safe.
In general, all exchanges provide storage space where you can safely store your coins. You may not share your user data, password, 2FA when holding cryptocurrency on stock exchanges.
Paper Wallet, Hardware Wallet, Software Wallet are some of the channels where you can store your cryptocurrency.
Paper Wallet: Paper wallet is an offline method of cold storage to store your cryptocurrency. It prints your private and public key on a piece of paper where the QR code is also printed. All you need to do is scan the QR code for your future transactions. Why is it safe? You don’t have to worry about hacking your account or attacking any malware. You just need to keep your piece of paper safe in the locker and if possible keep two to three pieces of paper in your wallet under complete control.
Hardware Wallet: A hardware wallet is a physical device on which you keep cryptocurrencies safe. There are many forms of hardware wallet, but the most commonly used hardware wallet is USB. When you keep your cryptocurrency in your hardware wallet, you just need to keep in mind that you should not lose your hardware wallet because once you lose it you cannot get your cryptocurrency back.
One famous incident, where a person mined 7000+ bitcoins and stored them in his hardware wallet and kept it in another hardware wallet. One day he threw away a hardware wallet in which he stored his cryptocurrency instead of damaged hardware and lost all his bitcoin.
What can be bought from cryptocurrencies in India?
Most people assume that buying and selling any cryptocurrency is just for investing and achieving high returns in the long and short term. Influencers and bitcoin investors believe that in the coming years Bitcoin will dominate all fiat currencies and will be accepted as an international currency.
Dell is one of the largest e-commerce companies that accepts bitcoin as a payment. Expedia and UNICEF are other examples.
In India, Sapna Book Mall has accepted bitcoin as a payment using the Unocoin trading service. People booked cinema tickets through BookMyShow or charged their cell phones using the Unocoin platform. According to the report, they have suspended the service, but plan to restart it in the near future.
conclusion:
Cryptocurrency is one of the growing investment sectors and gave a good return on real estate, gold, stock exchanges, etc. in the past. You can buy cryptocurrency and keep it in the long run to get good returns or go short term for quick profits as we have seen many coins grow at 1000% + in the past. Because cryptocurrency is an unstable market and there is no government control over the industry. One must invest the amount in any cryptocurrency he can afford to lose.
You can store your cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet, paper wallet, software wallet if you do not want to keep on the exchange from which you trade.