I had a discussion with a friend the other day about finances. He heads up a finance division for a large multinational pharmaceutical company. He was talking about a bubble in the bluechip Finnish stocks and how he had sold out of nearly all of his holdings.
This inevitably led to some cryptocurrency talk where he had almost zero information. His words 'I have heard of Bitcoin'.
Ok, I am just getting into this myself, but find this interesting. Here is a guy that has been investing his money since he was a teenager, prides himself on being up to date with the latest investment data and is a finance professional.
Why is crypto so difficult?
Perhaps it is because it is new, perhaps because it is not based on traditional banking systems, perhaps it is because non-financial experts are creating it.
For me, the problems I have with understanding cryptocurrency comes from the security issue, I can't trust any information. I got good information to trade at Poloniex, and then good information to stop and move to Bittrex. There, SBD looks to be trading 20% lower than at Poloniex. That is a concern. Does this mean I sell at Bittrex to someone that takes it over and resells at poloniex at a 20% markup instantly?
Even if I can trade successfully, where do I keep it. A wallet? I have a nice leather one in my back pocket now. My wife got it for me for my birthday. So, I go to look for a wallet, again, there is lots of information, much of it conflicting or unwieldy to handle. There are a hundred different versions, none of them seem to be secure by the looks.
I still haven't found a suitable way to get any money out in cash, I feel like an absolute idiot. My wife thinks that I am an idiot for many reasons already, this just puts another arrow in her quiver. We all have our skills.
I do a lot of work with manufacturing engineers. In general, they are not the best communicators in the world but I attempt to help them improve. I also work with lots of IT specialists from the likes of Nokia, Supercell and Rovio. They are about 3 times worse as communicators but their info is new and complicated, making it about 6 times worse. What is simple to a nerd can be very difficult for a 'normal' person and I am far ahead of many other non-tech speakers.
Okay, so there is a learning curve, I can understand that. The problem is, I have my own business, a young daughter, I have to post to make money to trade which for me, takes time as I do not post cat pictures (often) and a million other things. When am I meant to learn stuff that the 'experts' seem to have trouble understanding and presenting themselves?
There are so, so many options here, so, so many ways to store it and the explanations on what are the best (or even adequate) ways are limited and lacking vital detail. Yes, I am a simpleton, but, I am not the only one I reckon.
The reason my financially minded friend does not put any of his vast sums of money into crypto is because he has no way to ever get enough understanding to do so. I wonder how many other rich investors are in the same boat.
It would be nice that instead of a hundred posts repeating how to use basic functionality of Steemit, there could be a group of smart, trustworthy people that get together and write an updateable guide with how to best manage cryptocurrency.
There are some very intelligent people here by the looks of things and when they speak, other smart people nod or shake their proverbial heads in understanding. There are also a lot of laypeople here that struggle to grasp some of these ideas and do not know where to turn for trustworthy information.
I think, that like anything, once I get my hands into it, I get my head around it and can start to develop my own paths, own procedures and even become quite proficient at this. The issue for me is that the first hurdles to get over are too high for my little legs.
Many people want decentralised cryptocurrencies to come truly to the mainstream. That is a long way away if people like myself have trouble. Again, I may not be the most technologically-minded person in the world but damn, I am not that bad.
The repetitive phrase at Steemit from the high reps is post quality that is useful. Well, how about it? The people that are first in here are the ones that are likely holding the best information on how to handle crypto from Steemit from start to finish, where are the quality, useful posts? Not a bit of information dug up from this corner, or a mention of a website that may or not be reputable.
Edit: this should be implemented into the FAQ.
Start to Finish.
Am I really the only one that struggles with this?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
By the way, I am going to start posting some communication improvement tips from time to time. Please share them to the many intelligent people that have lots of good information but can't seem to present it for non-smart people. As said, we all have our skills.
Yeah my dear friend @tarazkp this is not complicated and actually very simple indeed.
So without further ado, let's go straight to the point.
First of all, follow these steps below in strict order:
1- Download and install a BTC Desktop Wallet (cold wallet) in your PC. There are many good out there. But for simplicity, low learning curve, easy to learn with a nice/friendly UI to navigate through its internals mastering it in barely few minutes and with many powerful features as a Multi-asset Wallet to even exchange your btc for many other different altcoins right within the own wallet with low fees. I will recommend you Exodus. IMO they are very reliable developers who constantly are working on furbish the app, debugging, improving and updating the software regularly and launching new releases continually. (There are even rumors that Steem could be soon another altcoin & asset to hold and trade right into the wallet) So, give to this one a try!
2- Use Changelly and/or Blocktrades to send, sell and convert your Steem/SBD to BTC or any other altcoin of your preference in the easiest and fastest way possible. There are many good tutorials on steemit describing step by step the easy process for both. No need to trade anything. You just sell your Steem/SBD to them and send the BTCs straight to your Exodus wallet.
3- Open right away an account on Localbitcoins. From your IP, the website should automatically recognize that you are visiting from Finland and will show you in your browser the internal local marketplace for your intended transactions. Through operations of Buy & Sell within the website you will be able to convert your BTC in local currency to your fiat bank account in a blink.
In this case, with the wallet of Localbitcoins unless you are trying to convert your Steem/SBD to BTC for instant operations to get €uros in your fiat bank account immediately, rather send the BTCs to your Exodus wallet address to hold them more safe there if you are not in a hurry to obtain €uros. It is not advisable to maintain large sums of btc in any web wallet. Not even on Localbitcoins unless you hold these there for immediate transactions.
I hope these little suggestions can be of some help and usefulness for you mate. It's the least I can do to thank you for your very valuable and generous help to me.
A brotherly & very big hug to you my friend. :)
Hitting the nail on the Crypto head. I have had my own rants about the Magical Mystical properties of what is suppose to be an Uber complicated Mathematical Endeavor. And Wallets! Don't get me started.
More Wallets than you can shake a stick at. And all hack-able.
Enjoyed the read.
Thanks for sharing.
Most welcome but, you don't help me at all ;)
It must get simpler someday right? Or by mainstream do they mean those that only got B's in Particle Dynamics class?
I think the term is Main-String and Straight A's in Quantum Gravity Theory.
And how about these f******* cryptosteel cryptocurrency wallets.
WTF!
Seems like it might be a bit of a minority opinion, but I think that a good number of investors stay away from crypto not because of technical issues but because of valuation. None of the traditional metrics of valuing stocks, bonds, currencies, or commodities seem to be able to yield any insight into Bitcoin or crypto price movements.
I agree that issues of buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies are problems and can be quite confusing at first. But at the same time, these are easily solvable problems and are to a large extent already being solved with more reputable service providers and better UIs. On the other hand, I see very little progress being made in accurately valuing cryptocurrenies.
If one heads a finance division, understanding cryptocurrency should be a breeze. After all, its just understanding what 'money' is and some technical parameters. Hardly different from his daily job.
It is not the technical aspects of the trading, That he will excel at as it is basic. It is all of the other non-traditional hurdles that must be overcome first.
It 'seems' very complicated. Maybe it is not, but I at least struggle with it.
Perhaps you can write a start to finish guide for me. I will upvote it and share it as wide as I can. I will even pay a bit directly to you. But, it has to be trustworthy, simple and practical.
From your post I get the impression that you're Finnish, or at least live in Finland. Nice to meet you, so am I.
As to the subject of your post, I agree, cryptocurrency investment is a bit different to investing in stocks for example, but with my few year experience it seems that the investments acts similarly to other investments, just 10 times faster. I'm trying to merge the gap between cryptocurrency investing and investing generally, draw the similarities and the differences. I've already written many posts about investing and cryptocurrency.
However, I must say, I'm still remain slightly skeptical myself. I haven't invested fiat currencies into cryptocurrencies, but just by mining I've managed to make thousands worth of wealth for myself in a few years. And I used one GPU, not a miner.
I believe cryptocurrency investing is very much similar to traditional investing, the problem is that if things go wrong, you have a week to get out, whereas with other investments you have a year. People panic here much more. People see opportunity much more. People flip out much more. It is a wild west of investing.
No, moro. I am Australian but live in Finland.
The issue I have is less with the trading of it and more with the transference and storage of it. I can get it out to a market, trade, even increase it a bit but past that, I have nothing.
I can't find any 'reputable' information that I would consider seriously following so I am stuck with coin at markets and don't know what to do, or how to 'conveniently' get usable currency.
Well, bitcoin is pretty much the only usable cryptocurrency so far. However, I think that won't last for too long with all the better options.
For now I prefer just to invest in cryptocurrencies. Wait for more adoption, which will lead to it being usable.
I am about to start training so will be away for a bit.
My advice would be, if you want to keep it simple.
Send steem or SBD to an exchange, bittrex is my preferred choice. There are many guides on transferring these.
Then trade on that exchange. Start by selling your steem/SBD for bitcoin.
Using your bitcoin, buy/sell as many different coins as you like.
Any profits you make, transfer to a hardware wallet such as trezor or ledger
That way your funds are secure.
I will have a look at those thanks.
The trading part hasn't been a problem, past that has. There are so many hurdles and considerations to look at. I am trying though.
Thanks again.
Been there....Still there! :) In terms of getting money out easier I have been advised by @meesterboom to create an account with cryptopay.me. You have to buy a prepaid card but apparently you just send your btc to your account and it automatically converts it to GBP. Not sure if that helps you out at all Taraz and haven't actually done it myself but meesterboom has been here a long time, got a good rep and makes a decent amount of rewards so I assume it must be working for him!
I will check it out. Must I be a local to get one?
I think its worldwide and it says it can be used anywhere you can use a visa debit card!
https://cryptopay.me/bitcoin-debit-card
I just ordered a Credit Card from Bitwala.io. Will be my first cash out, and I really hope using the Credit Card will be easy.
Many people seem to confuse "how does trading with crypto work" with "how does crypto work". The first question is not that hard to answer, asking for the second one will end in people throwing tons of technical terms like nodes, fork, hash, etc. at you. I think I understood the technical side of Bitcoin, but I do not have a single on how other cryptos work.
Is there a transfer/usage limit? I ordered one from wirex and later found it can only hold 250 euro worth and only purchase up to 100 in a transaction.
The card did not arrive yet, but I have a monthly limit of 2000€, according to the site. The amount you can transfer depends on your verification level. I sent them a copy of my ID and a letter addressed to me, to get to verification level2. For verification level 3 (50.000€ monthly limit) you need to make a video call to bitwala.
@redpalestino recommended bitwala to me, if you want to talk to someone who actually uses a bitwala card already.
And the crypto thing, I have a basic idea only. This is the beauty of steemit as it takes a lot of the technicality out of getting into it but getting out of it again is the challenge :)