How to buy Bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency)
I've been asked quite a bit about cryptocurrencies recently and at first glance it can be pretty daunting. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or other altcoins can be some extremely profitable investments, but when it comes to actually purchasing them it gets hazy. Some cryptocurrencies have different purposes, and there are numerous reasons to why you would want to invest in them. Here are a few that I personally like:
Bitcoin - The father of all cryptos.
Ethereum - An innovative software company with a little more structure than Bitcoin, some think it will pass the father crypto.
Ethereum Website
Monero - A completely anonymous currency. This is currently the "currency of the dark web" because it is untraceable.
Monero Website
Siacoin - A redesign of Cloud Storage using a decentralized network. "Storing 1TB on Sia costs about $2 per month, compared with $23 on Amazon S3."
Siacoin Website
Golem - Similar to sia, but focused on selling idle computing power.
Golem Website
Steem - Obvious, but re-engineering social networking.
Steem Website
So without further ado this is my simple guide to purchasing in cryptocurrencies.
Step 1: Sign up for Coinbase
Sign up here:
Coinbase
Once you sign up you can buy Bitcoin with your bank account or with a credit card (there is a fee if you buy with your credit card).
Step 2: Buy Bitcoin with Coinbase
This is pretty self explanatory, but in order to buy other altcoins you should buy some bitcoin first. Now if you want to buy only Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin you can stop here.
Step 3: Sign up for Poloniex
Poloniex
Sign up here in order to buy cryptocurrencies. I would advise setting up 2-factor authentication as security is a top priority in cryptos.
Step 4: Get your Poloniex Bitcoin address
Once you have made an account click:
- Balances ->Deposits & Withdrawals
- Scroll down to BTC or Bitcoin and press "Deposit"
- Click "Show me Deposit Address"
- Copy this address
My Bitcoin address looks like this:
1J1LQkieBviWs8V8eZr9MJ4MtJrk5Ts9wL
Step 5: Send Bitcoin to Poloniex
Go back to Coinbase. Click "Send". Select the dollar amount you want to send, and paste your Poloniex Bitcoin address. This will take about 10-15 minutes for it to get to your Poloniex account.
Step 6: Buy Altcoins
Now that you have Bitcoins in your Poloniex account you are ready to buy your altcoins. Poloniex is like a stock exchange, select the currency you want to buy, and set a buy order.
- Go to "Exchange"
- Select the currency you want to buy. For instance if you want to buy SiaCoin select "SC"
- Go to "Buy SC", and in the "Total" box put the amount of Bitcoin you want to use
- Then press buy!
CONGRATULATIONS!! You have officially bought your first CryptoCurrency!
*Side note, coinbase hasn't been the best with security so transferring your funds out of coinbase or Poloniex into your own wallet is safest. So they aren't sitting in these companies cold storage.
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Surely after buying Bitcoin, that would count as " CONGRATULATIONS!! You have officially bought your first CryptoCurrency!"
And so buying anything else would be "CONGRATULATIONS!! You have officially just bought your second CryptoCurrency!"
Just Josing you;D~
Lol I appriciate the joshing! Well either way, at the end you would have bought your first crypto right? ;)
Hi @joshmocek thanks for the very informative post
If we can buy BTC from Coinbase, then buy STEEM by sending BTC to Steemit, how can we sell STEEM and convert it back to BTC and eventually USD or some other currency?
Thanks :)
But coinbase has closed down after a recent attack. Did you notice?
It was one user who lost $8,000. Are sure they are closed down? I purchased more bitcoin a few hours ago.
Thanks
No problem!
The problem is, Coinbase is not available in many countries, at least for the buying bitcoins part of the website.
I think we need to know about other options for people not living in the USA, Canada or the EU.
Personally I´ve used Coinmama ( expensive) and Coinsbank ( fair), but recently these sites are not selling using credit/debit cards. If someone knows of other places that accept credit/debit cards and with reasonable price/fees, please let us know.
coinbase only let you depot 2000 or less at a week at a time.
Bitcoin is always going to be one of the best performing cryptocurrencies in the future. Invest now and secure your money. Check out my blog for a guide for the best Bitcoin buying strategies in terms of timing since there's a lot of volatility due to the hard fork.
https://wikicrypto.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/
An excellent article! In my opinion the fact that Coinbase alone gets almost 100 000 user per day at the moment is a good sign for bitcoin owners. I think that it would be a wise thing to invest at least something in bitcoin. You can have a nice $10 starting bonus at Coinbase with this link