Don't be a Crypto Noob - Learn from My Mistakes (AKA: Read Directions & Practice Due Diligence)

It's the wild west out there in crytpo land! Noobs are checking out coinmarketcap.com - throwing money at the coins/cryptocurrencies with overnight gains of 50 or 100 percent - hoping to wake up next week as a millionaire.

They don't read up on where they're putting their money - and that's why theoretical currencies without any technology behind them are skyrocketing - alongside alt coins that 'deserve' to be there.

Here's the thing that this 'generation' doesn't necessarily realize - reading is imperative when purchasing, or even sending crypto from one wallet to another. We're so used to one-click buys that we're lost when something goes beyond that.

Take for example the XRP frenzy. It's now at $1.17(as of 7:09pm EST). Over the summer, it hit an all time high around $.25, and I thought, what a perfect time to take some profits. Bam! Cashed in half of what I had, cause I was convinced it couldn't possibly go higher anytime in the near future. Doh!

Well, this meteoric rise hasn't gone unnoticed - and droves of FOMO-ers are flocking to Gatehub.Net in hopes of striking it rich. Thing is, they fail to read how to set up an account, and a trustline, then call the exchange a scam because they didn't take 20-30 minutes to understand how it works. They get freaked out because - like with every other exchange I've ever been on - customer service is sloooooow and overwhelmed with the volume of traders.

For those of who think I’m hating on noobs…I’m not. I say it lovingly – as I’ve fallen victim to the same idiocy. Here’s my instakarma tale:. As a resident of the overprotective, over regulated, bitcoin hating, nanny state on the East Coast, I'm 'forced' to take extra risks in order to trade. In the case of buying BitShares last spring, that meant signing up on a Chinese exchange called BTER.Com.

I experienced some initial anxiety when transferring BTC from coinbase - it took 3 days or something to arrive, then again when I transferred NEM from their exchange to a wallet. Of course, all those lags had me convinced they were also a SCAM, especially after my angry emails to their limited customer service went unanswered.

I fell off the face of the earth for a while, stopped checking crypto accounts, etc – only to discover that Chinese exchanges closed in October. I was able to get my few remaining NEM off and into my wallet - but not the Bitshares.

I finally signed in again last week - though trading has stopped on BTER.Com - it was still possible to move smaller cryptos off the exchange. I'd just discovered Binance and decided to transfer Bitshares there - only thing was that I didn't read directions.

In order for the transfer to go through - you couldn't just send Bitshares from Bter to Binance - you had to include a memo - with specific spacing. I screwed up the spacing - and the Bitshares never showed up in Binance.

Luckily it was less than $100 worth - but still, live and learn. And we all know that the sharp crypto spikes can turn $100 into $1000+ - and that's never fun.

While overall my crypto experience has been positive - gains didn't come without losses:

• Back in 2014 I purchased between $100-$200 of NXT coin from DGEX.Com - It would be worth a couple thousand today (maybe more if you factor in Ardor). The dude who ran DGEX disappeared with everyone's money.

• Then there was the whole buying “MT.Gox BTC” at ‘steep discounts’ on BitcoinBuilder.Com immediately after the ‘hack’…while there’s still a chance I MAY retrieve some of that money, depending on how future trials go…I’m not holding my breath.

• I also used BTC-E.Com over the years - despite it's sketchy reputation, I never got overtly screwed, so continued to use it until around March. I picked up 4 or 5 Dash when they were $50 - (as of today $1441 each) I went to check in on it last month only to find the site was seized by the US government. Some digging led me to a clone of BTC-E at https://wex.nz/ where I was able to recover half of my Dash - the other half were lost in a hack or bankruptcy or something so they say.

• I almost lost a shitload of Stellar Lumens XLM on www.ecliptic.co - checked in a few weeks ago and found a notice on their site that they’re shitting down on Dec. 31st – had I not gone to the site, I never would have known.

In sum…read, read, read before taking any action. Do your due diligence, and never assume any exchange or wallet is safe – hacks aren’t the only way they go down – look at BTC-E.Com, seized by the government. And of course, never invest more than you can afford to lose. While I’m optimistic about crypto in the long term, I expect a mini crash in the short term – when stock prices on companies like Longfin or Long Island Tea shoot up simply because they are associated with the crypto industry – we can’t deny there’s some kind of mania going on. Take profits from time to time – especially if something went up enough so that you get your initial investment back – playing with the house’s money is the best (like the lone BTC I got back when it was $400…).

This is not investing advice – I’m not liable for any decisions you make, and am just your average Jane with no formal training in financial investments of any kind.