Day 1: Where to begin with trading cryptocurrency
So I decided to see what the fuzz on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin called cryptocurrency is all about. In this series of articles I will document my experiences for 2 purposes: 1) I tend to forget, and 2) I couldn’t find a currency-agnostic introduction to acquiring and trading these currencies.
First a short introduction about myself so you know where I’m coming from. I’m from the Netherlands and work as a programmer and am by no means a financial specialist. I am however interested in technologies and innovation so hence the interest for cryptocurrency!
A colleague showed me he bought 1 Bitcoin (BTC) because the BTC price was low for a moment. Now I heard about different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum before, news comes by regularly on HackerNews, but never spent more than 15 minutes trying to get a bitcoin. Bitcoin seemed not easy to get into and now I know for sure. I feel the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem is a maze.
“I feel the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem is a maze.”
Which cryptocurrency to buy? (I don’t have a clue!)
So I want to experience whatever cryptocurrency is. Just get myself a little bit of any currency and just see how it all works. The first question that pops up is: “Which cryptocurrency should I buy?”. BTC has lost its excitement, Ethereum (ETH and ETC?) seem to be hot, so are many other Altcoins.
I was clueless and I ended up buying Zcash (ZEC) in the end. The only reason that, after comparing several graphs, the ZEC to EUR graph appealed to me most for mere aesthetic reasons.
After that I read a bit more about Zcash only to find out that it is a controversial and potentially failed attempt at adding privacy to blockchain/cryptocurrency transactions, that shortly after launch with a peaked around $5000 and then dropped to $50 in matter of days (source?). Quite a false start I guess, but looking at the graph it seems that there is still demand for Zcash. To be honest I can’t find much interesting intel on Zcash yet.
“My advice to get started with cryptocurrency: pay a small amount of EUR or USD in exchange for cryptocurrency of your choice. Just to see how it works.“
My advice to get started with cryptocurrency: pay a small amount of EUR or USD in exchange for cryptocurrency of your choice. Just to see how it works.
Creating a (Zcash) wallet
After choosing currency you need to get a wallet. In my case I needed a Zcash wallet, which I got via the Zcash “getting started” page. I followed the instructions for macOS and am running the app zcash4mac now.
When you install zcash4mac, or any other wallet, the entire blockchain needs to be downloaded. This takes looooong. Hours I think, but you don’t need to wait for that. If I remember correctly zcash4mac automatically creates an address for you. This address is your zcash bank account number and you need it later to buy zcash with real money.
Buying cryptocurrency with real money
Okay so how do I buy Zcash with real money? There are a LOT of options to choose from but many of them require your account to be verified. You’d have to give them your residence info and submit a copy of your passport or ID and the verification takes at least hours. So far I have submitted for verification at Kraken (24h ago) and Gatecoin (2h ago), but no luck on verification yet.
Sites like Changelly and Anycoin Direct allow you can directly buy bitcoins and many different altcoins using credit card, wire transfer and anything in between. The links to these sites contain an affiliate link, I hope you don’t mind.
I bought my first Zcash at Anycoin Direct. It was super easy. From what I can tell the exchange rate is really bad, but at least I could get started with my cryptocurrency adventures now!
That’s it for this article, hope you enjoyed!
