Bitcoin Trading for Noobs
By Muralish Clint on The Capital
Blockchain is indeed a revolution in technology and bitcoin has played a major role by being a part of it. With the hype of bitcoin over the past few years, is it really safe to invest in bitcoins? If you have a basic understanding of what bitcoins are and if you’re hesitant about investing, keep reading!
Q. So is it easy for someone to hack your bitcoin wallet and transfer the funds?
- Not really. Be aware of the sites you use and make sure that you don’t input your wallet details (username, password, email) in any application other than your wallet platform. Most of the “bitcoin hackers” are not hackers. They simply write or use phishing scripts to collect data that you input to a website/application.
- This solves 95% of your problems since almost all the “hacked” bitcoin wallets are phished.
Q. How can you keep your account safe?
- As usual a strong password. Don’t use the same password that you regularly use but also make sure that you don’t forget it.
- 2FA via mobile. Connect your mobile to your bitcoin wallet and keep notifications on for all activities.
- 2FA via Google authenticator. The best way to safeguard your wallet. Since it’s powered by Google, the chances of cracking it down are almost 0.
- Pin code. Always protect your wallet by securing it with a pin code.
Q. What platform should you use?
- There are several popular platforms and there are so many new platforms coming up every other day.
- There’s no specific answer to this. It totally depends on your location and your preferred mode of transaction.
- Since I am focusing on Alipay and Wechat for Chinese users and bank transfers for Srilankan users, Paxful works the best for me.
- Try to split your investments into different wallets with most of your investments in your preferred platform.
Q. What are the other factors that you should consider?
- Ease of buying and selling — It’s easy to buy bitcoins from several platforms but selling is really difficult in some.
- Buying fee — Some platforms charge you for buying bitcoins. (Buying through credit/debit cards have a higher transaction fee)
- Transaction fee — Most platforms don’t charge you for transactions within the platform but do charge you for transactions from one platform to another.
- Withdrawal fee — Almost all the platforms charge you for withdrawing the bitcoins from their associated wallets. (Either as a withdrawal fee or selling commission)
Q. How does the transaction work? Should you send the money first or do you receive bitcoins first (When buying)?
Most platforms use a third party system known as ESCROW. What happens here is, the bitcoins of the seller are held in the system and once you make the payment and prove the seller that you have paid (by receipts, screenshots, etc), the bitcoins from the ESCROW system will be released to you. In this case, the chances of you being scammed are very low.
Q. How do you know if a seller or buyer is legit?
Always look for reviews and their trade history. Avoid sellers/buyers with poor transaction history.
Q. What if you don’t have the money to buy 1 bitcoin?
You need not necessarily buy 1 Bitcoin (Unless if you could afford to). The minimum amount needed to start is 10USD in most of the platforms and for this price, you could buy a fraction of a bitcoin.
Q. What should you do if you have doubts related to trading?
There are several free resources out there and you could always do some research before investing. Understand the price graph and at the beginning, just go with your intuitions and invest when the price is low and sell when the price goes high. Later, you could study more on technical analysis, fundamental analysis, etc, and keep experimenting. Feel free to contact me for more information if you are still confused.
Happy trading!
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
