What Is Cryptocurrency & How To Buy Bitcoins?

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As we all know the world has evolved digitally, people tend to perform fast transactions over the internet without any financial intermediary between the two parties. Which is why cryptocurrency was created to enable people to perform discreet and safe transactions.

Cryptocurrency can be said to be a digital asset created to work as a medium of exchange in order to secure the transactions such as buying and selling, and also control the creation of additional units of the currency using cryptography

What makes this system unique is you do not need authorization from your bank to perform financial transactions, all you need is just your secured crypto wallet.

Why Use Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is the latest model of exchange that has increased over the last years because it is anonymous in all aspects.

Typically protects you from interest rates, fees, and surcharges that you may have to pay to your bank or credit card company. In reality, the crypto core communities that comprise the core development team and all of its regular users are vehemently against these fees.

Decentralized peer to peer networks centralized management carries out transactions that wire transfer and credit cards used to carry out.

• Is very popular with the public as a great medium for the transfer and storage of money
• Promotes sound and safe e-commerce shopping
• Ensures that each user accounts for their data and security
• A transaction gets verified through confirmation codes in the network.

Advantages Of Cryptocurrency

• Transactions are anonymous
• Bypasses credit and debit card fees
• Widely accepted by various merchants and retailers
• Can be used to complete online transactions
• Small fee for mining purposes
• Each financial data is posted online by the network on the public ledger.
• Transparent to merchants because each exchange holds the personal info of the customer

How You Can Benefit From Cryptocurrency

There are several ways in which you can benefit by investing and trading in popular digital currencies  such as BitCoin, Ethereum, LiteCoin, Byte Coin, DogeCoin, StarCoin, AltCoin, NeoCoin, InfiniteCoin, TerraCoin, FeatherCoin, but it’s advisable to stick to the two biggest cryptocurrencies at the moment which are BTC (Bitcoin) and ETH (Ethereum).

What Is A Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is distributed and decentralized, trust-free, secure, and deflationary. It’s a currency that people speculate that has the potential one day replace paper money.

“Bitcoin is one of the most important inventions in all of human history. For the first time, one can make monetary transactions with anyone else, anywhere on the planet, conveniently and without restriction. It is the dawn of a better, more free world”. – Roger Ver, CEO Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin And Blockchain Technology

The blockchain technology allows fast and secure transaction because it is built on three proven technologies which are; Private Key Graph, Peer-to-Peer Network, and the Protocol.

One of the key factor of blockchain and why it works so well is that it allows anyone to view its public database through its block explorer that is hosted on a free to use website called Blockchain.

How Bitcoin And Blockchain Work

If you are buying bitcoin or making any cryptocurrency transaction for the first time, you will need a wallet and the wallet will generate your bitcoin wallet address, with that you can send and receive payments in bitcoin, however, this cannot be done without the blockchain. The blockchain is more like a shared public ledger that the bitcoin network relies on because it confirms and verifies all spending transactions on the bitcoin network.

The blockchain network automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes because it lives in a state of consensus. It runs a kind of self-auditing system of a digital value; the network reconciles every transaction that happens within ten-minute intervals. Each group of transaction made is referred to as a “block” and when this happens, transparency data is embedded within the blockchain network as a whole.

The way the system is designed it is meant to be public and it is also designed in a way that it cannot be corrupted, trying to alter any unit of information on the blockchain would require a huge amount of computing power to override the entire network which is not possible because of high-security measures.

How To Buy Bitcoins

Bitcoin remains the gold standard of cryptocurrency. Many people buy and use bitcoins because of the wide advantages of the currency in comparison to other payment solutions.

Getting bitcoins in the past was difficult because a PC had to mine them, now anyone can purchase bitcoins directly with PayPal or credit cards.

However, before you choose a payment method you have to consider factors such as;

• Commissions, ease of use, the speed of deposit and security
• The common payment methods include Bank Transfer, Credit card, PayPal, Bank Transfer, and Cash

Bank Transfers

Bank transfer has the lowest fees via SEPA or US (Wire). Great for buying large amounts of bitcoins! However, bank transfers are slow compared to credit card purchases because the deposits get verified instantly.

PayPal Transfer

Most online merchants love PayPal because it is instant, convenient, and ever-present and has advanced security. PayPal is great for making small amounts of payments but not great for large purchases. PayPal eliminates the need to give out private details. However, note that PayPal limits the number of bitcoins you can buy and not all exchange sites accept PayPal.

Credit Cards

Credit cards are the simplest way to purchase large bitcoin transactions online. Credit cards have high commission fees. However transactions are quick, and most sites accept credit card.

Cash vs. Buying Online

You can buy bitcoin in person using a bitcoin ATM or swap cash for bitcoins from someone.

Buying bitcoin in cash provides great anonymity, fees are high but no one knows your ID. However, it is inconvenient, dangerous and risky.

Sites To Buy Bitcoins

Over 200 options of bitcoin sites such as Coinbase, Kraken, Local Bitcoins, Bitstamp, Cex, Paxful, Coinmama, WeSellCrypto, Bitcoin.de, Coinatmradar choosing the best option can be a daunting task, however, we list below some of the most popular.

Coinbase.com located in San Francisco allows users to buy bitcoins with GBP, USD, and Euros.

Coinbase has a simple and appealing user interface with cool features. Moreover, with over 20 million users became one of the most secure exchange sites. They have a Multi signature and super advanced wallet. They are great for small transactions. This is one of my favorite sites to buy bitcoins!

Cex.io located in the UK switched from cloud mining to selling bitcoins. They offer beginners training and allow users to buy bitcoins within Russian ruble, USD, Euros, wire transfer, and SEPA payments. With over 700,000 users they have an advanced level 2 security.

Localbitcoins.com allows users to buy bitcoins with PayPal. They offer high commission fees to cover up chargebacks and reversible transactions. You must have a reputation on the site with reviews from previous purchases for sellers to trust you.

Paxful.com located in Delaware USA allows users to purchase bitcoins with PayPal, Amazon gift cards, Wal-Mart, GameStop, Vanilla and Google Wallet. They have tutorials for newbies to profits from bitcoin trading. With Paxful you can exchange any currency for bitcoins

Xcoins.com is located in Santa Monica USA and allows users to buy bitcoins with PayPal. They have a superb support that is swift to respond to issues.

Coinmama.com is located in Israel and allows users to buy bitcoins with cash, credit card, western union or money gram. They remain one of the most anonymous sites to trade bitcoins. The site is fully optimized for mobile. Moreover, they have a good customer service.

CoinATMradar.com has over 1154 bitcoins ATMs located in 58 countries. You can check the map to see the nearest ATM to you. The ATM is smaller and more colorful than regular bank ATM and allows you to buy and sell bitcoins.

Kraken.com located in San Francisco USA optimized for buyers that want to trade bitcoins. They allow users to buy bitcoins using US DOLLARS, Euros, KRW,  SEPA and bank transfer. They allow a high volume of purchases daily with low commissions.

How To Pick A Good Cryptocurrency Exchange

Now you know the most popular bitcoin trading sites the question is how do you pick the one that is sound and trustworthy bitcoin trading site and how you avoid the poor insecure platforms? Here are signs to look out for:

Commissions And Fees

Cheap fees play an important role when choosing a bitcoin exchange site. Some exchanges are transparent on how much to sell, buy, and withdraw. Check out their monthly wallet fees, transactions backlogs, verification admin charge and deposit fees.

Payments Methods

We are not aware of any site that accepts all payment methods i.e Bank Transfer, Credit Cards, PayPal, Cash. Most accept one or two of them and only 2% accept PayPal as a means of payment.

Ease of use

Most sites at this time are not user-friendly or mobile-optimized thus they are hard for new users to understand. Don’t use a decentralized exchange service if this is your first day of trading. Avoid sites that have extended, and multiple downtimes, unfriendly user interface and none automated withdraw process.

Security

Most bitcoin sites get hacked so check for sites that follow the best security practices and allows users to verify their location and ID and provides proof of coins. Good sites encourage customers to use 2-factor authentications.

Signs of a comprised exchange include media allegations of theft, long backlog of bitcoin withdrawals

Customer Service

While some sites have swift customer service, others take a while to get back to you. Some cases where you might need to contact customer support include a delay in processing transactions, flagging of user accounts and freezing users funds.

Conclusion

Bitcoin is all “demand and supply”. With increasing demand and limited supply, its price is rising and rising. As of writing, this article ONE bitcoin is valued at around $7,800 plus.

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions about cryptocurrency/bitcoins or want to leave your own personal experience, leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you!

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