3 Things You Need To Start Your Crypto Journey

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

What is Cryptocurrency?
Crypto Wallet
An Understanding of the Market
Time

Crypto has been on the rise in recent years as the new and future currency, and more people than ever are investing in crypto. You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin, but it can be a daunting prospect to begin funneling money into a currency you’ve never used and may not know much about. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency, but it does have the highest value at the moment. Before you get started on your crypto journey, let’s cover the basics of what you need to know.

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is not controlled by a single authority. A distributed online ledger (usually Blockchain) is used to manage transactions, and strong cryptography ensures the security of these transactions. Crypto can be considered either a transactional currency or a store of value asset at this point in time.

There are a few things you will need in order to take the plunge and start investing in crypto, especially if you want to have as much success as possible.

Crypto Wallet

The first thing you will need to begin your crypto journey (apart from money) is a personal crypto wallet. When people refer to this wallet, they are often talking about a cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to open up a wallet as one of their features. Independent Reserve is a well-monitored and highly reputable system for cryptocurrency exchange that you can start using today.

There are also a number of crypto wallet accounts – some with built-in exchange features and some without – that may be more suited to your needs. There are a few different kinds of cryptocurrency wallets, but the main differences allow them to fall into 2 categories – hot and cold wallets. Hot wallets are usually free to start using and are better for quick transactions. Cold wallets have better security than hot wallets and are better for storing assets long term.

Each wallet will have its own set of features and its own list of pros and cons. For example, the Electrum wallet (which is one of the original Bitcoin wallets) is a hot wallet that can be purchased for free and has a decent level of security, but only works for Bitcoin and has no customer support system. The Ledger Nano X wallet is a cold hardware wallet that has an expensive price and an unperfected Bluetooth system but also has an intuitive user interface and good customer support service.

An Understanding of the Market

The cryptocurrency exchange market is only about a decade old, and so this makes it quite a different system to the stock market which you may already be familiar with. New markets can be very volatile and open to extreme price swings – this can be either a positive or a negative.

This volatility is part of what makes the crypto market so appealing to new traders because it’s easier to get your foot in the door, while it also makes it more likely that you could make an incorrect prediction and lose a large part of your investment. The fact that the market is still highly unregulated also contributes to this volatility. If you want to start investing in crypto, you should be aware that a high return is not a sure thing.

Time

One of the biggest misconceptions about crypto is that as soon as you start investing you will be able to simply sit back and watch the magic happen. The truth is that it will take you a great deal of time to learn about how to transact crypto, what the correct security practices are, what the assets are and how much they’re worth and how you should distribute your money. Keeping up with this new and frequently changing industry will also require you to be regularly tuned in.

You should be prepared to use all of the resources available to you – including YouTube, Twitter, and podcasts – to learn as much as you can about the features of the market and about how to manage your trading.

Despite being a relatively new market, cryptocurrency has emerged and grown very quickly so if you’re thinking of getting in on the action then there’s no better time to start than the present.