Bitcoin, altcoin, wallet, blockchain, transactions. If you are new to this market, you probably don’t understand anything or not much to these concepts. It doesn’t matter: today, I explain all the steps to go and buy Bitcoin. If you want to follow these steps as you go, prepare an email address, your identity papers, and a credit card.
How much should I invest?
The first thing to know: you don’t have to buy a “whole” Bitcoin. You will be free to choose how much you will invest. For example, my first purchase of bitcoins was 100 euros (103 including the site commission). We will assume that you want to invest the same amount.
In everyday life, the currency we use is divided into 100 cents, and we can write two digits after the decimal point. Bitcoin has eight decimal places, and the divisions are called “satoshis.” This name is derived from the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, about whom very little is known.
Why buy Bitcoins?
When you buy Bitcoins, you bet on the fact that their prices will rise. It’s the same principle as with stocks, except that instead of betting on a company’s profits, you hope that Bitcoin’s demand will increase and the purchase price will rise. This way, you will receive a profit when you resell your Bitcoin.
On the same principle, it is possible to buy and sell foreign currencies (Dollar, Euro, etc.). This is called Forex (Foreign Exchange).
Be careful, as with all investments; Bitcoin carries risks: if tomorrow, the price falls, the value of your Bitcoin holdings will fall, and part of the amount you have invested will have disappeared. Don’t take any ill-considered risks, and only “bet” what you are willing to lose!
To be put into perspective: on the right, here is the Bitcoin price curve over one year. More than 800% increase.
What makes the price of Bitcoin rise?
Several factors come into play. Simply put, supply is limited, and demand is increasing.
The first reason for this demand is speculation: buying/selling with the aim of making a profit. You and I are not the only ones (far from it) who have sniffed the right plan. An increasing number of players are investing more and more money to buy Bitcoin.
In contrast, commercial services with a street address already accept payments in Bitcoin. Today, you can buy everything in Bitcoin on the Internet, from fashion to food, and the list is growing every day.
We often hear that Bitcoin will eventually collapse. This is not impossible, but it should be noted that at present, on all exchange sites, the price of all crypto assets is more often calculated on the basis of Bitcoin price than on the basis of the price of the euro or the dollar, for example. Bitcoin, therefore, serves as a standard meter in the world of cryptocurrencies and will be difficult to dethrone from this role as it is implemented everywhere.
To complete the picture, it should be noted that the supply of Bitcoin is not unlimited. There will be, in all and for all, 21 million bitcoins, and not one more. You will learn more from this Twitter account!
What is a Wallet?
To store your future Bitcoins, you will need the equivalent of a bank account, a portfolio. It’s called a wallet.
Your Wallet has a public address. Like a bank number, you can share it, since it is only used to send you money.
You will also receive an identifier, in the form “96588g8394u-bfc8-4dd2-851c-34bc10401374”. This identifier must remain secret; it is a little equivalent to your credit card code: it allows you to connect to your account and, in particular, to send money.
To start, I advise you to create an online wallet. It goes faster and technically easier. We will use an online service that will generate your Bitcoins portfolio for you. For example, I recommend Coinbase, which is rather simple to use, and which also allows you to buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. If you plan to invest large sums of money, push the paranoia to the point of creating an email address specifically for cryptocurrency services, and don’t give it to anyone.