How to Buy Bitcoin: The Essential Guide

Have you been curious about investing in cryptocurrency? If so, you’re making a great decision. Cryptocurrency has its share of skeptics, but it’s a great way to diversify your portfolio and find an alternative way of investing, saving, and paying for goods and services.

While there are now countless cryptocurrencies available, the reigning king of the digital currency remains Bitcoin. If you’ve been planning to buy Bitcoin you’re on the right track.

This remarkable cryptocurrency has had its ups and downs but is expected to remain as a contender to major fiat currencies and other forms of currency such as precious metals.

This guide will show you how to get started with buying Bitcoin.

The Essential Guide on How to Buy Bitcoin

Before you start buying Bitcoin, the first thing to do is to set money aside. As with any other investment, you only want to set money aside that you are willing to lose.

These funds will be used to buy Bitcoin. While you might be tempted to put as much as possible, or as much as your friends or even financial advisor is suggesting, you have to only put what you are willing to risk.

When you’ve set that aside, here’s how you get started:

1. Find an Exchange

The first step is to find a cryptocurrency exchange where you can buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As a beginner, you want to choose one that is easy to use and doesn’t require much technical expertise.

For example, you should consider a great exchange such as Coinstash. This is an example of a great exchange with low fees, ease-of-use, and fantastic customer support. These exchanges are the best and simplest way to buy Bitcoin instantly.

Once you’ve found your exchange, sign up for your account and add your funds to your account. You can buy Bitcoin with a credit card or from a direct withdrawal from your bank account or other payment authorization source (PayPal, Payoneer, etc.)

2. Before You Buy

Before you buy Bitcoin, you want to make sure you take care of a few housekeeping errands.

Your cryptocurrency exchange platform will give you the public key and private key of your wallet. Your wallet is where you keep your Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and this is where you can also send your cryptocurrencies for purchases.

The public key can be given to anyone. This is given when you want others to send you Bitcoin. However, the private key must be kept secret. This is essentially the password to your wallet. If someone else finds you a private key, they can steal all of your Bitcoin.

You should write down your wallet keys (public and private) on a sheet of paper, and keep this paper stored in a safe. This information is like the routing and account number of your bank account and the safest way to keep it is by writing it down. You should never keep it stored digitally — such as in your email, on a Google Doc, text message, etc. These can easily be hacked.

3. Buy Bitcoin

You are now ready to buy bitcoin. Choose the amount that you want and buy it. You can also choose how much of your funds to spend and you will receive the corresponding amount of Bitcoin, minus any low service fees.

Within a few minutes, your Bitcoin will become available and will be stored in your wallet. You can now use the cryptocurrency exchange to see how Bitcoin is faring each day. You can check the current price as well as the trend chart.

We suggest that you check your exchange at least once per day. This way you can keep an eye on whether Bitcoin is going up, going down, or is flat.

Looking at this trend over time will help you decide whether you should buy more, wait, sell, or withdraw. If you ever decide to diversify and buy other cryptocurrencies, you can use Bitcoin as the preferred payment method.

As you start to buy Bitcoin, you want to consider your main reasons for doing so. Are you doing it just as an alternative form of currency? Are you worried about the collapse of fiat currency and see Bitcoin as a great hedge?

You might want to use Bitcoin as an investment.

4. Why Bitcoin?

So what else can you do with Bitcoin and how has it changed the financial industry? As you get more involved with buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, you want to explore as many possibilities as possible.

For example, there are services such as Purse.io which let you shop at major online retailers using Bitcoin. There are other services that allow you to earn Bitcoin as a form of “cash back bonus” as opposed to fiat currency or a points system. Even precious metals exchanges are now allowing consumers to buy precious metals using Bitcoin.

In major cities across the globe, small and large retailers are allowing Bitcoin as a form of payment for goods and services. You can use a cryptocurrency wallet app on your phone to make these payments. You can also find crypto banks that allow you to store your Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies onto a debit card!

5. Embrace The Blockchain

Luckily, it’s not necessary to understand blockchain technology to deal with Bitcoin. You only have to concern yourself with that if you pursue Bitcoin mining.

However, you should understand that what makes Bitcoin great is that it functions due to blockchain. Blockchain allows transactions to be anonymous. This allows you to keep your Bitcoin finances to yourself — though your jurisdiction might require reporting to the tax service.

You have the freedom to spend and receive in a currency that is away from the watchful eyes of the government, hackers, and predators. By embracing Bitcoin you are embracing the wonderful blockchain technology.

Buy Bitcoin Today

Now that you know how and why to buy Bitcoin, you are ready to get started. Be sure to share this guide with anyone interested in getting started.

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