If you are a layman in the world of crypto,
If you are a layman in the world of crypto, but still want to make a foray into it, it might seem a little daunting at first.
However, if what you are looking to do is simply to buy some cryptocurrencies at their current low prices, look no further than this brief and comprehensive layman’s guide to cryptocurrency trading.
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Where to Begin?
Before you shell out your hard-earned money on purchasing cryptocurrencies, it is best to conduct extensive due diligence online, from as many sources as possible.
There are many things that you should be aware of before you take the leap and you could begin by read our article 5 Things To Know Before Investing in Cryptocurrencies to form a general idea at first.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s quickly take a look at what cryptocurrency trading is:
Cryptocurrency Trading is nothing but the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, Litecoin against Bitcoin, Bitcoin against a fiat currency such as USD and so on.
For example, in the world of fiat, there are multiple forms of payment, ranging from PayPal to debit card, cheques to cash.
Even mobile app payment services like the PayTM in India have become very popular.
Now, if you go to a certain restaurant and ask them if they accept payment via LazyPay, they may say “No.”. They might only be accepting cash and PayTM.
However, in another restaurant, the scene may be completely different where they accept only cash and debit cards, and not even PayTM. Thus, what you can buy your preferred cryptocurrency against depends on which exchange you are choosing. This brings us to our next point.
Where to Buy it From?
There are a whole range of cryptocurrency exchanges available to the user to choose from.
They may be centralised exchanges like Binance or decentralized ones like WAVES. While centralised exchanges see the trading controlled by the developers running the exchange, decentralized ones establish peer-to-peer trading channels between buyers and sellers with adequate privacy protection.
In case of centralized exchanges, they work somewhat like eBay where a central company manages how buyers and sellers interact with one another. On the other hand, you can imagine decentralized exchanges to be akin to a site like OLX.com, which allows buyers to list their needs and sellers to list their wares. However, crypto exchanges are usually much more privacy-oriented than a site like OLX.com would be.
You may want to choose from the top cryptocurrency exchanges we have compiled a list of, and put your worries to rest.
How to Buy and Sell Cryptocurrencies?
Once you go to an exchange, you must first figure out what their trading pairs are, i.e., whether it accepts just Bitcoin and Ethereum for you to buy Litecoin or some other crypto coin too.
A BTC/USDT trading pair means you can buy Tether using an equivalent amount of Bitcoin (BTC). The equivalence is established as per market price as well as other factors like how long you have been on the exchange, how much you trade and so on.
Then you can simply buy and sell, by placing orders for the same. The specifics naturally would depend on the interface of the exchange you’re using.
However, if you’re looking for a simple sample guide, you may have a look at the article linked below.
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While this article refers to bank accounts only, you will get a general idea of the steps involved.
How to Store Them?
There are various types of wallets available where you can store your holdings. They may be a cold wallet that is offline, or a hot wallet that’s managed by an online service provider. A look at our article on Bitcoin wallet should help you understand the basic types of wallets available for most cryptocurrencies.
Once you have figured out which KIND of wallet you want, and how much money you’re ready to spend, you can choose from among the best cryptocurrency wallets of 2018 to store your precious crypto coins.
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