Before you are able to get started on one of the cryptocurrency networks, you need to find a way to acquire the coins. You can’t just join a network and expect them to hand you a bunch of coins to use how you want, just like you can’t go to a new country and expect to be handed a lot of money either. Luckily, it is pretty easy for users to get ahold of some coins, in whatever cryptocurrency they want to use so that they can get to work making purchases and transferring money on the network. Let’s take a brief look at How to Buy and Sell Cryptocurrency.
Working with Coinbase (https://CoinBase.com)
If you are interested in doing trades with digital currencies, you need to find some kind of platform that will allow you to trade with them and an intermediary that is able to communicate with whatever cryptocurrency network you want to work with. Most people will not have the technical knowledge in order to figure out how to communicate with the blockchain or even how to store the digital currency. This is where companies like Coinbase are going to come into place.
Coinbase is basically an exchange company for digital assets. It is there to provide users a venue to buy and sell digital currencies and they can also use this platform in order to send information about their transactions over to the blockchain network, which helps to verify these transactions. Right now, Coinbase is the platform to use for Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin and it can serve as a wallet for these three cryptocurrencies if you would like as well.
Coinbase is considered one of the largest exchanges for these cryptocurrencies out there and it is the only one available in the United States. It is able to operate exchanges for Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum in 32 countries and Bitcoin has expanded to even more countries that the other two have not reached yet. According to the Coinbase website, this platform is currently serving more than 8.2 million customers and has facilitated more than $6 billion worth of digital currency.
Working with Coinbase can be pretty simple. Most customers will not want to deal with all the technical aspects of exchanging their fiat currency for a cryptocurrency, and Coinbase will do the work for you. It even includes a wallet so you are able to store your Bitcoin without having to go to another place.
There are some disadvantages to using this type of exchange though. For example, when you use Coinbase, you will not be anonymous on the service. Your name is going to be attached to the account as will your bank account so it is easier for others to track you down. For those who aren’t doing anything illegal, this really shouldn’t be that big of a deal. And if you are not working directly with the blockchain, you will find that you will be limited on what you can do to ensure that verification of your transaction history. You are basically putting your trust with Coinbase as an intermediary. But for those who are new to the whole idea of cryptocurrency and who aren’t comfortable doing the work on their own, Coinbase can be a nice way to just get in the game securely.
Before you are able to purchase or sell your cryptocurrency, you need to make sure that you have a credit or debit card attached to the count or you need to link up your bank account. If you would like to have a higher limit on the transactions that you are doing, it is best to use your bank account, but it does take a little bit longer to verify these transactions since it goes through a bank. Keep this in mind because it will take a few days if you are using your bank account to see the information come up on your account.
And when you are selling your coins, you need to remember that if you have a bank account, it could take another two to four days before you will see those proceeds show up on the bank account. Some people like to use their bank accounts because it allows them to have some higher limits, but it is important to realize some of the downsides.
On the other hand, you can also work with your debit or credit card. The limits are going to be a bit lower with this option, but it is easier to purchase the digital currencies because you can simply take the funds from the card and place them on your account. With these transactions, the coins are going to be in your wallet almost right away. You can also sell the Bitcoin over to a PayPal account if you have one, which is basically cashing out since the coin will be changed out for local currency. This is also going to be an instant transaction as well.
How To Sign Up For Coinbase
Signing up for Coinbase is pretty easy and it is not going to take you too long to get started. You just need to visit the website www.coinbase.com/signup to get started. From there, you need to give a little bit of information. It will ask for your first name and your last name as well as your email address. You will also need to provide your preferred password. Take some time with this and make sure that you pick out a password that is strong and secure and that you haven’t used with any other website in the past so that no one else is able to get onto the account.
Before you can continue on, you need to go through and let Coinbase know what state you are from, agree that you are not a robot, and then certify that you are at least eighteen years old. Coinbase will send you a verification email to make sure this is your information before you can work on the next step. Make sure to check your email and click on the link to get you into the account.
From here, you will be welcomed to Coinbase and you can follow the guide for buying your first digital currency. You will need to choose whether you would like to complete your profile as an individual or as a business. As a business, you will need to submit an application so that Coinbase can look at your institution before getting you started.
We are going to complete this as an individual. You can click on that link. From here you can decide if you want to skip a few steps for now, or you can work through it, providing your phone number in this step. Once you place your phone number in, you will be given a verification number in the text that you are able to place in to prove your verification.
At this point, you are going to be able to see the Dashboard for Bitcoin. It should list how much the Bitcoin is worth and how much it has changed in the last month. You can also check out the value of Ethereum and Litecoin as well. You also have places for buying and selling the Bitcoin that you want to use, setting up your accounts, sending the money, tools, and other settings that you can use. This dashboard should give you all the information that you need to get started on the Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange.
Coinbase is one of the best sites that you can choose to exchange your fiat currency over to a cryptocurrency. It even has the capabilities to be an online wallet which can be nice for those who are just getting started out and aren’t sure how to do some of the technical stuff on their own. Make sure to follow some of the steps in this section to help you get your own account set up right away.
How To Purchase Bitcoin
The first step for you to get Bitcoin is to sign up for your Coinbase account. Coinbase is one of the most secure places to store the Bitcoin as well so you don’t have to worry about losing the coins or having to transfer them over to another wallet. It is also a great place to go for easy payments so that you can convert into and out of Bitcoin from whatever your local currency. Follow the steps above to help you set up a Coinbase account.
Once your Coinbase account is set up, it is time to connect your bank account. There will be a few steps for verification before you can continue. This is so that Coinbase is able to get your funds out of the account since the bank is going to ask for this information. Once all of the steps for verification are done, you will be able to start your purchase.
After you have gotten started with the first purchase, it is possible to complete your buy and get the Bitcoin delivered to you. The Sells are going to work in the same manner, but you will just reverse the steps. The price of the Bitcoin, as well as the other cryptocurrencies that you want to use, will change over time, so you will need to learn what the current exchange rate is before you get started.
After you see the exchange rate, you will be able to choose how much Bitcoin or other currency that you would like to purchase and place your order. Coinbase will take your information and then place the order. After everything has been verified, the Bitcoin will be changed over to your wallet and you should be able to use the coins as soon as you would like.
If you have earned coins, from your business, or you have just left these in your wallet and waited for the price to go up, you can go through the opposite process. You can place an order with Coinbase to convert the Bitcoin or another coin back into your traditional currency and the money will be put back into your bank account. Coinbase makes it easy to switch back and forth between the cryptocurrency and the traditional currency whenever you would like.
Receiving Coins
Most people who decide to work on one of these cryptocurrency networks will decide to go through a site like Coinbase in order to get the coins that they need to start. But there are some methods that you can use to receive the right coins without having to use any of your own money. For the most part, this is going to work the best for those who own their businesses and who start accepting cryptocurrency as a payment source.
If you already have a business up and running, it is pretty easy to start receiving the coins that you want to use. Just like you already accept credit cards and PayPal, you can decide to start accepting Bitcoin or one of the other cryptocurrencies as well. As your customers start to use these coins as their form of payment, your wallet will fill up and you can switch it over to the fiat currency of your choice, with the help of one of the exchanges, whenever you would like.
Another method that you can use is to find someone who will transfer some money over to your account. This could be something that you do with your work or between friends and family. There are some people who will use these networks, for example, to help send money to someone overseas without needing to pay all the exorbitant fees that banks often charge. They can send some Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies over to the wallet of the other person, and then that second party can use them on the network or exchange them for their local currencies.
