Before starting with Crypto, or even if you already started trading with crypto, these are the most important two lessons in the Crypto World!
And no, this is not advice on how to become a millionaire, is advice on how not to potentially regret or go through a head-banging painful process (like many have…)
So you are all set, excited, decided that today is the day you are going to start in your crypto endeavour, you have some coins in mind, you have an exchange ready with some founding and, ready you go to buy some coins… you are nervous… checking every 10 minutes your phone to verify how your new investments are doing and you sit the rollercoaster of the crypto market!
But wait! Before that, the two critical things that you can’t just ignore, and most likely you will think. This is easy advice but seriously critical, please consider them, make them your mantra, assimilate what it actually means.
The first one – do not invest money you can’t afford to lose!
Sounds easy, right? And you think oooh this is nothing, I have it under control, I know how to invest, I’ve done my research, the market has been doing great, all green days (some months ago lol). Then a little voice can come to tell you: “you are doing so great, maybe you should invest a little more”, “this coin is cheap today, I should invest a little extra”, “I need to average down”, yeah, you will realise how easy you find ways to convince yourself.
How much you invest depends on each personal situation, someone might think investing $10, while the other is selling their house to invest in the crypto world…
… yes, this is true with both positive and negative results, one of the early Bitcoin buyers sold his apartment and other belongings to buy Bitcoin, he is now a billionaire. You might think you could do the same, but just think about that moment, it was something new, is almost like investing all your life savings in a new coin that you aren’t sure is going to take off! On the other hand, there are cases where people get in debt to buy crypto and end up losing their investment and in a terrible debt with the bank.
As I’m writing this post, the Chinese Government has banned mining crypto, the market looks terrible and could be this year crash, even though is early to say…
So keep in mind, invest only what you are willing to lose!
(Otherwise, just google Mark Cuban – Titan to see how painful and unpredictable crypto could be)
When you start with crypto, you’ll see that for all the downloaded apps, such as exchanges or wallets, you’ll receive keys. These keys are critical! Treat them as if they were your life savings (which in a certain way they are)!
So, you download an app, you are too lazy to stand up from your sofa and pick up a notebook, then you decide hmmm I’m going to take a screenshot (even though many apps don’t allow to do so for security reasons) and keep it in my phone, that shall do it! Noooo, wrong! Your phone dies and you are in severe stress overanalysing if you made a back-up, if you can save your phone, if all your crypto is lost!
These keys are the only way to go back into your account… not kidding!
The only way to recover lost accounts, whether is on exchanges or wallets, is through these keys! So print them, write them down, and put them in your safest spot guarded by a pack of hungry hyenas. If someone has access to these keys they can take all your crypto and no one will be able to help you.
Here there is no 1-800-HELP or saveme@ilostmyaccount.com, just open google and search about lost accounts, there are tons of cases of people losing their keys, therefore losing their coins. It is said that around 20% of the total Bitcoin is lost (not only because of lost keys, of course, but definitely contributes). There is a guy with $240 million locked in a digital wallet and he can’t remember his access code, don’t be that guy, write those things down! and I’m saying write it not type it. If your computer, phone, email, gets hacked they can take everything from you with these keys. Having them in paper form allows you to have them properly secured.
I know it’s a pain, but trust me, you’ll thank yourself for doing so.
Should you prefer to go for a more technological safe way to store your coins, as mentioned, there are hard wallets. Hard wallets are basically a fancy USB stick that allows you to store more safely your crypto coins.
Some of the most famous at the moment are Trazor wallet and Ledger
You still need to remember the password!
I’m sure there will be more fancy and sexy hard wallets coming in the upcoming months/years, if you have any favourite ones you would like to share, please feel free to drop a comment below!
For me what is critical is that they allow you to stake, so you can benefit from your coins even if they are stored – these wallets allow this, one of the reasons I’m a fan – I will write a separate review on them.
Cheers!
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