Bitcoin Forum

TOTAL newbie, albeit older guy with a question. I had the chance to buy into Bitcoin WAY back when it first came out and dismissed it as a scam without knowing anything. Well, clearly a foolish mistake as I did not do any research at all and blew it off. So, years later here we are yet again. I've been reading this site actively now for a couple of weeks, I read the various posts and do a bit of digging on some of the altcoins that have interest to me, Ripple being one of them. My question is, aside from this site and reading info on the various homepages, what are methods are generally used to research a coin before purchasing?

As an example, I found a site "Coin Checkup".

It seems to do a fairly good job and providing a snapshot of coins and predictions based on a fairly thorough analysis. I also do a fair amount of "Googling" to research the coins of interest. Research is in my blood based upon my profession but when it comes to the world of crypto, this is a totally different animal. I've picked up several good tips from reading this forum which is a tremendous asset and learned a good bit to date but no where near enough to dive in head first without doing my homework. I have no interest in actively trading, rather I plan to pursue coins which appear to offer the potential for a decent return over time. There's no such thing as getting rich overnight... well, I'd have admittedly been well off had I purchased Bitcoin many many years ago. Lesson learned.

Thanks in advance and thanks for the tremendous resources on this forum, it's an absolute asset.

I would say other than what you mentioned find out what the community is like by delving into the ann page, telegram, discord, slack, riot, whatever and how many ever mediums that coin has. It will give you the best indication of how active the devs are and how active others are in the community and what the feel is like. That is probably the best thing you can do other than googling in my opinion it will help bridge the gap of information and likely will help you make a better informed decision about investing. GL ;D

p.s. I would stay away from Ripple though it is a centralized coin and idk about you but I got into crypto for decentralized coins and absolutely despise what Ripple is. Up to you though in the end to each their own.

I'd say the best thing to read is the code  ;) If you cant read the code, well then you just have to trust everyone else. Doesnt really matter where you get that information from, since its all relied upon trust.

Thanks very much and I cannot read code, I'm a PI as in Private Investigator but I greatly appreciate the input you've given to me.

The following might help:
1. Do a research on their team
2. Read the white paper so as to know the road map
3. What does the project intend to solve or make good. What are the areas of application it could be adopted
4. Social media campaign
5. Fear of Missing out
6. Coding.

Thanks, I can cover the vast majority of those.