Newbie here, bought bitcoin, what next?

[RafaelaFernandes]

Hello guys, I was looking at bitcoin for a while, and now I bought 0.5 bitcoin through coinbase. Could you please advise me, what to do next? There are a lot of different coins out there. I watched some youtube videos, and seems, people are making money left and right with crypto...How can I turn my bitcoin into lots of profits? 
Will be happy for any suggestion xxx

[raoul78]

Crypto isn't an easy 'get rich, fast' investment. You can make nice profits but you need to take your time to read and learn about crypto. Nobody can tell you what coins you need to buy since everyone has a different investment plan.

Read a lot on this forum, especially the beginners forums.

When looking for coins to invest in look at their marketcap, at their website and read their whitepaper. Understand what the coin is used for and what it's purpose is. Don't go investing in coins because someone tells you to.
It's also a good thing to read up on understanding the charts to look for good times to buy and sell coins.

[propagate]

Hello guys, I was looking at bitcoin for a while, and now I bought 0.5 bitcoin through coinbase. Could you please advise me, what to do next? There are a lot of different coins out there. I watched some youtube videos, and seems, people are making money left and right with crypto...How can I turn my bitcoin into lots of profits?  
Will be happy for any suggestion xxx

The way to turn Bitcoin into profit without lifting a finger is to just put the coins in a secure wallet and hold on to it for a year or more.

[as_Mieszko]

There are several options:
1. Do not do anything and wait until the price of bitcona increases
2. Scalping-trading strategy that attempts to make many profits on small price
    changes
3. Invest in altcoins
The last two options require a lot of knowledge. Learn as much as possible. Choose the method that's right for you. There is no single best way to earn a crypto.

[RafaelaFernandes]

There are several options:
1. Do not do anything and wait until the price of bitcona increases
2. Scalping-trading strategy that attempts to make many profits on small price
    changes
3. Invest in altcoins
The last two options require a lot of knowledge. Learn as much as possible. Choose the method that's right for you. There is no single best way to earn a crypto.

Thank you Mieszko
I'm not sure, what is altcoin?

[HeRetiK]

Thank you Mieszko
I'm not sure, what is altcoin?

Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Litecoin. If you don't know yet what altcoins are, I'd suggest staying away from them until you have read up on the matter.

Given that 0.5 BTC is no chump change, I'd recommend getting yourself a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano S or a Trezor.

Buy one of these wallets directly from their stores, not from any third party resellers or eBay:
https://trezor.io/
https://www.ledgerwallet.com/

For all intents and purposes, both are effectively equaly secure. Ledger is slightly cheaper. Availability may vary.

Read up on how to use a hardware wallet. Keep your wallet seed back up secure and offline. Remember that every transaction you make is irreversible. Maybe play around with small transactions before moving everything onto your hardware wallet.

Keep your money off exchanges. Stay away from cloud mining. Stay away from ICOs and alts until you really know what you're doing. Daytrading is a great way to both make and lose money. Remember that trying to get rich quick is a great way to get poor quick. Not losing money on scams and pseudo-investment is half the battle.

[RafaelaFernandes]

Thank you Mieszko
I'm not sure, what is altcoin?

Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Litecoin. If you don't know yet what altcoins are, I'd suggest staying away from them until you have read up on the matter.

Given that 0.5 BTC is no chump change, I'd recommend getting yourself a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano S or a Trezor.

Buy one of these wallets directly from their stores, not from any third party resellers or eBay:
https://trezor.io/
https://www.ledgerwallet.com/

For all intents and purposes, both are effectively equaly secure. Ledger is slightly cheaper. Availability may vary.

Read up on how to use a hardware wallet. Keep your wallet seed back up secure and offline. Remember that every transaction you make is irreversible. Maybe play around with small transactions before moving everything onto your hardware wallet.

Keep your money off exchanges. Stay away from cloud mining. Stay away from ICOs and alts until you really know what you're doing. Daytrading is a great way to both make and lose money. Remember that trying to get rich quick is a great way to get poor quick. Not losing money on scams and pseudo-investment is half the battle.

Okay...I understand. Better take it slow, I guess...Do you know any courses I can join, maybe? 

[Palmholder]

   First of all make yourself sure you keep your BTC properly, dont use online wallets for that. Use Ladger Nano or Trazor as HeRetik said, if case you dont want to buy hardware wallet run Bitcoin Core on offline computer, connect it to internet in only case you want to make a transaction.
   You can trade your coins on Bittrex or Polonex, you can buy not only different currencyes but also tokens, some token prices behave differently compare to BTC price, so you can make profit this way.
   But actually our motto is HODL, it means keeping BTC forever 

[EricExxo]

In those times, it's better to do nothing. Market is bearish now. If you can wait few months, BTC will explode. Other option is to buy ETH and keep it long enough to have a pertinent profit. Good luck !

[RafaelaFernandes]

   First of all make yourself sure you keep your BTC properly, dont use online wallets for that. Use Ladger Nano or Trazor as HeRetik said, if case you dont want to buy hardware wallet run Bitcoin Core on offline computer, connect it to internet in only case you want to make a transaction.
   You can trade your coins on Bittrex or Polonex, you can buy not only different currencyes but also tokens, some token prices behave differently compare to BTC price, so you can make profit this way.
   But actually our motto is HODL, it means keeping BTC forever 

WOOOW  How long will you hold your bitcoin?

[Alexander_Z]

Have you bought it recently, for less than $10k per BTC? Then the best strategy is literally to do noting. Wait for a year. However, 0.5 BTC is a significant amount, so you should think about security. Do not keep it at an exchange, better make a cold storage or buy a hardware wallet, especially if you think about buying more. Trading is another story, I'm not a trader so I'll not give advises, others will do it.

[Angel0]

You can used them to donate on ICOs to get some tokens in return, if you want some new tokens in your wallet, you can hold them and wait if the price will increase, after some months.... , if you think the price of token will double your capital when you bought them then sell it....

[HeRetiK]

Okay...I understand. Better take it slow, I guess...Do you know any courses I can join, maybe?  

Andreas Antonopoulos supposedly has some very educative YouTube videos and books. I personally never read or watched any of his material, but he's fairly well respected within the community.

However your highest priority in the beginning should be learning how to secure your coins using cold storage, paper wallets or a hardware wallet -- alongside with why it is important to have access to your private keys and to securely store them.

I'd also recommend trying to understand Bitcoin first before looking into alts, otherwise you might miss some of the context on what challenges those alts try to solve that Bitcoin is facing as well. Also try to understand the tradeoffs of each respective approach.

[Tymified]

Diversification is important so that you are not reliant on one coin or market. You will need a strong stomach if you only hold bitcoin unless you do as some stated here, download the cold wallet, encrypt(don't lose your private key), and hold. Close the wallet and don't look at the price for a couple years to save the stress from volatility.

By diversification I mean finding the best altcoins, or what you view as the best. Do not trust hype or pumps, find technology and invest in what you think the world would use. Stick with only reputable exchanges like Bittrex or Binance, I definitely recommend against stocks.exchange.

A brief overview of the tech and the coins that brought them about that might get you started, newer alts are beginning to combine the tech and keep your eyes out for new improved ideas:

Bitcoin - Father of Crypro, first one and the largest market cap. Tech is simple and outdated.
Ethereum - Implemented Smart Contracts
Monero - First true privacy coin
Dash - Implemented Masternodes which speed up transaction times and pay dividends

Most altcoins are either a fork or clone of one of the above. Things to look for are mobile implementation(completed mobile wallets not "future implementations"), stable methods of minting, and actual real teams that are completing what they say they will. Small pre-mines are also very important. A good example is PIVX.

Most of all try to control impulses, don't chase and have fun. Remember Crypto is going to be the future of the monetary system and all forms of transactions, and 99% of it is built and driven by the community. So what we want to see and what we decide to invest in is what will become.

[jseverson]

Okay...I understand. Better take it slow, I guess...Do you know any courses I can join, maybe? 

There are several free courses on the internet:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency - an 11-week online course by Princeton. I haven't tried this myself yet, but I've heard great things about it. You'll probably learn everything you need to know about Bitcoin and its underlying technology if you finish this.

https://www.edx.org/course/industry-4-0-how-revolutionize-business-hkpolyux-i4-0x - discusses how Bitcoin and other emerging technologies can help you revolutionize your business. If you want to learn how to earn with Bitcoin, this might be beneficial to you.

I'm sure there are others, but those would be excellent places to start if you want to learn. Try not to get into crypto investment classes as a large majority of those are scams. You're much better of gaining knowledge on your own and applying it to your portfolio.

[AngryToken]

Crypto isnt easy to understand and isnt a easy and fast investment. You need to read and research to learn more about it to understand it very well. Everyone has their own coins and altcoins that they prefer over others or think will be a good investment. Everyone has a different opinion so if you ask people which coins to invest in everyone will tell you something different since their plans are different. When investing in a coin make sure to read their white paper and understand the point of their project, that will help you decide if you should invest or not!

[chulos]

From my point of view, I can see that putting half in a safe place for later growth of BTC, if you have patience and wait for the growth of BTC. And another part invest in verified currency on the market.
And either to ETH XMR, LTC and XRP. I see this step for long-term profit. The second option is to buy the new currency and wait for it to grow. But think twice before you choose and please consult about it as much as possible.

[UltimaTradr]

trade it using Paxful.com

[DispatchLabs]

Here is a list of free Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Courses on Udemy https://www.freecoursedaily.com/top-free-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-courses-udemy/

[reynand]

It depends on your plans, what is your plan. What the purpose of buying bitcoin. Do you want to be a trader or just investing?
1. If you prefer to be an investors, keep safe your newly bought btc and keep it for years. When you have another money and btc price is low, its your chance to buy more btc.
2. If you want to be a trader, you can choose do you want to trade only at bitcoin or you able to split your btc to buy alt coins, try to forecasting and pick coins that have a good prospect and have a cheap price. Do not put all your money in one coins, buy different coins and the amount depend on your behalf.
Wait until the price rises, and when to sell is on your choice.