Advice on how best to protect your capital

[Upgrade00]

Over the past couple of months, cryptocurrency returned marginally back to the good times. This affects almost every sector of this space. Forum activity increases, as people get more interested, up starts try to take advantage of the surge to launch their projects, and scams also increases as Bitcoin ans cryptocurrency becomes a more frequent discussion across social medias, and the target is usually newbies.

If you are new to this, or joined because of the hype, one thing to note is that there are different levels of scams and it's not always easily detectable.
So view every prospect as a scam, until proven otherwise.
It's easy to avoid basic scam attempts like the use of fake accounts or ICO imitations. But, there can be scams hidden beneath legitimate projects.

- Always be skeptical; do not trust a project on first glance. Always look for a hidden threat, by assuming there is one, this makes you dig further into the fundamentals of that project.
- The fact that the project has been successful so far, does not mean it can not still be a hoax; never get too comfortable when you've out your money in an investment. Always be on the lookout for developments and stay close to the process involved.
- Never fully rely on recommendations; always to your own diligent research on any prospect. Do not simply follow the ideas of "experts" or "influencers".
- There is no guarantee;  no investment is a hundred percent fool proof. Even Bitcoin which I would say is the safest cryptocurrency investment does not guarantee profits.
Always keep tabs on your portfolio.

[Ryutaro]

Thank you for the advice. Indeed being always skeptical is a must since 99% of ICOs are absolute garbage according to this man here and it has been proven that 80% are scam. I advise to always look at this helpful site which inform you about this kind of project and to look carefully at the project team because many of them use fake stock images.

[nakamura12]

Being a skeptical person won't be in great risk of losing your cryptocurrency that you stored.

- Always be skeptical; do not trust a project on first glance. Always look for a hidden threat, by assuming there is one, this makes you dig further into the fundamentals of that project.

It's the same as investigate what you didn't know about a certain things that has been introduced to you and you didn't know anything about it. In short, do your own research and investigate at what you are trying to do or what you are getting into.

- The fact that the project has been successful so far, does not mean it can not still be a hoax; never get too comfortable when you've out your money in an investment. Always be on the lookout for developments and stay close to the process involved.

Yes, it's true that some project are successful but still there are successful project that are doing something shady that you won't even know until someone will become a victim or someone complaining to a project. Some projects are even abandoned because their project is not a long term project.

- Never fully rely on recommendations; always to your own diligent research on any prospect. Do not simply follow the ideas of "experts" or "influencers".

Ideas from "experts" or "influencers" are the same as reading a review about a gambling site that someone recommended a site to you and saying that it is what they have to say about it, so whatever experts will have to say about what they recommend is that it is their opinion r how they think about it. Basically, you will do what you did in the first place which is to do a research.

- There is no guarantee;  no investment is a hundred percent fool proof. Even Bitcoin which I would say is the safest cryptocurrency investment does not guarantee profits.
Always keep tabs on your portfolio.

Portfolio will help you track at what you did in your investments if you have invested in bitcoin to earn and it is what you have mentioned because there are scams or fraud attempts going on in crypto space.

[joniboini]

Never fully rely on recommendations; always to your own diligent research on any prospect. Do not simply follow the ideas of "experts" or "influencers".

The influence of those Telegram influencers is so great tbh, even though sometimes they just repost what a project has stated on their whitepaper and never do any in-depth analysis. At this moment, I think most of them are just marketing tools for projects. A project with money will use them, while those who don't have any money or those who focus on product development won't use them at all.

If you look at the recent IEO or ICO, you'll probably notice how a majority of those high-ranked projects will get pumped at the early stage, got a little dump, do another run and then slowly falling and find it's bottom.

[crwth]

I think what newbies experience are the hope of the easy money that you could get. Imagine that you can invest worth 0.01 BTC and turn it into 1 BTC. That's already a thousand in percentages in gains. That's a lot if you think about it. Most of the time, when a person wants something easy, it's quickly gone too. There are times when you need to be skeptical and somewhat be open-minded. If it doesn't seem to make sense, then it's time to be suspicious. You should never get into something you don't fully understand.

[jossiel]

Though I agree mostly with what you have said and you already mentioned the key to avoid these scams and that is through the known strategy of DYOR.

Doing your research with due diligence will save from everything. You don't have to skeptical with everything, you just have to be knowledgeable and fully aware of the potential scam schemes and attempts that are existing today.

[Oilacris]

You missed to say that patience is the key to everything. Its not applicable only in trading but if you have patience, more opportunity awaits. If you notice for examole a project which opens with a good offer, you shouldnt fall on it at once. You should have patience to dig more information about it so that you can prevent losses from falling into scams or unproductive projects.

Too much patience do sometimes have disadvantages but it depends if the said project is really worth for the wait or just simply skip it out.

Best thing to protect your capital is DYOR and a very strict risk management when it comes to investment,with this you can eventually do all sorts of things that
must be done before proceeding.

[bitsurfer2014]

Though I agree mostly with what you have said and you already mentioned the key to avoid these scams and that is through the known strategy of DYOR.

Doing your research with due diligence will save from everything. You don't have to skeptical with everything, you just have to be knowledgeable and fully aware of the potential scam schemes and attempts that are existing today.

I agree! Additionally we also need to diversify our portfolio with different digital assets to minimize risks and I think the OP has forgotten to  discuss the importance of keeping our computer systems safe or in other words, don't let your system be compromised or be hacked, that I think is one of the important way to protect your capital instead of focusing on the integrity of projects alone. Imho.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

So view every prospect as a scam, until proven otherwise.

It's unfortunate, but that's the best advice anybody could give when it comes to ICOs.  The reason these scammy projects keep getting suckers' money is that those suckers think they're going to get rich and will miss out on a gold mine if they don't invest--so they're impatient and can't wait until a project proves itself to be legitimate before handing over their money.  At least that's the way I view it.

My advice would be to just ignore that whole space entirely.  I've never invested in an ICO and never will.  The only thing I see are a bunch of scam accusations against these idiots, mostly for plagiarized whitepapers and so forth.  Never have I heard that one of these projects has some sort of breakthrough technology that's been adopted by....anyone.  If someone knows of an ICO that actually fulfilled their hype and all their claims, please let me know.

I agree! Additionally we also need to diversify our portfolio with different digital assets

Not only digitial assets, but various non-digital assets in general.  It's hard to believe that some people only have cryptocurrency in their portfolios.  Those folks are risking everything on something that could bankrupt them in the long term.

[fiulpro]

Maybe you could check the reviews online also the the same time some countries are allowing you to see the whole profile of a company or a person and locate them through KYC , therefore it is something that could be helpful when you have to decide which is a scam and which isn't.
At times like these KYC is very helpful and at last we can always rely on the public reviews I think.
For better or worse , the more you search online about it the cleared it will get .

[South Park]

Though I agree mostly with what you have said and you already mentioned the key to avoid these scams and that is through the known strategy of DYOR.

Doing your research with due diligence will save from everything. You don't have to skeptical with everything, you just have to be knowledgeable and fully aware of the potential scam schemes and attempts that are existing today.

I agree! Additionally we also need to diversify our portfolio with different digital assets to minimize risks and I think the OP has forgotten to  discuss the importance of keeping our computer systems safe or in other words, don't let your system be compromised or be hacked, that I think is one of the important way to protect your capital instead of focusing on the integrity of projects alone. Imho.

Diversifying your portfolio is a good idea if your plan is to buy stocks, bonds, gold or real estate, but if you are planning to buy a cryptocurrency other than bitcoin then you are asking for trouble especially if you buy a coin outside the top 20.

Now when it comes to securing our coins, securing our computer should be one of our top priorities but unfortunately it is almost impossible to do this with any Windows OS, so you will have to install one of the many Linux distributions and while your security will improve significantly there is no doubt that you will miss some of the functionality that Windows provides.

[tmlee]

The Boglehead 3 fund portfolio has been going around for years - https://twocents.lifehacker.com/simplify-your-investments-with-the-3-fund-portfolio-1831746735
Basic protection would be diversified into 3 sectors + cryptocurrency for fun/speculation

[asajapheth]

Research before investing. I agree with the author, in crypto when you are a newbie is best to think that everyone is trying to steal your money. It'd make an individual more cautious and smart.

Read. Read. Read.

Read good books on money management, especially microeconomics. Don't follow follow people's opinions, follow your guts.

[robelneo]

I summed up all your post as to educate yourself first, this is not something that you are going to pay a firm just to take care of your business, as they do in the stock market, you are your own bank, even experts can give you a precise prediction on how to make a good decision, you have to do it for yourself, they can only present, but it always comes down to you.

[Theb]

Scam ICOs are just at the tip of the iceberg when we are talking about ways on how newbies (and even vets) can lose money in the industry. There are other ways from HYIPs, fake cloudmining sites, scam exchanges, and phishing sites to things you literally have no control too like ransomware with the industry getting more and more attention you know the number of fraud will also increase because criminals are also setting their foot in it. That is why knowing how you'll protect your investment in all angles is necessary.

[harizen]

Projects = good projects, overhype projects, scam projects, sh*t projects; they are everywhere.

To fully stay out of risks of losing funds to any projects, even how good their future plans are, how constructive their whitepaper is, how important their use-case is, then just simply ignored putting money on them.

We are already at risk putting money on a much stronger bitcoin so don't play with another risk by testing the waters to those other projects. Focus instead on crypto that already built a good foundation since inception and successfully withstands most of the problems it encounters while on progress.

[Ranly123]

Over the past couple of months, cryptocurrency returned marginally back to the good times. This affects almost every sector of this space. Forum activity increases, as people get more interested, up starts try to take advantage of the surge to launch their projects, and scams also increases as Bitcoin ans cryptocurrency becomes a more frequent discussion across social medias, and the target is usually newbies.

If you are new to this, or joined because of the hype, one thing to note is that there are different levels of scams and it's not always easily detectable.
So view every prospect as a scam, until proven otherwise.
It's easy to avoid basic scam attempts like the use of fake accounts or ICO imitations. But, there can be scams hidden beneath legitimate projects.

- Always be skeptical; do not trust a project on first glance. Always look for a hidden threat, by assuming there is one, this makes you dig further into the fundamentals of that project.
- The fact that the project has been successful so far, does not mean it can not still be a hoax; never get too comfortable when you've out your money in an investment. Always be on the lookout for developments and stay close to the process involved.
- Never fully rely on recommendations; always to your own diligent research on any prospect. Do not simply follow the ideas of "experts" or "influencers".
- There is no guarantee;  no investment is a hundred percent fool proof. Even Bitcoin which I would say is the safest cryptocurrency investment does not guarantee profits.
Always keep tabs on your portfolio.

This is an advice worth reading. With regards to our investment especially on ICO or IEO, it is always the best way to secure whether the project is legit or not before engaging and putting our money in it.

[jossiel]

Though I agree mostly with what you have said and you already mentioned the key to avoid these scams and that is through the known strategy of DYOR.

Doing your research with due diligence will save from everything. You don't have to skeptical with everything, you just have to be knowledgeable and fully aware of the potential scam schemes and attempts that are existing today.

I agree! Additionally we also need to diversify our portfolio with different digital assets to minimize risks and I think the OP has forgotten to  discuss the importance of keeping our computer systems safe or in other words, don't let your system be compromised or be hacked, that I think is one of the important way to protect your capital instead of focusing on the integrity of projects alone. Imho.

Security of your computer and your assets will do. It's part of growing while you are living in the world finance and investments including cryptocurrency or bitcoin investment alone.

Diversifying should be done by everyone and it's not just for crypto's which I reckon what TP has said. In this manner, you are starting to become responsible the way you are managing and on how you are spending your money on worthy things.

[fullhdpixel]

Great tip and great advice there mate. Another way we can also protect our capital is not to be greedy and also to be patient. These two things are the greatest enemy of some people and it takes money away from them more than scammers. I have seen some of my friends out of greed do into trading and because trading normally is no longer enough for them, they feel that they could take more in margin trade, and if they had even leveraged low, it would have been okay, but they had to go all the way to leveraging high which most of them eventually lost their investment badly.

When it comes to patience, we have to really learn to persevere, some people have lost their capital just because they could not be patient for the market to pick up again, and then panic sell into the hands of these big whales.

[michellee]

The best thing that we can do is always be careful when we want to invest in one or more project, only use the money you can afford, and don't use too big money if you are not sure, or you are sure that the project will be successful because you never know if that will happen or not. Always search for more information about the project so you can get additional information which will help you to decide. All in all, your tips will help people to choose, and they can know what they need to do before they invest.