New to Bitcoin, am I too late?

[JohnnyAveo]

Hey Everyone,

I just recently went through and did the coinbase videos to earn some of the coins that they were giving away. I ended up transferring them all to bitcoin which left me at around $40 USD worth of bitcoin. I am wondering if I should start investing more into this now that I have a small start? It seems like there are a few types of people when it comes to Bitcoin. The day traders, which I really dont have time, or the understanding, on how to do it. Then you have the HODLers, which I think is more of where I would be. My plan would be to take a small percentage of profits after a certain percentage gain, like a 10% profit after a 50% gain. My concern is that it may take several years to see another 50% or more increase. I also don't have a lot of money I can really invest into it. I might be able to get to $500 by the end of year but that would probably be pushing it.

I really like the concept of Bitcoin, and believe that it has great potential for mass adoption. I think the issue with most people is probably the same as me, I just don't really understand how the whole thing works. I have tried several resources to understand how the blockchain works, but they all seem very generic. If anyone has a good link for beginners to start to understand the whole deal please let me know.

I appreciate any help or feedback that you guys can give me. I also will read any information that you can lead me too because I really want to understand this.

Thanks Johnny Aveo

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

If you read most of the predictions, be them based on technical analysis or under the influence of paranormal activity or a deity complex, the majority point to an increase in BTC price over the following years, going through all sorts of rational and irrational values (20K,50K,100K 1M per BTC). There are of course those that vouch for the opposite, although not as many, nor with the same intensity in their preachments.

All in all, take it as you like, but be prepared for the worst scenario, making sure that that would not have a grave impact on your economy aside from a slightly remorseful conscious. Anything that goes beyond is a wild risk.  I’m more with the yeas than with the nays, but then again I will not put anything at stake that will cripple my savings to a significant degree (that’s what you get when you’re more conservative than risker by nature).

Note: It would be wise to remove the donation prompt in the OP (not the address from the profile), since it could be misinterpreted as "begging" which is against the Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ (rule Nº 7: “no begging”). Even if that is not your spirit here, better safe than sorry.

[BrewMaster]

I really like the concept of Bitcoin, and believe that it has great potential for mass adoption.

well, the "concept of bitcoin" which you claim to like is not about some virtual thing that you buy, hold and make (fiat) profit!
this concept is about having a "currency" that works globally without a boarder or middle man, so it can not be controlled, censored, closed down, confiscated,... so if you really understood this concept and liked it then you already know that it is never late to start using the unique decentralized currency of the world.

[mk4]

In my opinion, you don't need to understand the deep technicalities of bitcoin to be able to be bullish on bitcoin. There are a lot of big names in the community like probably Saifedean Ammous(author of The Bitcoin Standard) and Tim Draper(quite a famous investor) that understands what Bitcoin can do and what it's trying to solve, but not necessarily understand the technical stuff.

Also, if you don't have that much money to "invest", you can always go slow. You save $50 a week? Then put in $5 a week. As time goes, that will slowly but surely accumulate.

And lastly, if you have any questions that you don't understand, you can freely ask here. Just make sure that you don't answer very simple questions like "how to make a wallet" that could be easily Google-able.

[JohnnyAveo]

<…>

If you read most of the predictions, be them based on technical analysis or under the influence of paranormal activity or a deity complex, the majority point to an increase in BTC price over the following years, going through all sorts of rational and irrational values (20K,50K,100K 1M per BTC). There are of course those that vouch for the opposite, although not as many, nor with the same intensity in their preachments.

All in all, take it as you like, but be prepared for the worst scenario, making sure that that would not have a grave impact on your economy aside from a slightly remorseful conscious. Anything that goes beyond is a wild risk.  I’m more with the yeas than with the nays, but then again I will not put anything at stake that will cripple my savings to a significant degree (that’s what you get when you’re more conservative than risker by nature).

Note: It would be wise to remove the donation prompt in the OP (not the address from the profile), since it could be misinterpreted as "begging" which is against the Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ (rule Nº 7: “no begging”). Even if that is not your spirit here, better safe than sorry.

Thank you for the insight, I would not invest anymore than I would be "willing" to lose. I would like to see Bitcoin not be an investment and more so an actual currency. I have removed the request for donations. I was not aware this could violate TOS.

[JohnnyAveo]

I really like the concept of Bitcoin, and believe that it has great potential for mass adoption.

well, the "concept of bitcoin" which you claim to like is not about some virtual thing that you buy, hold and make (fiat) profit!
this concept is about having a "currency" that works globally without a boarder or middle man, so it can not be controlled, censored, closed down, confiscated,... so if you really understood this concept and liked it then you already know that it is never late to start using the unique decentralized currency of the world.

I completely agree with what you are saying. My concern is that in my current city in the USA, I see very few vendors that accept Bitcoin. The main thing keeping me from transferring all of my fiat into Bitcoin is the volatility. I understand my 401K could theoretically drop to $0, but if that happens I have a lot more to worry about than what I have saved.

[JohnnyAveo]

In my opinion, you don't need to understand the deep technicalities of bitcoin to be able to be bullish on bitcoin. There are a lot of big names in the community like probably Saifedean Ammous(author of The Bitcoin Standard) and Tim Draper(quite a famous investor) that understands what Bitcoin can do and what it's trying to solve, but not necessarily understand the technical stuff.

Also, if you don't have that much money to "invest", you can always go slow. You save $50 a week? Then put in $5 a week. As time goes, that will slowly but surely accumulate.

And lastly, if you have any questions that you don't understand, you can freely ask here. Just make sure that you don't answer very simple questions like "how to make a wallet" that could be easily Google-able.

I will look up those two and see what I can find online, thank you for that. I plan on trying to go in about $200/month right now. Once again, the volatility is what keeps me weary. I am not trying to use it like an investment even though, to me, that seems to be what the majority are using it for.

[mk4]

I will look up those two and see what I can find online, thank you for that. I plan on trying to go in about $200/month right now. Once again, the volatility is what keeps me weary. I am not trying to use it like an investment even though, to me, that seems to be what the majority are using it for.

$200/month isn't a bad amount at all. If you think that's the amount you're comfortable with, then by all means go with it. There's no right amount to invest anyway. At least you're aware of the volatility.

As for the volatility, you need to understand that bitcoin is a 10 year old asset(in contrast to gold which is pretty much a bajillion years old), so market liquidity[1] will be very low as expected. It will take time for bitcoin to be stable in price. Gold is decently stable right now because of the very high liquidity it has. Assuming Bitcoin's adoption would be in a slow upward long-term trend and as people understands the importance of a decentralized currency, expect Bitcoin to go the same path as gold in terms of liquidity.

As for the uses, you're going to get mixed answers on this. Some people solely own it as an investment, some people own it to spend it online, and some use it for both. I personally use it both as an investment and as something to pay with. Why? Because screw PayPal. And a long with that, I think bitcoin will be successful in the long term, so it would only make sense to also look at it as an investment. How about you? What are your plans with it if you don't look at it as an investment?

Best of luck!

I completely agree with what you are saying. My concern is that in my current city in the USA, I see very few vendors that accept Bitcoin. The main thing keeping me from transferring all of my fiat into Bitcoin is the volatility. I understand my 401K could theoretically drop to $0, but if that happens I have a lot more to worry about than what I have saved.

Your best bet would be to use famous exchanges like Coinbase[1], Kraken[2], and Gemini[3]. You're going to pay like 10% more than the market price if you're going to use Bitcoin ATMs.


EDIT: Oh and lastly, learn to secure your funds first!

• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0
• https://cryptosec.info/cryptocurrency-wallets/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_liquidity
[2] https://coinbase.com/
[3] https://kraken.com/
[4] https://gemini.com/

[harizen]

Just do HODL HODL HODL "for now". Don't jump on actual trades. You be will there soon.

Since you are new. Don't push yourself. Just relax. Read any crypto stuff etc. As time goes by and let's say you continue to be involved in crypto, you will soon realize what's the best thing to do that might suit you. People have different preferences, so is you.

The ultimate goal here is to increase the quantity of your BTC, as much as possible or if by any chances, whether how you look at it, as a currency or as an investment.

Now how to acquired? Where? That's the start now of studying other opportunities to earn. Example, you mentioned trading, the foundation here is experience no matter what strategy is applied. You don't need to literally memorize all chart lines etc. once you gain experience. To build experience you need some basic knowledge to start. You should now spend time learning basic trading stuff starting from choosing a trading platform, understanding the risks, do's and don't etc.

To summarize all of this, don't pressure yourself to earn "lots" while on the newbie phase. Understanding everything will take time.

[JohnnyAveo]

I will look up those two and see what I can find online, thank you for that. I plan on trying to go in about $200/month right now. Once again, the volatility is what keeps me weary. I am not trying to use it like an investment even though, to me, that seems to be what the majority are using it for.

$200/month isn't a bad amount at all. If you think that's the amount you're comfortable with, then by all means go with it. There's no right amount to invest anyway. At least you're aware of the volatility.

As for the volatility, you need to understand that bitcoin is a 10 year old asset(in contrast to gold which is pretty much a bajillion years old), so market liquidity[1] will be very low as expected. It will take time for bitcoin to be stable in price. Gold is decently stable right now because of the very high liquidity it has. Assuming Bitcoin's adoption would be in a slow upward long-term trend and as people understands the importance of a decentralized currency, expect Bitcoin to go the same path as gold in terms of liquidity.

As for the uses, you're going to get mixed answers on this. Some people solely own it as an investment, some people own it to spend it online, and some use it for both. I personally use it both as an investment and as something to pay with. Why? Because screw PayPal. And a long with that, I think bitcoin will be successful in the long term, so it would only make sense to also look at it as an investment. How about you? What are your plans with it if you don't look at it as an investment?

Best of luck!

I completely agree with what you are saying. My concern is that in my current city in the USA, I see very few vendors that accept Bitcoin. The main thing keeping me from transferring all of my fiat into Bitcoin is the volatility. I understand my 401K could theoretically drop to $0, but if that happens I have a lot more to worry about than what I have saved.

Your best bet would be to use famous exchanges like Coinbase[1], Kraken[2], and Gemini[3]. You're going to pay like 10% more than the market price if you're going to use Bitcoin ATMs.


EDIT: Oh and lastly, learn to secure your funds first!

• https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0
• https://cryptosec.info/cryptocurrency-wallets/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_liquidity
[2] https://coinbase.com/
[3] https://kraken.com/
[4] https://gemini.com/

I recently bought a Trezor so if I do start investing the majority of my coins will be in cold storage.

[mk4]

I recently bought a Trezor so if I do start investing the majority of my coins will be in cold storage.

Great choice! While I personally prefer the Ledger Nano S, Trezors are definitely great too. Just don't do anything stupid like saving the 24-word seed on a .txt app, on your email, on your notes app, or anywhere digital, you're going to be fine. Pen and paper on a fire-proof safe will suffice. Best of luck.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Speaking about understanding how blockchain (concept of bitcoin) works and all that. The mistake many people make is trying to understand the whole concept before they invest forgetting the best and easiest way to understand anything is from inside. We have those that are still trying to understand the whole concept since 2009 which have resulted to them already missed the early train. I'm glad you didn't follow their full steps but have already showed interesting in investing.

About understanding the concept of bitcoin you can use this thread as reference; 5 Resources to teach Average Joe about Bitcoin. many of us are still educating ourself but that doesn't stop us from investing. About your Investing choices although day trading isn't a bad advice especially if you can equipping yourselves with the necessary skills, the best advice would involving hodling as it's less complicated and stressful. Welcome to the forum and the bitcoin community, hope your enjoy and profit from your stay.

[JohnnyAveo]

Just do HODL HODL HODL "for now". Don't jump on actual trades. You be will there soon.

Since you are new. Don't push yourself. Just relax. Read any crypto stuff etc. As time goes by and let's say you continue to be involved in crypto, you will soon realize what's the best thing to do that might suit you. People have different preferences, so is you.

The ultimate goal here is to increase the quantity of your BTC, as much as possible or if by any chances, whether how you look at it, as a currency or as an investment.

Now how to acquired? Where? That's the start now of studying other opportunities to earn. Example, you mentioned trading, the foundation here is experience no matter what strategy is applied. You don't need to literally memorize all chart lines etc. once you gain experience. To build experience you need some basic knowledge to start. You should now spend time learning basic trading stuff starting from choosing a trading platform, understanding the risks, do's and don't etc.

To summarize all of this, don't pressure yourself to earn "lots" while on the newbie phase. Understanding everything will take time.

That is my current plan, build up my bitcoin and find ways that I can use my design/drafting skills to possibly earn more. I feel like bounties and air drops tend to be a waste of time for me as I don't want to sign up on several platforms spamming my pages constantly. I want to earn crypto like its a job. I fully understand safe storage of assets now, I felt that was one of the most important things to learn first.

[mk4]

That is my current plan, build up my bitcoin and find ways that I can use my design/drafting skills to possibly earn more. I feel like bounties and air drops tend to be a waste of time for me as I don't want to sign up on several platforms spamming my pages constantly. I want to earn crypto like its a job.

Just a heads up. You can do gigs for bitcoin on sites like XBTFreelancer[1], but in my opinion, you're still better off by doing gigs/jobs on sites like Upwork[2], and use the USD you've earned to simply buy bitcoin. Sites that pays in USD tends to still have a lot more listings than bitcoin-only ones.

[1] https://www.xbtfreelancer.com/
[2] https://upwork.com/

[JohnnyAveo]

Speaking about understanding how blockchain (concept of bitcoin) works and all that. The mistake many people make is trying to understand the whole concept before they invest forgetting the best and easiest way to understand anything is from inside. We have those that are still trying to understand the whole concept since 2009 which have resulted to them already missed the early train. I'm glad you didn't follow their full steps but have already showed interesting in investing.

About understanding the concept of bitcoin you can use this thread as reference; 5 Resources to teach Average Joe about Bitcoin. many of us are still educating ourself but that doesn't stop us from investing. About your Investing choices although day trading isn't a bad advice especially if you can equipping yourselves with the necessary skills, the best advice would involving hodling as it's less complicated and stressful. Welcome to the forum and the bitcoin community, hope your enjoy and profit from your stay.

I understand that I don't need to fully understand blockchain to be invested in Bitcoin. My problem is that I am the type of person that goes for 0-100 on anything the piques my interest. I am falling into the black hole of Bitcoin recently. There is so much bogus info that it is hard to find legitimate sites that truly aim to educate. I really appreciate all of the info I have been given already in this thread. I will read through the thread that you have linked.

[qwertyup23]

<snip....>

When I started joining this forum around 2 years ago, I also lacked the necessary knowledge about cryptocurrencies, in general. In order to address this gap of knowledge, I watched this video on youtube about TedTalk where it explained the blockchain technology and its real-world application if we were to implement it on the present technology (check the link below).

I also thought that I was late in the party and missed my chance of investing in bitcoin. But I soon realized that the best time to start investing or knowing bitcoin is the day you first know about its existence. You can never be too late in discovering something for as long as you do not waste any opportunity in leaning about it more.

Video link which I highly recommend anyone to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k53LUZxUF50

[JohnnyAveo]

Part of my hesitation with bitcoin is I bought Ethereum last July when it was at $475 only to watch it tank since I pulled the trigger on the purchase of $500 worth. Not sure if it will ever recover but the trends I see for bitcoin make me believe that I wont be in that position if I hold for a year or more.

[mk4]

Part of my hesitation with bitcoin is I bought Ethereum last July when it was at $475 only to watch it tank since I pulled the trigger on the purchase of $500 worth. Not sure if it will ever recover but the trends I see for bitcoin make me believe that I wont be in that position if I hold for a year or more.

While I'm not saying that ETH won't recover(because I honestly think it would), bitcoin is still the best and safest bet in my opinion. I know that ETH is quite controversial and debatable here and like I said that I think bitcoin is a better hold, I think you'll still be able to end up with a profit if you just held those ETH long enough. Look at the bright side, at least you didn't buy something like XRP instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[whtchocla7e]

It is not late. Cryptocurrencies are taking their first steps. The world is growing, the need of cryptocurrencies for people's shopping needs is huge. The recovery of the currencies will take place strongly in the near future.

[Alluro]

I think you have to learn a lot of things with cryptocurrencies. Everyone come cryptocurrencies for profits. You can start trading, investing, bounties etc. You have to learn about fundamental analysis and technical analysis for trading and yoy can go with a small amount first.