I noticed there a couple of threads where people talk about their 'worst' mistake, and the majority of he replies cite 'selling to early'
But I thought a more useful thread might be to share
a) a specific newbie mistake you have made with cryptocurrency when first starting out
b) what you learned from it, and what advice would you give to others (or tell your past self if you could) to avoid it
I am not looking for bunch of 'I sold to early' but more specific practical advice. We all make mistakes, and we can also help learn from others mistakes.
I will start with my own example, what I learned, and please feel free to add your own experience below.
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When I first was learning to trade bitcoin cash (BCH), back in Aug 2019, I used local.bitcoin.com. I
thought had I had understood escrow and how it worked, basically, the system would go through 3 states
1) Seller puts BCH in Escrow,
2) Buyer pays seller directly,
3) Escrow released to buyer
Seemed simple enough to me, I did not want to use a lot of money, so I found a user who was offering $50 worth of BCH. I don't recall the exact exchange, but it seemed like a good deal at the time.
The seller was a 'new user' and did not have much reputation, but so was I, so I figured why not?
So I opened the trade, and the user responded within an hour, and told me to E-Transfer him the $50.00 after which he would send the BCH coin.
Now I'm not a complete n00b, I went to the bitcoin site, first, to confirm he had deposited the bitcoin into escrow,
and it looked to me like he HAD done this.The little 'picture' showed Seller Puts BCH in Escrow" and
it was clearly highlighted. ..and if you haven't guessed by now, this was my MISTAKE.!!
I believed the highlighted section meant "task complete"... I was very, very wrong
Seeing the highlight and believing the BCH in escrow. I went ahead and E-Transferred the $50.00, which he accepted happily, and then cancelled the trade.
I continued to try and message him, letting him know I had not received the bitcoin, he
'promised' he had sent it and that I should wait longer, and contact the site owner if I still had not received it.
It was only after doing a successful transaction later, before I full understood what I had done wrong, how could he have cancelled the trade? - Turns out the
highlighting does not mean "task complete". When in fact it means
'task in progress' I should not have sent the money until after it have moved
past the "Buyer puts BCH into Escrow" and then highlighted the section "Buyer pays seller directly". This would have indicated that the bitcoin cash was in fact moved into an escrow account, and only then was it my turn to send the money.
My Lesson's Learned:a) on Local.bitcoin, highlights mean "waiting to complete", not "task complete" !!
b) Never trust anyone, if they realized you make a mistake they will take advantage of it
c) Read carefully about how the system works and understand what things mean.
d) Do trades (at least for the first while), with people you actually know in real life, and can trust. And move on to trading with users with higher reputation, don't trade newbie to newbie!
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So there you have it -- the first $50 I lost exchanging crypto.
Now I ask you - What types of mistakes have you experienced ? and what lessons can you share with others so as not to repeat them.
P.S. If the person who stole my $50 in 2019 is still out there, reading this message, and happens to feel guilty. Feel free to make it up to be and deposit what you owe me anytime, I'm still waiting
