Feedback on new crypto for beginners website?

[howtocryptoUK]

Hi everyone.

Over the past month or so i've been putting together as much information for new starters in the crypto investing space (think your parents or grandparents). Over the summer i was talking to my FIL about crypto and he looked at me like i had 5 heads so i thought it would be a good idea to put down a load of simplified crypto advice, tips, terms and "How to's" so that people who are new to the space don't get overwhelmed.


I'd be really appreciative of any constructive feedback anyone could give me, the site isn't fully finished yet but the majority of the essential information is there. I'm absolutely not a cryptocurrency guru, just a normal guy wanting to make it as easy as possible for everyone to begin to understand the basics of crypto. I even recommend people to visit the bitcointalk.org forum when they start to research any coin they're interested in! The site is: www.howtocryptouk.tips

Thanks!

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[o_e_l_e_o]

Nice site!

I've not been through your site in a huge amount of detail, but a quick scan through raises a few points from me:

The "Best exchanges" page only mentions centralized, custodial exchanges. It would be nice to have a few decentralized peer to peer exchanges on there such as Bisq and LocalCryptos, maybe with a brief explanation of the advantages to security and privacy that decentralized exchanges bring.

The "Storing cryptocurrencies" page makes no mention of software wallets such as Electrum or Wasabi, which are often the best choices for newbies. They eliminate the risks of storing your coins with a third party exchange or web wallet, while not having the purchase cost of the more secure hardware wallets.

Your "Jargon buster" page says "Our fish is responsibly caught from sustainable sources" at the bottom, presumably left over from your design template.

Also, stick up a donation address!

[howtocryptoUK]

Hi. Thank you so much for taking a look and being honest with what you've seen, i really appreciate it!

In terms of the lack of DEXs and software wallet recommendations - i'm aiming the site at complete techno-phobes essentially so i was thinking to keep all the info as easy to follow as possible as the unregulated part of DEXs is what may put a lot of fear into the more "traditional" investors, but it is absolutely food for thought for me to add!

And yes you're spot on about the "sustainable fish" part at the bottom of the jargon buster page! Haha great spot thanks, i've removed it now but maybe one day my oversight will inspire a meme coin called "Bitcod" or something 

Donation links/addresses are on my to-do list as well!

Thank you very much once again!

[bitmover]

The "Best exchanges" page only mentions centralized, custodial exchanges. It would be nice to have a few decentralized peer to peer exchanges on there such as Bisq and LocalCryptos, maybe with a brief explanation of the advantages to security and privacy that decentralized exchanges bring.

I would add UniSwap to that list. I used it recently to sell some ETH and ERC-20 tokens for stable coins. It was a very good experience. No KYC and safe, only a bit expensive, but that's the price of privacy.


About the section "A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO CRYPTO INVESTING" i think you are using the wrong order.

You pointed it out like this:

1. Do your own research (DYOR)
2. Register on an exchange
3. Set up a bank account
...

I think this is the wrong approach. Before registering to an exchange you should create your own wallet.

So the order would be:

1. Do your own research (DYOR)
2. Create your own wallet with a Seed.
3. Register on an exchange
...

Overall, very good website!

[Oshosondy]

The "Best exchanges" page only mentions centralized, custodial exchanges. It would be nice to have a few decentralized peer to peer exchanges on there such as Bisq and LocalCryptos, maybe with a brief explanation of the advantages to security and privacy that decentralized exchanges bring.

As many people are making use of crypto, people are no more getting concerned about privacy, what I am now guessing is that these people do not know what privacy is, that is why many will leak most of their information to chainanalysis for tracking. Bitcoin support to be used with privacy but people used it in a way they can not have privacy, privacy issue is a threat most people do not know. I do not see why decentralized exchanges are not the first listed while not listing it at all. Many people are using referral links to advertise centralized exchanges which makes them most common now and the data leak is becoming common than before.

The "Storing cryptocurrencies" page makes no mention of software wallets such as Electrum or Wasabi, which are often the best choices for newbies. They eliminate the risks of storing your coins with a third party exchange or web wallet, while not having the purchase cost of the more secure hardware wallets.

Custodial wallet is the worst choice because there is no full control, this is another thing people do not know, if they know how worse custodial wallets are, they will not use it when they can have a private key wallet.

[mk4]

Here's my tip: if you're planning on growing your site, absolutely use a better web domain. If I saw your web domain without your well written story/description, I might've automatically thought that your website is a scam. Especially while your site is still new, definitely change as early as possible.

As much as possible, use: .com / .org / .net (in rare cases .xyz and .info but I'd stay away 99% of the time)

[o_e_l_e_o]

As many people are making use of crypto, people are no more getting concerned about privacy, what I am now guessing is that these people do not know what privacy is, that is why many will leak most of their information to chainanalysis for tracking.

The problem is that once people understand that bitcoin is completely transparent and by completing KYC at a variety of centralized exchanges they effective have zero privacy from anyone these exchanges share or sell their data with, it is too late. Sure, they can stop using those exchanges and then start trading peer to peer, but those exchanges already have a record of all the bitcoin they own and all the addresses they have used and various blockchain analysis companies will continue to track them. It's far easier to maintain your privacy if you protect it from the start than it is (if not impossible) to regain it once it has been lost.

I would add UniSwap to that list.

I would disagree. The two DEXs I have mentioned can be used for fiat/BTC trading, which is exactly what newbies are looking for. UniSwap is for trading a variety of tokens and altcoins. Given that >99% of tokens and altcoins are outright scams, I don't think steering newbies in that direction is beneficial.

[Poker Player]

As many people are making use of crypto, people are no more getting concerned about privacy, what I am now guessing is that these people do not know what privacy is, that is why many will leak most of their information to chainanalysis for tracking.

The problem is that once people understand that bitcoin is completely transparent and by completing KYC at a variety of centralized exchanges they effective have zero privacy from anyone these exchanges share or sell their data with, it is too late. Sure, they can stop using those exchanges and then start trading peer to peer, but those exchanges already have a record of all the bitcoin they own and all the addresses they have used and various blockchain analysis companies will continue to track them. It's far easier to maintain your privacy if you protect it from the start than it is (if not impossible) to regain it once it has been lost.

I guess most people do as you say, but I understand that it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

For example, a person has a wallet or several that are not tied to their real identity. On the other hand he buys Bitcoin on a centralized exchange, verifies his identity but everything he buys there he sends to an address (or addresses) of another new wallet. And he only moves the funds from that address to send them back to the exchange and sell.

[cryptoaddictchie]

I would disagree. The two DEXs I have mentioned can be used for fiat/BTC trading, which is exactly what newbies are looking for.

Those dex are only for btc right? Maybe uniswap can fit as dex for other coins other than bitcoin. Uniswap is higher volume in terms of trading some major erc20 tokens among the list of cmc and its also decentralized. Of course newbies just avoid trading shitcoins there if they wanted to trade there but if ever they decided to expand other than btc, localcrypto and bisq cant provide that I guess.

[Oshosondy]

For example, a person has a wallet or several that are not tied to their real identity. On the other hand he buys Bitcoin on a centralized exchange, verifies his identity but everything he buys there he sends to an address (or addresses) of another new wallet. And he only moves the funds from that address to send them back to the exchange and sell.

It is not necessary to sell on custodial exchanges, it can be easier to make use of custodial exchanges but you can sell on noncustodial exchanges like bisq, hodlhodl and localcryptos which o_e_l_e_o mentioned, you can sell P2P directly which also involves only noncustodial wallet. This is not all the ways to have privacy but it is one of the ways to start and constantly have privacy if other ways are done right.

Don't you know people's information are worth more than billions of dollars if compared to the risks involved and they are giving it freely to centralized organisations. There can be data breach on the centralized organizations, hackers will know the information of people and indirectly attacking them.

Those dex are only for btc right?

About bisq? No, it support few other coins but not many. But this my article is somewhat old.

1. Bsiq
Bsiq is a good decentralized exchange, currently having marketcap of $681,498 USD (11.75857697 BTC). The reason this exchange is good is because it has good marketcap, it has many trading pairs, it support cryptocurrencies and fiat (BTC, AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, NZD, SEK, THB, USD), this makes it a way people can use fiat to buy bitcoin without KYC needed.

To know about bitcoin trading pair on bsiq, you can use this link:
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bisq/

When I checked it as as at then, I saw it supporting bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, monero.

[Poker Player]

For example, a person has a wallet or several that are not tied to their real identity. On the other hand he buys Bitcoin on a centralized exchange, verifies his identity but everything he buys there he sends to an address (or addresses) of another new wallet. And he only moves the funds from that address to send them back to the exchange and sell.

It is not necessary to sell on custodial exchanges, it can be easier to make use of custodial exchanges but you can sell on noncustodial exchanges like bisq, hodlhodl and localcryptos which o_e_l_e_o mentioned, you can sell P2P directly which also involves only noncustodial wallet.

It is not necessary to buy on custodial exchanges either but that was not my point.

[Oshosondy]

It is not necessary to buy on custodial exchanges either but that was not my point.

I understood you, I only want to indicate that noncustodial way of exchanging gives privacy, but you mean that most people are using custodial exchanges, send to wallet, send back to custodial exchange when in need to convert to fiat, you are not wrong, that is what most people are doing because most people do not even know what privacy is, all they know and want to do is to use bitcoin but they are using it like the way they are using fiat which will give them no privacy.

[bitmover]

I would disagree. The two DEXs I have mentioned can be used for fiat/BTC trading, which is exactly what newbies are looking for.

Those dex are only for btc right? Maybe uniswap can fit as dex for other coins other than bitcoin. Uniswap is higher volume in terms of trading some major erc20 tokens among the list of cmc and its also decentralized. Of course newbies just avoid trading shitcoins there if they wanted to trade there but if ever they decided to expand other than btc, localcrypto and bisq cant provide that I guess.

The problem with Bisq (and other DEX) is the low volume.
Uniswap has high liquidity due to the liquidy providers, they were able to fix that low volume problem... although, it is very expensive (about 30-100 usd per swap)

I agree that Bisq is better, and a fiat-btc gateway is amazing. I was never able to use it, because it has a ridiculous volume in Brazil (BRL) (https://bisq.markets/market/btc_brl less than BTC per day usually).

I also there might be some privacy problems, as you are receiving Fiat in your nominal bank account. You can have 100% privacy using Uniswap, which is quite amazing, but very limited as you can't use Bitcoin there. Luckily I have some altcoins (eth and one erc-20 which I like)

[Poker Player]

It is not necessary to buy on custodial exchanges either but that was not my point.

I understood you, I only want to indicate that noncustodial way of exchanging gives privacy, but you mean that most people are using custodial exchanges, send to wallet, send back to custodial exchange when in need to convert to fiat, you are not wrong, that is what most people are doing because most people do not even know what privacy is, all they know and want to do is to use bitcoin but they are using it like the way they are using fiat which will give them no privacy.

That is why I was saying that it is good to take care of privacy, because many people are not very careful, but it is not a universal panacea.

There are people who take great care of privacy with Bitcoin and neglect it in the rest of their lives. I have seen some well-known forum member say that he pays for all fiat transactions by card. I would not be surprised if there is someone who also gives all permissions to all applications on the mobile, and takes great care of his privacy regarding bitcoin but then is surprised when after talking about mattresses, mattresses ads appear on google.

Then there are other things, as Bitmover comments, decentralized exchanges have less supply, and if you want to exchange Bitcoin or cryptos for currencies other than the big ones (such as dollars or euros) even less. Also, I don't know if this is true in all cases, but even in decentralized exchanges you don't give your data to a centralized entity but if you want a fiat transfer to your bank account, the person you exchange with also knows your real name.

So yes, it is good to take measures to protect your privacy, but it seems that it is sacrilege to buy in a centralized exchange even if you do it carefully and it is not so, at least in 100% of the cases. And let's not forget that if the price of Bitcoin is where it is, it is largely because of the demand that is channeled through centralized exchanges. If the Bitcoin were a currency that was exchanged exclusively p2p as Satoshi dreamed, today it would not even have reached $1k.

[o_e_l_e_o]

For example, a person has a wallet or several that are not tied to their real identity. On the other hand he buys Bitcoin on a centralized exchange, verifies his identity but everything he buys there he sends to an address (or addresses) of another new wallet. And he only moves the funds from that address to send them back to the exchange and sell.

It's possible, but it's difficult to do, do consistently, and never once mess up, especially for newbies who don't understand all the intricacies involved. Even something as simple as looking up your KYC addresses and your non-KYC addresses on the same block explorer at the same time can be enough to de-anonymize you.

The problem with Bisq (and other DEX) is the low volume.
Uniswap has high liquidity due to the liquidy providers

But UniSwap is for crypto-crypto trading. OP's site is targeted at the complete newbie. The complete newbie doesn't want to know how to swap some wrapped bitcoin for some random ERC20 token and back again, since they will have absolutely no idea what either of things are. If we are going to recommend DEXs (which I think we should to all newbies before they get sucked in to the nightmare of endless KYC and zero privacy they get with centralized exchanges), then we should recommend ones which allow them to safely buy bitcoin with fiat, since that is what they will be interest in. Bisq and LocalCryptos are the two best ones for doing that.

[howtocryptoUK]

Here's my tip: if you're planning on growing your site, absolutely use a better web domain. If I saw your web domain without your well written story/description, I might've automatically thought that your website is a scam. Especially while your site is still new, definitely change as early as possible.

As much as possible, use: .com / .org / .net (in rare cases .xyz and .info but I'd stay away 99% of the time)

Thank you for your honesty and for taking a look at the site. I will absolutely bear this in mind, i thought it would be useful for the domain to be .tips so straight away people are aware it's a site that gives tips, i hadn't considered it from your point of view before but i will try to find out if it something that puts more people off!

[howtocryptoUK]

The problem with Bisq (and other DEX) is the low volume.
Uniswap has high liquidity due to the liquidy providers

But UniSwap is for crypto-crypto trading. OP's site is targeted at the complete newbie. The complete newbie doesn't want to know how to swap some wrapped bitcoin for some random ERC20 token and back again, since they will have absolutely no idea what either of things are. If we are going to recommend DEXs (which I think we should to all newbies before they get sucked in to the nightmare of endless KYC and zero privacy they get with centralized exchanges), then we should recommend ones which allow them to safely buy bitcoin with fiat, since that is what they will be interest in. Bisq and LocalCryptos are the two best ones for doing that.
[/quote]

Great discussion everyone thank you, it's opened my eyes to the advantages of DEXs to newbies as i was coming from the angle of people having peace of mind with centralised exchanges as they're generally a bit easier to navigate. But it's DEXs are something for me to look further in to and maybe create some "How to" guides for getting started, so thanks!