What is the biggest mistake new Bitcoin users make?

[Joymavel110]

I'm curious to hear from people who have been around Bitcoin for a while.
What do you think is the biggest mistake new Bitcoin users make, and what would you tell someone to do differently❓

It could be about security, self-custody, buying Bitcoin, scams, fees, or simply misunderstanding how Bitcoin works. What’s one mistake you made yourself when you were new that you wish you had avoided❓

I think hearing real experiences would be more useful than just reading general advice.

[Ziskinberg]

This has been discussed already in the forum before. But just to answer your question, my biggest mistake was trusting a centralized exchange back when I was still a new bitcoin user. I never realized that putting our bitcoin into a centralized platform will only increase the chances of losing them, instead of creating our own hardware wallet and prioritize self-custody over trusting a centralized exchange.

But I never regret that experience. That was my eye opener that when it comes to bitcoin, not your keys, not your coins. There is no excuse to that.

[Jostle]

My biggest mistake was the excitement that altcoin brings, and instead of focusing on Bitcoin, I went to focus on altcoins. During the Crypto Winter of 2022, I realized that it was completely wrong. I pivoted back to Bitcoin after that, to recover from my losses I made. Since then, if people had asked me what was my lesson, I would tell them to focus on Bitcoin instead.

[Ojima-ojo]

Picking bitcoin as fast money investment is the biggest mistake anyone can make when we talk about bitcoin, because with that is either they get wrong bitcoin approach like jumping into bitcoin trading with quick money expectancy, missing out what bitcoin ownership, and security work's or how irresistible/ irreversible bitcoin transactions can be.


Alot other mistakes comes with ignorant behaviour, leaving large amount of bitcoin on exchange wallet instead of moving them to your personal wallet with seed phrase saved and protected, advice is gain knowledge, but bitcoin with amount you can afford to put aside for a long time, avoid future market buy only spot market, avoid borrowing to buy bitcoin or using leverage to buy bitcoin etc.

[BitMaxz]

Well, I have a real experience. I was being scammed by many cloud mining sites and investment sites but the good part is that they are the reason why I ended up being here on the forum because I never knew that there was a Bitcoin forum because usually I am in programming and coding forums where the earning section talks about faucets until I also try those cloud mining sites and mining with GPUs.
I thought at that time I could be rich fast because of the cloud mining site because most of the people on the other forum said it is legit and the daily mined coins are really high, but in the end I'm being scammed by them.

However, I still feel lucky they pointed me to this forum and learned more about them, including mining BTC and mining other coins.
Those are my newbie mistakes. I was attracted to cloud mining offers and investments that need to be avoided nowadays because there's no investment or cloud mining site that's legit except the offer from Binance and renting service from miningrigrentals.

[Sanitough]

One thing I have noticed is that new bitcoin users guarantee theirselves that they will definitely get rich with bitcoin in just a short span of time. They don't realized that investing in bitcoin blindly will lead them to a bigger loss instead, and not accumulating good amount of bitcoin will not make them rich either.

Also, they really think that bitcoin investment is all about money. If they have money to consistently invest, they will get rich eventually. But without knowledge, skills and strategies to maximize their profits, without risk management and discipline, and without patience to stay positive despite of an unpredictable market, they will never gain success from bitcoin. Bitcoin will only be profitable if the user or investor itself is smart and knowledgeable to deal with the market and bitcoin uncertainty.

[fullfitlarry]

For new Bitcoin user, it could be FOMO, entering in the bull market. And so when the price decline in the next cycle, you panic, you sell at a lost and then said to yourself that it's the worst investment you have. But you really didn't do your homework as you just read the news and then FOMO about it. So you really need to do some research in the beginning.

And obviously the best resource is this community. Maybe at the start you didn't find it. But for me, if you are going to involved yourself in Bitcoin, it's a must to join our forum and explore and read from the past experience of users here who have been ahead on us in the market.

[Darker45]

When I was a newbie, I got scammed. I also traded and lost. I got funds stuck in a dead exchange as well. But, as far as my personal experiences are concerned, I think "the biggest mistake new Bitcoin users make" is to allow impatience get the better of them and sell early. I had accumulated more than a handful coins in the past. Unfortunately, most of them I liquidated prematurely. I'd still like to consider myself a hodler, though, because I've kept a small amount ever since. But I've lost a lot of opportunities.

[ralle14]

One of my biggest mistakes years ago was skipping my non custodial wallet whenever I had to convert my crypto to fiat. It started with one gambling site to save on the fees and slowly became a habit. I overlooked the risk of skipping that extra step and paid the price by losing my account at one of our best local exchanges at the time.

With so many posts and threads about this issue, the only thing i'd say to the new guys is to take note or use the search bar on the side because it's easy to forget the helpful stuff we read here.

[uche6215]

I think the biggest mistake new Bitcoin users make is poor management of their seed phrase. Many new Bitcoin users do not understand how important it is to keep their seed phrase in a safe place so that they don't lose it. They think it's just a password, but it's more than that because, unlike passwords, a seed phrase can't be recovered when lost. And without it, you lose your funds.

[aoluain]

Personally I find it difficult to pinpoint a single biggest mistake because there are many things of
equal importance which can lead to a mistake, here are a few I can think of: _{in no perticular order}

Self custody: For the sake of a $50 hardware wallet, it makes a lot of sense to be in full control
of our coins, instead mistakenly relying on a third party to hold the coins.

Trading: Because Bitcoin and crypto are so accessible many newbies think think they can "hit the
ground running" and start trading with no knowledge other than watching some random
influencer on YT with 500k followers.

Expectations: Not understanding the movements of the market and expecting it to constantly go up
without a dip in the Bull season or the other way around in a Bear season can lead to FUD and FOMO
and in turn buying or selling at the wrong time.

[DabsPoorVersion]

As for my experience, the biggest mistake the newbies make is when they don't give enough time to learn the truth about Bitcoin. Most new users I have encountered, even before, they often thought that Bitcoin is just a scam investment due to various scam news relating to Bitcoin. And when the time comes that Bitcoin is making a noise by the sudden market surge, those newbies become victims of FOMO. The fact that they heard early about Bitcoin and did not try to learn at least the basic or even try to spend some time just because they think of it as a scam, make them lose the chance to experience the real purpose of Bitcoin. 

While the biggest mistake I did as a newbie before is when I don't think too much on saving private key before. What I always think is that I am the only one using my PC and I was confident before that nothing bad will happen. Then one time I have experienced BSOD to my computer, without any knowledge of what to do while worrying about the wallet I used for my investment which I do not have a copy of private key. Unfortunately, I lost that wallet and my initial investment during that time.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

What do you think is the biggest mistake new Bitcoin users make, and what would you tell someone to do differently❓

It could be about security, self-custody, buying Bitcoin, scams, fees, or simply misunderstanding how Bitcoin works. What’s one mistake you made yourself when you were new that you wish you had avoided❓

Most common mistakes made by Bitcoin newbie users are not new, and actually repeated many times by many newbies so such mistakes are all recorded and reminded in some websites.

Cryptocurrency security checklist.
The cryptocurrency scambook.
The dos and don'ts of bitcoin key management.

Above are advice for newbies to start, learn and practice but if they're open minded and ready to learn further, there they go.
How to manage Bitcoin like a whale?

[Mr_Brilliant$]

It's just going to be one thing for me. I think moving their coins unnecessarily without understanding the fees that goes with it. Let's say there's this newbie that got fascinated on how he can move it coins and can still track it. I mean, he might gain more understanding on the movement and what happens if it enters centralised platform but he might ignore the fees that comes with moving it anyhow. That's one angle I can point to. They might eventually find out, but it will cost the a portion of their coins which is just a minor cost of learning half of the whole picture. But hey, you can't learn more without some few mistakes here and there. So I would encourage it a little because there are problems that can be way bigger than that.

[Ishicryptic]

There is no single mistake that we can say is the biggest in Bitcoin that is generally considered as the worst, I think that it depends on the level of our exposures that would determine mistakes that we will avoid, looking at most of the posts here there are different kinds of mistakes that the posters have made. I think we can learn from other Bitcoin holders mistakes to avoid making them rather than wanting to know which of them is the biggest mistake, what you consider a minor mistake can cost you a lot like losing your Bitcoin forever. Every precaution to protect your wallet security should be taken very important no matter how unimportant or irrelevant you think it is. A simple thing like ignoring not to save your seed phrase online can cause you to lose your coins in the case of a compromise online that will affect your stored private information.

[coinrifft]

It could be about security, self-custody, buying Bitcoin, scams, fees, or simply misunderstanding how Bitcoin works. What’s one mistake you made yourself when you were new that you wish you had avoided❓

Believing those crypto influencers and following their lead, specially in trading. Rushing to trade just because your read that one newbie trader started $100.00 and turn it into $100,000 in a instant. Of course, there is scam everywhere and I almost fell for it in the beginning.

Security is a must to learn from the start of your Bitcoin journey. Like not clicking links or just trusting someone just because he said that he has a lot of experience and can help you out. But you have to pay him premium to act as a teacher or mentor.