Hi ITGeniusGuru,
I don't know how you attracted some of the brightest minds around here, as well as some others too, but maybe it would be best first to read maybe 100 hours worth, or even maybe 500 hours worth, on this entire broad topic that you care to master. Right here at bitcointalk is where the greatest information and the worse of information all awaits the reader. This is where Bitcoin lives and breaths, and where everything revolves, but you likely already figured that out. There must be many millions of pages here of many dozens of sub topics and child boards. You got lot's of reading and researching to do before ever bothering with creating your very own cloned crap coin, which by the way is a completely futile effort. But you already heard that right? Many here are full of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt - fear mongering) others don't have half a clue, others are sheer genius. Hero labels are time tested veterans and generally have way more than half a clue concerning at least Bitcoin, being they have been here for years already.
At any rate the best advice I have found in the last 18 months here is to Buy Bitcoin and then Hold on to it tightly as well as very securely and carefully. Hey, it sure beats anything else especially since bitcoin began as long as one holds it for at least a year, the longer the better too, so far. Straight up buying Bitcoins even beats mining profits since the Fall of 2013 with precious few lucky exceptions.
Trading profitability pretty much ended a few months ago for almost all alt coins, and all but the luckiest early receivers of the latest generation asic mining rigs.
Now yet another rinse is now occurring (Bitcoins price has fallen to the lower part of it's present trading range), and soon enough another false rally for a broad batch of crappy clone coins is almost sure to attract the fools and dupes, so a few of us can scoops up yet another round of profits (hint, don't be very greedy). This will occur just as or soon after Bitcoin again enters another big rally mode upwards in price.
Your apt to make much more by doing the above (Buying Bitcoins) than bothering with yet another clone, or even something that brings something new to the table. Simply BUY BITCOIN and hold it. Hold it for years. In four years your extremely likely to be terrifically well rewarded for that. Even starting small and working your way up will still offer huge returns.
But things like mining is extremely risky these days when it comes to ASIC hardware mining in it's present state save for all but one asic miner at this rare point due to a recent large price drop on the antminer, much less the ever diminishing returns of GPU mining at present. I just sold my GPU Video cards all away on eBay, save for one that I will use in yet another new build from the top quality parts left from my mining rig. Hey, I might even GPU mine again a dash when it's profitable to do so on a worthy coin, but right now it's not woth the effort combined with the cost of electricity. All those parts left are for a nice new desktop and was meant to be so a year ago when new. But with asic hardware it's soon obsolete and worthless.
See this for a mining profitability guide
http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrencyFor a great bitcoin charts and more see these:
http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/bitstamp/btcusdhttp://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg360ztgSzm1g10zm2g25zvhttp://www.cryptocoincharts.info/http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/main/smallChartshttp://crypto-coins-table.com/http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/coins/infoLearn to use this for many answers to good key word choices
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=searchFor the only well established and most trusted Crypto trading see this place, where I have close to 3000 trades so far:
https://www.cryptsy.com/Myself and others that have been here a long time have great trust in Cryptsy, but always keep track of your trades while doing them so if anything goes awry at least you know what's what later. Sometimes trades get delayed and it's possible to double spend and end up with a negative balance if you don't stay fully aware. Never happened to me but for fools rushing in it happens a lot, but less lately from what I gather. Maybe their learning the limits of Cryptsy and their sometimes stalled/stuck trading servers as well as stuck wallet clients for deposit and withdrawal delays that seem to often get overloaded by sheer demand.
https://www.cryptsy.com/Here's a place that lists the current or recent ASIC hardware for sale, usually a painful pre-order experience, or far worse...
https://tradeblock.com/mining/ (scroll down a ways)
Lastly, check news at the following links:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.phphttp://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/and
http://www.coindesk.com/http://www.thebitcoinchannel.com/and
(scroll down to Inflation, Deflation, Cryptocurrencies) at:
http://dollarcollapse.com/ The wiser folks started selling all the alt coins back in late December through Early to Mid January. By early February I cleared out of every single last Bitcoin alternative except a couple, and even those I released by the middle of February. I had a ton to clear out and at many times market depth isn't deep enough (demand) so it takes time to unwind larger positions for maxium yields. Most didn't sell until they had lost most of their gains or investments, others tried to either defend their alt coins by further purchases/trades or kept purchasing while prices were in free fall for the last few months time.
I have traded everything under the sun, or nearly so, for decades. But most wont make out trading cryptos. The vast majority that dare try to day trade or even swing trade wont have the skill set to make any profits. 1/3 of my Bitcoins came from trading. I doubt hardly anyone can replicate that feat but trust when I say I more than paid my full dues to learn to do such a task.
here is a rookies guide to the scam of trading in the retail forex:
http://www.babypips.com/school/ it's quite good for learning all things technical for rookies, but don't dare trade in the forex at higher than 10/1 leverage, with 20/1 being the absolute max leverage even in the best of conditions. And forgetabout setting any stops. Either run without them, or not at all. Otherwise far too often you will get stopped out of your forex trades (that's one of the scams designed in to the scam of the forex marketplace against retail traders). That said only
http://fxtrade.oanda.com/ and
http://interactivebrokers.com/en/main.php are trust worthy enough to dare touch the forex. Crypto trading is far safer and way easier, but it's full of dangers and cliffs for every rookie. Go to here first:
http://www.babypips.com/school/ get through at least grade school there before daring to venture into anything besides Bitcoin. Now would be a great time to start dollar-cost averaging your way into bitcoin a little every month or whatever, spread out over 3 to 12 months time. Just realize price spikes tend to happen suddenly, and very violently, right now we're in the lower trading range of $400 to $1000 that was easy enough to quickly define back in early December 2013.
Many still wet behind the ears rookies (noobs) that showed up from late November 2013 through January 2014 still can't grasp that none of these new "brings something new to the table" alt coins as well as all the others are almost all dead now.
Sure there are still pumps and dumps going on but their not worthy of touching for the chances of getting burned at this point is exceedingly high.
I myself have close to 3000 crypto trades now, but I got out months ago, and only quite recently bothered to dip my toes ever so gently back in to a few of the top 10 coins at
http://coinmarketcap.com/ but even those are now extremely high risk ventures. Let alone anything not in the top 20 having slim chances of ever making the grade. Look over that long list of 130 or so alt coins. Realize your best off joining the BitcoinExpress and also learning everything you can to keep from losing your coins to hackers, keyloggers, trojans, and of course many a crook offering scam after scam to cryptocurrency holders.
Since others took to trying to assist I thought I would too.
As for your nick, well hopefully you know how to secure your PC's and router well, as well as run a VPN and of course Noscript, plus isolate your PC's and dedicate at least one PC to nothing but the Bitcoin-Qt client, and whatever other clients you trust enough to dare to download and pray their not infested with crypto stealing malware. This is all so hopefully you don't regret being the next victim around these torturous parts of the new wild, wild west.
No it's not as bad as I make it out, as long as you at least have a dedicated Wallet PC for only that purpose with a fresh clean install of your favorite OS that is at least well secured at the consumer level. But above all else learn Noscript for Firefox and don't enable java-scripting unless you really trust the site very much, or whatever script needs to be run to enable web page features. I wont even dare enable java-scripting here at bitcointalk at all, no way, no how. Even though I have several PCs including casual ones I still as a routine don't take chances.
Like I mentioned, at least one Bitcoin Hero responded to you with good advice. Others too offered sound advice. Forgetabout making your own coin for at least now. Instead learn all about the topic. After all, only fools rush in right?
It will take you at least 6 months to grasp a lot, and at least a year for you to become past your rookie stage. Even with an IT background it doesn't do one any good when it comes to this unique world of this Decentralized Cryptocurrency Revolution.
O, and lastly, Always verify, never ever trust anyone on anything. Do your own due diligence on all this stuff.
Welcome to Bitcointalk.org,
Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware!
