CryptoCra$h - Prepare your Angus

[KoalaSlim]

DISCLAIMER: ALL INFORMATION IN THIS THREAD IS OPINION AND NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. PLEASE DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE.

Welcome to the CryptoCurrency thread! Please join us in discussing all aspects of cryptocurrency investing and mining! Please read through the following FAQ. Let us know if you have any questions after you have learned the ropes. Please, keep in mind this is a very volatile and experimental asset class. ONLY INVEST WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE.

Want to jump in and buy crypto coins with USD?

Sign up for one of the following exchanges:

https://www.coinbase.com/
https://gemini.com/
https://www.kraken.com/

We have the most experience with CoinBase, and we can answer your questions. You will need to verify and link your bank account, and provide copious amounts of personal information. Once you have your bank verified, it takes approximately one week to clear funds or buy directly from bank account. Plan accordingly. Think ahead. Wire transfer the money to Coinbase. Wait for it to clear. Transfer it onto GDAX for free, and pay less trading fees.

Consider signing up for TWO conduits. Sometimes the sites go down during peak usage. It's good to have two different ways to move money into and out of the market. Gemini is becoming increasingly popular among our users as a good alternative to CoinBase.

To those worrying about the USD deposits to CoinBase not showing up, don't worry they will. I had a black period of a few days recently but it did pop up eventually.

Want to have access to AltCoins that aren't available on the above sites?

Join one of the following coin to coin exchanges:

https://www.binance.com/
https://www.bittrex.com/
https://www.kucoin.com/


On these exchanges you can buy many different coins/tokens with your BTC or ETH.

For example you will locate your ETH wallet on Binance, send coins from your CoinBase ETH wallet to your Binance ETH wallet. Then, you can find the token or coin you would like to purchase, and find that ??? / ETH pair on the Binance exchange. The exchange operates like many other market trading platforms. Google "market order" "limit order" and get used to the interface with small trades.

Are you interested in learning more about crypto through videos and tutorials?

Andreas Aantonopolous has an archive of videos that will explain the concepts and ideas behind cryptocurrency, and the economy of the digital realm:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJW...annel=aantonop

Ivan on Tech has some great videos covering concepts:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrY...nel=IvanonTech

Chris Dunn is a level headed dude that has been involved with crypto for a long time:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdC...nnel=ChrisDunn

How do I store my coins long term, safely?

Leaving assets floating around the exchanges is not a smart plan. Invest in a good hardware wallet, and get your coins off the internet and under your control. The following are excellent hardware wallets with proven security features:

Ledger Nano S: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/

Trezor: https://trezor.io/

Are you worried about tax season and the IRS?!

The IRS classifies crypto as property, not currency. They view trading these assets the same as they view stocks. The same concepts of short/long capital gains apply here, and you are required to keep track of your trades and profits, as the exchanges do NOT generate tax forms, just spreadsheets to help you in your calculations. Please keep detailed records of your trades as you go, or use one of the following resources to track your activity for you:

https://bitcoin.tax/
https://cointracking.info?ref=K705430 The link is a referral link, and you will receive 10% off for using it, and I get a reward also!

Because crypto is property, some people argue that the idea of a "like kind exchange" should apply if you are trading coin for coin. This is a grey area, and the IRS has not clarified that this applies to crypto.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like-kind_exchange

As tax season approaches, you will see more discussion relating to taxes.

LIST OF ADDITIONAL USEFUL SITES:

https://coinmarketcap.com/ Market caps and more.
https://www.worldcoinindex.com/ Live market cap and more. Thanks Sebtarta!
https://cryptowat.ch/ Live charts.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/ Gossip and news (beware the shill armies and FUD campaigns).
https://www.coindesk.com/ Articles.
https://coin.dance/ Technical Bitcoin information.
https://github.com/ Open source code and watching project progress.
https://smartoptions.io/icos/ ICO news.
https://ethplorer.io/ Ethereum explorer tool for tokens.
https://masternodes.pro/ Information on Masternode costs and profits.
https://www.coinscalendar.com/ Upcoming Crypto events.
https://dpostools.com/LISK Lisk voting optimization tools.
http://unchainedpodcast.co/ Good Podcasts.


Useful Terms and Acronyms:

ADDRESS - Two "keys" one public one private. One you keep safe, used to send funds. One is public, given to others to route $$ to your address.
ALTCOIN - A coin other than Bitcoin.
ATH - All Time High.
BAG HOLDER - A person who holds coins in quantity, waiting for a rally.
DAPP - Decentralized Application.
DCA - Dollar Cost Average.
DPOS - Delegated Proof Of Stake.
DUMP - To sell off a coin.
FIAT - Regular Money.
FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out.
FUD - Fear Uncertainty Doubt.
HARD FORK - A protocol software upgrade that is not backwards compatible.
HODL - Hold!
ICO - Initial Coin Offering.
LARRY - We don't like Larry.
LEROY - We like Leroy.
MCAP - Market Cap.
MINING - The minting of new coins.
MOON - Strong upward movement of price.
OTC - Over The Counter.
P2P - Peer To Peer.
POS - Proof Of Stake.
POW - Proof Of Work.
PRIFUT - Profit.
SAT - Satoshi. 1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 Satoshi.
SEGWIT - Segregated Witness. A software upgrade for Bitcoin.
SHILL - Individual that hypes a coin, usually for personal gain.
****COIN - A coin that has little to no tech or use case, invented for PnD.
SOFT FORK - A protocol software upgrade that is backwards compatible.
TA - Technical Analysis.
UAHF - User Activated Hard Fork.
UASF - User Activated Soft Fork.
WHALE - A holder of vast quanities of a coin, with weight to move the market.

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[Furiousd1983]

Currency that could worth $2100 today and $1 tomorrow? Where do I sign up?!

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by Furiousd1983

Currency that could worth $2100 today and $1 tomorrow? Where do I sign up?!

You could lose 100% of your investment, or make 3000% of your investment. Seems like a good gamble to me...

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by Furiousd1983

Currency that could worth $2100 today and $1 tomorrow? Where do I sign up?!

BTC has been a better investment than the stock market

[hooziewhatsit]

Instead of laughing at BTC when it could still be mined on a CPU, I should have mined a lot

I still have a Radeon HD 7800. Any idea if it's good enough for ethereum (or anything else), or is it too late?

I did mine some litecoin, but my wallet shows that I apparently spent it all

[Jard]

I own 3.66438488 Ether, purchased on the last big upswing and have been mining for about 10 days with another 0.57779 ETH to be paid out when it hits 1.

I have a 1080 Ti, 2 x 1070, and a RX 470 currently mining. I'm about to trade that RX 470 for another 1070 when I can find a good enough deal on craigslist.

[shikataganai]

I'm somewhat interested in speculating and holding a la Corn Picker, knowing that it could go to 0. Where would I drop, say, $5k and why there and why that particular currency? What are reputable exchanges? Does one need a hardware wallet?

[MPRZIV]

Originally Posted by KoalaSlim

You could lose 100% of your investment, or make 3000% of your investment. Seems like a good gamble to me...

The lottery must REALLY appeal to you.

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by MPRZIV

The lottery must REALLY appeal to you.

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by MPRZIV

The lottery must REALLY appeal to you.

I've never so much bought even a scratch ticket. I don't like casino games. But I'm comfortable with some risk.

I am only playing with 5% of my net worth. The lions share of my retirement and savings are in traditional 401k and a few different index funds. I won't be seriously affected if these crash and burn...

Originally Posted by shikataganai

I'm somewhat interested in speculating and holding a la Corn Picker, knowing that it could go to 0. Where would I drop, say, $5k and why there and why that particular currency? What are reputable exchanges? Does one need a hardware wallet?

Giving advice is a **** show but I'd say of the three I hold, Ether appears to be the most overbought, but also the most interesting.

I think Litecoin has potential to 10x this year, and the Chinese exchanges are driving that coin upwards in value.

Dash and Zcoin are smaller coins I keep hearing a lot about...

I might buy an antminer litecoin miner, LC3. I don't have any old graphics cards lying around...

Reputable exchanges:
Poloniex
Coinbase
Gemini

Yes, I think a hardware wallet is a good idea long term. I don't like having huge chunks of cash on exchanges or online wallets. Even paper wallets are a good idea if you dont want to buy a Trezor or a Ledger Nano S.

Make SURE when creating wallets, to ensure your computer does not have malware such as screen capture or keyloggers. Your money will disappear. I bought a MacBook Air and don't use it for anything but crypto. I don't surf the web with it at all...

[Jard]

Local wallets are also an option, but not the easiest.

[kinkinhood]

I'm still curious to when the cryptocurrency crash is going to happen

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by kinkinhood

I'm still curious to when the cryptocurrency crash is going to happen

Japan just recognized bitcoin as legal tender. Singapore just tokenized their dollar using ethereum network. Koreans are buying up crypto like crazy. One Billion Chinese are using crypto on WeChat, and young people there aren't using bank accounts any more. Over 90 companies have formed an alliance to develop ethereum block chain. It includes Microsoft, and Toyota. I think it will correct at some point, but I don't think it's going to crash to zero...

[Rafaelsoares123]

Im just curious as what the **** you are all talking about lol

[Ethan]

Yea. How do I get into getting rich. Spell it out for me!

[whitrzac]

Originally Posted by Ethan

Yea. How do I get into getting rich. Spell it out for me!

[Bryan T]

I thought one of the attractions of Bitcoin was that the money supply was controlled. With several competing cryptocurrencies, it seems to me that the money supply is no longer controlled. I'm assuming that one cryptocurrency is a perfect substitute for another. Am I wrong?

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by Bryan T

I thought one of the attractions of Bitcoin was that the money supply was controlled. With several competing cryptocurrencies, it seems to me that the money supply is no longer controlled. I'm assuming that one cryptocurrency is a perfect substitute for another. Am I wrong?

Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. There is room in the market for multiple for sure.

Bitcoin Pro's:

-Limited eventual supply, no inflation.
-The first, and most recognizable.
-Untraceable transactions, good for drug dealers and gamblers.

Bitcoin Con's:

-Small block size
-Slow transaction speed, not good for merchants
-Untraceable transactions mean limited usefuleness for banks that require this.

Ethereum is more than a currency. It's a platform. It's like a new internet, and it's built on a full Turing programming language. You can make any application you want and run it on the network. The ether coin is more of a "gasoline" that makes all the programs work. So you're buying into an architecture, not a currency. People are currently frantically buying up all the domains on the ethereum network, because a lot of people believe this is internet 2.0, and will replace our current internet because net neutrality is threatened and ethereum network is impossible to control like that, because it's fully decentralized.

Dash, for instance, is solely designed for quick merchant transactions.

Ripple was created by bankers to transfer large amount of funds between bank branches. It can't be mined.

So they all have their uses. Eventually the dust will settle and there will be some major players and then smaller tokens as well. There's already a dentcoin that you can use to pay for dentist appointments. There will eventually be a coin for everything. There will be coffeecoin that you can use to buy coffee beans from suppliers etc. No middle man.

Get it? It's hard to wrap your head around at first.

[SlickWRX]

Originally Posted by hooziewhatsit

Instead of laughing at BTC when it could still be mined on a CPU, I should have mined a lot

I still have a Radeon HD 7800. Any idea if it's good enough for ethereum (or anything else), or is it too late?

I did mine some litecoin, but my wallet shows that I apparently spent it all

I was inches away from spending a grand or so on the Butterfly Labs ASIC. I'm glad I didn't invest in that **** show.

[shikataganai]

Originally Posted by KoalaSlim

Giving advice is a **** show but I'd say of the three I hold, Ether appears to be the most overbought, but also the most interesting.

I think Litecoin has potential to 10x this year, and the Chinese exchanges are driving that coin upwards in value.

Reputable exchanges:
Poloniex
Coinbase
Gemini

Yes, I think a hardware wallet is a good idea long term. I don't like having huge chunks of cash on exchanges or online wallets. Even paper wallets are a good idea if you dont want to buy a Trezor or a Ledger Nano S.

Make SURE when creating wallets, to ensure your computer does not have malware such as screen capture or keyloggers. Your money will disappear. I bought a MacBook Air and don't use it for anything but crypto. I don't surf the web with it at all...

So what would be the sequence? This sound right? Do I still need a software wallet with a hardware wallet? Will a exchange account suffice for this software need?

1) Hardware wallet
2) Exchange account
3) Purchase currency on exchange
4) Transfer to hardware wallet
5) ???
6) Profit

[godfather2112]

Wish I knew more about it, but have been buying silver bars and platinum recently.

That's all I got.

[TheCokeCan]

It's hard to take seriously a supposed currency that mostly everyone views and treats as a commodity... it's way too gold standard for my taste.

I only know the basic principles of bitcoin, so I may be completely off-base.

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by shikataganai

So what would be the sequence? This sound right? Do I still need a software wallet with a hardware wallet? Will a exchange account suffice for this software need?

1) Hardware wallet
2) Exchange account
3) Purchase currency on exchange
4) Transfer to hardware wallet
5) ???
6) Profit

You got it...

A software wallet sort of refers to programs that manage your crypto on your computer, your phone, or an online site.

A hardware wallet refers to an offline device (smart USB flash drive) that has buttons on it so you can enter pin codes to allow transactions. If you set it up right, you get an additional layer of protection.

With the software wallet you run the risk of the device in question being compromised, or a site shutting down from failure or hacking.

You could skip step one and store coins on Coinbase until your hardware wallet arrived. Or you could create a paper wallet, and store the coins offline that way too. Just don't lose the piece of paper the codes are printed on!

https://www.bitaddress.org/bitaddres...cef4aa194.html

Here's a reputable site that will generate wallets for you. Make SURE to download the html and run the program offline on a clean computer and print off on a non networked printer. You can't be too careful on the security front. Being your own bank is cool, but you have to manage all the risk your self. There is no FDIC to bail you out! And that wallet will only work for BTC, there's other sites for other currencies.

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by TheCokeCan

It's hard to take seriously a supposed currency that mostly everyone views and treats as a commodity... it's way too gold standard for my taste.

I only know the basic principles of bitcoin, so I may be completely off-base.

You aren't off-base.

A lot of the gold and silver freako's are into crypto. It's an anti-govt anti bank mentality.

The IRS also views crypto as a commodity. You will end up paying capital gains on your earnings the same as you would for stocks. If you hold less than a year, you might be penalized up to 39%, but if you hold over a year it drops down to 10-20% (depending on income level).

[Jard]

Honestly I would just keep coins on an exchange with a good secure single-use password until you transfer them to a hardware wallet, if you are keeping long-term.