The world is changing, as are countries economies which means that your countries dollar is changing compared to others – and that’s ok! But as things change, people look for either ways to invest or other to transact (make or receive payments) and one of those options is crypto.
In this article, we are going to outline as simply as possible how to get up and running with crypto.
To begin, there are three things to know and have:
1. A “wallet” (somewhere to store your crypto)
2. An Exchange (a store for buying or selling crypto)
3. An idea of the crypto you need and want to use (check conclusion for tips).
Crypto Wallets
Wallets are somewhere your crypto is stored, just the same as how you have a wallet to hold your cards or cash, this is an electronic wallet to store your electronic currency.
To get up and running, we don’t recommend anything that is hard to use or expensive – in fact, our suggest is free. Exodus Wallet. This is very quick to set up and very easy to use. Once you have it downloaded (either desktop or app) sign in and you’re good to go to send and receive crypto.
Another awesome feature is that you can even buy crypto right through the wallet itself through “MoonPay”.
An Exchange
In order to buy crypto, you need an exchange – much like anything you buy, you need a store to buy it from – an exchange is just that, a store for crypto. As mentioned above, Exodus does have one built in, but there are other exchanges out there – some are easy to use, others, not so much.
1. Easycrypto
2. Coinbase
3. Crypto.com
We recommend Easycrypto as it is incredibly easy to use and understand (that is, if you don’t go for the inbuilt system with Exodus Wallet). You simply join, verify yourself and then buy the type and amount of crypto you want. It will ask for the wallet address (which if using Exodus, you find the crypto and then click “receive” and it will display your wallet address. Pop that in, pay, you’re sorted!
WARNING
Before you go buying a crypto, make sure that crypto is accepted on the site you’re wanting to buy from! Don’t buy a crypto they don’t support.
Spending Crypto
This is the same as buying it – except the site you’re using will get you to send a certain amount of crypto to an address (an account). Simply proceed through to checkout with crypto selected, and it will give you all the details you need. The amount of the required crypto and the wallet address to send to. Simply copy and paste each of these (or scan the QR code) and you’re all set.
Conclusion
Crypto might seem scary, but all you’re really doing is exchanging your currency for another, and then sending it to an account. A lot of people hold crypto as it can go up in value rapidly, but can also crash in value – but that is why there are currencies that are “pegged” to the USD. They stay pretty much the same value of 1:1 with the USD – these are things like USDC (USD Coin) and USDT (USD Tether). If you simply want a currency to use, these are good options as they are less volatile (gain value rapidly or crash in value rapidly) – but if you want to have something more volatile, coins like BTC (Bitcoin) and ETH (Etherium) are fun to play with – the choice is yours.