It seems cryptocurrency is not going away. On the contrary it is growing in popularity. It is becoming a necessity to have knowledge on cryptocurrency. Our world is evolving, fiat currency is in its last lap. We all need to make the leap to get comfortable with cryptocurrency rather than be left behind.
Cryptocurrency is making its way to the retail world. More often than not I see ATM terminals that would accept cryptocurrencies. Businesses that accept cryptocurrency for financial transactions are increasing in number. The clear simple rationale is if the company is global; it is advantageous to use crypto then everyone would be using the same currency to avoid the tedious time consuming fiat currency exchanges. The perfect example is the global businesses Businessexcels promotes with passive income for example Blue Springs, it uses crypto in and crypto out offering very attractive returns check it out.
I hope I have convinced you that crypto is the way to do business, banking and investments. Before I start I would like to clarify there is a difference between digital currency and cryptocurrency. We are already in the digital currency world. We use our credit cards for majority of our expenses. If we add up all the credit card charges, there aren’t enough paper money to cover all the charges. Essentially our economy is suffocating and barely surviving in fiat digital currency. One very obvious example is when there is any real estate transaction with millions of dollar changing hands. We won’t see stack of paper money being handled during the transaction. The whole transaction would be completed on a sheet of paper with numbers. The digital money transaction was then logged in a centralized location with digital money.
There is a big difference between digital currency and cryptocurrency. Digital currency is centralized under the authority of central regulatory body. Cryptocurrency is decentralized that works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.
BACKGROUND ON CRYPTO CURRENCY
When and why is cryptocurrency created?
in 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto, an individual or group of people who are still unknown today, created Bitcoin using blockchain. BITCOIN (BTC) is the grandfather of all crypto coins. The way the blockchain works is essentially a set of connected blocks of information on an online ledger. It is an unhackable system; because each new block must be verified by each and every computer node within the network before confirmed and accepted. Content of the online ledger is maintained by the computer nodes in the network. The network is worldwide consists of numerous computers. No one knows the location of the computer nodes. This system has no need for bank to be the middle man to check things and prevent double entries or double spending. Therefore it is created to be cost effective and do away with bank charges.
For a long time BTC was hovering below a $1 per coin. You are probably wondering what would be the future value of BTC ? Let’s do the calculation. The current US M1 money supply is around 20 trillion. If BTC captures 15% of the market capitalization ie 0.15 x 20 = 3 trillion. 3 trillion divide by the number of BTC in circulation will give a value of $155,496.812. When would it reach this value? It is very hard to predict. There are influential people, organizations, banks, institutions and exchanges acting unethically with the purpose to cause Crypto Market manipulations. This continuous struggling actions towards control and power remain a substantial problem in cryptocurrency.
Since BTC, many other forms of cryptocurrencies are created. They each are created for a a purpose and use cases. Common ones are ETH, LTC, TRX.
This blog is not on how to invest in cryptocurrency but is on how to use cryptocurrency as a tool to reach your financial freedom goal.
Things need to be done to get ready
SECTION 1. You need to establish a connection between your bank and a cryptocurrency exchange (calebandbrown.com). The setup will make it easy for you to purchase cryptocurrencies with the fiat money from your bank account and vice versa and easy to covert your cryptocurrency back to fiat for bank deposits.
Here are some suggestions:
A. setup an account with any Exchange (Cashapp, coinbase, Uphold, caleb and brown) that provide direct connection to your bank account and has the ability to purchase at least BTC.
Give yourself time to get that setup. Find out whether the chosen entity has a transaction limit.
Do a test run with a small amount to make sure the from/to connection is working.
Here is a video on cashapp on how to use cashapp with one of the applications
B. Purchase the crypto of your choice. For Cashapp, it only has one crypto wallet that is BTC.
Other exchanges have more different type of crypto options.
Always access your crypto need ahead of time. Always purchase more than the amount you need to cover the network fee for your transfer transactions
Crypto Exchanges and App information:
I) Cashapp — cashapp is limited to only one crypto BTC but it does offer a cashapp card a debit BTC card where you can spend your crypto on an ATM machine
a) Install cashapp on your phone by searching for it on your App store or Play store
b). WHEN YOU INSTAL CASHAPP remember the $Cash app tag and the PIN you created. Alway store the info on a pieces of paper in a safe place not on doc or device accessible internet.
c) link your bank and debit card to the app test and verify this link. Click on the figure iCON on the top right corner then select “Linked Banks” to link your bank and bank debit card,
d)Deposit some cash into cash app by selecting the left bottom menu selection you will see a screen with Cash Balance and
“Add Cash” button — to app cash from bank to Cash app
“Cash Out” Button — to deposit cash from the cash app to the linked bank.
Order your Cash app cash card
e) How do you get BTC — click on the bottom right “Bitcoin” icon click ‘ “Buy” to purchase some Bitcoin. Then you are good you will have a BTC wallet address. This is your address to receive your BTC.
CAUTION; Cashapp has daily / weekly limit ($2000/ $5000) on BTC withdrawals and $10,000 weekly limit on BTC deposit amount, If you need more than the daily / weekly limit, plan accordingly.
2. Use DIVI Wallet to purchase DIVI, BTC and ETH via simplex — a wallet fpr everyone. This is crypto made easy where you can buy, sekl, convert and earn crypto with their fully self -custodial wallet
CRYPTO EXCHANGES
The crypto exchanges in US are going through lot of changes. Many other exchanges outside of United States are not servicing US any more. Now the only exchange I use is Caleb and Brown for all my crypto needs. Company is located in Australia. They are vey resourceful. When you are ready to wire them the money wire it as consultant fee. As soon as you registered you will be assigned a personal broker, They offer excellent customer service. Here is the referral link. Using my referral link you will get a discount on your crypto transactions https://app.calebandbrown.com/signup?referrer=M2FE7KK
You need to link and verify your bank account to your Caleb and Brown Account. You can then wire the money to your Caleb and Brown account and place your order with your broker.
You have to option to store your crypto in the Caleb and Brown Wallets or link and verify each wallet type using your Exodus app ( decentralized ) then store your crypto in wallets on your Exodus app
III). Exodus App — it is an excellent app to have all wallets available in the app are decentrailzedd
a.) Install EXODUS app on your phone. This app can handle many different types of coins, It is handy to have. You can easily swap from one to the other within the app. There is no cap on any crypto transfer amount. There is a $5000 limit on crypto purchase.
b.) Use wallets in EXODUS to accumulate your crypto.
c.) CAUTION; WHEN YOU INSTALL THIS EXODUS APP BE SURE TO CAREFULLY BACKUP THE SEED PHRASES IF YOU LOSE THAT YOU WILL BE NOT ABLE TO RECOVER YOUR FUNDS. STORE THE PHRASES IN DUPLICATES IN CASE OF FIRE.
iv) BitPay –Crypto Card & Wallet.
in its 10th year is the best crypto app with decentralized wallets to pay with crypto and accept crypto payments. The best Crypto To Dollar Payment Processing. BitPay transforms how businesses and people send, receive, and store money. Its business solutions eliminate fraud chargebacks, reduce the cost of payment processing, and enable borderless payments in cryptocurrency, among other services. BitPay offers consumers a complete digital asset management solution that includes the BitPay Wallet and BitPay Prepaid Card, enabling them to turn digital assets into dollars for spending at tens of thousands of businesses
BitPay solely operates as a cryptocurrency payment processor, so we are unable to process credit card payments.
a.) Install Bitpay app on your phone — must be 18 years of age — BitPay wallet is available on the following platforms: Android iO Windows Mac and Linux
b) Load your wallet to buy, store, swap and spend securely start with a BTC wallet. You can also Register as a merchant to accept crypto payments lightning fast.
C) support the following cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin (BTC: on-chain, off-chain with Coinbase, and Lightning), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB), Apecoin (APE), 5 USD-pegged stablecoins (GUSD, USDC, USDP, DAI, and BUSD), Euro Coin (EUROC) I A Euro-Backed Stablecoin, Polygon (MAT)
d) Order the bitpay card it will be send to your designated location
e) you can load and fund your card with no conversion fee. Transaction fee is 0.5 – 1 %. But there is a dormant fee of $5 if you don’t use it.
f) you can convert crypto to fiat if needed to spend Here are the limits
ATM ($2000 per withdrawal max 3 per day) load limit ( $10K per day) spending limit ($10K per day) Balance limit ($25K per day including cash load)
SECTION 2. How do you transfer crypto from one wallet to the other?
Start to think of wallets as houses. Each has an address. Each transaction has a transaction ID same as a paper receipt when you pay a bill
If you want to send some crypto from wallet A to wallet B
i) the two wallets must have the same coin type i.e. BTC to BTC or LTC to LTC. Some crypto uses different network eg USDT has more than one network so there are USDT (ERC20) and USDT (TRC20). Check everything before you do the transaction. When you have doubt ask questions,
ii) click on wallet A with the send button sometimes an up arrow
iii) then you select the currency denomination eg BTC or USD then enter the amount you would like to send in the chosen denomination Then it would ask for the recipient wallet address
iv) click on wallet B receive button or a down arrow a QR code will appear with a wallet address with a copy icon next to it Make it a habit of copying the address by clicking on the icon only.
Paste this address to where step iii) is waiting for the address entry
v) Then complete the transfer by click on a “submit” button or sliding an arrow;
vi) SUCCESS now you have completed transferring crypto from wallet A to wallet B
SECTION 3. Keep your exposure to crypto volatility to a minimum. If your observation tells your the crypto market is volatile. Then use Exodus app to swap you crypto into USDC or DAO stable coins on Exodus
If your observation tells you crypto market is appreciating then swap the coins from stable coins into BTC or LTC within Exodus app.
SECTION 4. How to keep cryptocurrency safe
i) First let’s address the seed phrase storage. It is imperative that do not lose your seed phrases. Your crypto holdings are not like your bank account or misc account and credit cards. Once you lose your seed phrase they cannot be restored you will lose access to your wallet and crypto holdings. For that there are many products that provides protection to your recovery words. Here is a good article for you to review.
ii) As time goes on, your collection of crypto currency will definitely expand. Is it safe to keep them accessible through the internet. The answer is no. If there is an internet crash you will not able to access your crypto accounts or apps.
iii) Use VPN
ALWAY USE A VPN WHEN YOU ARE ON INTERNET ALWAYS ACCESS YOUR CRYPTO WALLETS WITH VPN — I use Cyberghost vpn you can install it on 6 devices using the same license here is the link to start subscribing VPN – the pricing is very reasonable
https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/refer-a-friend/welcome?redeemCode=Vz5e-vJdX-Gscy-Aria
iii) COLD STORAGE
My recommendation is to store majority of your coins in COLD STORAGE or you walletes installed on your crypto only laptop which I will discuss later.
I recommend LEDGER-NANO-X here are a few good point why LEDGER-NANO-X is a good choice.
You have the option to use my link to purchase the device. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT GET IT FROM AMAZON OR ANY DISCOUNT PLACES here is my link to purchase LEDGER NANO X
https://shop.ledger.com/?r=5303c4e3f7de
The main idea behind the device is the easiest way to secure your Bitcoin and cryptocurrency offline. In the case of Ledger, the devices make use of something called a ‘secure element’.
This helps make them resistant to physical attacks and allows for a more secure cold offline storage of your coins. This also protects the private keys from malware and means improved security over other software wallets.
You are probably wondering is it difficult to use, is it user friendly. I used this video to help me setup my Ledger-Nano-X and I have successfully transferred most of my crypto to my LEDGER_NANO-X
\IV) The ultimate best is to setup a dedicated laptop for all your crypto activities. I have a laptop specially setup for all my crypto activities where I use my proton.me email, brave browser. My crypto apps such as Exodus, Trust wallet and Metamask wallets are all installed on this laptop. I do not use wireless internet I use direct ethernet internet connection and if you are interested here is my referral link. It is safer than Ledger or Trezor
https://www.calixsolutions.io/crypto-laptops/ref/irene.west
V) Another important recommendation is to keep your crypto in decentralized wallets only. Keep away from exchanges. Good Practice is to use decentralized entities always. Here are a list of decentralized wallets Exodus, Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Ledger, Ngrave, Atomic Wallet, Klever, Coolbit, Cold Wallet, Brave Wallet, SafePal, Trezor, TronLink, Edge, Streakk, BitBox02.
Hope all the info here will help you make friends with crypto. Hope this will remove your feeling that crypto field is an unchartered territory instead of trying to stay away from it make yourself feel comfortable with it. This is an area you need to get your feet wet so to speak. Have fun and explore in this crypto world.
