The reason why I ask is because, although I'm not too late in the game, I'm seriously considering putting some money aside for BTC or (to the shibe's delight) Doge. The brick wall I'm running into is that there is now a multitude of different online wallets, exchanges and the like, and I'm not sure what will really suit my needs. What I'd like to be able to do is: a) have some aside for savings/investment purposes, b) actively engage in the CC community by buying and selling real products/services, and c) learn as much as I can and perhaps consult businesses in the future on how to accept CC as a method of payment.
Any thoughts?
The year was 2011. It was during the first Mt. Gox bubble (that popped and went down to $1 due to a hack). We just thought it was cool. We mined. We also got banned from Fry's. I'll just leave it at that.
Anyways, I would suggest picking up a little bit to play around with / understand the system first. Once you get the hang of it, buy in, and buy in with the assumption that you'll lose it all. :)
Also be sure to use safe-storage practices if you hold any large amounts. Keep an air-gapped wallet to hold any large amounts of coin (a raspberry pi or cheapy netbook may be good for this). Encrypt encrypt encrypt. Always use 2-FA wherever possible. Never keep significant amounts of coinage on any online wallet or market, no matter how established they are.
You can also mine, which in some ways is less risky - esp. if you're mining a currency where graphics cards are still viable (you can always resell a graphics card - you can't resell an ASIC). I think ASIC-mining is a fool's game unless you yourself are the manufacturer.
Check out: http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency to get an idea of how viable it is.
Wow, I was not aware of how truly stratified the CC markets were, particularly in mining. Unfortunately I do not have the hardware to start mining immediately; my laptop's graphics card is located right next to the motherboard. Since I'll be buying a desktop PC (budget at $700), that'll change soon. Not all of those are exchangeable for one another, correct?
I just started becauses coinbase is doing $10 worth of btc free for people that sign up using a .edu address. Also if you sign up you should use my referral link because I'm shameless and get $1 in btc per referral. Yay student emails. /https://coinbase.com/?r=5375628760a70ac4f4000034&utm_campaign=user-referral&src=referral-link/
I'd start with a small amount via Coinbase. It's about as reputable as you can get, and as good of a cloud-based wallet as any. By all accounts, if you do buy a substantial amount, it probably is best to get it into a paper wallet. However, I would not put money into BTC you can't afford to lose. Anything can happen at this point. Don't have any browser extensions enabled when you are using an online wallet, and use 2FA.
i second this, coinbase was the best service i found to use. also yeah be prepared to lose haha. i had awful luck with btc, bought some right to use on silkroad right before a bust, so i lost money there, then silkroad got everything in everything that was in, i cant remember the term, but the 3rd party holding while you waited on your things from a vendor got robbed. if i get back into cc though i'll probably start with one of the newer cc like litecoin then put my earnings in btc. fake edit, posting on a phone makes run on sentences.