Sunday is my weekly "Update Day", when I gather all my numbers and - in future - post this kind of image (with the blatantly stolen format from someone else I'll mention, but who no longer does their thing) to show how it's going:

As you can see, I've been going for just over 6 months on this. I was doing quite well, then I screwed up royally and lost 25% (we'll get to that), so I've been rebuilding for about 10 days (yes, made that much back in that time).

Mid-week, I'll do info posts about how I'm earning (or not).

So where to start this journey? Onramping, I guess.

Onramping (horrible manager-speak word) is buying crypto with normal money (fiat). When I started, you could do it without KYC identity checks, through places like LocalBitcoin or Bittylicious. They all require ID now, since crypto's gone mainstream and regulation continues to build. This despite the fact that KYC does almost nothing to stop misuse, at a ridiculously high cost for businesses.

Add the annoyance that many banks won't send to exchanges and it can be hard to step into crypto.

I ended up with Kraken. Despite their ads saying Forbes thinks they're wonderful and they have low fees, their trading fees are stupidly high (unless you trade a LOT) and the site's painfully slow compared to others. In fact, there's no referral link here because I couldn't even get into their mobile app, it's so bad. But there's no charge for GBP deposits - one trade to USDT and you're ready to move your funds to a better exchange at very low cost. They also do Lightning BTC withdrawals for no fee, which is nice if you're planning on HODLing in a self-custodial wallet.

In addition, some UK banks will also send to Kraken while they refuse others. The Co-operative will. I think Santander will (not sure).

Kraken requires KYC, of course. Not recommended for trading, due to speed and fees, but the perfect onramp.

Link: https://kraken.com