One of the most frequent questions we get asked as cryptocurrency onboarders is the following. "How do I buy cryptocurrency?" There are a couple of ways that we (Go Full Crypto) can answer that question for you. But the responsible thing for us to do is ask more about you. At the end of the day, what you intend on doing with your cryptocurrency will tell us how to answer that question of yours. It also begs the question of what do we mean by "buy" and what do we mean by "own".
Geographic Disclaimer
This post mentions cryptocurrency exchanges, and investment services available in Canada. However, the core teachings of this article are applicable anywhere in the world. Ex. "Not your keys, Not your crypto"
Ownership
In the last newsletter and podcast (episode 29) we talked about what ownership means. For review, you having access to your private key is what proves your ownership over your funds. Check out our blog post for more details.
Buying Crypto on WealthSimple
We decided to build upon this notion of ownership, and address the question that we frequently get from our audience at the same time. "How do I buy cryptocurrency?". For most situations, we would not recommend that you buy cryptocurrency on WealthSimple. The reason is that WealthSimple does not let you withdraw your cryptocurrency from their platform, nor does PayPal. It appears now that there is a spectrum of ownership. WealthSimple and PayPal say that you can buy bitcoin on their platform, yet refuse to let you withdrawal it into a wallet that you control. Are you really buying cryptocurrency at this point?
What we have come to decide on this matter is that WealthSimple is fine first step. WealthSimple is an amazing business that takes a lot of the complexities of investing out of the picture. So if you're a person that prefers simplicity, and doesn't resonate with the message of pure ownership over your money, we might recommend that you try WealthSimple. We recognize that everyone is at their own unique spot in the crypto journey. If PayPal and WealthSimple is where you'e decided to start your crypto journey, then thats great! It is better than not having started your journey at all. There is always the ability to move to a platform that supports a higher degree of ownership later.
Go Full Crypto is About Financial Empowerment
One of the points we love driving home to people is about owning your assets in a way that has never been possible before on this planet. If this message resonates with you, or if you prefer to have more control over your money, then we would recommend a service like ShakePay. To contrast, ShakePay lets you withdraw your bitcoin and ethereum into a wallet that you control. This is precisely what we covered in the latest episode (episode 31) of Go Full Crypto. The intention is to get people to think critically about where they place their money, and what amount of claim of ownership do they have over that crypto?
Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto
This particular mantra is said in every corner of the crypto sphere. It is one of the more important mantras to get familiar with, as it reinforces one of the prime teachings of cryptocurrency in general. If you don't have the private key for your money (something that is impossible with FIAT money), then you are not the sole / direct owner of the thing you think you own. This and more is discussed at length within episode 31 of the podcast. We give the example of a house and mortgage.
The Go Full Crypto NewsLetter
We encourage our readers to join our Newsletter. At the time of writing, our newsletter is free! In the future, we intend on moving our newsletter to a paid model where we pack all sorts of value into the content. For example, we will review various projects (as requested by our newsletter customers) and give people an analysis of the project at hand. We are building a community where people have more ability to make sense of the world of cryptocurrency than they did before. Our thinking is if people pay us $5 per month, and we can save them from making a $1000 mistake, then they've got their money's worth. This is likely to come out in the beginning of 2021. Sign up now to get a preview of what this will look like.
The Go Full Crypto Vision
We want to help people opt-into the world of cryptocurrency, one dollar at a time. In order to do this, people must need a reason. They need their own "why" behind discarding their government currency for the world currency of the future. Go Full Crypto is putting out content to help people discover the reason why they want to get involved in cryptocurrency.
Download Episode 31 - Do You Own Your Cryptocurrency on WealthSimple?
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