Noob’s Guide to 

Cryptocurrency

(Not Financial advice, originally written for a friend)

  Intro

This guide will hopefully answer most if not all of the questions you may have regarding Cryptocurrency, wallets, exchanges, and uses for you to educate yourself. Remember THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, with that out of the way I will begin with where you can buy CryptoCurrency

Where to buy Your Cryptocurrency?

You can buy Cryptocurrency from exchanges or swaps, exchanges if they were compared to something, they would be like amazon, you pay money for crypto and they give you what you ordered along with a fee they impose on their platform. A swap is where  you pay a fixed % fee and swap crypto with other users with the website acting as the middle-man. Both of these ways of purchasing crypto often have on-exchange wallets, never keep your crypto here (on the exchange) as it is possible to be hacked and have it stolen  and never get it back. Below are the most commonly used Exchanges and I will discuss pros, cons and features they have.

Coinbase

One of the most used exchanges for Americans as it is one of the main exchanges that follows US regulation surrounding cryptocurrnecies. They also charge a standard fee ranging from $0.99 to a % of a purchase, this depends on the amount you are buying.

Referral link: https://www.coinbase.com/join/johnst_82d

Pros:

1. Easy to use
2. Coinbase has their own wallet and its easy to sync with the exchange account
3. Holds a decent number of mainstream coins
4. Easy to set up 
5. Know your customer (KYC) is completed in 3 days or less
6. Can exchange crypto for other crypto

Cons:

1. Sells info on their customers to the FED, how long till they sell information to others?
2. The exchange goes down during sell off periods randomly
3. Their fees are really high compared to other exchanges
4. No staking for anything but Tezos
5. App is laggy at times
6. Loses connection often

Gemini

Think of Gemini as a Canadian Coinbase but without the wallet and a slightly more reliable reputation when it comes to website up time

Referral link: https://gemini.com/share/9glpm5c7

Pros:

1. Easy to set up
2. Quick KYC
3. More coins than coinbase
4. Quick and user friendly interface
5. Low fees
6. Good up-time even during major sell offs
7. Can exchange crypto for other crypto
8. App is responsive

Cons:

1. Some US states cannot use their exchange
2. No wallet to go along with the app
3. Setting up a wallet with this to deposit your crypto into can be a hassle
4. Due to point 3. Above, the transfer of funds / crypto can be slowed
5. Does Not easily take debit / credit cards

Crypto.com APP

Referral link: Use my referral link https://platinum.crypto.com/r/ugynvsbx87 to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $50 USD :)

Pros:

1. Has a wallet built into the exchange itself
2. Can use credit/debit cards
3. Can link a bank account
4. Can exchange crypto for other crypto
5. Has a wallet in EARN feature where you can earn interest on your crypto
6. Has crypto as well as fiat wallet

Cons: 

1. Prices can be a little high as it updates slower than expected
2. No website, only a phone app
3. Wallet doesn't have many options to store or buy

KuCoin

A not US based crypto exchange in hong kong with a lot more variety of coins, hundreds to buy, but due to it being for more experienced crypto traders so it can be confusing to learn and how to use it properly

Referral Link: https://www.kucoin.com/ucenter/signup?rcode=24vsef2

Pros:

1. Can set up buy / sell orders when it hits a certain price
2. Any crypto you could want is here (most likely)
3. Has 2 wallets (trade and storage )
4. Up to date prices
5. No down time
6. Very secure

Cons:

1. Confusing to new users in the crypto space
2. Can be hard to use
3. Support is slow
4. Can’t buy with fiat 
5. Only lets you buy with BTC or ETH

Atomic Wallet (Exchange)

Referral Link: None, not an affiliate

Pros:

1. Is a wallet  that also ACTS as an exchange
2. Allows staking
3. Has the largest storage & variety of coins to stake, buy, store
4. Low fees
5. Can be on android or Apple phone/computer or  windows desktop
6. Support is quick to respond
7. Has more niche coins

Cons:

1. Some coins require Binance account
2. Minimum trade requirements on some conversions
3. Some staking is frozen for a time after you unstake it
4. Can have connection issues when on mobile

Where to Store Your Cryptocurrency?

You never want to keep your coins on an exchange as in that case the exchange owns those coins even if they are in your account as they have the keys, not your keys, not your coin.

What are Wallets?

Hardware or software that holds your crypto (the keys) and often use fingerprint, pin code, password, or a puzzle lock, usually 2 of these in combination and these all have a group of 8-12 random words as a key to retrieve the wallet or access it if you are logged into another device or on another computer, YOU NEED TO SAVE THESE AND KEEP THEM PRIVATE, NEVER SHARE YOUR PRIVATE KEYS, IF YOU LOSE THE KEY FOR A WALLET AND FORGET YOUR PASSWORD YOUR CRYPTO IS GONE FOREVER.

Coinbase Wallet

Pros: 

1. Links to Coinbase exchange easily
2. Offers lending service to gain interest on your crypto
3. User friendly

Cons:

1. Low variety of crypto 
2. Takes a while to sync after a transfer
3. Can take a long time to load

Atomic Wallet

The Atomic Wallet is a wallet as well as an exchange so it fits here as well

Pros:

1. Functions as an exchange as well
2. Stores a large variety of crypto
3. Can be organized and customized to each users needs
4. User friendly
5. Staking for a dozen coins
6. You can pick your staking pool

Cons:

1. Can be intimidating
2. Exchange can take a long time to update the wallet portion of the app
3. Some coins can only be gotten from / gotten rid of on binance due to their partnership

Crypto.com Wallet

Crypto.com is a wallet as well as an exchange so it fits here as well

Pros:

1. Functions as an exchange as well
2. User friendly
3. Sleek interface
4. Organises by amount or $USD value
5. Has graphs for price history of coins
6. Has coin pricing and graphs for over 300 coins
7. Can spend crypto thanks to their debit card program

Cons:

1. Can be slow to load
2. They own your keys but as long as the company stay legitimate that is not an issue
3. Small amount of crypto accepted
4. This depends on the user, but their crypto they made is always put into your feed

What Crypto to Buy into? (My recommendations, Not Financial  advice)

Bitcoin

The OG, first ever cryptocurrency, runs with the lightning network built around the original framework, Microsoft builds on this system

How its earned 

Proof of work (mining)

Uses for the coin

Hold of value / payment method

Price history

All time Low: $6

Alltime high: $19,900

Price as of june 27th 2020: 9000

Where to buy

Almost any exchange, even payment apps

Etherium

The biggest alt coin out there, soon to implement their staking protocol to earn people not for work but for the ETH they own, amazon builds on this network.

How its earned

Proof of work (mining)

Uses for the coin

ETH chain has games, business, almost anything you could imagine on it, including ERC-20 tokens.

Price history

All Time Low:$0.420897 USD (Oct 21, 2015)

All Time High: $1,432.88 USD (Jan 13, 2018)

Price as of June 27 2020: $231.09 USD 

Where to buy

Any exchange

Tezos
Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications backed by a global community of validators, researchers, and builders.

How its earned

Proof of Stake (earning interest by staking)

Uses for the coin

Smart contracts

Price history

All Time Low: $0.314631 USD (Dec 07, 2018)

All Time High: $4.46 USD (Jul 01, 2018)

Price as of June 27 2020: $2.47 USD

Where to buy

Coinbase, Gemini, Atomic Wallet exchange

ChainLink

It’s a security token, made for banking and secure information transfers and DEFI

How its earned

Its generated

Uses for the coin

Security token

Price history

All Time Low: $1.35 USD

All Time High: $5.10 USD 

Price as of June 27 2020: $4.36 USD

Where to buy

Any exchange

CRO

How its earned

Interest / purchase

Uses for the coin

Spending in the app / with their card

Price history

All time low: $0.012 USD

All time high: $0.158 USD

Price as of June 27 2020: $0.113705

Where to buy

Crypto.com and Atomic Wallet,  KuCoin

MCO

Proprietary coin for Crypto.com

How its earned

Interest / purchase

Uses for the coin

Higher interest rates in the app / better debit / credit card

Price history

All time low: $22.02 USD

All time high: $0.705190 USD

Price as of June 27 2020: $4.12

Where to buy

Crypto.com and Atomic Wallet, KuCoin

Cardano

Similar to ETH, but better planned out in an academic and research focused sense.

How its earned

Purchase / staking

Uses for the coin

Staking in the shelly mode of the network for profit of 10% anum

Price history

All time low: $0.01925275 USD

All time high: $1.18 USD

Price as of June 27 2020: $0.077375

Where to buy

Atomic Wallet, KuCoin

Scams to Watch Out For

Asymmetrical giveaways, cloud mining, game sites, gambling sites and anyone asking for private keys, you to send them anything, etc. Ask me if you aren't sure on a site or service, I have tried many or know someone who has.