You're very right. But why not buy when BTC was at 1800 last month or when ETH hit $150 ish. The problem with cryptocurrency is that is all speculative and manipulation. Most in the market now (making money) are buying/selling the waves. Most of the tokens out there are tied closely to BTC. There are very few projects out there that will eventually break free from BTC. Right now Ethereum is one.
Does coinbase also act as a wallet? Like if I wanted to send/rec money from an address? And thanks so much for heads up
Its all speculation so I can't give you a comfortable answer. If you feel like playing the market, I would suggest Etherum as its more volatile. I have found most enthusiasts admit the know very little about the market.
Yes, Coinbase holds your key to your wallet. This is why many people suggest keeping it off exchanges. Coinbase: Quickest and easiest to get started. High fees. Deep pockets so they are more likely to cover during serious losses (such as hacking or what not). Lots of outages during high traffic. When the market gets volatile, they tend to go into 'outages' to prevent mass transactions and panic selling. Gemini: Much lower transaction fees. I have not notice any outages. Bittrex: Bittrex does not deal in fiat. They have many many alt coins which can be bought with Bitcoin or Ether. Kraken: Slow. Takes forever to get approved. --- Exchange Wallets: They hold your security keys, meaning they can pretty much do whatever they want with your tokens. Its pretty much like the bank holding your money ... minus the federal government insuring your money. While exchanges can be hacked, most of them keep their reserves offline. You do not have to worry about forgetting or losing your wallets. Hardware wallets: These are the new rage touting their great security. In principle, they are great. However if you lose your passphrases, they are gone forever. An additional problem with hardware wallets is the security at the manufacture. Its plausible an employee could intercept the passphrase during manufacturing and later steal everything from you. Cold Storage: Creating your own wallet online and storing the keys on a external harddrive/zip drive/ect. There is a big risk of losing/damaging the storage device and permanently losing your key. Paper Wallet: Basically you print out your keys onto paper and store them safe. You do not have to worry about hackers or hardware failures. The additional problem is its just a piece of paper ... that can be copied or photographed or lost/destory. There is also a risk of super HD security cameras catching them in view if youre an idiot and flash it about openly. Online Wallets: (not to be confused with Exchanges) Just stay away from them. These are extremely susceptible to hacking and offer no protection. You just have to figure out what works for you.
It's an exchange like Bittrex, Kraken, and Gemini. Coinbase isn't an exchange, but it's probably the easiest way to acquire coins for people that "just want to buy some bitcoin or ether and sit on it" as opposed to trade frequently. Coinbase has its own exchange called GDAX for the latter. GDAX is like Bittrex, Kraken, and Gemini. Before you join one, you may want to make sure it trades the asset you're looking to get into. For example, if you want to get into bitcoin or ethereum, you're probably ok with any of these, but if you want to get into Ripple/XRP, your choices are narrower as Gemini and Coinbase, for example, don't offer it (yet).
Go to Ripple's website -- they have a link that answers this question. Well, not the "90 question" one...
Thanks so much for the info, I really appreciate it! I'll let you know how it goes, I'm probably setting up an account in a few weeks.
if you believe Bitcoin will/can become a global reserve currency, the price right now is nothing compared to what it would be if that came to pass so it doesn't matter whether you bought in now, or a week ago as far as deciding if you should buy if you think it's a fad that will crash, you need to be more strategic (i.e. trying to buy dips and sell peaks) fwiw, I am the former (or at least have no faith in my ability to time the market)
go buy now if you want in. forget the all time high nonsense. like i said, with that attitude you will almost never find a time to buy.
Bitcoin will never become a mainstream currency until the deflation stops. The current growth in value is more akin to basketcase currencies in 3rd world countries that hyperinflate. Currencies require price stability and actual users (beyond money launderers and drug dealers) to function. Bitcoin is little more than a money laundering tool that has simultaneously attracted a bunch of currency speculators. The one thing that is important to note is that the structure of bitcoin has a naturally limiting money supply. Miners have a harder and harder time to find new bitcoins so supply is naturally restricted. The value of bitcoin can only go up over time, especially if people just keep sitting on it as an investment. It has all the patterns of a currency stuck in a deflationary trap (think Japan's deflationary spiral in the 1990s). So for those who want to ride the wave, it's not the worst thing in the world. But as an actual currency that might become mainstream, I'd bet against that.
Nah, this is complete nonsense if you've been following the crypto market. Said it before, there's a huge fluctuation and buying at an all-time high is never a good idea in this market, as drops are extremely common. Most analysts are expecting bitcoin to rise a bit more this week and then having a severe drop in value temporarily, as always. Buying at 4k+ is a bad idea, you'll see Bitcoin below 3k soon.
Reading more about mining and I don't think it is worth it to me. Seems like you need high dollar PCs/graphic cards and your estimated income is around $61/month.
I think I understand Bitcoin's logistics, but I don't yet understand Ethereum & Ether. Bitcoin has value based on how much energy is expended solving equations either for mining or for ledger entry/checking. A seller values an item and a buyer agrees to pay that price. This creates a demand for a third party to make a ledger entry and a fourth party to check the ledger entry. The buyer pays the seller a certain value, and the ledger workers earn some bitcoin for checking the transaction. Earned bitcoin can then be spent on other goods, and a market exists around this. Ethereum is a network of data storage sites that costs some Ether to use? What is the Ether based on?
