HUGE DISCLAIMER: Everything in this article, and anything I publish, is purely meant for educational purposes and should never be considered investment advice. Like seriously, I’m a socialist. I’m not going to tell you where to invest your money besides Bernie Sanders’ campaign if you’re an American citizen, but that’s not a financial instrument you make money from.
I already know this one’s going to get some creative reactions, so if you’re someone who was hesitant to read and did anyways, god bless you, and I hope you at least enjoy the memes along the way.
The point of this article is not to show you how to buy cryptocurrencies, there’s a hundred articles you can find on the best way to do that based on the country you live in. This is just a short introduction on how to decide if you should and the basic things to know when starting out.
Personally, I’m saving my virginity until we reach socialism
Why Would I Need Cryptocurrency?
Now slow down there partner. Before you start thinking about why you would need it, you first need to understand the risks and determine if you’re really in the right position to do this. There’s a few reasons why you wouldn’t want to entertain buying cryptocurrency.
- You are barely able to make ends meet financially
- You don’t have predictable access to a computer or the internet
- You have an uncontrollable addictive personality and gambling is one of your triggers
- You actually hate cryptocurrency and are only reading this to look for new ways to insult me
If either of these things apply to you then don’t. It’s simple. Don’t do it. And there’s no shame in not. I won’t think of you any differently. But, if you’re like one of those ~rich~ leftists and interested in learning more about cryptocurrency and blockchain then you should consider buying some. So why would you? There’s a few reasons.
- You like to learn by directly interacting with things
- You want to be proven that the technology works by using it yourself
- You want to have a backup plan in the scenario when you are censored or blocked from gaining access to your bank account due to being targeted for being part of a leftist uprising
- You want to help create or fund leftist alternative projects built on P2P technology like blockchain to fight back against the jaws of silicon valley capitalism
If any of these things apply to you and you’ve already passed the first set of criteria, then maybe you can consider spending the few minutes it takes to get started. Keep in mind that to start, I am NOT saying you need to buy hundreds of dollars-worth of bitcoin. Literally just $10 is enough to start to play around with for most cryptocurrencies. Do NOT go into this thinking that you’re going to become a millionaire overnight or that you ever will become one.
If you want to know more in depth detail about why the Left in general should consider learning about blockchain, you can check out What Can Blockchain Give to the Left?
It’s totally fine if you choose not because the current system isn’t particularly fair
Exchanges
Alright, so if you’ve gotten this far, I’m guessing you’ve decided to take the plunge or humor me. I salute you.
One of the first things to know about acquiring crypto is how to get it. The most likely place where you will do this is at exchanges. Similar to a stock exchange, an exchange for cryptocurrency is where sinful people can buy and sell their bitcoin for normal money or other cryptocurrencies.
So you’re saying I’ll need to take part in commodity exchange to buy bitcoin?
Yes, just like when you have to when you go to the grocery store to buy food to stay alive. It’s called “living in a society.” It’s a small price to pay, but don’t worry, Karl will still let you in to Marxist Valhalla in the afterlife.
Only a few years ago, cryptocurrency exchanges were the wild west and essentially not regulated at all. Nowadays regulatory authorities have cracked down on cryptocurrency exchanges to follow laws meant to protect investors. Basically, this means that the manipulation of prices have become less overt but exchanges want the recognition of regulatory authorities because it legitimizes them and gives trust to investors. There are two main types of exchanges.
Centralized exchanges are owned by a single entity, usually a company that provides the service of a market in which people with accounts can submit requests to buy or sell. Think the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. To sign up for an account and buy with money from your bank account you will likely have to go through KYC or Know-Your-Customer procedures in which you give them information about yourself, like your full name, address, a picture of your passport, etc. They’re similar requirements to opening a bank account in a lot of countries. It will then take some amount of time to approve your account so you can load it with money from your bank account and begin buying. You can choose either to buy a cryptocurrency at market-value (the price currently on the market) or do more complicated things like only buying if a certain price is reached. When you make the purchase, you will likely be charged a small fee for the trade that goes to the exchange. Some of the well-known exchanges include Coinbase, Binance, Bitfinex, and Kraken. Which exchange is best for you will largely depend on the country you live in, currency you hold, and how you want to purchase.
Decentralized exchanges run completely on smart contracts. This means that the code used to make this exchange work is publically available for anyone to see and technically no single person should be able to own the exchange. This also means that you likely can’t purchase crypto from these exchanges without already having some amount of cryptocurrencies yourself. It also means that they don’t need to follow KYC regulations and if you mess up or are personally hacked, you can’t call customer service to help. These exchanges are more difficult to use for beginners so I don’t recommend them if you’re just starting out.
Which coin you decide to buy really doesn’t matter to me, just do the research and pick the ones most interesting to you
Wallets
In cryptocurrencies, ownership is represented through public keys, or wallets. It’s a long string of random numbers and letters that identify you on a blockchain. In order to access the funds in your wallet, you will need to have the private key, which connects to your public key associated with your wallet.
A visual representation of how a private key relates to a wallet in bitcoin, but other cryptocurrencies work similarly
There are many ways to gain access to a wallet. You can use a websites like MyEtherWallet (for ethereum), you can purchase a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger, or download an application like Electrum (for bitcoin). It really doesn’t matter so much which one you start out with so long as it fits your needs so make sure to do your research on which is the best for you to keep up with. Whichever you pick will have information going into more detail on how to keep everything safe.
When you buy cryptocurrency on an exchange, your account for that crypto gets credited the amount that you bought. If you have used a centralized exchange, this technically does not mean that you own what is being held in your account. The exchange is still holding what you’ve purchased in their own wallet for you as long as you keep it there so in the off chance that they are hacked or go bankrupt, then you’ve likely lost your crypto. To be truly yours, you will need to send it to a wallet that you own. Luckily, this is a standard feature that all exchanges will offer. Don’t use the exchange if it doesn’t.
There are plenty of reasons why a leftist would want to own some amount of cryptocurrency. Therefore, if you choose to do so, make sure to equip yourself with the appropriate knowledge to protect yourself and the organizations you’re supporting when the moment comes to use them.
Be aware of the risks of buying into such a risky asset as cryptocurrencies, but looking at the Dow, it’s probably not as risky as buying stocks at the moment.
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