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CoinMama Review (2020) | The BEST Way To Buy Bitcoin With Credit Card?

In this CoinMama review we are going to do a deep dive into a CoinMama and find out if it’s the best way to buy bitcoin with credit card. Are the fees high? Is it safe? What credit cards can I use to buy bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies)? We are going to answer all of these questions and more in this review, stay tuned for the whole review! One of the most searched phrases right now on the internet is “How to buy bitcoin with credit card”, and for good reason. It’s the easiest way to buy bitcoin without having to share a lot personal information and having to wait 3-7 business days when verifying your bank account.

I also urge you to check out a recent article I wrote that details a handful of different ways (CoinMama included) to easily buy bitcoin if you’re new to the process and you want a no-nonsense and easy way to do this. You can find that HERE. Now, let’s get down to finding out why CoinMama was the easiest way for me to buy bitcoin with a credit card, and why I still use it today!

 

How Does It Work?

 

 

It’s a simple 3-step process to use this site and it took me less than 10 minutes to make my first purchase when I first used this service over 2 years ago. If you’re looking to purchase not only Bitcoin, but also ETH, LTC, BCH, ETC, XRP, QTUM, and ADA in a hassle-free way, then CoinMama is the way to go. First, you register your account with basic information and gain access to the account where you can customize your purchase. Second, you can choose how much information you want to add, depending how much you want to buy in one shot.

Level 1 verification allows you up to $15,000 USD worth of BTC (or any other coin) with only a government issued ID (which is required for KYC) and as soon as you upload it, you can start buying in less than 10 minutes. The 3rd and final step is purchase the coin and amounts you want after you confirm your basic verification and it’s delivered in under 10 minutes. This process is very easy and MUCH quicker than any other exchange I’ve personally used. (Don’t even get me started on Coinbase).

 

 

 

How Much Does It Cost? What Are The Fees?

 

 

You can use a bank transfer (if you choose) and it will cost you less, but it will also take longer. However, the real “instant” purchase and service you’re looking for is for debit and credit cards. The fees are as follows:

Since there is no central bank controlling the bitcoin rate, each website has its own bitcoin rate. The price you see on our website is Coinmama’s bitcoin rate and includes our fee of 5.90%.

For credit/debit card transactions, the payment processor charges 5.00% additional fee. Unlike credit/debit card transactions, if you pay by bank wire there is 0.00% processing fee. The card processing fee will be added after choosing your method of payment. Apart from our fees, your bank may incur their own. If you’re not sure, contact them before placing your order.

Don’t let this turn you off, as some of the competitors that offer a similar service as CoinMama, they charge ridiculous fees and can take up to 10 days to verify and deliver your cryptocurrency. There is a price to pay for very quick delivery and most credit card companies build that fee into the cost here to mitigate some of the risks of fraud and other factors as well.

Trust me when I say, if you want to use a debit or credit card to buy bitcoin, this is your best best. Especially if you need it now.

 

 

 

What Countries Are Supported?

 

I won’t list all supported countries here as there are over 188 countries supported. Yes, that many. That is why this is one of the most trusted services in the entire industry and has a very broad reach. If you want to verify if your country is supported, you can check it out HERE. Additionally, The US has some restrictions on states, but 45 out of the 50 states are included for support. Those specific states (if you’re concerned) can be found at the link HERE.

Again, I will say, this has a much wider reach in terms of countries supported than the likes of Paxful or Coinbase. I’ve done the research so you don’t have to!

 

 

 

What’s Their Reputation? Is It Safe To Use?

 

As mentioned above, this company has been around since 2013 and has a very well received reputation and track record. I have never once had an issue with using this service, nor have I had any indication that it was fraudulent in any way. CoinMama has been selling bitcoin via debit and credit cards longer than any other service to date and was first to market in this regard. I have used them personally about 6 or 7 times and have never once thought of using another service for using a credit or debit card to purchase my cryptocurrency.

 

What’s The Verification Process? How Long Does It Take?

 

 

There are multiple levels of verification depending on how high of a limit you need to purchase every month, but the standard Level 1 verification only takes about 10 minutes and allows up to $15,000 USD (as mentioned above). This really applies to 99% of people and I will leave a link below if you want to understand what else is required if you want to purchase more than 15k per month. Once you’ve completed verification your bitcoin is delivered to your specified address instantly!

For further verification requirements, you can refer to this link HERE

 

 

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CoinMama Review – Conclusion

 

Overall, if you need to get bitcoin fast and time is of the essence, then you can’t go wrong with CoinMama. Yes, if you have time to kill and you’re ok with waiting up to 10 business days and you want to provide your bank account, there are other solutions you can use, which I will link to in a future review update. But for most people that are skeptical of providing all their banking information just a save a few bucks, you won’t find better service or a better deal to buy bitcoin with a credit card than CoinMama.

There’s a reason myself and many others have used this service more than once and will continue to do so. In a world where new crypto companies are coming into existing, having a long standing track record really counts in this industry and I have no qualms about CoinMama. Yes, you can say I’m a fan, and if you decide to use this service, I am confident you will be too.

 

What do you think? Is there a better place to buy bitcoin with a credit card? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

 

 

The [#1] EASIEST Way To BUY BITCOIN RIGHT NOW (2020)

In this article I am going to provide you with the easiest way to buy bitcoin and also one way I personally earn free bitcoin by doing something I was already doing. This is a game changer! Within the last 24 hours, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, Steve Mnuchin, has made an announcement on regulating cryptocurrency and mentioned Bitcoin and Libra specifically. The recent tweet that was sent out by president Trump has been a bullish sign for many people. Not because he said it was “based on thin air” but, because no standing president has ever mentioned “bitcoin” or “cryptocurrency” at all, ever.

Image result for trump bitcoin tweet

 

This is bringing more mainstream awareness and people who are uneducated may take that as a sign that they should stay away from it, because Trump said so. Most people however, are taking this as a sign that they should buy some bitcoin, just in case.

No matter where you stand, the big question many people ask that are completely new to cryptocurrencies is “What Is The Easiest Way To Buy Bitcoin?“. Luckily for you, I am an expert in this field and I will provide you the TWO easiest, fastest, and simplest ways to obtain your first bitcoin or fraction of a bitcoin. As an added bonus, I will provide you at the end of the article with a free tool that will allow you to EARN FREE BITCOIN, by doing something you are already doing every single day. This is a “YUUUUGGGGEEE” (as Trump would say) bonus, as there are very few legitimate ways to obtain bitcoin for free.

Let’s get right to it!

 

#1 Cash App

 

This is a free app (you may have already heard of) that is similar to Venmo. It’s designed for sending and receiving money easily between users and can connect your debit card, credit card, or bank account to facilitate these transactions. It’s super easy to use and I use it to pay people for splitting dinner tabs and splitting costs on various things and works flawlessly. Unlike Venmo, they have also setup a way to buy bitcoin directly through the app, and you can even set up a purchasing schedule if you so choose, but this is BY FAR the easiest way to buy it once you set up the app.

cash app buy bitcoin

 

The steps are extremely easy to do this:

 

1.) Download the Cash App HERE. When you use this link, we both get $5 for free. Pretty Neat.

2.) Create your account and add either your debit card, credit card, or link your bank details if you’re so inclined.

3.) Click the Profile Icon in the upper left hand corner and scroll down and click on “Bitcoin”

4.) Click “Buy” (you can also sell at any time you want as well)

5.) Type in the dollar amount you want to buy and click “Confirm”

6.) You’re done! Your bitcoin will show up in your account within a few minutes. So simple.

 

 

How To Buy Bitcoin With Credit Card

 

#2 CoinMama

 

coinmama

 

This is a tried and true method I’ve used to buy bitcoin for both personal reasons and business reasons, with great success. This is one of the highest rated companies that you can buy bitcoin with a debit card or credit card with no limit. Now, in order to use a credit card there are some additional fees (not unlike Coinbase), but it will process and give you access to your coins in less than an hour instead of days. This is a good method if you want to buy them quickly and easily and do not want to use cash app or any other services.

This is the most trusted provider and the reviews are excellent. When I was originally looking for how to buy my first bitcoin, this was one of several options that came up, and back then, there were not many “trusted” options as there was many companies that did not have a good track record or many positive reviews, except this one.

This ultimately led me to use this service and not only was it quick and efficient, it was delivered within 20 minutes, and Coinbase was the only other option in the U.S. at the time and quoted a 10-day “verification” period just to activate an account. This didn’t even include the amount of time to let me buy my bitcoin, which would take another 3-7 business days. Not acceptable in my eyes.

If you want an easy and TRUSTED way to buy bitcoin with credit or debit card, then Coinmama is the way to go!

 

 

#3 Paxful

paxful review

 

This is another service that is VERY interesting and is unlike CoinMama above in a few different ways. Although Paxful is a pretty well-known way you can purchase bitcoin with a credit card, the reason I am giving it a mention here is because of the other ways and payment methods you can use to obtain bitcoin (or other altcoins if you want). With Paxful, you can trade gift cards (Visa, Wal-Mart, Amazon, eBay, and Starbucks) just to name a few.

Additionally, you can also use Zelle (a money changing app similar to Venmo and other direct payment services that many banks use), SWIFT, MoneyGram, Alipay, WeChat Pay, and hundreds of other gift cards as well. It’s also worth mentioning that you can directy trade other altcoins in for bitcoin and vice-versa. So not only is it a fiat-to-crypto exchange, bult it can also be used as a crypto-to-crypto direct exchange (not unlike ShapeShift).

All this to say, it’s now become easier and easier with these services to BUY BITCOIN. Whether you trade you existing gift cards, other altcoins, or even CASH, it’s not easier than ever to get your hands on bitcoin. When I first tested this service, I received a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas and I didn’t really want to use it for anything, so when I discovered I could trade it in for $100 worth of bitcoin, I was pretty excited to say the least. I will leave a list of all the hundreds of gift cards you can use to trade for crypto HERE.

I will have an in-depth review out for Paxful shortly. Stay Tuned!

 

 

 

Easiest Way To Buy Bitcoin – Conclusion

 

Overall, there are multiple ways to buy bitcoin (some easier than others) but the two main methods I’ve listed above are BY FAR the quickest and easiest ways to get it fast. The price is always fluctuating, so some people may be hesitant to buy right now in fear that it could go down in the future. Here’s the deal. In the grand scheme of things, hind-sight is 20/20 and over the next 3-5 years, I can almost guarantee that the price will be higher than the point is at right now, which is approx. $10,900 at the time of the writing.

This is one of the most important and unique inventions since the internet itself and will continue to bring forth different use cases and provide value to every single person on the planet. This is part of a much larger revolution where the people are now going to take back their financial power from the government and authorities, and there is NOTHING they can do to stop it.

That is powerful.

Bottom line, if you don’t currently have any bitcoin, you can start accumulating it in small amounts (as low as $10) at a time and it will start to grow very easily. You will be glad you did it when you look back, even in 6 months to a year from now. Mark my words!

 

What do you think? Are there easier ways to buy bitcoin right now? Let me know in the comments!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

Should I Buy Bitcoin Now?! Or Should I Wait? (March 2020)

In this article I’m going to address the urgent question I get almost every day recently “Should I Buy Bitcoin Now?!“. Most of the people I deal with kept asking me over the past year and a half what was going on with bitcoin. It was almost if they were saying “See, I told you so! Bitcoin was a bad investment”.

Those same people have taken notice to the massive price increase and have asked me if now is a good time to get in. To them I say, It was a good time to get in around $3,300 when everything looked terrible and you laughed at me. Well, hindsight is 20/20, and deep down, I knew this was just part of a normal market cycle and that it would recover. The short answer is; If you don’t have any bitcoin now, please start getting some before the limited supply runs out.

One of the best ways I have been suggesting people start accumulating and acquiring bitcoin for the first time is to use this free app I have been using myself that give you free bitcoin back on every purchase you make, while receiving a discount of anywhere from 2-33% off every purchase.

This is the LIFE INFO APP, and I will leave an in-depth review of this amazing way to earn free bitcoin HERE. The gist of it is that it’s a shopping app that gives you discounts on thousands of brands and retailers on every purchase you make. The savings you accrue can be converted directly into bitcoin right within the app!

I have been testing this app for several months now, and I have earned over 80$ worth of bitcoin on purchases I was already been making anyways. Why not earn free bitcoin? This is the #1 way I’ve been recommending people start acquiring bitcoin who are new to it and want a VERY easy way to do so, with no technical knowledge.

***CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE LIFE INFO APP TO START EARNING FREE BITCOIN***

 

The Current State Of Bitcoin (July 2019)

 

As of the time of this writing, the price of bitcoin is currently $9,870.95. This is a pretty steep discount from where it was 5 days ago at $13,500. Bitcoin has been having significant gains over the past few weeks very steadily. This has primarily been happening because of some very fundamentally bullish news, such as the announcement of Facebook’s new cryptocurrency called “Libra”.

Many believe will bring the awareness and main stream of cryptocurrency adoption. Although this will be used as a “Stable Coin”, it will ultimately force billions of people to understand the ways of the future and finance.

So why did the price drop? Well, this is actually a healthy and normal correction for what has been a parabolic rise in price and the correction here will shake out the weak hands that currently are very emotional and timid about the projects future, and only pay attention to the price and what other people are doing.

Ultimately, bitcoin is the future of finance. New mainstream stores are starting to accept cryptocurrency payments directly.

 

What Caused The Huge Run Up Of Price Since April Of 2019?

Image result for bitcoin price

There are three primary factors that I believe have contributed to the massive price gains from April of 2019 til now, with no signs of stopping. Sure, there will be fluctuating prices, but it’s consistently gained over 100% consistently. Here are a few fundamental reasons I believe that triggered this to happen:

1.) Bitcoin Halvening – Every 4 years the bitcoin block reward that pays miners to verify transactions is going to be cut in half starting May 2020. This is by design and as a way to introduce scarcity and deflation to an already scarce and useful asset. Historically, the months leading up to this in years past has shown a systematic increase of price in anticipation of this happening.

Currently, the block rewards pays 12.5 bitcoin approximately every 10 minutes. It is about to be cut in half to 6.25 bitcoins per block. Scarcity is a massive incentive to start getting your act together now, before it’s too late.

2.) Facebook’s Cryptocurrency “Libra” – As mentioned above, one of the worlds largest and well-known companies is creating their own cryptocurrency. With over 3 billion active users and counting, this is introducing a new mechanism for people to make payment directly within the platform and also pay for services, like advertising, using Facebook’s native coin. There will be many high profile exchanges that will support this coin (including Coinbase), so there will be plenty of on and off ramps for this upcoming crypto. This is said to be pegged to over 12 fiat currencies’ values.

3.) Chainlink Partnership With Google – Chainlink is a cryptocurrency that specializes in smart contracts. If you are unaware of what that is, a smart contract is essentially a digital contract that is automated and processed out with no middleman, once certain pre-determined criteria is met. This is especially useful for reducing middle-men, and therefore costs, as well as efficiency.

Google has made an announcement of this partnership on a secret project and only validates the need for a blockchain in our modern world. Google doesn’t just partner with anyone, so as people start noticing that cryptocurrency and new blockchain projects are working with tech giants, people start noticing. There are very few details on what this project is exactly, but I assume it has to do with aggregating and verifying data automatically to increase efficiency in time intensive tasks.

What Is The Easiest Way To Buy Bitcoin? What Is the Minimum Investment?

The easiest way to buy bitcoin is to buy directly with a credit card. You can do this very easily with a company called CoinMama, and it only takes a few minutes to process and receive your bitcoin. I have personally used this service many times myself and is much quicker than using an exchange, like Coinbase.

Many exchanges and official on ramps will require much more time as they process KYC and account verification steps to enable an account for you. This process typically takes 3-7 business days, and you should plan accordingly. They are very useful to use if you are not crunched for time, and support many of the top coins directly with bank wire or debit cards for payment.

You can buy as little of $10 worth of bitcoin, and with what the app I mentioned, you can accrue even less than that for free. The point? You don’t need to buy a full bitcoin to get started!

Additionally, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, you can start earning free bitcoin using the LIFE INFO APP, as that’s what I’ve been doing myself. Again, this is the#1 tool I’ve been using to accumulate free bitcoin on purchases I’m making anyways.

 

Should I Buy Bitcoin Now: Conclusion

Overall, even though bitcoin is very volatile at the moment, I would STRONGLY recommend you buy some bitcoin if you haven’t already. There are only 21 million coins that will ever been in circulation, and there is approximately 17.5 million circulating right now. This hard cap that can never change is a deflationary mechanism designed to provide a road map of how the supply and demand dynamics will look over the next few years.

If you zoom out and look at the year over year gains, bitcoin has been one of the strongest investments over the last decade as it has had a higher value of the previous January since it started. Most people get emotional with such rapid price swings, but ultimately what makes it special is the fact that you can now become your own bank.

YOU, yes YOU, can now conduct financial transactions with anyone in the entire world (almost for free) with no permission from anyone and no middle man requiring authorization or taking a cut. THAT is powerful. There has never been anything else like it in the world before. Ever.

 

What do you think? Do you think it’s too late to buy bitcoin now? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Spend Bitcoin On Amazon – Save Up To 33% (2020)

In this article, I am going to go over how to spend bitcoin on Amazon. Additionally, I will provide you a way to save up to 33%. But before I dive into that, I wanted to mention a recent I app I have used that allows me to earn free bitcoin on purchases I’m already making. how to earn free bitcoin

Yes, you read that right. This is app is called the LIFE INFO APP, and I recently wrote an in depth review of how it works and you can view it HERE. The jist of it is that it’s a free shopping app that saves you anywhere from 1-20% off on every purchase and includes major retailers (both online and in store) and the money that you save on each transactions can be credited to you directly in bitcoin.

This is THE BEST way to start accumulating bitcoin I have ever personally seen or used myself. It includes such retailers as: Home Depot, Best Buy, Chipotle, American Airlines, Buffalo Wild Wings, Groupon, and thousands more. Just this month alone, I have accrued over 30$ worth of bitcoin on stuff I was going to buy anyways, and the price of that bitcoin doubled since I received it. It’s free to use and you can start using it immediately upon download. Get your free download HERE.

Now, on to saving money when SPENDING your bitcoin on Amazon. How do I do that? How do I save money? Stay tuned for the whole article and learn how!

 

How Can I Spend My Bitcoin On Amazon?

 

I am going to provide you 2 ways to do this. The first is the way that you can save upwards of 33% and the one I have personally used and recommend. The second is by way of downloading a Google Chrome extension that will enable you to pay with your Coinbase wallet and convert the total amount instantly via a conversion. Here’s how it works.

1.) This method is by using the website Purse.io. This is a website that is built on top of Amazon’s platform that enables you to spend bitcoin and cryptocurrencies directly. It also allows you to save up to 33%. I will explain how this works in the next section, but I was able to use this method to save several hundred dollars last Christmas on gifts for my family.

2.) This is by way of using a browser extension called “Moon“. This tool is directly used on Amazon’s website and provides no extra discounts or incentives, other than the fact that you can pay directly with your bitcoin wallet on Coinbase.com and allows you to convert your Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum or Litecoin into cash to finalize your payment. You can also take advantage of using Amazon Prime for 2-day shipping if you have a membership.

 

How Exactly Can I Save Up To 33%?

 

As I mentioned in the above section, this method saves you up to 33% by using Purse.io. When you visit this site, it doesn’t look like Amazon directly, but when you go to search for items, it includes their entire catalog. When you go to checkout, you can choose your discount using the slider option your savings of anywhere from 5-33%. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you want to receive the items in the normal 1-2 days while using Amazon Prime. If you are in a hurry, you can choose this time frame and immediately save 5% by choosing this. However, when you choose a longer delivery time frame, your percentage of savings starts to increase dramatically. For example if you choose 3-7 days, it can range anywhere from 12-15% off your items.

If you want to save the maximum 33% off, you will have to wait anywhere from 21-30 days to receive your items. Now, this makes sense to do when you are planning ahead for a birthday, holiday, or other major event. It also allows you to save a handful of money on larger purchases, like couches or TV’s where you can save hundred of dollars if it’s not immediately needed.

I managed to save almost $1,000 dollars by starting to buy these items around black friday in November of last year and things actually started being delivered earlier. This is quoted as an “estimated” time frame, because the system works by having users that want to trade their existing amazon store credit or gift cards in exchange for your bitcoin.

How it works is they place their order on your behalf (using Purse as a liaison) and no personal information is provided to them. When you place the order, it’s delivered to Purse.io immediately and they find a “buyer” who will pick up the order and authorize Purse to use their store credit or gift card balance to place the order and ship it directly to you.

Once you receive confirmation that the order is placed and you receive the items at your residence. Only once you are satisfied, you will release the bitcoin payment to them and you both go on your merry way. This is an elegant solution that matches people that don’t want their Amazon gift cards with people that want to make purchases in exchange for bitcoin. The best part, it works!

Can I Use Any Other Altcoins?

 

Yes. When you go to check out the primary payment methods are bitcoin and bitcoin cash. However, when you go to pay you can choose from a list of the top 40 altcoins as well to process payment directly on their site. You can either use your mobile wallet and scan the QR code on the screen to process payment, or you can copy and paste the recipients wallet address on your web or desktop wallet to authorize the transaction.

This gives users many different cryptocurrency payment options when finalizing their order and the best part is, the person who picks up the order doesn’t need to “approve” what you decide to use as an acceptable form of payment, as it’s converted back into bitcoin and Purse pays them directly as they are the middle-man in this equation to ensure that both parties receive what they want and are satisfied.

Do I Still Get My Prime 2-Day Shipping?

 

Yes and No. As I mentioned above. This depends on the discount and time frame you choose when you finalize your order. If you want to receive your item in 1-2 days, you will save 5% immediately and you will have it within the prime time frame. However, if you want the largest possible discount, you will need to wait longer to save more money. In my experience, these “estimated delivery dates” are a worst case scenario and a buffer for them to ensure you get it on time, but my experience over several orders much sooner than advertised.

This especially good if you are accustomed to a very quick delivery.

 

How To Spend Bitcoin On Amazon: Conclusion

 

Overall, both methods above work very well and I highly recommend it. As someone who always looks for valuable merchants and ways to spend bitcoin online, I was very excited to find Purse.io and even more surprised to find that I’m being incentivized to spend my crypto by saving A LOT of money in the process.

Not many merchants do this, and why not utilize the largest online retailer in the world for this process?

If you simply want to use Amazon’s site directly and ensure you get your Prime benefits and still spend your cryptocurrency, then you can use this, but you will receive no discounts. Keep in mind, when using Purse, you can use any store credit you have and import any wish lists or items that you already have in your cart as well, so it’s a very convenient process.

So, the next time you think to yourself, where can I spend my bitcoin? The answer will almost certainly be Purse.io, as this is the #1 way to spend your bitcoin online and save money at the same time!

 

***CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH PURSE.IO AND GET 5$ OF FREE BITCOIN ON YOUR FIRST ORDER***

 

What do you think? Have you found better ways to spend your bitcoin on Amazon? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

 

 

 

 

How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin (2020)

In this review, I will be going over the 3 best ways on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin in 2019. There are 3 trusted sites (and one app) that are used to buy gift cards very easily and it happens almost instantly. You can choose whether or not to email you the redemption code for the gift cards digitally via email, or you can choose to have them shipped as a physical card to your friends or family if you are going to use it as a gift.

It all is very easy, and more importantly, it proves that there is real world utility for bitcoin (in case you didn’t know that already). Let’s get right to the best ways to go about this below!

Before I get to these 3 options, I will recommend you first check out the LIFE INFO APP. This does the reverse and allows you to earn free bitcoin AND save money on thousands of merchants, just like the resources below. I HIGHLY recommend using this free app, because it’s a great way to start accumulating bitcoin for free while saving money on purchasing items you are already buying anyway. I will leave a link to the review that explains this free app HERE.

 

DOWNLOAD THE LIFE INFO APP TO START EARNING BITCOIN

 

How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin

 

#1 GYFT.COM

how to buy gift cards with bitcoin

This website offers a fully functioning website and a full service mobile app as well, but you can get pretty much any type of gift card you can think of. It’s essentially the Amazon of of buying gift cards and the selection is huge. It covers anything from pizza gift cards to department stores, like Macy’s to Best Buy to Cruises and Airlines.

This really is one of the largest sites that allows you to buy gift cards and isn’t fully dedicated to bitcoin. (we’ll get to that option below). You can actually buy these gift cards with any payment method, but bitcoin is an advertised method for doing so. I have used it once on this site and it’s fairly straight forward with scanning the QR code with my phone and authorizing with my BitPay wallet.

This probably has the largest selection of gift cards, but one thing I wish they did was incentivize the use of bitcoin by offering a discount for purchasing these gift cards, but for them it just appears to be another payment method.

If you want to save money and get discounted gift cards with bitcoin or bitcoin cash, I would recommend trying out Purse.io, which is Amazon built on top of a new platform that specifically deals in bitcoin payment. You can check out my review and recap in this article I wrote HERE.

 

#2 BITREFILL.COM

 

This is a site that I love using because it was built specifically to help propel bitcoin being used in commerce specifically. Not only that, you can buy gift cards with Bitcoin, but you can also use several other altcoins as well. You can also top up gift cards on your phone in any denomination you need and it offers over 750 different gift cards, so it has a VERY large selection, just like above.

You can also use Lightning Payments for ordering bitcoin as well. This is a new development, but one that is very welcome. I just downloaded my first wallet for the lightning network and it was really fun to see it in action! Granted, I haven’t tested it out on a purchase here, yet.

However, I plan to do that very soon on my next gift card purchase. I always try to support businesses that support bitcoin payments, but especially ones that were built on the promise of bitcoin being a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that was developed by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto.

Overall, this is probably my favorite place to buy gift cards when I pay with bitcoin or any other altcoin, because of it’s dedication to this cause. I also had a smooth experience and had the physical cards shipped to me within 3 days and arrived on time and as described.

The one thing that also makes this different, is you can pay your phone bill and cable bill with bitcoin. How? Well, you can purchase a specific gift cards amount, say $94.36 if that’s your phone bill amount, and use that to pay your monthly Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint Bill. Pretty neat.

Also, you can do this with your cable bill if you use Cox or Xfinity if you’re in the U.S. The same thing applies where you can purchase a gift card for an exact amount and use it when you go online to pay your bill. Pretty cool if you ask me!

 

#3 BITPAY WALLET APP

This is my number one go to mobile wallet because of it’s utility. I also have a visa card that I can load up my bitcoin on directly, so it’s all managed and very easy to use in the app. But, it also offers integrations with Coinbase and you can buy gift cards directly from your wallet there.

The only downside is, it supports only Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). If you are using any other cryptocurrencies with your day to day spending, then I would go with something else, but I use this one every single day, because the user experience is top notch.

In terms of gift cards, here is an article the wrote when it was rolled out last December HERE. Ultimately, it doesn’t quite have the features or selection that the other two offer, but when you use this mobile wallet for the debit visa card and for other everyday spending, it makes it easier to manage it all in one place..

It covers some larger name retailers like: Uber, Delta Airlines, Hotels.com and Amazon. There are other options, and they are adding more all the time, so keep an eye on that. Overall, I personally use this option the most as I mentioned above I have a lot of services integrated with this wallet and I’ve never had a bad experience.

 

CONCLUSION

 

These are the easiest steps on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin! Overall, I have a clear favorite in the list above in terms of specifically buying gift cards and that is Bitrefill.com, but that does not mean the other options are bad. I have personally used all 3 of these and they all have a good user experience.

The difference lies in their business models and the personal branding and position in the marketplace. They are all reputable and I can recommend all of them, but I still have a soft spot for “Bitcoin Companies” in general, and that’s just an emotional leaning on my part.

If you ever need to see some previews of get some other commentary, watch the video I did above that goes over this and shows you how to go about this process. Give these a try when you have a holiday, birthday, or any other type of event when a gift card would be appropriate. you won’t regret it.

 

What do you think? Are there better ways to buy gift cards online? Let me know below in the comments!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Spend Bitcoin Online: 5 Best Places (2020)

In this post, I am going to cover how to spend bitcoin online and the five best places to do so in 2019. Not only am I going to show you how to spend bitcoin online, but more importantly, WHERE to spend bitcoin online. If you have never made a bitcoin transaction before, please review my earlier post that explains how to do this. As mass adoption starts snowballing, and we’ve already seen evidence of this by way of Whole Foods, and other major retailers coming on board to to accept cryptocurrency as payment, people are starting to look at where they can send their bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

I believe a fundamental component of making this global adoption happen quicker is letting people see how useful and easy it is to actually SPEND it as a currency. This is a life changing tool and is very easy to obtain for free, if you’re already shopping at these places and more using the Free Life Info App, and you can accumulate bitcoin AND get a discount at these retailers we will discuss below, but also thousands more. I will leave the in-depth review of this free bitcoin tool, HERE. Let’s get right into it!

 

DOWNLOAD THE FREE LIFE INFO APP HERE

 

#1 HOW TO SPEND BITCOIN ONLINE AT PURSE.IO (AMAZON ON TOP OF BITCOIN)

 

People always ask me, “Does Amazon accept bitcoin?” The short answer is yes and no. Amazon does not accept it directly, but there are a few chrome extensions where you can earn bitcoin and spend bitcoin in very small amounts by doing this via the Lightning Network, but that is still in it’s infancy. There is a much better way to get what you want on Amazon, AND you can also save up to 33% off the price.

How do you do this? It’s called Purse.io. This website I have used personally during the holiday season 2018 for several items, and it works great! How it works is when you visit the site, it looks very similar to amazon and it’s built on top of Amazon’s platform, but it has one key difference. You can pay in bitcoin!

This means that it IS Amazon, but it just looks different, as it’s a platform built on top of Amazon. The point of this is so that you can spend bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for payment, and it pairs you up with an individual who has amazon store credit or gift cards, and wants to order these things on your behalf, and send them directly to you.

Of course, you have to verify and approve everything arrives and is acceptable to you first. At this point, you can release the bitcoin payment once you are satisfied with your order. It’s a really elegant solution that matches up people who want to convert their amazon credit to receive bitcoin in return and you get a discount for doing this. Pretty slick, and highly recommended.

 

CLICK HERE FOR FREE 5$ IN BITCOIN ON YOUR FIRST ORDER

 

#2 HOW TO SPEND BITCOIN ONLINE AT CHEAPAIR.COM

 

how to spend bitcoin online

Cheapair.com is a discounted airline affiliate site that helps you find the cheapest flights from all the top airlines and is built on top of major search engines like Trivago and Expedia. The difference is, this finds the cheapest flights and let’s you pay in bitcoin directly to book your flight. This is really exciting and allows you to check out using a QR code you can scan with your phone, or you can just simply copy and paste your bitcoin address in the dropdown menu at checkout. You can also sign up for fare trackers and it will notify you when your flight lands in your price zone if you’re not ready to book now.

Overall, I’ve only booked 2 flights myself here, but it was a good experience. I have been living off bitcoin for over 2 years now and it’s required creative ways to find how to get to where you need to go without trying to pay any exchange fees, and this was brought to my attention. I highly recommend if you are the type of person that likes to shop for the cheapest price and bargain hunt when looking for trips and flights.

 

#3 HOW TO SPEND BITCOIN AT OVERSTOCK.COM

 

Overstock.com is a large online retailer, similar to Amazon, but specializes in mainly home goods like furniture, decor, and larger items for very cheap. I believe they also offer a 2% additional discount when checking out with bitcoin.

You probably have heard of this website and perhaps even ordered something from here, but you probably didn’t know they accepted bitcoin for payment. They do this directly and it’s very easy to scan the QR code at checkout with your smartphone or with your bitcoin wallet address directly copying and pasting as well.

They frequently have holiday sales and other coupons and promotions you can use on top of the discounts of using bitcoin as well. I actually bought a rug a few years back from them using bitcoin and it was very simple to use and I had no issues.

This was one of the first major retailers to start accepting crypto, as the company’s founder Patrick Byrne has been a long time supporter of bitcoin. I personally like to support companies that allow you to pay in bitcoin as opposed to the ones that don’t, but that’s just me. I like to support the cause and businesses that do as well.

 

#4 HOW TO SPEND BITCOIN AT EXPRESSVPN

 

This is KEY when dealing with bitcoin. When spending bitcoin online and also trading or investing bitcoin online, it is imperative that you are not tracked and using a VPN is key in doing this. I use Express VPN when dealing with any online bitcoin transaction, especially when doing trading on exchanges, like Binance or Coinbase. Luckily, you can also buy Express VPN with bitcoin as well and it’s crucial to protect your anonymity when doing this. VPN’s are also useful when doing typical web browsing and not wanting to be tracked with what and where you spend your time online.

Additionally, you will be able to use this to access other popular streamers and websites that put limits on your IP address, such as Amazon and Netflix, without having to pay them more. You may not know but some major websites track your information from your IP address and sell that information to advertisers.

Have you ever been talking about something privately, and then when you look at your Facebook feed or Instagram feed and you see an ad for what you were just talking about? Very creepy, but very real. The ExpressVPN not only allows you to use this on your iPhone and Android, but it works on multiple devices at the same time, for each device in your home.

My favorite part of course (not to beat a dead horse) is the fact that you can get a free 30 day trial and test it out and the use BITCOIN to pay for it. Super cool.

 

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR EXPRESS VPN FREE 30-DAY TRIAL

 

#5 HOW TO SPEND BITCOIN AT EXPEDIA.COM

 

This one is probably my second favorite source as almost everyone has heard of Expedia.com for travel. At some point in our lives, we probably have researched vacations or even bought flights and hotel packages from this site, and for good reason. This site has a wealth of information and provides tons of value, including tons of reviews from people that have already taken a specific vacation and they incentivize people to do this.

For me, I like the fact that they take bitcoin. I always check Cheapair.com and this site before I book any trip, because I want to support the bitcoin ecosystem by contributing to the network and transactions.

Needless to say, Expedia is very much considered a trusted authority site and the fact that they are one of the only travels sites accepting bitcoin for payment. I don’t have to do much selling here, but you can also receive a discount by using the Life Info App link above and make sure to check out the article  that gives an in-depth of that review on how to start earning your own bitcoin, for free.

CONCLUSION

 

All in all, these are the top 5 places I spend my bitcoin online, there are tons of other sites you can spend your bitcoin at, and I will leave a link with a MAP right here. It is my belief that the more we start seeing everyday stores that people use on a regular basis, and that includes gas stations and grocery stores, the more we will not only see the price and value of bitcoin go up, but it will be a free and sovereign way to manage your finances. The above video outlines what we covered here, and I will link other related videos to that as well for more crypto knowledge and value for you.

 

What are you favorite places to spend bitcoin online? Are there more retailers that I missed above? Let me know in the comments!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

Top 3 Altcoins To Invest In 2020

In this post, I am going to go over the top 3 altcoins to invest in 2019. You may be wondering, “Why would I be interested in altcoins when bitcoin is the king of crypto?” What is the best cryptocurrency to invest in now? Although it’s a fair question and bitcoin has dominated the market cap and literally created the cryptocurrency industry, there is plenty of development and utility with specific altcoins that bitcoin does not address. Additionally, the way most people accumulate bitcoin is by investing or trading in altcoins to then convert the gains back into bitcoin.

Although I have been trading and investing for several years now, there are a few specific altcoins that are paving their way to success with innovation and are what I consider “trend setters” in the industry and offer some unique value and are not just another bitcoin clone. Let’s get right to it below.

I also am now offering a FREE E-BOOK that goes in depth to explain the best 5 ways secure your cryptocurrency. it’s loaded with secret knowledge and goodies that is not included in the blog, so check it out, it’s free, so you have nothing to lose!

 

5 BEST WAYS TO SECURE YOUR CRYPTOCURRENCY – EBOOK

Top 3 Altcoins To Invest In 2019

 

#1 HOLOCHAIN (HOT)

 

Holochain or (HOT) is an interesting product and platform that is light years ahead of the competition ins creating a truly decentralized internet. They have physical hardware products called HoloPort and is designed as a dedicated server that helps support the network. I am going to list the official details for this here. Why is this different?

Other projects that promise the same thing do not even have a working product and is has collected a plethora or money via an ICO, but have yet to deliver what they promise. HOLO does not have this problem, as they are already expanding and have physical products and a functioning product that works!

From a trading and investing standpoint, On Binance, when you compare the trading pair of BTC/HOT, there is a lot of upside. At the time of this writing, the price is only 25 satoshis which is very undervalued, but additionally, I got in pretty early at around 8 satoshis so it’s been a fairly nice gain so far.

In the video below, it displays the trading chart and where the best entry points are and what the potentials are for this product this year as they are ramping up for massive comp’any growth. This is a very interesting project and even at the current price, it is definitely worth looking into and getting a nice entry before the bull run that we are in starts really ramping up.

All in all, Holochain is a very solid project with new and interesting tech that uses it’s token to fuel the network and expand the ability to deliver value, by utilizing empty or unused disk space and RAM that is currently on your machine. This does not affect your current performance as you are able to allocate as much of the space as you want, and it lets you earn passive income in the form of the HOT token and you will also be strengthening and supporting the network. Most people have tons of unused resources on their machines and this is a good way to put it to work for you.

 

CLICK HERE TO START INVESTING IN (HOT) ON BINANCE NOW

 

#2 TEZOS (XTZ)

 

In my opinion, Tezos is the new and improved evolution of Ethereum. It is a new platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Here are a few key points that make it different:

 

1.) On-Chain Governance – The Tezos protocol offers a formal process through which stakeholders can efficiently govern the protocol and implement future innovations. This is democracy at it’s finest. It also helps avoid controversial “Hard Forks” as we’ve seen in the past with Bitcoin (BTC) to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and then Bitcoin Cash (BCH) into Bitcoin SV (BSV). This has a detrimental effect on the network and causes a lot of confusion, contention, and tribalism.

2.) Security – This blockchain was designed to facilitate formal verification, which helps secure smart contracts and avoid buggy code. This has been a HUGE problem with Ethereum over the years as noted in the infamous “DAO Hack“, which again proved that their protocol was not immutable and caused yet another hard fork that brought forth Ethereum Classic into existence.

3.) Liquid Proof of Stake – This is a unique consensus proof-of-stake algorithm which gives every stakeholder the opportunity to participate in the validation of transactions on the network and be rewarded for doing so. Whether you are big or small, you have a vote. This is unlike the current mining pools that we have in place where the person with the most hashing power and hardware wins the block reward, and essentially dictate the rules of the network.

I tend to think that the tech behind each blockchain is what brings it’s value. Whether or not the price is currently up or down on these coins, I believe as the masses start to see the value these innovators bring to the table, the money will follow. If you don’t recall, it took over a year of price discovery before Ethereum finally found it’s place in the market. All this to summarize that I am very interested to see where these both end up in terms of price and user adoption over the course of this year.

One thing I would like to note is that Ledger Nano S hardware wallet now supports Tezos for cold storage baking. This means you can participate in verifying transactions on the Tezos network and keep your private keys online, WHILE simultaneously making passive income in block rewards.

 

CLICK HERE TO START BAKING TEZOS WITH LEDGER NANO S

 

#3 ZCASH (ZEC)

 

top 3 altcoins to invest in 2019

Zcash has been one of my favorite cryptocurrencies, ever since it was announced in 2014. Privacy has been a major staple in the cryptocurrency industry and this project has some unique technology as described below that sets it apart from other privacy based coins on the altcoins list

Zcash has a proprietary privacy protocol attached to it. This is extremely attractive, as one of the key selling points of cryptocurrency to begin with was anonymous, uncensorable transactions. This is money as it was intended to be. I should be able to transact with anyone in the world, and not only NOT have it tracked, but keep it between me and the other consenting party. They use a method called zk-SNARKs.

This is an acronym for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument Of Knowledge”. What does this actually mean? It essentially means that “Zero-Knowledge” proofs allow one party (prover) to prove to another (verifier) that a statement is true. It allows you to verify a transaction is relevant and true without knowing its origin.

Some people view this as potentially scary, because it allows money launderers or criminals to transact in a more private way. Well, my theory is this, criminals will always find a way to do what they want and transact privately. Valuable tools should not be banned or discredited because there is a potentially negative outcome.

There is an equally positive outcome. Privacy is an unalienable right to all humans and we should all expect it and understand our rights to it. To me, that makes this coin very very powerful and very much worth exploring, especially as it is considered an “Original”. Some similar example coins that came after are Monero and Zcoin.

 

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE LEDGER NANO S FOR SAFE OFFLINE STORAGE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2O0nWV1W14

CONCLUSION

 

There are many reasons I chose the above altcoins in the massive list of thousands of alternatives. As I mentioned above, these ones have the best overall fundamentals and upside in terms of risk/reward in terms of investment in my opinion. Some of these coins, like Zcash, have already been through a major market cycle before, so it is fairly seasoned, but Tezos and Holochain are fairly new and have yet to “survive” a new market cycle.

I still believe that overall, these have the best overall potential returns and create ways of making passive income, while allowing you to HODL offline as well. I have included the recommended hardware wallet that will support all of these coins, the only coin that does not have a native app (currently) is HOT, but it can be held or integrated with MyEtherWallet, while this is being developed.

 

What do you think? Are there better coins to invest in this year? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Store Your Tezos (XTZ) On The Ledger Nano S (2020)

In this article, I will tell you how to store your Tezos on the Ledger Nano S. As an investor in Tezos since the ICO, I have really studied what makes this a true market differentiator. This has a true consensus and a self-amending ledger, which is really powerful.

This means that no matter what, there will not be a “fork” of the network and will not have to worry about a network split. The downside is, you cannot split off and have people follow you and start a new version of this blockchain. What is built here will be verified by a true democracy and will always stay in tact. However, people will always have the power to leave if they do not like it.

I believe the that being able to contribute to secure a POS blockchain that will allow EVERYONE to participate is very interesting and also pretty powerful. I think they have cracked the code and this may very well become the platform that people will build new dApps on, as it is more scalable than Ethereum in this way.

No matter your use case, if you are going to participate in Tezos it is wise to store your keys securely. The absolute best solution for securely storing Tezos is to use a hardware wallet.

.When you use a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano S, the private keys used to access your tokens never leave the device. Ledger hardware wallet owners can manage their tezzies using the Tezos Wallet application within Ledger Live. With Tezos Wallet, you can:

 

  1. Store your Tezos securely
  2. Transfer Tezos to others via secure transaction
  3. Delegate your Tezos for use in baking and voting

 

This guide provides a step-by-step guide on how to install Tezos Wallet on your Ledger Nano S and create a wallet with three different Tezos wallet providers: Galleon, Magnum Wallet, and TezBox. Although you technically have 3 options to do this, I recommend using TezBox as it’s the easiest one to use in my opinion. The user interface is very easy to use and I highly recommend it for baking.

 

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

 

To secure Tezos with a Ledger Nano S, you will need:

  • An initialized Ledger Nano S with the latest firmware installed — currently 1.5.5 (as of May 2019)
  • Ledger Live installed on your machine and ready to use

That’s it!

 

How To Store Your Tezos: INSTALLING TEZOS WALLET THROUGH LEDGER LIVE

Image result for tezos ledger live

To install Tezos Wallet on your Ledger Nano S:

  1. Open Manager in Ledger Live using the Manager button in the left sidebar.
  2. Connect your Ledger Nano S and unlock it using your PIN.
  3. Your Ledger Nano S will prompt you to Allow Ledger Manager? To connect, press the right button on your Ledger device.
  4. Find Tezos Wallet in the app catalog, either by searching for ‘Tezos Wallet’ or scrolling through the available apps.
  5. Click Install on Tezos Wallet’s icon to install the application. Your hardware wallet will display Processing… and Ledger Live will show an installation window.This may take up to 1-2 minutes. Successful installation will be confirmed in Ledger Live when complete.

 

CREATING A WALLET

 

Now that you have Tezos Wallet installed on your Ledger Nano S, you are ready to create a wallet. There are several wallet great providers you can use! Below are the steps to get started with three of them: Galleon, Magnum Wallet, and TezBox.

 

GALLEON (LEAST RECOMMENDED)

 

  1. Visit Galleon’s Website, where you can download a version of the wallet for Windows, MacOS, or Linux.
  2. Open Galleon. You’ll be asked to choose a language, and agree to their Terms of Service.
  3. Connect Galleon to your Ledger device. Plug your Ledger device into your computer, enter your PIN, and open Tezos Wallet. Then, select Connect with Ledger in Galleon.
  4. Create Your Wallet. After clicking Connect with Ledger, Galleon will wait for you to confirm this action on your hardware wallet. This is done by clicking the top-right button on your Ledger device with the green checkmark. Your Ledger device’s screen should alternate between Provide Public Key? and the Public Key Hash you will be using to create your wallet in Galleon. Press the right button on your Ledger device to create it!

You’re Done! For more information on how to use Galleon, see their tutorials!

 

MAGNUM WALLET (MODERATELY RECOMMENDED)

 

  1. Visit Magnum Wallet’s Website using a U2F compatible browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Brave. Click Create Wallet to visit their wallet website, where you should click Create a New Wallet to get started.
  2. Create a Password. Magnum Wallet will prompt you to create a password for securing your funds. Once you have entered and confirmed your password, click Next.
  3. Link your Ledger Nano S. After you have created a password, you’ll be brought to Magnum Wallet’s main dashboard, which gives you information of on all the tokens supported. In the top left, click to Link Your Device (outlined in green below).

A modal (pop-up) will appear over the screen with the option to import a wallet. In this case, we want to create a new wallet. Select Create at the top of the modal. Select the token you’d like to create a wallet for (Tezos), that you’d like to Link Hardware Wallet, and that the device you’re using is a Ledger Nano S. Your screen should now look like this:

Click Create to make your wallet!

  1. Verify your address. Now, you’ll be prompted on your Ledger device to Provide Public Key?. You’ll also be shown the Public Key Hash of your wallet. Press the right button on your Ledger Nano S to verify your address and continue.

You’re done! You’ll now be at your wallet’s dashboard within Magnum Wallet, where you can send and receive Tezos or delegate them to a baker!

 

TEZBOX (MOST RECOMMENDED)

 

You can download TezBox for Mac or Windows, use their Chrome Plugin, or use their wallet in the browser! We’ll demonstrate the in-browser application in this guide.

  1. Visit the Tezbox Web Wallet using a U2F (Universal two-factor) compatible browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. Here, you’ll be greeted with the option to create a wallet, restore one, or link TezBox to a hardware wallet. Click Link your TezBox.
  2. Link your Ledger device to TezBox by clicking Link TexBox in the as seen in the user interface below.

how to store your tezos

  1. Verify your address. On your Ledger device, you will be prompted to Provide Public Key? and the screen will also show the Public Key Hash with which you are creating the wallet. Press the right button on your hardware wallet to verify. TezBox will confirm a successful linking after this step.
  2. Create a Password. Next, you’ll be asked to create a password to secure your wallet. Enter and re-enter a password, then choose Encrypt Wallet.

That’s It! After entering a password, you’ll be on your wallet’s page, where you can send and delegate Tezos.

 

CONCLUSION

 

As of the time of this writing, only the Ledger Nano S is the only hardware wallet that supports offline Tezos and not even the Ledger Nano X works at this time. It should be noted that there is no “native” app for Tezos via Ledger Live. What does that mean? It essentially means that you are required to use one of the above 3rd party wallets in order to properly secure your Tezos and manage your balances, send, receive, and the ability to manage baking and delegation.

So why would you go through these steps? Because you control the private keys and that is what is important. When a hardware wallet starts supporting this functionality natively, it will have a huge edge over the competition (I’m looking at you KeepKey). Additionally, there has been an influx of more exchanges getting hacked, with no signs of stopping. It is CRUCIAL, that you always maintain control of your private keys at all times. When you send them to an exchange, you technically do not own them anymore, until they decide to send them back to you.

Bottomline: If you own any Tezos, or plan on acquiring any in the near future, I would strongly recommend that you get a Ledger Nano S. At the time of this writing it is only $59, which is the cheapest hardware wallet of the primary market leaders. Tezos is sure to move it’s way into the top 10 market cap very soon and I expect the price to do something similar to what Ethereum did in 2017.

 

CLICK HERE TO BUY A LEDGER NANO S FROM THEIR OFFICIAL SITE

 

What do you think? Would you keep your Tezos keys on a Hot Wallet? Please let me know below in the comments!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Invest In And Trade Cryptocurrencies (Beginner’s Guide)

In this article, I will go over how to invest in and trade cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency is a hot topic these days, especially with volume and steam picking on on price this week picking up over $7,000 per bitcoin. How many times have we heard stories of people becoming overnight millionaires and, at the same time, stories of people who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping to make a quick buck?

So, if you are looking to invest in crypto in a safe manner, then this guide is for you. The purpose of this guide is to help educate individuals as much as possible and to reduce speculation in the market.

 

HOW TO INVEST IN CRYPTOCURRENCIES BASICS:

 

The very fact that you are reading this guide shows us that you are interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. These immutable and exchangeable cryptographic token promise to become a hard and non-manipulatable money for the whole world. Their advocates see a future in which Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will substitute Euro, Dollar and so on and create the first free and hard world currency.

Besides what was already said, there are three major good reasons to invest in cryptocurrencies.

First, because you want to hedge your net-worth against the fall of the Dollar, which is assumed by many people to inevitably happen at some time. Second, because you support the social vision behind cryptocurrencies – that of a free and hard money for the whole world. Third, because you understand and like the technology behind it.

However, there are also very bad reasons to invest in cryptocurrencies. Many people fall victim to the hype surrounding every cryptocurrency-bubble. There is always somebody captured by FOMO (fear of missing out), buying massively in at the peak of a bubble, just in hope to make quick money, while not understanding cryptocurrencies at all. That’s a bad reason. Don’t do this. Learn before you invest. Early stage investors in Bitcoin and Ethereum made millions of dollars in pure profits.

In a one-year time span from December 2016 to December 2017, Bitcoin went from $750 to a staggering $20,000! This means that anybody who invested $10,000 in December 2016, would get back a mind-numbing $133,333 in exactly 365 days. In fact, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies went all the way u pto an astounding $500 billion (half a trillion) by end of 2017.

Stories like that flooded the internet and more and more people joined the crypto hype to get a slice of that crypto pie. However, as more and more speculators flooded the market, the inevitable happened.

The market took a huge dip.

With Bitcoin taking a dip, all the other currencies took a dip, and lots of people lost their entire life savings.

In this guide, we are going to show you how you can educate yourself to make an intelligent investment. Having said that, let’s start with our first lesson.

 

BE OK WITH TAKING RISKS

 

Because the volatility of cryptocurrencies  exceeds that of any other investment class, they are not a normal investment. Plus, there is always the risk that your country may outlaw cryptocurrency trading and exchange. If that’s the case, then you should make your peace with not liquidating your crypto assets, or hold them on a hardware wallet until you can use them for transactions.

So, the important takeaway here is to only risk as much money as you can afford. Like Wence Casares, CEO of Xapo, sums it up in an AMA on bitcoin.com:

“I always tell them [my family] that the second most stupid thing they could do right now is to own an amount of bitcoins they cannot afford to lose and the most stupid thing they could do would be to not own any. “

 

DON’T FORGET: THERE ARE OTHER COINS

 

Up until late 2016 Bitcoin was the cryptocurrency, and there was not much besides it. If you wanted to invest in the success of cryptocurrencies, you bought Bitcoin. Period. Other cryptocurrencies – called “Altcoins” – have just been penny stocks on shady online-markets, mostly used to keep miner’s GPUs working, pump the price and dump the coins.

However, this has changed. While Bitcoin is still the dominant cryptocurrency, in 2017 it’s share of the whole crypto-market rapidly fell from 90 to around 40 percent, and it sits around 50% as of September 2018.

There are several reasons for that. While Bitcoin remains the undisputed king of cryptocurrencies, many people have questioned its future utility. Firstly, there were new and exciting cryptocurrencies coming out secondly, Bitcoin was suffering from severe performance issues and it looked like the Bitcoin community were nowhere near to solving this problem. The block-size issue, in particular, was a huge bone of contention in the community, which ultimately led to the creation of bitcoin cash and the splitting up of the community.

So, the question is, what coins can you potentially invest in?

Well, for that you will go to coinmarketcap.com.

This website lists down cryptocurrencies in decreasing order of market cap. Market cap means the value of all token available. It is not a perfect metric, but likely the best we have to recognize the value of a cryptocurrency.

This is the reason why coinmarketcap is a useful tool to have in your hand.

 

WHAT IS THE UTILITY THAT THE COIN IS BRINGING INTO THE SYSTEM? DOES IT “NEED” TO EXIST?

 

So, you have gone through the market caps and decided on the bunch of coins that you wanted to invest in? Awesome job. However, this is where the real work begins.

The first thing that you need to do is to read their whitepapers. Now, we understand that reading PDFs may not be the most exciting of things, however, you absolutely have to put in the work beforehand before you reap any sort of benefits.

Reading the whitepaper itself will give you two tremendous benefits:

  • Firstly, you will be more knowledgeable about the coin itself and learn about the utility that it is bringing into the ecosystem.
  • Secondly, a poorly written whitepaper is often a good sign of knowing whether a project is worth investing or not. If the team itself can’t simply explain the true utility of their token, then it is probably not worth investing into.

A white paper is the bread and butter of any and all ICOs. According to Wikipedia. “A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body’s philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.” how to invest in and trade cryptocurrencies

In simpler terms, a white paper can tell potential investors everything they need to know about the project. This is the reason why an ICO which doesn’t have a whitepaper should simply be looked over.

Another thing that most ICOs realize is that majority investors simply won’t bother to read through the whitepaper. This is the reason why they simply outsource their whitepapers to cheap freelance writers who end up creating proper works of art. “Art” is being used extremely liberally here of course. Checkout this gem of a whitepaper by “Arbitrage Crypto Trader”.

Here is an extract from the whitepaper:

“However, the arbitration did not die definitively. He again in favor, thanks to the appearance of cryptocurrency. All of us see that right now quotations bitkoyna on different stock exchanges differ from each other by 1-5%. And for some of the Altocums, the difference can sometimes be as high as 50%.”

It’s ok, don’t bother making sense of it.

A well-crafted whitepaper can define a generation. Just look at what Bitcoin’s whitepaper has done to this era. An ICO which doesn’t bother putting in any effort shouldn’t be given any attention.

Having said that, after you read a decently written whitepaper, there are some decisions that you will need to make.

 

1ST CHECK: THE VALUE THAT THE PROJECT IS BRINGING IN

 

Firstly, check the project to see whether the coin is bringing in any real utility into the ecosystem. The perfect example of this is Ethereum. There is a reason why it took of so fast, think of the sheer value that it was bringing in. For the first time, developers around the world had a platform which they could use to build their own dapps on a blockchain.

Along with that, keep in mind of the issues that cryptoworld is desperately looking to solve, mainly: privacy, scalability, and interoperability. A good way to go about your investing is to find the projects which are specifically working on solving the aforementioned problems. Here are some of the projects that are looking to solve each of the three aforementioned problems:

 

2ND CHECK: DOES THE PROJECT NEED TOKENS?

 

So, how do you make sure that you are getting good quality tokens?

You inspect the project and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does this project need to be on the blockchain?
  • Does this project need to have tokens?

If the answer for any of those happens to be “No”, then those projects don’t need a token and those projects are doing an ICO simply to raise money. There is a way to find out the true utility of the token.

 

DEEP DIVE: WHAT ROLES THAT A TOKEN CAN TAKE UP:

 

Right

By taking possession of a particular token, the holder gets a certain amount of rights within the ecosystem. Eg. by having DAO coins in your possession, you could have had voting rights inside the DAO to decide which projects get funding and which don’t.

Value Exchange

The tokens create an internal economic system within the confines of the project itself. The tokens can help the buyers and sellers trade value within the ecosystem. This helps people gain rewards upon completion of particular tasks. This creation and maintenance of individual, internal economies are one of the most important tasks of Tokens.

Toll

It can also act as a toll gateway in order for you to use certain functionalities of a particular system. Eg. in Golem, you need to have GNT (golem tokens) to gain access to the benefits of the Golem supercomputer.

Function

The token can also enable the holders to enrich the user experience inside the confines of the particular environment. Eg. In Brave (a web browser), holders of BAT (tokens used in Brave) will get the rights to enrich customer experience by using their tokens to add advertisements or other attention based services on the Brave platform.

Currency

Can be used as a store of value which can be used to conduct transactions both inside and outside the given ecosystem.

Earnings

Helps in an equitable distribution of profits or other related financial benefits among investors in a particular project.

So, how does this all help in token utility?

If you want to maximize the amount of utility that your token can provide then you need to tick off more than one of these properties. The more properties you can tick off, the more utility and value your token brings into your ecosystem. If the role of your tokens cannot be clearly explained, or if it doesn’t really tick off more than one of the roles given above, then your token doesn’t have any utility and you can do without it.

Now, why shouldn’t you take useless tokens with little to no utility?

For that, we need to understand the concept of token velocity. Token velocity is an indication of how much people respect the value of that particular token. If people hold on to a token, then it has low velocity. However, if people quickly sell that token for BTC, ETH, or Fiat then that token has high velocity.

If you were to define Token Velocity in strictly mathematical terms, then it would look like this:

Token Velocity = Total Transactional Volume / Average Network Value.

If we were to flip the formula then:

Average Network Value = Total Transactional Volume / Token Velocity.

Now, that leads to two conclusions:

  • More the token velocity, less the average network value.
  • More the transactional volume, more the token velocity.

This is the reason why, you should work for a project whose tokens actually have some utility and gives their users a reason to hold on to them.

Alright, so now that you know what kinds of coins you should invest in, we will now teach you how to look for obvious signs of scams.

 

LOOK OUT FOR OBVIOUS SCAMS

Good coins have a transparent technical vision, an active development team, and a vivid, enthusiastic community. Bad coins are in transparent, promote fuzzy technical advantages without explaining how to reach them, and have a community which is mostly focused on getting rich quick. Maybe the worst kind of cryptocurrencies are the MLM coins, for example, Bitconnect. We will talk more about Bitconnect in a bit. However, what are some of the more obvious signs of scams?

 

#1 THE TEAM

 

It really goes without saying that the success of a project is directly related to the credibility of the team. Let’s put it like this, if you are investing your money into a company, wouldn’t you want to know that the company is in good hands and that your money is going to be appreciated considerably?

Let’s look at one of the most successful projects of all time, OmiseGO. Not only do they have an incredible team, they also count people like Vitalik Buterin and Lightning Network Creator Joseph Poon among their advisors as well. So it is no wonder that they had no trouble getting their funds and their investors are now enjoying a healthy return as well.

Obviously, most of the time it won’t be this obvious to know whether the team is actually garbage or not. In cases like that, you should adopt a more hands on approach.

First, search for the names of the team members on Google. Most of the time they should have a LinkedIn profile. Do a quick search and learn more about the team members. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Have they been involved in any successful ICO venture before?
  • Have they been involved in a well-reputed company (Google, Deloitte, etc.)?
  • Have they been recommended or endorsed by well known people?

It doesn’t matter if you come across as stalkerish. You must put in this work so that you don’t end up wasting your time and resources later.

Secondly, you should search for the images of the team members on Google. The reasons for this, is again, twofold.

  • Firstly, you want to make sure that you are not getting “catfished”. Meaning, they are not putting up photos of random celebrities or stock photos on their team site.
  • Secondly, the person maybe using the same photo on different websites and projects. So it will give you a good idea about whether the person actually exists or not and, if they do, what the are involved with.

 

#2 PYRAMID SCHEME RESEMBLANCE

According to Wikipedia, “A pyramid scheme (commonly known as pyramid scams) is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products or services. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit; as such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal.”

An ICO that promises “guaranteed returns” on their investment is a scam. Any crypto investor worth their salt will tell you that will tell you that there are no guarantees in the crypto world.

One of the most infamous examples of this is Bitconnect. Let’s take a look at their website and promises.

If you see anything like that in a website, then don’t bother taking any of their bounties. Simple as that.

You don’t want to end up with tokens like these:

 

#3 INACTIVE GITHUB REPOSITORY

 

An active GitHub repository is a good indicator to show how seriously development has been going on in the project.

 

BUYING BITCOIN…WITHOUT BUYING THEM

While some years ago it was a real Odyssey to buy cryptocurrencies, today you have a full scope of options.

Let’s begin with buying Bitcoin. That’s the easiest part. Some people want to invest in Bitcoin without having the trouble of storing them.

All these investment products have in common that they enable investors to bet on Bitcoin’s price without actually buying Bitcoin. While most cryptocurrency-fans think that this takes away the whole fun and sense of it, for many people it is the easiest way to invest in Bitcoin’s success. You can use the investment channels you already are used to, and if something goes wrong, you have your certificate and someone to take to the court.

Currently, no such investment product exists which covers more cryptocurrencies. But there are some in progress, both in the USA and in Europe.

 

BUYING CRYPTOCURRENCIES: THE TWO KINDS OF EXCHANGES

 

The exchange serves one of the most critical functions in the crypto ecosystem. It basically acts as a portal between the Fiat world and the crypto world. There are usually two types of exchanges:

  • Fiat to Crypto.
  • Crypto to Crypto.

 

FIAT TO CRYPTO

Fiat to Crypto exchanges helps you buy Cryptocurrencies in exchange for Fiat money. Coinbase is a perfect example of this kind of exchange. Coinbase helps you buy BTC, BCH, LTC, and ETH in exchange for Fiat currency.

 

CRYPTO TO CRYPTO

 

Then we have the Crypto to Crypto exchanges. These exchanges help you exchange certain cryptos like BTC, ETH, BCH etc. for other cryptocurrencies. Binance is a fine example of a crypto-to-crypto exchange.

While they do offer pretty valuable services, the problem is that they are all centralized, which makes them vulnerable. This is an extremely risky proposition when you consider the sheer amount of money that these exchanges deal with each and every single day.

When it comes to buying crypto from these exchange themselves, it is really not that complicated.

  • First, open up an account at the exchange
  • You then verify your identity – this is required due to Anti-Money-Laundering (AML”) rules in most jurisdictions
  • Fund your account with Dollar or Euro or whatever paper money you use. On some exchanges, like Bitcoin.de, you don’t need to fund your account, but trade directly with other users.

The question, what exchange to use depends mostly where you live. It’s alway better to use an exchange physically close to you. If it is located in the same jurisdiction like you, you have the best chances to get money legally back if some bad things happen. If no exchange is located in your jurisdiction, it is better to use exchanges based in stable countries with a good legal system.

Another factor to decide which exchange you use is some coins you want to buy and your patience. If you want to acquire large sums of Bitcoins quickly, you need to use one of the major exchanges which provide enough liquidity. If you only want to buy small amounts of coins and if you are not in a hurry, you can try to buy them on small exchanges. If your order gets filled, you most likely will get better prices than on big exchanges. Check out the best crypto exchange.

 

IS THERE A GOOD TIME TO BUY?

There is no general rule when to buy cryptocurrencies. Usually it is not a good idea to buy in at the peak of a bubble, and usually, it is also not a good idea to buy it when it is crashing. Never catch a falling knife, as the trader’s wisdom says. Best time might be when the price is stable at a relatively low level.

The art of trading is to decide when a crypto is in bubble mode and when it reached the bottom after falling. What is easy to say in retrospective is a hard question in the present, which can never be answered with absolute certainty. Sometimes a coin starts to raise, and after it passes a mark, where everybody thinks this must be the peak of a bubble, the real rally just begins.

For example, many people did not buy Bitcoin at $1,000 or Ether at $100, because it seemed to be crazily expensive. But some month later these prices appear to have been a good moment to start.

There is only two advice about timing we can give. First, don’t compare crypto bubbles with traditional financial bubbles. 10 percent up is not a bubble but can be daily volatility. 100 percent up can be a bubble, but often it is just the start of it. 1,000 percent might be a bubble usually, but there is no guarantee that it pops.

Second, take some time to watch. Don’t buy in, because there was a dip. There might be another. And don’t buy in, because you fear that it will explode tomorrow. Watch it, get yourself informed, buy it, when you think the timing is good. And, maybe most important: don’t be a weak hand. Don’t sell too early. Hold. The monetary revolution has just started.

 

HOW TO STORE CRYPTOCURRENCIES?

Alright, so you bought your cryptocurrencies, where exactly should you store them? Well first and foremost…

Keep them off the Exchange!

There is absolutely no way that you should keep your coins in an exchange. There is a long history of hacks and bankruptcies in cryptocurrency markets, most famous the hack of Mt. Gox, which sucked up hundreds of millions of customer’s Dollars.

You need a hardware wallet. You can get one buy going to the top of the page under “Crypto Hardware Wallets” and see what we recommend in the drop down menu.

 

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH TAXES?

 

Disclaimer: We are no tax bureau nor tax consultants. If you have issues with taxes, and if large sums are at stake, you better ask your local tax consultant.

Right now there are only a few tax consultants who know how to deal with cryptocurrencies. But it can be safely assumed that the number is growing quickly and that cryptocurrencies will soon be a standard issue for tax experts like securities, shares, ETFs and real estates are.

All we can provide here is an overview of the typical issues with cryptocurrencies and taxes..

 

No Free Lunch

 

Nothing is for sure, except death and taxes. The same goes on with cryptocurrencies. If you earn money by investing in cryptocurrencies, you likely have to pay taxes. Like it is with everything else.

How you need to tax cryptocurrency investment returns is up to your national tax jurisdiction.

 

The Good News …

 

There is some good news about the topic of cryptocurrencies and taxes. First, in nearly every country of the world cryptocurrencies are VAT exempt. Like with every financial product you don’t need to pay VAT when selling Bitcoin. There have been some ideas of tax authorities in Poland, Estonia, Germany, Australia and Sweden to demand VAT on crypto sales, but after the European Court smashed this down in an important decision, VAT for Bitcoins seems to have become a non-topic.

Another good news is that in some jurisdictions you have to pay nearly no taxes. Amazingly Germany, a country usually known for very high tax rates, has become a tax haven for cryptocurrencies. Like the USA and many other countries, Germany considers Bitcoin not a financial product, but a property. This means that if you earn money by trading it, you don’t pay a flat tax for financial income – which is 25 percent, for example for bank account interest – but you have to tax the profit of buying and selling cryptocurrencies like income.

It’s more as you sold your house than a security.

You bought 10 Bitcoins for 1,000 Euro and sold them for 2,000? Your taxable income increased by 10,000 Euro.

You bought one bitcoin for 100 Euro and ordered a 10-Euro-pizza when the price was 1,000 Euro? Your income increased by 9 Euro. In most cases, the tax rate for this is higher than for financial gains.

However, there is a loophole. If you hold your coins for more than 1 year, you don’t need to pay taxes at all when you sell it. This rule was added to dis-incentivize day trading of other properties and stabilize prices by incentivizing holders. For cryptocurrencies it made Germany, and also the Netherlands, which apply the same rules, to tax havens. Some countries might have similar rules. In doubt, your tax advisor can help you out.

One problem the one year rule poses is that you need to prove that you hold the crypto for this timeframe. Usually, exchanges can help you with prints of your trade history. Also, you can use the public blockchain as a proof of storage. In most cryptocurrencies, it is transparent when coins are received and spent by a particular address. But not in all. For example, Monero uses Ring Signatures and Confidential Transactions, which are great tools to maintain anonymity. But the downside is that they make it more or less impossible to prove that you hold coins more than one year. Maybe you take this into account when selecting coins for your portfolio.

 

The Bad News …

.

If you use a good exchange and keep track of your trades, taxing Bitcoin is possible, but also a pain in the ass. You need to calculate every single profit, not just from trading, but also from using Bitcoins to pay for things.

But that’s just the beginning. Things become really a complicated nightmare if it comes to Altcoins. For the tax authorities, an Altcoin counts like Bitcoin. In most countries, this means it is not a financial product, but a property. If you buy it with Bitcoin and sell it for Bitcoin, you have to tax the difference, but not in Bitcoin, but in Dollar or you national paper money. This means, you not only need to keep track of all your Altcoin trades, but you also need to take into account the price of Bitcoin when buying and selling.

Obviously, this makes things extremely complicated. You can have a bad trade, resulting in getting less Bitcoin back than you invested, but being still, in theory, accountable to taxes, when the price of Bitcoin did soar between your trades. So you lost money in trading but have to pay taxes for it.

At this moment you should accept the fact that cryptocurrencies are something new and that you are no expert in dealing with your financial authorities. Go for a tax consultant, educate him or her about cryptocurrencies and look forward to talking with confused financial authority officials.

 

CONCLUSION:

 

This is an introduction to investing and trading in cryptocurrencies. Even though this was a lot of information, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to follow what trade setup’s I use and what I follow, please follow my YouTube Channel for more insight into this. I am not a financial advisor and you should consult a professional when dealing with these matters, as a disclaimer, but this is valid and helpful information I followed when I got started and understanding this new industry. Good luck on your journey!

What do you think? Is there something you recommend for people getting started? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Earn Free Bitcoin (2020)

This post is going to go into how to earn free bitcoin. But first, a quick story about how I stumbled upon this amazing tool and resource, and why it’s going to work for you. I first learned about the Life Leadership program from my girlfriend’s father last summer. As he was a fellow libertarian, I was interested to hear his thoughts on what this program offered and what the core values were, as I was always looking to converse with like-minded people.

I came to find that financial freedom and personal development (two things I was actively working on myself and believed in) was the cornerstone of what this organization stood for. As we started discussing it, I mentioned that I worked for a prominent cryptocurrency company and that I also believed in self-sovereignty and despised our current legacy financial system.

After that interaction, I started getting more involved, attended some in-person seminars, and was happy to learn that Life was working on a project that was going to promote the spending of cryptocurrencies through their platform. They believe in financial and economic freedom for the entire world; a vision I also shared.

I joined as a member and downloaded the free app that offers a wealth of free (and paid) services that help you get out of debt, educate you how to navigate our corrupt financial system, and provides you myriad tools to give you prosperity and obtain the life you’ve always wanted!

As a current member of the Life Leadership, I was thrilled to find that they had created a fantastic way to save money on purchases you were already making, create an eWallet that stores all your savings, and provided a simple way to accumulate the life virtual currency called “dibs” (which stands for “Dollars In Bitcoin Satoshi’s). You can convert these rewards directly into bitcoin. Seriously.

I am going to explain how it all works below, and as a “Pro-Cryptocurrency” individual, I truly believe this is the best possible on-ramp to gain mainstream adoption for ALL people to enter the cryptocurrency world, easier than any other method I’ve seen before. Giving people a powerful and free tool (the app) to save money on purchases they are already making, and then being able to convert the savings you accumulate directly into bitcoin is a slam dunk. Let’s learn how to earn free bitcoin!

 

*** CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE LIFE APP DOWNLOAD***

 

HOW TO EARN FREE BITCOIN: WHAT IS THE LIFE INFO APP?

The Life Info App is a free app for iPhone or Android that promotes financial literacy, personal development, and most recently, a shopping platform that that lets you convert your savings directly into bitcoin (via Coinbase). This is done with a rewards system that is used with the app’s ecosystem in the form of a virtual currency for Life Info shoppers and members called “dibs”. This rewards-based coin allows you to save 2% on all of Life’s existing services (subscriptions, audio’s, books, etc…) starting with a whole new redesign of the app starting on May 1st, 2019.

You start accumulating these dibs for every purchase you make through the app. They also have a network of very popular merchants worldwide (on-line or in person), that you can earn “cash back” or “dibs” on every purchase that goes directly into your eWallet after every transaction. Just to name a few: American Airlines, Buffalo Wild Wings, Groupon, Bass Pro Shops, Nike, Jiffy Lube, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Chipotle. These discounts range anywhere from 1-10% off each purchase and that percentage goes as a rewards balance in your eWallet that you start accumulating immediately.

So, how do I earn free bitcoin? Here’s How it Works. When you go click “Shop Now” in the center screen of the app, you can either browse all locations within a 100 mile radius of your current location, or manually type it in the search bar. There are thousands of physical locations and over 1,000 brands that are included in the app. You simply click on the brand you are currently wanting to make a purchase with and it will ask you to enter in the total purchase amount.

(PRO-TIP: If you have any coupons or other discount codes already, you can add that to your order to “stack” your total savings).

Once you enter in the total it will generate a digital gift card on the spot with the exact total of your purchase, so you don’t have a leftover balance on the gift card (unless you want to). You then either have the cashier scan your phone with the bar code, or read off the gift card code to them to process your transaction.

Once this transaction is complete, you will immediately receive a credit of “dibs” in your eWallet that you can either save for a future purchase at a discount at a different vendor within the app, or cash that out for bitcoin immediately. I would recommend not cashing it out for bitcoin immediately, as the more “dibs” you accumulate in your eWallet, you start to earn a higher percentage of rewards for each new tier that you hit. Here is a video explaining an overview of how the process works.

 

*** CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE LIFE APP DOWNLOAD***

 

WHAT ARE “DIBS” AND WHY DO I NEED IT?

“dibs” or (Dollars in Bitcoin Satoshi’s) is life’s virtual currency that is accumulated as rewards for each purchase made on life’s services within the app and also on any merchant purchases through any of the thousands of retailers that you see listed. This is significant because as a currency that is meant to benefit you (the Life App User) you can avoid using fiat and obtain the benefits of real world beneficial products and services, without forcing you to use a credit card. As we all know, credit cards are a tool used by big banks to try and create financial harm by charging outrageous interest rates while incurring absurd fees and is designed to drive you further into debt. how to earn free bitcoin

“dibs” is a versatile tool, not only for this ecosystem that promotes financial freedom, but is also allows you to convert it directly into Bitcoin (via Coinbase). I will provide an informational video below outlining this process, as well as providing you with some other options for using your “dibs”.

 

WHO IS IT FOR?

 

This is for anyone who wants to save money, earn free bitcoin, and also have an opportunity to earn passive income on the side. How do you do this? Simply use the app to make the purchases you were already planning to make anyways, online or in person. It’s more secure, and best of all you SAVE on every single purchase. These savings will go directly into the eWallet and the more you accumulate, the more rewards you receive, it’s that simple. This is how to earn free bitcoin!

If you are new to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and want to dip your toe in, this is BY FAR the easiest way to get started. I’ve been around in this industry for years, and I don’t say that lightly.

 

HOW DO I EARN FREE BITCOIN FOR PURCHASES I’M ALREADY MAKING?

 

As outlined in the video above, you can convert your “dibs” directly into bitcoin. This is a powerful decentralized digital currency that has immense utility and will most likely gain significant value over time as it is a “deflationary” currency, by design. You can also receive incentives to spend your bitcoin within the Life App, if you decide not to store it offline for longer term savings.

You just simply need to start making purchases within the Life App, see your savings accumulate immediately after each purchase, and then decide what’s best for your long term and short term savings and spending plan. If you skipped the video above in the previous section, I would strongly recommend giving it a view, as it visualizes this whole process and breaks it down very easily for you.

 

HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR FREE?

 

Are you convinced yet that this is a win-win? You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I am going to give you my referral link below here again and it will allow you to start saving immediately. As mentioned above, you can start saving NOW and accumulate savings in your wallet and on June 1st 2019, you will be able to convert your “dibs” into bitcoin directly through a very easy to use wizard as demonstrated in the above video.

 

*** CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE LIFE APP DOWNLOAD***

CONCLUSION

 

I’ve spent the last 3 and a half years of my life in pursuit of helping people understand and learn how to accumulate and store your cryptocurrency, safely. I can say this with absolute confidence that cryptocurrency is the future, and I believe that bitcoin has the best chance of success in gaining mainstream adoption as a device to liberate all people.

When we start using a decentralized means of exchange, we take away all the power and leverage away from the big banks and corrupt government officials that are there to try and control you. This campaign is one of freedom. This a worthwhile goal for every single human on the planet.

In over 10 years in the technology sector, I have never come across such a revolutionary technology. I will include a link to an article I wrote about a week ago that explains why I believe bitcoin is the ultimate expression of freedom.

Additionally, this website is dedicated to not only the adoption of cryptocurrency, but providing you information and the tools necessary to secure your bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) by becoming your own bank. I am partnered with the top 3 best hardware wallet providers in the industry and you can learn about and purchase these devices to help you keep your private keys in your possession, once you obtain them from Coinbase.

You just need to click the “Crypto Hardware Wallets” page at the top to review the best sellers if you want to take your cryptocurrency savings seriously. I will also recommend the easiest one to use if you’re a beginners here and it’s called “KeepKey“. I have been privately testing their new platform and can absolutely attest to its ease of use and top notch security. The link for this is right “HERE“. keepkey wallet

If you do not currently have a Coinbase account, you can click “HERE” to get a free $10 worth of bitcoin with your first purchase of $100 or more. If you decide to use that link, it helps both you and me as I am provided my own free $10 of bitcoin for referring you , at no additional cost to you.

P.S. If you would like to learn how to become a life leadership partner and start earning passive income by promoting this wonderful platform, please reach out to me directly in the “Contact Us” section of the website at the top.

 

PLEASE feel free to comment below with any questions or concerns about these products and processes and I will be sure to respond promptly!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

Hot Wallets Vs. Cold Wallets – Which One Should I Use?

In this article, I am going to dive into hot wallets vs. cold wallets – which one should I use? This is an interesting topic, and in fact, it was one of the first topics I started researching when I first discovered cryptocurrency and ultimately inspired me to create this website. As you can see, I have a bias towards cold storage wallets, but what exactly is the difference? I am going to discuss below what the pros and cons of a hot wallets vs cold wallets are and in what scenario you would need to use both. As cryptocurrency payments become ubiquitous, it’s important for your own safety and best security practices in managing your wallets and private keys on an on-going basis. Let’s begin.

WHAT IS A HOT WALLET?

 

In short, a “hot wallet” is a digital wallet for your cryptocurrency that is connected or is easily connected to the internet. This provides a lot of convenience for making day to day purchases as most active hot wallets are either on your smart phone or also on a desktop wallet on your computer for easy access for making online purchases. I always use the comparison of using your hot wallet like you would for a wallet in your back pocket that holds your credit cards, ID, and fiat. By a general rule of thumb, you should never hold more money on your hot wallet than you would normally keep in your leather physical wallet on a regular basis. Most people never keep any more than a couple hundred dollars in there at any given time, which is smart. The same applies to a hot wallet.

These wallets are designed for your average day to day spending. This could be at your local merchant down the street, or even if you’re browsing online at and trying to purchase gift cards at a site like bitrefill.com. This is done typically by scanning the screen’s QR code with your smartphone via your own wallet to make a quick transaction and simple transaction or even buy something off Amazon (like millions do everyday), but by using Purse.io, which is a platform that is built on top of amazon but accepts multiple cryptocurrencies as payment, and at a steep discount. Click this link to get some free BTC if you want to get started. Most purchase discounts range anywhere from 15-33% off anything at Amazon through this site.

These are just a few examples of how/when you would use your hot wallet for a simple transaction. You can also pre-load Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on Bitpay’s visa debit card. I will link my video review of this from Youtube HERE.

WHAT IS A COLD WALLET?

A “cold wallet” is also a digital (or sometimes physical, in the form of a hardware wallet) wallet that is kept completely offline. Why? Because any funds that are kept offline cannot be hacked or tampered with. You can think of this as virtual bank vault, that is very secure, hard to access, and is designed to store your larger amounts of crypto and primarily your longer term holdings. There are many advantages to having these wallets, and even safer to implement Multi-Sig wallets. It is also recommended to diversify your holdings between multiple hardware wallets when you start to accumulate a vast sum of crypto.

I have a soft spot specifically for hardware wallets as I’ve actually designed and built one for a prominent cryptocurrency company (although due to  an NDA, I cannot discuss it yet). But the reason I think it’s important is because using and owning this kind of device is like putting up a nice big middle finger to the big banks and over-reaching governments that tend to control our money supply and bank accounts whenever they see fit. No “authority” should have that kind of power. Hardware wallets are symbolic of sovereignty and self-reliance. That is why literally “becoming your own bank” is so important. One of my favorite quotes in this space is “Whoever controls the people’s means of exchange, controls the people”. This is scary, but very true. When you use cryptocurrency, you are taking personal control and responsibility of your finances, and that is SO empowering. Just writing about it send chills down my spine, but I digress.

If you are new to hardware wallets, I recommend getting a Keepkey device for beginners. Why? I have been testing their closed beta of their new platform and it is by far the easiest and most user friendly hardware wallet platform I have used (and I’ve used almost every one of them). I think I could teach my grandma how to use it, and that’s saying something. The current platform works fine, but the future platform is very exciting and if you are brand new, you will be pleasantly surprised. I will be writing a review on this platform shortly and I will update this post with a link as soon as I do, so stay tuned.

 

WHY WOULD I NEED EITHER ONE?

 

As you can see from the examples of use cases listed above, it is important to protect your cryptocurrency and make it useful and convenient when you need it. But it’s even more important to  protect it and secure it when it’s required. As the user adoption begins to snow ball, it’s crucial for everyone to understand that they will need both a hot and cold wallet for their various uses. You can even make transactions online with your hardware wallet connected via USB for even more protection. Most hardware wallets never expose their private keys to the internet when making the transactions by design. This is super helpful because you want to ensure that from every point in a given transaction, you do not want your private keys to be exposed in transit and potentially have your keys copied by a 3rd party before it reaches the intended destination.

Having said that, most digital wallets on your smart phone are typically secure enough for day to day spending and you shouldn’t be too concerned, so long as you have a trusted wallet for your phone. The top 3 I use on a regular basis is Bitpay, Jaxx, and Blockchain. These are all non-custodial wallets and have security features built in and can have 2FA or (two-factor authentication) enabled to confirm each transaction and will include Touch ID and Face ID, if you enable it.

I already recommended my top hardware wallet for beginners in the previous section, but any of the wallets that I offer through this website, are all trusted and good to use, it just depends on your needs and wants out of a secure air-gapped device.

 

Please sound off below! What hot and cold wallets do you like? Do you have any other wallets you can recommend not listed above? Let me know in the comments!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Buy Bitcoins With Paypal Instantly (2020)

In this article, I will tell you how to buy bitcoins with Paypal instantly. Some of us on our journey for buying our first bitcoin, we look at the funding source from which we want to pay for it. In some cases it may be your bank account, in others it could be with a debit or credit card, but what if you have some funds sitting in Paypal and you would like to use that as a payment method directly?

hLuckily, this can be done and some methods are more legitimate than others. I am going to include the best ways (in order) to do complete this process, but keep in mind that Paypal will include additional fees to buy bitcoin that can range from 10-20% more than the actual price you agree to, as Paypal is factoring in the risk of a charge back into the purchase price. Let’s begin!

 

#1 BUY BITCOIN ON ETORO VIA PAYPAL

 

Step 1 – Open Your Account

how to buy bitcoins with paypal instantly

– Visit the eToro homepage- Click the ‘Join Now’ button- Fill out the sign-up page, accepting the terms and conditions and privacy policy before clicking ‘Create Account’

Step 2 – Deposit Funds with Paypal

etoro paypal 1

– Log in to your eToro account- Click on the ‘Deposit Funds’ button- Submit the amount you wish to deposit and select your currency- Select your deposit method – in this case, PayPal- You’ll then be redirected to the PayPal website- Log in to your PayPal account- Review your transaction details- Verify the details and complete the transaction by clicking ‘Pay’

Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!

etoro paypal 2

  • Visit the BTC markets page on eToro
  • Click the blue ‘Trade’ button in the top right-hand corner
  • Alternatively, you can click ‘Buy’ next to Bitcoin if you have added it to your Watchlist
  • Enter the amount of Bitcoin you wish to buy in fiat currency
  • Set stop losses and ‘take profit’ parameters- Click ‘Open Trade’

 

#2 BUY BITCOIN ON COINBASE VIA PAYPAL

 

*Disclaimer: Using the e-wallet via Coinbase (web or iOS) requires you to be a U.S. investor. If you are not an American, you can still link your Paypal account to Coinbase, but you can’t physically buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum. In order to use PayPal for non-US customers is to swap your Bitcoin for a fiat currency and transfer this back to your Paypal account.*

coinbase paypal 1

  • Visit the Coinbase homepage
  • Click on the ‘Sign Up’ button in the top right-hand corner
  • Complete the sign-up form and hit the ‘Create Account’ button
  • Activate your Coinbase account by clicking on the confirmation link in your sign-up email

Step 2- Deposit Funds with Paypal

  • Log in to your Coinbase account
  • Click the ‘Settings’ tab on the left-hand side
  • Click ‘Add a Payment Method’
  • Click ‘PayPal Account’ and verify your PayPal account using the on-screen prompts

Step 3 – Buy Bitcoin!

coinbase paypal 2

  • Log in to your Coinbase account
  • On the Dashboard, click the ‘Buy/Sell’ button at the top of the page
  • On the Buy/Sell window, click the Bitcoin button
  • Choose your preferred payment method e.g. PayPal
  • Specify the amount of Bitcoin you want in your fiat currency
  • Hit ‘Buy Bitcoin Instantly’

 

#3 BUY BITCOIN IN PERSON VIA PAYPAL (LOCAL BITCOINS)

 

Step 1 – Sign Up (If you haven’t already)

buy bitcoin on localbitcoins using paypal

Click this link for a direct way to do this! – SIGN UP

 

Step 2 – Filter for Paypal

Image result for paypal filter local bitcoins

Paypal Tips:

  • High feedback scores are important. The closer to 100 percent, the better.
  • Look at the number of trades and trade volume. Again, the higher, the better.
  • Consider the trade limits to be sure the seller can fill your order.
  • Look at the payment window to see how long you have to complete the transaction.
  • Read any terms the seller might have. In some cases, the seller will also require a minimum reputation score for the buyer. If this is the case, you’ll have to make some small purchases to increase your reputation if you want to use that specific seller.

 

Step 3 – Confirm Transaction

Image result for paypal filter local bitcoins confirm

This is documented in case of a dispute, but as long as you follow the tips above, that is unlikely. You can also negotiate to meet in person to initiate this process, if needed.

 

CONCLUSION

 

There are still other options to buy bitcoin with Paypal online, but those other options I have not personally used or tested and therefore, I cannot speak to how legitimate the entire process is. For your reference if you want to see what some other options are, I will link them below for you to take a look. Well, there you have it. Three tried and true ways to buy bitcoin online with Paypal and usually goes pretty quickly. This is a good option if you have funds sitting in Paypal and want to convert it into the far more valuable currency of the future.

NOTE: The other sites I will list below will allow other options for credit cards and other payment methods as well.

 

Virwox

Paxful

xCoins

 

If you found this helpful or you have any other suggestions on other sources to obtain bitcoin securely and easily, please comment below!

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

How To Convert Bitcoin Into Cash (USD, GBP, EUR) – 3 Best Ways

In this article, I am going to cover how to convert bitcoin into cash. Bitcoin has become a worldwide phenomenon due to it’s revolutionary technology and unbeatable economic model. If you are serious about getting into cryptocurrency, I would strongly recommend focusing on how you can slowly (but surely) start stacking and earning Satoshis on a consistent basis. It’s not just the die hard believers, bitcoin has grown year over every January since it’s inception.

I believe it is going to be the reserve currency of the future and it’s only a matter of time before the masses will realize this. However, some people may need to go the other way and convert their bitcoin into fiat cash for various reasons. Although I recommend avoiding this at all costs, here are some ways you can do this fairly easily.

 

1.) FIAT ACCEPTING EXCHANGES

There are a handful of fiat accepting exchanges that I will link below. I will list the top 3 that I recommend first, since I’ve personally used them and can vouch for their integrity and I have personal experience with them. For others, you may not have access in your country or otherwise unable to use the exchanges I’ve used myself.

I will link reviews to them as well so you can do your due diligence. You can utilize these exchanges as a way to get cash directly in the form of a paper check, or a direct deposit.

Coinbase – This is a U.S. based exchange and the onboarding is fairly simple. You can add your bank account or even use Paypal to sell your bitcoin on the spot (for a fee) to convert it into your local currency. It then is setup in a direct deposit and usually takes about 1-3 business days before you see it in your bank account.

Kucoin – This is a Hong Kong Based exchange, but I’ve used it on several occasions and it works just fine. It is roughly the same process as Coinbase, but there is no Paypal option and it can take anywhere from 3-7 business days from start to finish.

Binance – This is the largest exchange by volume and has a sterling reputation. It is currently based out of Taiwan, but originated in China. You can also sell your bitcoin for fiat in a very seamless and easy manner. I was able to receive my deposit to my bank in about 2 business days.

Kraken – This is another U.S. based exchange that has been pretty consistent in terms of delivering what they advertise. If you are based in the U.S. (or you bank account rather), it’s possible to get your money in as little as one business day.

Other options – I cannot comment on them, however, I will link them to a trusted review source so you can do further research and see if it will work for your situation.

Bitmex

Bitfinex

Bitflyer

Bitstamp

Note: All of the above options will require KYC in order to complete your transaction.    

 

2.) LOCAL BITCOINS

 

Local Bitcoins is a good way for people to cash out their bitcoin and do not want to the route of an exchange. It’s usually conducted in person and in an agreed upon location. This is a good option if you want to maintain your privacy and do not want your information on an exchange, or if you simply cannot gain access to an exchange for any reason. This also applies to folks who do not have have access to other financial services.

Local Bitcoins is a Bitcoin start-up based out of Helsinki, Finland, which has been operating since 2012. It is a P2P Bitcoin exchange. It has on-ground buyers and sellers in more than 15,000 cities across 248 countries. Chances are, you will find a buyer in your country via Local Bitcoins.

The beauty of Local Bitcoins is that you dealing with the buyer directly and you can receive money in any of the supported formats (bank deposit, PayPal, Payoneer, cash). When it comes to converting Bitcoin into fiat, Local Bitcoins is one of the most preferred choices of those who don’t want to use an exchange.

I have used this personally before, and the only caution I can express is first, make sure you are not meeting in a private location or at someone’s residence for your own safety. Meet in a well-lit public area and ensure you have good cell reception and internet access.

My experience (for buying) was setting up a free wallet on my phone and then having the seller scan my QR code to make a deposit. Once I had at least 3 block confirmations, I released the cash and we went our separate ways. This is usually a seamless and safe method, just make sure to use common sense when meeting a stranger.

 

3.) USING A USD-BACKED FIAT COIN (USDT, USDC, ETC…)  

 

how to convert bitcoin into cash

Now this is a good option if you are trading and want to convert your profits into a stable coin until you are ready to make another trade, or you simply do not want to incur a taxable event when depositing into your bank account. You can also hold USDT (Tether) on a hardware wallet like the Trezor One, for even safer long term storage.

This is also an advantage because it is pegged to the U.S. dollar so you don’t need to worry about any volatility or price swings when dealing with a stable coin. Coinbase also supports USDC (USD Coin), which is essentially the same as Tether. You can hold it on a mobile wallet or on a Ledger Nano S, if you plan to hold it for more than a few days.

 

CONCLUSION  

 

Ultimately, it depends on your goals and what method works best for you. This also would be a good opportunity to talk to your friends and family about bitcoin and making a transaction with someone you trust, while at the same time teaching them about this valuable tool and spreading the good word. Talk to your co-workers and even your boss. Ask if they use bitcoin or if they’ve even heard of it and strike up a friendly conversation about it.

It’s instances like these where we start to see awareness and mass adoption start to take place and every time you do this, you’re directly helping the overall cause and also doing them a favor. Trust me, they will thank you later.

 

Please sound off below! What exchanges have you guys used? Do you have any other fiat-based exchanges you can recommend not listed above? Let me know in the comments.

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

3 Best Cryptocurrency Cold Storage Solutions — Non Custodial

In this article, I am going to give you the 3 best cryptocurrency cold storage solutions. You’ve probably heard this before by your friend or colleague that introduced you to the wonderful world of cryptocurrency: “You need to store your bitcoin offline using cold storage”. So what does that mean exactly? There are many forms of cold storage, but there is considerably more forms of “Hot Wallets” or storage that is convenient and directly tied to an internet connection.

I don’t need to tell that this form of storage is convenient, but is riddled with considerable risk. With a normal bank account, if there is fraud or if someone hacks your account, you have recourse, and in most cases your will not be liable and be fully reimbursed. No harm no foul, right?

That is not the case when it comes to cryptocurrency. It’s about self-sovereignty and full ownership and responsibility of your own finances. With that in mind comes a great deal of responsibility and in this case, responsibility over your own finances and your own bank is a blessing. So what do you need to know? You absolutely, 100% need a cold storage solution for storing your cryptocurrency offline to keep your private keys and recovery seed safe.

I am going to share with you below the 3 best cryptocurrency and bitcoin cold storage solutions, starting with what I consider to be the most secure, all the way down to what is not so secure. However, everything that is offline (generally speaking) is still more secure than keeping your long term holdings on a phone or any other internet connected device.

 

HERE ARE THE TOP 3 COLD-STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR STORING YOUR CRYPTOCURRENCY OFFLINE

 

Be advised that these are considered to be the best practices currently in the industry and most commonly used tried and true methods. There are other ways to go about this, but as they are not properly vetted and not as commonly used, we will not be listing them here.

 

#1 HARDWARE WALLETS (MOST SECURE) 3 best cryptocurrency cold storage solutions

 

You can probably tell by now that I am a strong advocate of hardware wallets. I even developed and built one working for a very prominent cryptocurrency company and I have the latest prototype not 2 feet from where I sit now.

I have a lot of first-hand experience in understanding why it is vitally important to own one and use one for any amount of cryptocurrency you don’t plan to spend in the next 24 hours. It has some keen advantages on top of being an “offline” device, which means it cannot be hacked.

  • Private keys are generated on and never leave the device, even when it’s connected to the computer. This is crucial because if your private keys are stored in a secure environment and they are never removed from the device, there is no risk of them being exposed to the internet.

 

  • Custom PIN Encryption – This is an extra layer of security that requires the user to set a 4-8 digit custom pin once it’s connected to USB port that is connected to the internet, like a desktop or laptop (or even a mobile phone). Without this PIN, you cannot even gain access to the application to make changes or sign transactions.

 

  • Additional Device Verification – This means that any action you take on the web or desktop application with your mouse or a keystroke, requires authentication on the device itself to ensure there is no key-logging or unauthorized changes. For example, If I want to spend 0.25 BTC on a new snowboard on Amazon (Yes, you can do this with Purse.io), and you initiate that within the web app, it will prompt your to confirm the transaction on the hardware device via physically pressing a mechanical button. This is to ensure no mistakes and no unauthorized transactions occur.

 

#2 USB DRIVE (NOT AS SECURE)

This option is better than leaving all of your holdings on a hot wallet, but is still not recommended. Why? Because unlike a trusted hardware wallet, it has no security measures. If someone gains access to the unsuspecting USB drive, they will have unfettered access to your precious private keys.

It is not encrypted, it is not protected, and anyone with access to google can crack this if they have physical possession of it. Additionally, I cannot tell you how often these little devices have hardware failures. If you do not have a backup of these keys, your coins will be gone forever if something goes wrong.

 

#3 PAPER WALLET (EVEN LESS SECURE)

 

This one is a “Catch 22”. What do I mean by that? Well, I see the value of what it is and I understand why this invention was created. For instance, when I wanted to give my loved ones some bitcoin in their stocking at Christmas, it was (and still is) a great way to introduce bitcoin to the uninitiated and get them excited about this new technology.

A paper wallet is exactly what it sounds like, it’s your bitcoin in paper form. It usually includes a QR code to scan with your phone and import into a hot wallet and contains a written public and private key. This is not secure, but if you are gifting it to someone, or making a trade or transaction offline, it’s a decently good medium, especially if you don’t know or necessarily trust the recipient.

As I mentioned above, if you are unfamiliar with this amazing piece of paper, it exposes everything you need to take control of this bitcoin. It has written out the public bitcoin address and the corresponding private key. If someone dropped this in the wind and I picked it up down the road, it would be like getting a winning lottery ticket (literally). As you can see there are very few recommended uses for this, and even when using this, you need to be very, very careful.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

 

So, 3 best cryptocurrency cold storage solutions? When choosing the best cold storage solution for you, you need to understand what your end game is. What is your purpose and intent when deciding to pull your crypto offline? Most people who learn about the many advantages about cryptocurrency, typically plan to hold it for an extend period of time, whether it be for a long term investment or even everyday spending (like me).

The Bottomline: Unless you are planning to give some bitcoin away as a gift or you are making a one time transaction with a stranger in a dark alley, I STRONGLY recommend you purchase a hardware wallet. One of the most popular ones right now and is widely supported by a wide range of different cryptocurrencies is only $59 at the time of this writing.

Believe me, it won’t be that price for long. Once the next market cycle starts to ramp up, these prices are going to be increasing, and it is a steal considering you are protecting potentially millions or billions of dollars worth of lifetime crypto-assets. The hardware wallet in question here is the Ledger Nano S, and I use this as one of my everyday wallets as well for spending. If you click the “HOME” button at the top, you can see all the different wallets we offer and endorse right now, depending on what features you need and  what works best for you.

 

If you have any questions or comments on this post, please sound off below! I’d love to hear from you! Until next time…

 

Cheers,

 

The Crypto Renegade

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

What Is The Best Cryptocurrency To Invest In Right Now? (2020)

What is the best cryptocurrency to invest in right now? Yes, this may seem like a loaded question, but it ultimately comes down to preference. I have long been a believer that there will at some point come a cryptocurrency that provides more value that the current king itself (Bitcoin), but I still feel as though that day is still far off in the distance. Bitcoin has been the staple and foundation that started this revolution over a decade ago with the one crazy idea that the world could have a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that was governed by the people, and not an “authority”.

So far, the network effect is the strongest factor that keeps bitcoin in the minds of most people that are aware of it, because it’s not just a coin, its also a technology; a protocol. Decentralization and a VERY large distributed network gives bitcoin a superior power than all other altcoins listed on CoinMarketCap.com. However, that is not to say that other altcoins offer no value, in fact, a good few of them are innovating a way to new technologies and governance standards that let it stand apart from the rest. I will name a two of them that I have invested in below that are not Bitcoin, because they offer a unique selling proposition (USP).

 

ZCASH what is the best cryptocurrency to invest in right now?

 

Zcash has a proprietary privacy protocol attached to it. This is extremely attractive, as one of the key selling points of cryptocurrency to begin with was anonymous, uncensorable transactions. This is money as it was intended to be. I should be able to transact with anyone in the world, and not only NOT have it tracked, but keep it between me and the other consenting party. They use a method called zk-SNARKs.

This is an acronym for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument Of Knowledge”. What does this actually mean? It essentially means that “Zero-Knowledge” proofs allow one party (prover) to prove to another (verifier) that a statement is true. It allows you to verify a transaction is relevant and true without knowing its origin.

Some people view this as potentially scary, because it allows money launderers or criminals to transact in a more private way. Well, my theory is this, criminals will always find a way to do what they want and transact privately. Valuable tools should not be banned or discredited because there is a potentially negative outcome.

There is an equally positive outcome. Privacy is an unalienable right to all humans and we should all expect it and understand our rights to it. To me, that makes this coin very very powerful and very much worth exploring, especially as it is considered an “Original”. Some similar example coins that came after are Monero and Zcoin.

 

TEZOS

 

In my opinion, Tezos is the new and improved evolution of Ethereum. It is a new platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Here are a few key points that make it different:

1.) On-Chain Governance – The Tezos protocol offers a formal process through which stakeholders can efficiently govern the protocol and implement future innovations. This is democracy at it’s finest. It also helps avoid controversial “Hard Forks” as we’ve seen in the past with Bitcoin (BTC) to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and then Bitcoin Cash (BCH) into Bitcoin SV (BSV). This has a detrimental effect on the network and causes a lot of confusion, contention, and tribalism.

2.) Security – This blockchain was designed to facilitate formal verification, which helps secure smart contracts and avoid buggy code. This has been a HUGE problem with Ethereum over the years as noted in the infamous “DAO Hack“, which again proved that their protocol was not immutable and caused yet another hard fork that brought forth Ethereum Classic into existence.

3.) Liquid Proof of Stake – This is a unique consensus proof-of-stake algorithm which gives every stakeholder the opportunity to participate in the validation of transactions on the network and be rewarded for doing so. Whether you are big or small, you have a vote. This is unlike the current mining pools that we have in place where the person with the most hashing power and hardware wins the block reward, and essentially dictate the rules of the network.

I tend to think that the tech behind each blockchain is what brings it’s value. Whether or not the price is currently up or down on these coins, I believe as the masses start to see the value these innovators bring to the table, the money will follow.

If you don’t recall, it took over a year of price discovery before Ethereum finally found it’s place in the market. All this to summarize that I am very interested to see where these both end up in terms of price and user adoption over the course of this year.

 

CONCLUSION

 

So what is the best cryptocurrency to invest in right now? My final thought comes down to diversification. No matter what cryptocurrency you own or believe in, it is always a good idea to NOT put all of your eggs in one basket. Diversification allows you to spread out your wealth and provide you a bit more piece of mind and stability as we all partake in our own personal crypto journey.

If you are new to this space and are unsure what to invest in, there is an up-and-coming site that allows you to follow a strong community of cryptocurrency investors and see what allocations are in their portfolio to give you a baseline. This is a desktop and mobile app known as “eToro“. It also provides you some guides and information on each coin so you can learn what the differences of each coin are and what the full scope of their previous price, current price, and the expected future price over time. I will leave the link here for anyone that’s interested.

 

Please sound off below! What do you think the best cryptocurrency to invest in at this point in the game? Do you think my top two altcoin picks are unfounded? Let me know in the comments.

 

NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.

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