How to Buy Bitcoin for Beginners

I hear it all the time. Someone is interested in buying their first Bitcoins, but they don’t have a clue where to start. Either that or they feel intimidated by the concept of cryptocurrency and think it’s too hard to get involved. If that’s you; congratulations, you’ve come to the right place. The process of buying Bitcoin is much easier than you think, and it can be done safely and quickly from the comfort of your home. In this video you’re going to learn how to buy Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies for that matter. Following this I will detail the best practice for keeping your newly purchased coins secure, so that they are not at risk of loss or theft. Let’s cut right to the chase. Where can you buy Bitcoin? There are many different places and methods through which you can acquire Bitcoins. For me, safety and simplicity are of paramount importance when introducing new people to crypto and that’s why I recommend creating an account on Coinbase through the link in the description. This is one of the largest and most well-established cryptocurrency exchanges, with an excellent reputation in the industry and widespread support for customers in various regions around the world. By using my sign-up link, you and I will both get a free $10 in Bitcoin if you trade over $100 on the platform. Doing this helps fund my channel and I’m greatly appreciative of your support. Creating an account is a straightforward process where you fill in some forms, verify your email and phone number, and then you will be asked to complete Know Your Customer verification which involves submitting a photo of your driver’s license or passport. These days no matter where you go, to buy Bitcoin, you’re going to have to complete KYC. It’s annoying but it’s standard industry practice and crypto exchanges are required to do this by law. Once that’s out of the way, the next step is adding funds to your account. On the main Coinbase dashboard, click the ‘Buy & Sell’ button at the top of the screen and then add a payment method. If possible, avoid using the credit and debit card payment option as you will incur additional fees. To get the best value for money, select the bank account option. What comes next will vary depending on the country you live in but in all cases you simply transfer whatever amount of money you want to buy Bitcoin with, from your bank account to Coinbase’s. Here in Australia we have instant bank transfers through something called PayID and so I just copied the ID Coinbase gave me, went to my internet banking page, and made a payment to that ID. Moments later I returned to Coinbase and after refreshing the page, the money appeared. If you successfully got funds into your account, you’re now ready to buy Bitcoin! Start by going to the ‘Trade’ page, which will bring up a list of cryptocurrencies and display their current price and market cap information. It is from here that you can buy Bitcoin, or any of the other cryptos, by clicking on their corresponding ‘Buy’ button. A dialog box will appear where you can input the amount you wish to purchase. It also gives you the option to repeat this purchase at certain intervals, for example every day, once a week, or once a month. This is called dollar cost averaging and the intent is to lessen the risks associated with price volatility by spreading out your purchases over time rather than going all-in at once. When you’re happy with the amount and purchase frequency, you can click ‘Preview Buy’. This displays a summary of your purchase that includes the rate you’re buying Bitcoin at, any taxes and the fee taken by Coinbase. All cryptocurrency exchanges take a fee on buying and selling, its how they make money, and they vary from platform to platform. For Coinbase they are as follows: a flat rate depending on the purchase amount, up until you surpass $200 which is when it becomes 1.49%. So if you bought $1000 worth of Bitcoin, Coinbase would take a $14.9 fee. But if you signed up with my link, you would get $10 back and it becomes $4.9. If you’re happy with that, you can confirm the purchase by clicking ‘Buy now’ and that’s it. You now own Bitcoin! But don’t stop there because I highly recommend that you transfer your coins out of Coinbase. There is a saying in crypto “not your keys, not your coins”, which means if you don’t hold the keys to your crypto wallet then you don’t really own your crypto. You are entrusting your crypto to a third party, in this case Coinbase. In storing your cryptocurrency on an exchange, you are exposing yourself to unnecessary risk. For example, your email or phone number may get compromised, which may allow attackers to gain access to your account and steal your funds. Cryptocurrency exchanges themselves are at risk of getting hacked and having assets stolen, this has happened many times before although it is unlikely that would ever happen to Coinbase. Still, to have peace of mind you should ideally purchase what’s called a hardware wallet. This is a small device, kind of like a USB stick, that gives you full control over your wallet keys which are encrypted and stored offline. This is called cold storage. When it comes to hardware wallets there are multiple options to choose from, but in my demonstration I’m using a Ledger device. I’ve put a link in the description to where you can get your Ledger. Once you’ve got it set up, video available on that soon, open the Ledger Live software and navigate to the accounts page. Create an account for Bitcoin if you don’t already have one, click on that account, and then click receive. The Ledger will give you an address to send your coins to, so copy it and then head over to Coinbase. At the top of the page, hit the ‘send and receive’ button which will bring up a dialog box. Here you can paste in your Bitcoin address and enter an amount you wish to send. Clicking ‘continue’ and then ‘send now’ will initiate the transaction. Shortly thereafter the Bitcoin you sent will appear in the Ledger wallet, and you can rest easy knowing that your Bitcoin is stored securely and under your full control. Alternatively, if you do not wish to purchase a hardware wallet then you can download some free software to store your coins, like the wallet offered by Bitcoin.com. This is what’s known as a hot wallet and it’s less secure than a cold wallet because the device the software is installed on, such as your phone or computer, is connected to the internet and therefore it has the potential to be hacked. Generally, this is considered fine for storing smaller amounts of cryptocurrency, which you may be spending on a regular basis. In any case, no matter which path you take, it is extremely important that you back up your wallet’s seed phrase. If something happens to your hardware wallet, your phone or your computer, this list of words will enable you to recover the cryptocurrency stored on that device. Without it, there is nobody you can call to help, and those funds will be forever lost. Additionally, you must ensure the seed phrase itself is stored in a secure location because if some unauthorized person gains access to it, then they have full access to your wallet and the coins contained therein. And on that note, that’s the end of the video. If you found it helpful, please give me a like and share it with your friends who are interested in getting involved in Bitcoin. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss out on other useful cryptocurrency information and content. I’ll catch you guys in the next video.

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