Day-Trading and Longterm Investment
Some people take cryptocurrency day-trading to the max, spending all afternoon holed up in their rooms in open bathrobes surrounded by dirty coffee cups, their beards growing and their retinas in atrophy, while they swap Bitcoin for Monero and Monero for Ripple and Ripple for whatever the newest Coin Of The Century is supposed to be, trying to stay on top of the fluctuations. But what about normal people who don’t want to swan dive down the rabbit hole, who just want to buy some crypto, put it in a wallet, and forget about it? It’s also a perfectly viable and profitable option and the best part is it won’t drive you insane.
There are plenty of stories about people who bought a small amount of Bitcoin, completely forgot about it, and realized years later that their cautious little investments were worth a fortune. You can’t count on getting that lucky, but it does demonstrate that making money off cryptocurrency investments does not require you to quit your job and focus on nothing else.
Fortunately, there are crypto brokers that have you covered and one of the best and simplest is Coinmama, which gives you a simple and intuitive platform to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum. No complicated charts, no unintelligible graphs, no flashing red and green fractions to decipher, you just pick the amount of Bitcoin you want, see its value in USD or EUR and buy it.
In this article, we’ll give you a step by step walkthrough on registering and buying Bitcoin with Coinmama. The user interface is very simple and intuitive, the fees are reasonable, their customer support is helpful and accessible 24 hours a day and, best of all, the sign-up and transaction times are very fast. The rapidly increasing popularity of cryptocurrency has caused so much congestion with other brokers and exchanges that some of them are taking weeks to sign up new customers and complete transactions, and some have even had to temporarily suspend new user registration due to overload. Coinmama has avoided the traffic jams thanks to their large and dedicated team, so you won’t need to spend unnecessary amounts of time waiting and worrying. They only sell Bitcoin and Ethereum but that’s okay – once you have Bitcoin you can easily swap it for a different crypto coin and, since many of the more obscure coins can only be obtained by trading one crypto for another, Bitcoin gives you access to the entire market. Swapping and trading coins on other exchanges takes a while to understand so Coinmama is a great place to start simply. Check out Coinmama’s website or read our detailed review here, and let’s get started.
Buying your first cryptocurrency can be nerve-wracking. You’re putting your real money into something you can never physically see and then sending it around without the backing and insurance of a bank. What if I screw it up? What if I do it wrong? Then I’ve lost all my money with no way of getting it back… mmmm.
The good news is, it’s easy.
Get a wallet.
Not a nice embroidered leather one, but a website or piece of software that holds your coins. You’ll need a wallet to send your Bitcoin to after you buy it. The wallet is like a little bank account which you are entirely in control of. You use it to store, send and receive coins. Coinmama recommends the free Blockchain.info wallet which is a “web wallet” where your coins are stored in an online account. When you go to the website you’ll see a button that says “get a free wallet.”
Click on it. You’ll open an account like you do with any other website and your wallet is created. You’ll be given a wallet ID which is a long chain of numbers and letters that looks like this:
The wallet ID is your username and you use it to log in, so make sure you write it down. That’s it. The wallet’s ready, although it’s a good idea to go to the security section and complete the steps there for enhanced safety. You should also write down the “backup recovery phrase” (also in the security section) which you can use to recover the wallet and balance if you forget your login information.
Create an account with Coinmama.
The process is as easy as registering on any other website, in fact, it’s actually easier than opening a bank account or setting up an email. Click here to start. Once that’s done you won’t be able to buy anything until you verify your identity, which is a security measure to make sure people aren’t laundering money or using stolen cards. After you log into your account for the first time it’ll take you to an account interface. Click on “verify your account.”
It will take you to a new page and prompt you for personal information. Once you fill that out you’ll need to show them identification documents (national ID card, driver’s license, passport etc.)
If you’re using an ID card you’ll need to upload two photographs, one of the front of the card and one of the back, making sure the text is clearly readable. If you’re using a passport then the photo page is all they need. Then you’ll need to upload a selfie of you holding your ID document and a piece of paper that says “Coinmama” and the day’s date. Make sure that the text on the ID document is also clearly readable in the selfie, and that the picture isn’t blurry otherwise your application will be rejected and you’ll have to waste a bunch of time redoing it. Send that off and Coinmama staff will evaluate it and verify the account. Verification can take less than half an hour if you send the required info during normal business hours, otherwise, it could take up to twelve hours.
Pick how much Bitcoin you want.
No, you don’t have to buy a whole Bitcoin. You can buy any amount you want. Log in and click on “Bitcoin” on the menu bar. It will take you to a page where you have the option to buy Bitcoin in specific increments or a sliding bar where you can select exactly how much you want and see the value in USD or Euro (the minimum purchase is 60 USD.)
Once you select the amount click “buy now” and they’ll give you the option to pay by card. Click on it and it will take you to a new screen which says “please insert your Bitcoin wallet address.”
Go back to the Blockchain.info wallet.
Click “request” at the top of the screen. This feature of the wallet is a bit confusing. “Request” makes it sound like you’re meekly asking someone for some Bitcoin, hat in hand, with no guarantee of getting it. That’s not the case though. Poor wording aside, the “request” feature simply shows you your wallet address and lets you make notes about the transaction. Don’t worry, you’re not requesting anything, you will get your coins. It will bring up a new window with a bar that says “Copy & Share Address.” The long string of numbers and letters underneath it is your wallet address which is what Coinmama will use to identify your wallet and send coins to it.
Copy and paste your wallet’s receiving address onto Coinmama.
Click “proceed to checkout.” You’ll pay with your card the same way you pay for anything else online. Before the transaction goes through Coinmama will send you an email with a link you use to verify that the wallet address is yours. Once you click on it the transaction is final and your Bitcoin is sent. When I bought Bitcoin with Coinmama it only took about twenty minutes for the transaction to show up, but it may take longer, especially if lots of people are buying and selling on the Bitcoin network. Don’t start chewing your nails off, just give it a while. If something does go wrong Coinmama’s customer support will figure out what went wrong and either get you your Bitcoin or refund your money.
Smile and relax.
That’s it. Now you’ve got Bitcoin and you’re officially one of the cool crypto kids. No more yawning on the sidelines when people bring it up. You can now jump in too and help your sceptical friends realize how easy it is to get started. You can either hold onto the Bitcoin and hope that its value increases or you can swap it for other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Monero, Dash and Ripple, which you think have a better chance of going up.
If you don’t feel like screwing around with wallets there are other brokers which let you hold your coins on the website itself so you don’t have to send them anywhere. If they’re stored with the broker you can easily swap them for different coins and withdraw your crypto in your local currency. CEX.io is a great option if you don’t want to worry about wallets. Check out our detailed review here. You can learn more about cashing in your coins by reading our article on withdrawing crypto to fiat.
If you intend to hold large amounts of Bitcoin for a long time the best wallets are “hardware wallets” which look like USB sticks, let you store your cryptocurrency offline and are the best way to make yourself as hack-proof as possible. The Trezor and Ledger Nano S are the two industry leaders.
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