What is bitcoin? and every thing you need to know.

A Beginner’s Step By Step Guide To BITCOIN: Everything You Need To Know incometwo.com/beginners-guide-bitcoin/ February 9, 2018

This post was most recently updated on February 22nd, 2018

A beginner’s guide for Bitcoin You might have definitely heard of the word Bitcoin since it has created a lot of confusions worldwide. Brexit, Demonetization in India and the election of Donald Trumph as new US president, many economic events has been viewed with respect to Bitcoin.

If you are a newbie to Bitcoin, we shall take you through the beginners guide to understand basic and essential things related to it.

Contents Investments are always worthy if you make them prudently. Bitcoin is the latest entrant which has created a huge buzz in the market.

This bitcoin for beginners guide we have created to give an idea about how does bitcoin investing work? What is this? And why should you invest in this?Let’s discuss.

Let’s start with an example to know what Bitcoin is?

What is bitcoin?

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How do you transfer money from India to USA now? Yes, by bank wire transfer service or by Payoneer or PayPal. Right? But you would have to pay big amount of fees in remitting or transferring money.

You must be paying fees to the bank for the safe record of your money and if you use services from payment gateway Stripe, PayPal, 2Checkout, or any other, you must be paying transaction fees too.

If we say technically, for your every transaction of money, you pay money to the bank and everything is recorded and monitored on a ledger and money is just transferred digitally between the accounts.

Do you know that when you transfer the money, it is not moved physically like goods?

Still, we pay service charge of 2-10%.

Have you ever thought why do we pay such service charge as fees even though it is done digitally?

Yes, this is how they grab money from users like us.

But it has a solution!!!!

Bitcoin makes every cross-border transactions and remittance possible without any charges Bitcoin is regulated by any country, but its internet’s official currency and everyone can earn it with an internet connection. It is regulated by “Us” that are users and not any special regulatory bodies making it independent of any corporate monopoly.

The main thing about Bitcoin is that it can be transferred anywhere in the world with very minimal fees.

Transferring any amount of bitcoin from the US to India may just cost about $2-3 and only sender and receiver get to know the details of the transactions.

Yes, the world is accepting Bitcoin now to save more money for doing business globally.

Let’s do deeper to know how bitcoin emerged.

What is Bitcoin?

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“Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency or digital currency which doesn’t belong to a particular country or geographical entity and can be used by anyone who has an internet connection.”

You can store bitcoins in the “ Bitcoin wallets” just like you save money in your bank or wallets. Since everything is digital there is no fiat money like INR, US Dollars, YEN or any other paper currency involved.

You receive or transfer bitcoin, you use bitcoin wallet and can have more wallet addresses too for every wallet. You can be assured of safety as a unique wallet address will be used for every transaction you make.

Install a Bitcoin wallet on your smartphone or your computer. After installation, you can receive or send bitcoins to anyone in the world by generating a Bitcoin wallet address.

Bitcoin is a decentralized and digital currency system which is designed in such a way that it can give online users the facility to process transactions via a digital unit of exchange known as Bitcoins.

In other words, it is a virtual money or cryptocurrency. You can easily exchange it for other currencies (suppose you can buy bitcoins with US dollars or Euro) and it fluctuates in relation to other currencies as well.

Though Bitcoin is invented in 2009, it started gaining popularity from 2012 onwards. Since then, many venture capital firms and investors around the globe have started investing in bitcoin and are giving importance to the cryptocurrency.

So, this is the high time that you need to enhance your knowledge on cryptocurrency and start investing in it. This article will help you how can you make your investment and can get benefit from it.

If you are planning to invest in cryptocurrency, you need two things first.

1. An exchange or website from where you can buy BTC 2. A wallet where you can store your purchased BTC safely.

Let’s discuss these two points elaborately

1. An exchange to buy Bitcoins

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There are many countries which have an official cryptocurrency exchange and from that exchange, you can purchase BTC. Countries like the USA (CoinBase, Gemini), India (Coinsecure, Coindelta, Zebpay and Coinome), UK (CEX), Israel (Coinmama), South Korea (Bithumb), Russia (Yobit) and Nigeria (Luno) have their own BTC exchanges.

If you are living in any of the above-mentioned countries, then you can quickly sign up for these exchanges and can easily transfer money from your bank account to purchased bitcoins.

But if you are the resident of such a country where there is no BTC exchange and you have no option of transferring funds from your bank accounts to purchased cryptocurrency, then the scenario will become intricate for you.

So, what will you do in this case? Don’t worry, your answer is here.

There are many websites from where you can buy bitcoins either by using cash or credit cards or debit cards or PayPal. Websites like CEX.io, Coinmana, and Changelly allow you to purchase bitcoins by using debit or credit cards.

P2P exchange: you can also go for P2P exchange to purchase BTC. The P2P exchange is another popular method which works for most of the countries.

This exchange allows you to connect with the seller directly so that you can comfortably purchase cryptocurrency.

Generally, P2P exchange supports various payment methods like cash, online transfer, PayPal, Moneygram, Amazon gift card, iTunes gift card, Payoneer and many other methods.

2. A wallet where you can store your purchased bitcoins Once you have bitcoins with you, then you need a wallet where you can safely store your purchased bitcoins safely.

The markets are crammed with a number of wallets, but you need to carefully hand-pick your wallet because most of the wallets are fake or fraud.

And if you go for with these wallets, then at the end of the day you will meet huge loss.

Even you can find many cryptocurrency wallets in the Google play store and if you choose any of them randomly, then certainly you will face huge monetary loss.

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The BTC wallets in the Google play store are also feigned.

Most of the users generally keep their cryptocurrency in an exchange’s wallet.

Exchanges like localbitcoins, CEX, Koinex, Zebpay, etc. embrace their customers with an inbuilt bitcoin wallet so that they can keep their bitcoins in their wallets.

If you are keeping the cryptocurrency in an exchange’s wallet, then you don’t have a direct control on the cryptocurrency.

Unfortunately, only a few countries are working on cryptocurrencies and BTC, so there is a huge chance that these exchanges can shut down.

And if this happened, then you might lose your cryptocurrency if you kept them in an exchange.

Since bitcoin is a virtual currency, so you need to take the whole responsibility for the security of the bitcoins and that’s why you should choose such a wallet which you can control fully.

Always go for such a wallet that allows you to keep the seed words with you. Seed word is basically a private key or password for your BTC. With the help of the seed words, you can retrieve your bitcoins.

There are various types of wallets which you can use for your bitcoins.

1. Mobile wallets: This usually comes with a mobile application and is available for both iOS and Android.

2. Desktop wallet which generally comes as a software 3. Web wallet which comes as a website 4. Hardware wallet which is the most secure ways to store your cryptocurrency 5. A paper wallet: This is another most secure method but its setup cost is very high.

There are some security issues with mobile-app wallets and desktop wallets because your bitcoin’s security depends on the security of the OS of the system.

Hardware wallets are the best options by which you can keep your BTC safely. You can go for hardware wallets like ledger nano S and Trezor. Though hardware wallets are good, still their supply is very limited due to the huge demand.

It will take several months for you to get your hardware wallet. So, if you want to start investing in bitcoins immediately, then it’s better to use mobile wallets like Coinomi, MyCelium, and Jaxx and later, you can transfer the cryptocurrency to your hardware wallets once you will get it.

In today’s world, BTC is an excellent investment. Since people are showing their interest in BTC, the prices are growing hurriedly. But before investing, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of BTC. 5/17

Pros of bitcoin: 1. Easy to send money: Since it is decentralized, so you can send money to anyone on the other side of the world within a few seconds. Instead of waiting for a wire transfer which can take days, you can send your payment in seconds. This is why bitcoin is popular among the customers.

2. Private: Though people think that bitcoin is completely anonymous, actually, it’s not anonymous. It is more private. All cryptocurrency transactions can be easily seen on the Blockchain – the public Bitcoin ledger.

3. Cheaper than any other methods: Most of the businesses accept credit cards or debit cards but these cards take substantial fees for every transaction. But those who accept bitcoins don’t pay any fees.

Cons of bitcoins 1. Risky transactions: BTC is famous for rising slowly. 24×7 its being traded and thus, the price is very fluctuating. There are several unknown factors that can affect the price.

2. Transaction speed is slow: The transaction speed of cryptocurrency is very slow as compared to the other cryptocurrencies. The Bitcoin miners are trying to solve this problem.

3. Bitcoin transactions are not reversible: Unlike a credit card charge, bitcoin transactions are not reversible. If you send bitcoin to the wrong address, then you will never get it back. Also, many people who have lost their cryptocurrency wallet address, have also lost their BTC. There is no way to get them back.

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Though bitcoin investments are fruitful, still before investing into it, if you are a beginner, you must read our bitcoin investing guide, also do a thorough market research. Choose your wallet aptly and store your BTC safely there.

How does it work?

Bitcoin works on blockchain technology. The complete bitcoin network relies on the blockchain which is a shared public ledger.

The blockchain verifies and confirms each transaction and are added into blockchains.

By using Public-key cryptography, messages are authenticated by using double piece of information. Just like setting up a password, bitcoin also asks to set up a private key to ensure security. Never share with anyone.

Be a master by identifying Bitcoin terms Altcoins: Alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin like Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, etc Bit: A sub-unit of bitcoin 1 bitcoin (BTC) = 1,000,000 bits.

When capitalized letter B is used in Bitcoin: overanchoring Bitcoin concept like technology, software, community and the protocol.

When not capitalized letter is used: Unit of currency Mining: mathematical calculations done by computer hardware that is used to increase security during transactions

How do we get benefitted from Bitcoin?

It is important to note that no individuals or bank is maintaining any transaction ledger.

Every transaction is linked to Bitcoin address. Others can only view your wallet address and this ensures safe transactions online.

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Using your private key, transactions will be signed by Bitcoin software. This cryptographic signature proves that you are an owner of this network.

History of Bitcoin Still we are not sure about the founder of Bitcoin. A paper was published on The Cryptography mailing list under a pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” and till now the real identity has not been revealed. This was happened in October 2008. And the very next year on January 2009, the first ever bitcoin was released and the mining gave a reward of 50 bitcoins for the first block of Bitcoin which named ‘genesis block’.

If you want to know more about Bitcoin officially, here are some resources:

Are Bitcoins legally approved in India? How to purchase?

Do you want to buy Bitcoins from India?

Don’t worry, we will help you. Our detailed procedure helps you understand every minute task to be carried out while purchasing for the first time in India, which is legally approved.

Popular website for selling and buying Bitcoin are Coinsecure and Unocoin. If you wish to buy bitcoins using money, you can also visit Localbitcoins.

Check the points before purchasing Bitcoins in India Even though it is not regulated by Reserve Bank of India, it is legal in India to buy from Unocoin and other sites.

The Reserve Bank of India has stated that creation, trading and utilizing of virtual currencies as a payment medium will not be regulated by any monetary authority or central bank, in a press release on virtual currencies like Bitcoins, Litecoins, Etherium, Dogecoins, etc issued on December 24, 2013.

In the past three years, Bitcoin has been adopted by users globally as it is quite stable and the current survey shows that in 2017, the threshold will cross $1,000. Without doubt we can say, it is better to take bitcoin for the time being.

7 best websites to sell Bitcoin in India For Bitcoiners across the globe, India has the biggest opportunities if they play the cards right. Here is a list of top websites in India to sell Bitcoin

1. Coinsecure

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It is one of the best Bitcoin exchanges in India. Market price selling of bitcoins is possible. If you are newbie to trading, this site is the best one to start with. At starting, you may have some confusion but you will get used to the interface easily.

Here is the step by step procedure to purchase your first Bitcoin using Coinbase .

Take Coinbase site and create an account for free Verify email address with the verification mail sent to your inbox.

Complete the profile and enable two step authentication procedure to ensure security.

Your personalized URL for Coinbase can be seen under your page option.

To increase your BTC portfolio, you can share page URL to client and accept money in USD and this will automatically be converted in BTC. Get your documents (Passport, Driving license or any other Government approved ID) verified by either sending scanned copy or by laptop camera.

Once everything is verified, you will be able to sell or buy bitcoins.

Are you in USA, UK, Europe, Singapore? Wow! Then it’s easy for you to buy them with Credit card!! Singapore users can Xfers to purchase them through Coinbase.

This procedure is free and based on your necessities direct depositing of bitcoins can be done from other platforms to the Trade Engine Wallet or to Coinsecure Wallet.

2. Unocoin

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Here you can sell and buy Bitcoins at a fixed price and offers a Bitcoin wallet with trading option. The price can be slightly variable so that you can compare with others before transferring to any Indian Bitcoin selling websites.

Here is the step by step procedure to purchase your first Bitcoin using Unocoin Take Unocoin website and as always you do with an account creation, sign up with it first.

Verify your mail address after getting a registration verification email.

Start adding your bank account details and the procedure is to complete KYC. If you want to sell Bitcoin, this is where you will also get money Fill in with the details of same person who is going to use Bitcoin.

Click on Next You may need to update some documents for KYC. Copy of Pan card Address proof (Driving license OR Aadhar card showing address OR Passport page showing address) Photo Passport page/Aadhar card showing photo After verification of the documents, you will be able to buy Bitcoins. If you are not interested to buy now, you can use the wallet address in your future too.

In order to buy Bitcoins, funds must be added to your account with the help of NEFT/RTGS/IMPS. On the left side, click Indian Rupee column and click ‘Deposit’.

When you go to next page you can deposit any amount of funds Note the reference number, this is quite important Once you get the reference number, add in the number and it will take some time before the funds make a reflection in your account.

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You can also use Unocoin Android or iOS App to add or buy bitcoins. Purchase more if you need more.

Done? Well!! You are now an owner of Bitcoin

3. BuyuCoin

BuyuCoin supports multiple cryptocurrencies like ARK, Bitcoin, Zcash, ETH and many more.

This site can be considered if you are quite serious about selling Bitcoins and the minimum amount you can sell on this site is 0.002 BTC.

4. Koinex

Yet another cryptocurrency exchange in India to sell bitcoins. You can get your documents verified very quickly which is useful when signing up for the first time.

5. LocalBitcoins

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If you wish to start a career in Bitcoin trading, then this is your best website. Sell bitcoins at any price here. If you buy and sell bitcoins here, it is your decision at which price it must be sold. Use any payment methods like PayTM or cash or NEFT or bank deposit to sell and it is for net-savvy individuals and it is very important that you must be alert while using the site to make the best benefits out of it. It is always better to work with other individuals who have high sales and reputation. If you start with utmost determination right from the first day, then you can surely achieve high reputation.

6. Zebpay

This is yet another good trading website. It allows you to recharge your mobile with Bitcoin or Zebpay and the company is based out in Ahmedabad, India. Zebpay was known as BuySellBitco earlier and you can transact in bits and also you can get vouchers for stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Cafe Coffe Day, Pizza Hut etc.

They have both Android and iOS app.

7. Koinex This is new site but definitely they have earned dignity over here. Koinex provides trading in the cryptocurrencies like: 12/17

ETH BTC BCH (Bitcoin cash) Litecoin Ripple The best thing about this site is you don’t have to wait for the money to get deposited. The initial KYC takes about 2 days and following that you can start trading the listed cryptocurrencies in Koinex.

Is comparing Bitcoin rate an essential step?

This must be an inevitable step for those Indian looking to trade in Bitcoin. A site called BitcoinRates displays the present selling and buying price in India. By comparing the prices, you can rely on the best website for your future trading.

Bitcoin will never end up without any benefits, rather it gets heated up in the coming years especially in Asian countries.

Buying Bitcoins with Paypal So are you interested to buy Bitcoins using Paypal? Since Bitcoins transactions are irreversible, there is no direct way to buy Bitcoins using PayPal. But there are many indirect ways to buy Bitcoins that has been used by the users worldwide.

Here are some ways to purchase Bitcoins by PayPal.

1. Localbitcoins Localbitcoins is yet another marketplace where you can buy Bitcoin utilizing PayPal. In any case, you should be watchful while picking the dealer. Click on merchant name to check his volume of trade. This will give you a smart thought of how trustworthy the vendor is.

2. PaxFul This is another famous route for clients like you and me to buy Bitcoins utilizing PayPal, Payoneer, Skrill, Gift cards to give some examples. This one is like Localbitcoins yet with cleaner UI. Paxful is posting and escrow benefit for merchants to trade on.

You require a verified USA Paypal account. PayPal grants verified accounts if you connect your bank, debit card and upload id. Merchants will likewise request ID for themselves before enabling the acceptance of your PayPal.

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3. Wirexapp If you want to buy Bitcoins on a consistent basis using PayPal, then you are on the right place. Initially it may take a couple of days, but after that the procedure is easy and instant.

The countries involved in using Wirexapp are Bahamas, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, Bahrain, Croatia, Georgia, Gibraltar, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Estonia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Jordan, Oman, Philippines, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay As all other sites, you need to create an account with Wirexapp and get free virtual visa card.

Now login to your account and add a card option must be clicked. Confirm the new card and PayPal will verify the account and ask you to enter a PayPal code.

After logging in to Wirexapp account verify your debit card using confirmation code. Usually it takes a week and now you can start purchasing Bitcoins at market rate. All other methods cost you more for purchasing bitcoin.

4. Virwox

Utilizing VirWox to buy Bitcoins utilizing PayPal: This is the most prominent method for obtaining Bitcoins utilizing PayPal. Simply take after the steps specified and you will have Bitcoin with you.

Make a free ccount on VirWox On the following page fill the registration form.

Enact your account by clicking on the verification sent to your email.

Login to Virworx site and click on Deposit to begin including cash utilizing PayPal. On the deposit page, look down to the PayPal express checkout section and select the sum that you wish to deposit. You can see maximum allowed USD and Euro.

On the following page, you will get the affirmation of your deposit.

Purchase SLL with Deposited sum: Click on USD/SLL under exchange and purchase SLL with your saved sum.

Click place order and your request will be satisfied quickly.

Purchase BTC with SLL: Up until now, you have just bought SLL utilizing PayPal cash. Presently, it’s an ideal opportunity to exchange SLL for BTC. Under exchange, go to BTC/SLL. Confirm your order.

Presently, it’s the best opportunity for you to pull back your Bitcoins into a wallet address.

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There are different courses too by which you can utilize PayPal to Purchase bitcoins however they are not as challenge free as one offered by VirWox.

Instant trading for Bitcoins in Amazon gift cards It is through The Purse which is a San Francisco-based organization, right in the silicon valley.

The procedure is entirely simple as you will trade your Amazon gift voucher cash consequently of Bitcoin.

Step by step instructions to buy bitcoins with Amazon gift voucher at Purse

To begin with this, you require two things: A Purse account Amazon account (You can utilize existing gift voucher or you can likewise utilize some other strategy to load cash to your account).

The Purse is a marketplace which associates Amazon customers to clients with Amazon gift vouchers.

In addition, if you are want to simply begin and need to purchase Bitcoin for a less amount, utilizing gift voucher is a simple way. Despite the fact that if you wish to purchase Bitcoin in the bigger sum, you ought to rather utilize different strategies like real money to buy Bitcoin.

Let’s have a quick review on trading Amazon gift cards for Bitcoins Sign in to your Purse account and click on get bitcoin at the top.

This will take you to a page where you can see numerous customers from Amazon who have displayed their list of things to get and you can sort it in light of few factors, for example, Country.

Click on the value that you wish to spend and BTC TOTAL will demonstrate to you the amount Bitcoin you would buy.

Click on accept offer and this would take you to the Amazon site. When you acknowledge the offer, you have around one hour to finish the offer.

Click on purchase list of things to get and it would take you to the Amazon site.

You should simply complete the order and duplicate the order ID back. Once the order is conveyed to the customer and he affirms it, the cash will be credited to your account.

You will likewise get an email from Purse with respect to your continuous trade. You can utilize the link on the email to see the status of your trade.

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You can utilize earned Bitcoin to purchase a considerable measure of stuff the same number of online services acknowledge Bitcoin.

Here are some more tips for the beginner: Coinimal: Use this site to trade your Amazon gift voucher for Bitcoin. For Europian clients.

Coinbase: Use this to purchase Bitcoin utilizing Fiat cash.

Convert Bitcoins to any other Altcoins (eg: Ethereum) Bitcoin is unquestionably a good savings but you ought to likewise realize that there are different cryptographic forms of money.

It’s savvy to likewise put resources into different cryptographic forms of money like Ethereum and Litecoin.

Convert Bitcoins to Ethereum instantly using Changelly Changelly is a completely fledge stage that let you change over any cryptographic money into some other. For instance, for this situation we have 1 BTC and we need to change over it into Ethereum. With Changelly, this should be possible immediately.

Here is the manner by which to begin: Take Changelly site Select BTC and ETH Pair Click on next and on the following page you will get the details of the transaction.

Do note, Changelly would expect you to make an account utilizing email address. This is something worth being thankful for as you can whenever login to your Changelly account in future and see every one of your conversions.

Click next and enter your Ethereum wallet address where you need to get the converted Ether.

Cick on next and on this page you will see the details of the conversions you are making. In the case of everything looks alright, click confirm and pay it.

On the following page you will see the QR code and the Bitcoin Wallet address in which you have to send the BTC to change over it into ETH. While paying you can close the tab as you will get email when everything is finished.

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How quickly can you exchange cryptocurrency with Shapeshift?

Like Changelly, Shapeshift is a money swapping site which does a certain something: Allows clients to trade amongst Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.

So suppose you need to trade Bitcoin for Ethereum.

You require only two things: Bitcoin Ethereum wallet address If you are changing over to something unique separated from Etherium, you simply need to know the wallet address where you get the converted money.

If you don’t have an Ethereum wallet address, you can sign up to Coinbase and get an Ethereum wallet address.

When you have satisfied the two prerequisites, go to Shapeshift.io.

Select Bitcoin in Deposit and (any cryptocurrency or Ethereum) in Receive under the “Choose Which Coins to Trade” choice.

Click on Continue. This is the place you have to include your Ethereum wallet address and your Bitcoin address. The Bitcoin wallet address isn’t important, however it’s helpful if a discount should be made.

When you have entered the sum and your wallet address, click on Start Transaction.

On the following page, you will get the address to send it to.

Mostly, it takes around 30-60 seconds for this exchange to happen and you will see a win screen that implies that Bitcoin has been effectively changed over into Ethereum or any cryptocurrency of your choice and it has been exchanged to your Ethereum wallet address.

The Ethereum wallet in your Coinbase account will demonstrate the new sum, however it will be in a ‘Pending’ state for around 30 minutes until is it confirmed by the network.

You can take after a similar manual for change over Bitcoin into Nubits, Peercoin, Omni, Monacoin, or some other altcoins.

Conclusion Cryptocurrency is not going to get faded away soon. So far, 2017 has been the great year for digital assets. The last few months of 2017 has witnessed an exponential increase in demand as $100Bn was added to the economy in just 20+ days. Just get focused and choose the right website for your trading.

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