The Beginner’s Crypto Database
Places to make and lose money
2024 edition
Foreword
Crypto is a technology sector that I think will continue to grow many fold in the next 10 years. Buying crypto means buying a piece of technology. In some poorer countries crypto is better than holding your own currency. The issue of inflation and also the fact that most currencies fail over time means that even the $US could be at risk of dying out eventually. Crypto might be able to solve this issue. For example Bitcoin has a limited supply in contrast to gold that sees an inflation rate every year from humans digging more up. All crypto tokens have a different value proposition and use-case. Therefore I recommend everyone that read this book to do their own due diligence and research. The book can not stand alone. In the world of stocks you read an annual report and check prices of stocks. In crypto you research the founders and websites of the crypto tokens to understand the purpose and then you also check the price. Fundamentally there is always more to learn about crypto since the space is so new and things keep changing.
My reasoning for this book is to introduce more people to crypto. I think someone that buys crypto in the near future will potentially become incredibly rich over their lifetime. The proof of making money in the crypto space has been a fact since bitcoin’s inception. Institutional investors are now putting money into crypto by for example buying Bitcoin ETFs. The introduction of crypto to a larger portion of the population will only grow and thus more money will flow into it. I think this is an indisputable fact that crypto at some time in the near future will go from its small market cap of a few trillion to trillions in the hundreds. I don’t think the reader should think of crypto as a get-rich-quick-scheme but a potential investment choice. Investments take long time to pay off but in the volatile market of crypto there is potential for fast gains especially by leveraging or borrowing money to multiply losses or gains. I wish to introduce people to the multiplication accelerators like leverage and also simply holding small unleveraged positions for the long term. Both making a long or short position are shortly covered in this book as to introduce the beginner to all possibilities of the crypto space.
Using my years of experience dealing with crypto I have worked to make a small book a small database for beginner users that is clear of malicious sites. Finding malicious sites in the crypto space is easy and can quickly result in losses therefore when I only provide reputable services I make a good value proposition to the buyer of this ebook that might otherwise in the hard way learn that there are scammers in the crypto space. Doing your own research is tip #1 in this book. Using a hardware wallet like Trezor or Ledger is tip #2. Do not use a hot wallet for serious sums of crypto and my opinion is that keeping your crypto in an exchange is safer than using a hot wallet like Metamask. Tip #3 is to have a phone/internet provider that has security protocols to avoid sim-swapping. This secures your 2-factor authentication process using a phone and phone number further.
This is my affiliate link for Ledger hardware wallets. https://shop.ledger.com/?r=18416f467a1d I will make a 10% commisssion if you buy from this link. Always buy a hardware wallet from the real website and not a 3rd party.
KEY WORDS LIST AND EXPLANATIONS
Staking: Locking crypto up in a smart contract to gain rewards.
Liquidity pool: Providing liquidity (crypto) for traders which in return earns you fees during trades.
Centralized Exchange: Way to turn your crypto into fiat and opposite fiat into crypto. This is how you get your money out of the crypto space.
Decentralized Exchange: This is a private actor (business) that provides a service in the crypto space.
Decentralized Finance DeFi: any private actor or business that uses its userbase to provide a service an example is Uniswap.
Hot Wallet: Internet wallet for crypto. Example Metamask.
Hardware Wallet: Wallet with added security which is a device that can connect your wallet safely to the internet. Example Ledger.
Swap: Trade one type of crypto for another.
Connect Wallet Button: Usually used on a decentralized exchange or otherwise website/Dapp (decentralized app) which allows you to connect your wallet to do various interactions (some websites and interactions can be malicious meaning you can siphon all of your crypto away during a theft with the click of a button.)
The short crypto navigational guide
TLDR: Read all steps to gain an understanding of crypto and security as a beginner. Do ask questions and keep researching topics that are not fully explained. This will make you a strong and independent person.
Step 1) Find a phone/internet provider that has a strong security protocol in terms of sim swapping. This information can be found out by asking specifically to the security procedures of the provider or otherwise looking up articles that explain the security of the provider. Swap/buy a phone number to the best provider. Use this phone number on centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance and Gate.io to enhance your security. Add this new phone number to your old emails etc. to also enhance your security relating personal data and any 2-factor authentication.
Step 1)Use Coinbase as a centralized exchange to turn your fiat into crypto https://www.coinbase.com/ or use Gate.io https://www.gate.io/ or use Binance https://www.binance.com/en Do your own research to find other reputable centralized exchanges.
Step 2) Use Metamask to gain access to a hot wallet. Then use a hardware wallet to connect with your Metamask account. Do not use your Metamask (only your hardware wallet connected to Metamask) to hold serious amounts of money. This is my ledger hardware wallet affiliate link https://shop.ledger.com/?r=18416f467a1d
Step 2) Never use your hardware wallet in public. Never share your seed phrase with anyone: Keep it safe. Do not talk about your crypto holdings. All of this is to reduce your chance of becoming a target of theft.
Step 2) Do use Ledger’s subscription for a 3-way seed split recovery if you find the security useful. It costs $10 a month but can be well worth not losing thousands of dollars of crypto. Think of it as buying insurance.
Step 3) Use Coinmarketcap to check prices https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/
Step 4) Use Debank to track your portfolio (hardware crypto wallet) on your phone while away from your hardware wallet. https://debank.com/ Similar crypto portfolio tracker services exist besides Debank. Another example that does not work for advanced Decentralized Finance like staking and liquidity pools is making a coinmarketcap account and adding a portfolio. Zapper is also decent https://zapper.xyz/
Step 5) Use Uniswap https://uniswap.org/ to swap on networks AVAX, ETH, OPTIMISM, POLYGON, BASE, BNB, CELO, ARBITRUM or Sushiswap for various networks https://www.sushi.com/ or Trader Joe to swap crypto tokens on networks ETH, AVAX, BNB and Arbitrum https://traderjoexyz.com/avalanche use Spookyswap https://spooky.fi/ to swap on the FTM network. Beethoven finance is a niche provider and I will always recommend Spookyswap over them but I will still provide the link https://beets.fi/
You can also use these sites to set up a liquidity pool. The point of a liquidity pool is to earn fees from other people trading crypto.
Step 6) Use Stargate to bridge tokens from one chain to another https://stargate.finance/ Do your own research to find other bridges.
Step 6) alternatively use a centralized exchange like Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/ or Gate.io https://www.gate.io/ to bridge tokens with the centralized exchange as a mediator.
Step 7) Use Kwenta https://kwenta.io/ or gmx https://gmx.io/#/ or https://level.finance/ to leverage (borrow) for long or short positions. Worth to mention although niche is FTM-based https://www.mummy.finance/#/ I recommend the aforementioned 3 sites over Mummy Finance.
Step 7) Having money in stablecoins means shorting the market. Anyone can do this without using leverage. With a short position you are expecting the market to go down. Having stablecoins in a liquidity pool only consisting of stable coins can be used to earn fees while you are shorting the market. You can also have stablecoins in Coinbase and earn a return on your holdings. There are certain crypto tokens that will also give you a return by holding it in your Coinbase account. The point of shorting the market is to eventually buy up crypto again once you think the price is right.
Step 7) Having money in crypto tokens means holding a long position. With a long positions you are expecting the price of the market to go up over time.
Step 8) Having seen a lot of shady practices in the staking market of crypto I will always suggest people to do their own research on buying and staking a token. In general I will advise people against doing this and instead either holding tokens in a liquidity pool, holding stablecoins in a short position perhaps also a liquidity pool or holding tokens in a long position. These 3 methods I believe to be a consistent way of making money in the space. I do not believe in most crypto staking cases. Running a node is a different story from staking and for example running an Ethereum node can be a fine investment. Always do your own research when it comes to staking and running nodes.
Step 8) Investing in GameFi tokens etc. to me seems like a very bad idea seeing how they have an absolute horrible track record in the long term. There is only possible short-term gains and they will only really be possible during a bull-run meaning a market where all of crypto goes up. Do not do it. You have been warned.
Step 9) Aave is one of many platforms where you can lend and borrow crypto at an interest rate. https://aave.com/ By borrowing a crypto like Bitcoin and then converting it to a stablecoin you will have effectively shorted that crypto. If the crypto goes down in value the amount of money you have to repay will be lower when you swap the stablecoins to Bitcoin. If you yourself think you can earn an interest higher than the borrow fee there is valid reason to borrow assets. By lending crypto to a platform like AAVE you can earn interest + appreciation of your crypto asset if the price rises. I had to use a VPN to get access to AAVE.
Crypto Suggestions
Crypto that I believe will go up over the long term (Please do your own research before investing)
Ethereum, Bitcoin, Filecoin, Chainlink, Avalanche, BNB, Polygon, Cardano, Solana, XRP, Thena, Cake, Vertex, GMX, paxg, SUI, Injective
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