Today we have decided to have a small crash course for those who are new at the market of cryptocurrencies. And we’re going to start from the very basics.
The most important point that one has to understand, is that to keep cryptocurrency you have to have a wallet’s address and there are three ways how you can create one:
1. Use online wallets
2. Download a program to your PC
3. Buy a hardware wallet
We will quickly go through pros and cons of each way. But let’s start by telling a few words about what a wallet for cryptocurrencies is using bitcoin as a sample.
Bitcoin, as any other cryptocurrency, is kept only in a form of a blockchain. Anybody can view a transaction in the net, check the balance of any wallet. This information
is open for everyone. But it is impossible to tell who the owner of the wallet is.
Bitcoin wallet has two parts:
• Open key. It is the address of the bitcoin wallet, it is not a secret. It has 32-34 symbols of Latin letters and numbers. All addresses always start with the number “1” or “3”.
• Private key (sometimes called as a secret key). It is a longer sequence of letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet. You mustn’t tell it to anyone, because it is an access to the wallet.
Transaction in bitcoin network means that cryptocoins go from one wallet’s address to another. The speed of transaction is equal to emerging of a new block in blockchain
(10 minutes on average).
Transaction is subject to a small fee. Depending on the network loading, its amount can change. The sender specifies its amount. By the way, commission does not depend
on the amount of transaction. You can transfer amount equaling to $10, $10000 or $1 billion and still pay the same commission.
1. Online wallets
There are lots of sites which offer services for creation and keeping online-wallets. They are called “cryptowallets”. The service takes on all the issues of keeping funds safe.
There are pros in that, since you don’t need to think about computer safety, plus reliability of the service is usually much better that that of a simple computer.
We would like to personally recommend the service blockchain.com
2. Program on your PC
You can download programs for bitcoin wallet on the official website bitcoin.org. Here you can choose from lots of wallets supported by community: Bitcoin Core, MultiBit,
Armory and Electrum. Also, you can learn the features of each of them. They slightly differ from each other. For example, Electrum does not keep all the history of transactions
(blockchain) on computer, but it refers to randomly selected network nodes. Bitcoin Core, on the opposite, keeps the full history on your PC and computer must always be online
for checking if the data is accurate. Today the blockchain size for bitcoin is about 200 Gigabytes. Many people recommend taking the security of a computer with bitcoin-wallet seriously.
This is because in case fraudsters steal the wallet file, all your funds there will disappear. As nobody wants this to happen, you need to follow the basic rules of computer usage safety.
3. Hardware wallets
Hardware wallets are a device that keeps the private key. Their advantage is that it is switched off the Internet and there is no way anybody can hack this wallet.
If the device breaks or you lose access to it, you can restore it by entering 24 random words (so-called seed words).
And you can always find favorable rates for purchasing cryptocurrency on our site BestChange. com
We wish you reliable and profitable exchanges!
Following the summary of the book we have shared this week, we would like to extend the topic and tell you about seven mistakes people
make when writing to-do lists and several ways of avoiding such mistakes.
1.Too voluminous lists
We plan to do dozens of things during the day, but all our tasks vary in their urgency, length and time required for their completion. Long lists
demotivate, because it is impossible to do every task in them.
Instead, specify 3 most important tasks which will benefit you the most in your carrier, business or you personally, and write them down in order
of their importance on a small piece of paper to keep in front of your eyes during the day.
2.Ambiguity and uncertainty
Very often we formulate our goals too vaguely, not setting forth the specific steps we need to take to achieve the result.
Instead of writing down: “Work on the presentation”, specify what exactly you are planning to do: “Make a draft of the presentation”,
“Define 3 key points of the presentation” and so on.
It is important to understand:
- what the final result would be;
- if it is possible to finish the task in one go;
- what the deadline of the task is.
3.Poor time management
It’s hard to be effective if you don’t know how many hours or days it will require you to complete this or that task. Before getting down to work,
estimate how much time you would approximately spend on this task. Even if you make mistakes in your estimations at first, they will help you to
better manage your time in the future.
4.Falling for distractions
There are days when lots of unplanned tasks emerge and unforeseen situations take place. That’s why it is important not only to structure your
schedule, but also be flexible. Every morning take a look in your calendar to check what you have planned for today and the next few days.
During the day allow at least one hour to be spent on solving unplanned situations. This amount of free time will let you considerably decrease
the level of everyday stress.
5.Focusing on tasks which are in fact not so important
There is always a temptation to fill your list with tasks which only seem urgent and important but actually do not play a big role in the long run.
To achieve results, you need to see the whole picture and write down tasks with real deadlines (for example, important meetings) and those that
have the most influence on your goals (for instance, work on the coming presentation).
6.No connection between tasks and end goals
Motivation depends on how the task is important for you personally. In these cases, we don’t have to summon up our spirits, we get down to work happily.
Before starting to write your to-do list of important tasks, think for a moment, why you include this or that point there. If it relates to your long-term goal,
you will work on it with more enthusiasm.
7.Torturing yourself with thoughts on undone tasks
At the end of the day, the list of important tasks is not a question of life and death. That’s why don’t torture yourself and start each morning with working on
three most important tasks for the day.
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As always, we are trying to be interesting and useful for you, that’s why your opinion matters. Please tell us, did you find this information interesting, would you
like to read similar advice in the future?
I often check the rates in Bestchange and I realized most of them many of those websites don't have update rate, I think it's nice if they could deactivate those accounts.
Dear Xchengine, thank you for your message, we appreciate your feedback. We download the rates information from exchangers every few seconds. If you notice the difference between the rate on our site and the rate at exchanger’s site, you can send us this feedback via the from “Discrepancy” which is available over the rates table when you choose your conversion pair.
Could you tell in which exactly exchangers did you notice the rates discrepancy so we could investigate this further? Thank you for your reply.
All of us heard many times that cryptocurrencies are only good for trading in the darknet and for laundering money. We sometimes even get requests from journalists to give comments on such questions about illegal deals with cryptocurrencies.
But let’s sort out, can bitcoin be really used for money laundering?
I think there is no need to explain what money laundering is about – it is done to give criminal money legal status and to “cover the tracks”.
Cryptocurrency sphere with its decentralization, anonymity and almost instant transactions may seem to have become the favorite place for all kinds of financial fraudsters. But there are a few problems with that.
1. Volatility of most cryptocurrencies
Although for traders constant price surges serve as a great opportunity to profit, for people using digital currencies as a medium, a fall by 10-20 per cent can be a very serious risk.
2. Difficulty of converting cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies. More and more often the exchangers and exchange markets follow the principles of KYC, CFT and AML. Cryptocurrencies still have a half-legal status in most countries. If a considerable amount of money is transferred into cryptocurrencies, after all the stages of laundering, these cryptocurrencies will need to be transferred back into cash money. That’s how, ironically, half-legal status of cryptocurrencies protects them from criminal activity.
3. The majority of digital currencies are not at all anonymous. All transactions made in blockchain are reflected in a public ledger, where everybody can track from which account the transaction was made, how much money was transferred, and by which account it was received. No, these accounts are not connected to names and surnames, but these are easily trackable by IP. There is a limited number of currencies the main task of which is totally anonymity of transactions (Monero, Zcash, Verge and others). But the result of this anonymity is, as a rule, longer time of transaction and its higher price, and difficulty of conversion due to lower liquidity.
It cannot be absolutely excluded that bitcoin might be used in illegal deals, as any currency in the world, in cash or in a cashless way. But incredibly much more often it is the cash, in particular, dollars, which is used when financing terrorism of laundering money, but the very thought of banning cash sounds absurd.
Notwithstanding all the novelty that comes with cryptocurrencies, the most anonymous and safe way of transaction is giving money from hand to hand. That is why the majority of illegal deals are done with the use of cash. As before, using cash remains more anonymous and complicated for tracking than most of cryptocurrencies.
And what do you think? Do you believe that cryptocurrency is only good for illegal deals?