I am very much a newby to crypto currency – so new that a week ago I have never heard of it.
But being the ambitious, keen to learn type and also tempted by anything that is high risk/high reward I wanted to get in on the action (as our American friends would say).
I spent a whole day getting to grips with all the terminology first and my first step was to register with coinbase.
Very straightforward it was too.
I then set up a debit card for payments of up to £750 a week.
I then purchased a unit of etherium, a unit of litecoin and had I had the cash I would have bought a unit of bitcoin. The price was £11,000 and, sods law, its now up to £13,000 odd ! But then I have read about the volatility of this currency.
But my intent was to buy a unit of bitcoin but obviously my limit of £750 prevents me. So…using the ‘how to increase your limit’ link I was presented, in the Buy Limits section, a GBP wallet which indicated a limit of £15,000 on a green bar background. I cannot remember whether it stated ‘upload your id’ or some sort of verification message. Either way I found myself entering my bank details and sending off 5 Euro (will I get this back ?) to coinbase in Estonia with my bank charging me £10. This was a week ago. If I recall this was to verify to coinbase that I was who I was. I was then anticipating coinbase would then have permitted me to use the GBP wallet to deposit funds from my bank directly into it. But no email has been forthcoming and the green bar is.. well still green. Now I understand that coinbase is experiencing high volumes
(“Update - We are processing a backlog of outgoing wires from December, but expect to have completed sending all affected wires over the next few business days. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Estimated wire delays from January forward:
Incoming - 2 business days
Outgoing - Same business day (if sent before 12 p.m. PST)
Reversed wires - 2 business days “)
Whether this covers my transaction request I am unsure.
In the meantime however… I have used Rippex and Electrum for future wallets.
Now I cannot buy ripple on coinbase (for whatever reason.. I guess it just has not caught up with it yet… ?)
So I have registered with Chancelly so that I may do future exchanges for ripple there
However… at time of writing ripple can not be purchased here either. Higher volume problems again ? The intent was to buy a chunk of bitcoin on coinbase and then exchange for ripple. Not that I would be able to anyway as I still need coinbase to verify my bank account (for the use of £15,000 in the GBP wallet).
Now… it appears that everything seems to be Euro based and I note there is a Euro Wallet beneath the other wallets. I am still trying to figure this all and my head is starting to hurt..
And I feel I really am missing something important here. Reading further I note that GDAX and REVOLUT get a big mention for ‘avoiding fees’ so do I need to use these ‘before’ purchasing larger amounts on coinbase. Someone once wrote “What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” and I feel that if I don’t get to grips with this then I will get sucked into an even bigger cobweb.
So while I wait for coinbase to verify (or not) that I can access this figure of £15,000 through bank transfer (I think its called sepa ? I wonder if I should consult with my bank on this ?) I have looked into a few other things for added security. The 2 factor authorisation I have tightened up by using google authenticator on my mobile. But what other security measures should I also look into ? And yes.. I have my Secret Code written down and hidden in 3 different places :-D. I don’t plan on being a big player at this o.k.. My portfolio plan is to keep the one unit of Litecoin and Etherium and see where they go. Then purchase the elusive unit of Bitcoin. And I would like to dabble some small amounts in Ripple, Altcoin and maybe Funfair. So I am making sure I don’t have all my eggs in one basket and maybe one of the above will fly this year or the next.
But my main question concerns .. have I taken the correct route in order to make a large purchase of coin (the £15,000 GBP wallet route) or are there other routes out there ?
Apologies if I could have found these answers on the forum but I did a search on GBP wallet but no results found.
As I said previously I am only 7 days into this new world of crypto currency so be gentle with me ok
John