Although interest in bitcoin and others cryptocurrencies is raising, still having a lot of misinformation about the topic. So, we prepared a very basic list over how to get bitcoins, store it, spend it and also invest on it. The market have many options, to use the asset as a investment or a payment method.
(Crédito: 123RF)
1. Exchanges
Exchanges are enterprises that allow you to trade fiat coins (dollar, euro, real etc) for bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. With the value of bitcoin increasing over and over, have a growing number of exchanges in the market. Therefore, choosing one of them is becoming easier. In Brazil we have BitOne, Mercado Bitcoin and Xdex among the most populars.
Click here to see the list of some international and brazilian exchanges
2. ATMs terminals
Besides you get bitcoins in your account in an exchange, is possible to buy it in a ATM terminal. In the United States, for example, already have many ATMs where is possible buy and sell cryptocurrencies. However, in Brazil, the Coin ATM Radar points only two terminals, both at the Paulista Avenue, São Paulo (SP). In a general way, they works on this way: To buy bitcoins you put the money on the terminal and input your wallet address. To sell, is the same logic: You input your wallet address using a QR code and receives the money.
3. Wallets
As the name says, the wallet is the application where you can receive and pay your bitcoins. The bitcoin wallets is free and are available for all operating systems and devices. For examples, you can install an application on your mobile device of daily usage or you can have a wallet in your computer just for online payments. Anyway, choose a wallet, it’s easy and can be done in minutes. An important tip is to note your private key in a safe place, preferably offline.
See here some of the wallets available for different operating system.
(Crédito: 123RF)
4. Market
Once you have buyed bitcoins, you may want buy and sell with them. There are still few shop owners that accept the cryptocurrency as a payment method. This is because the volatility of the cryptocurrencies still makes pricing a hard task. To buy something with bitcoins, you need to use your personal wallet. The process to buy is very simple. First you input in your application the value of purchase and it will generate a QR code. After this, the shop owner will use him’s device to read the QR code. Finally, just wait the confirmation of the transaction.
In the CoinMap.org you can find shop owners that accept bitcoins as a payment method.
5.Investment Funds
Some people just want to have cryptocurrencies as a investment asset. In this case, investment funds are an excellent option to be considered. The great advantage is the professional management of the cryptocurrencies portfolio. As happens in the traditional financial market, those funds usually have a big portion composed by cryptocurrencies but also have safe investments. Moreover, exists options that uses different strategies of resources allocation to obtain gains in value.
