Intro

With so many headlines about bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies frenzy, chances are you've heard of it. Perhaps you've been curious but haven't taken action yet. This is no introduction to bitcoin or illustrated history of cryptocurrencies. There are plenty of documentaries you can watch on Youtube and a lot of articles covering what it is and how it works.
But once you are comfortable with how cryptocurrencies work, this guide can get you setup and ready to invest and profit on the latest gold rush that has made a lot of millionaires in a short period of time. Are you ready?

Wallets

Digital currencies need to be stored in digital wallets just like dollars or euros need to be stored in physical wallets. A digital wallet is a service that will allow you to deposit bitcoin and others into your account, after purchases.

Coinbase

Coinbase.com is a wallet where you can buy, send and receive bitcoin and ethereum. You can use your credit cards (VISA/MasterCard) or transfer money from your bank to buy digital coins. It's one of the largest companies operating in this space and is based in the US. Sign up for a free account.

CEX

Cex is another website where you can buy and deposit bitcoins. It has a good reputation and is based in the UK. You can also buy using your cards and bank accounts and it allows you to buy up to $10,000 after you verify your address.

Coinmama

Coinmama is yet another service where you can buy bitcoin and ether quickly. Their verification is one of the fastest and it's simple and easy to use. Get started here

Call to Action

Sign up for a digital wallet and complete the verification process. Once you're verified, go ahead and order some bitcoin! Now if you're just testing the waters, start out with a small investment. The good news is that you can buy any amount of bitcoin, even a fraction! A good amount could be 0.005 BTC or even 0.001 BTC.

Exchanges

Once you're setup with a digital wallet and you have some bitcoins (or even a fraction of a coin) in your account, you are ready to go beyond mainstream currencies into crypto land. You see, bitcoin, ether, litecoin... they are only the beginning. It's clear that they have exploded and rocketed into all time highs, but the best is yet to come!

There are literally hundreds of new coins being created every day and some of them have tremendous potential. Arguably the greatest profit that you can make is by getting in on a coin that is still relatively new but about to hit critical mass, in order to get that explosive 1000% gain.

The way you can find, research and invest into these new coins is at the exchanges.
The exchanges work as a gateway to trade your bitcoins for other digital coins. Once you get an account at the exchange, you'll deposit some bitcoin into your address and then you can perform trades using that balance.

Here are some options for exchanges:

Poloniex

Poloniex is perhaps the largest exchange currently. It has the largest volume of trades and the best spread which means really good prices and fees. It also has hundreds of new coins being traded in real time and analysis of prices/volumes/etc. It's also relatively simple to setup and use. Now, sometimes it can be a little slow when experiencing high volumes.

Bittrex

Bittrex or as I like to call it (Bit T-Rex) is another exchange where you can trade hundreds of coins for your bitcoins or ethereum. It's really fast and you can perform real time orders and it looks like they have a good team behind it. It may look a bit daunting at first, but in reality is very efficient and simple.

Kraken

Kraken is a San Francisco based exchange backed by some VC firms and with a fairly established reputation in the US. After having used this exchange for a while I decided to move onto Bittrex because of the number of failed transactions I experienced when the platform is under high volume. I would steer clear and use one of the two choices above.

Take Action

Again, sign up for an account at one of the exchanges and get verified in order to be able to deposit and trade your coins. This could very well be the last step you'll need to take towards financial freedom. Ahhh, yes.

How to trade your bitcoins for altcoins

Remember how I mentioned how hundreds of new coins are being created literally every day? Those are referred to as "altcoins" and they are built on top of blockchain technology like ethereum in order to expand into new areas. Consider Ripple(XRP) as an example.

Ripple is a new coin focused on an instant protocol for payments, liquidity and settlements. This means secure, faster payments at lower fees than ever. And it already has called the attention of some heavy-hitters in the financial industry such as BBVA, Santander and others. Ripple price rose an explosive 3000% in the first half of 2017 but it is still in its early days.
That could've turned an initial $500 investment into over $15,000!

And again, there are hundreds of other coins expanding on the blockchain protocol in ways that can change how we spend money, commerce, social networks, communications, IOT and more. I believe the crypto pie is big enough so that everyone that can understand how it works can grab a slice of it. And eat it too, yum!

Conclusion

So this is the simple plan that could fund your retirement account:

1. Get setup with a wallet.
2. Create an account at one of the exchanges.
3. Research potential altcoin investments.
4. Transfer coins from your wallet to your exchange account.
5. Trade your coins for fun and profit!

Word of caution:
Do research before investing in a particular altcoin in order to understand why it exists! The best altcoins are unique in their purpose and potential, solving real world problems, and have a strong team and community behind them. Since we are still in the very early days, there's a lot of risk involved and some of them will probably go away which is why I recommend starting small and getting your toes wet before investing a lot of money. But in the end, the upside is HUGE and there is a lot of room for many winners, not just bitcoin.

Enough already! Just tell me what I should invest in

Okay, okay. If you need a list of where to start in your research, here you go:

1. Bitcoin
2. Ethereum
3. Bitcoin Cash
4. Litecoin
5. DASH
6. Ripple
7. Monero
8. ZCash
9. STEEM

If you read this far, thank you! I hope this was helpful and valuable. The only question now is what are you waiting for?

Did you enjoy this article? Let me know in the comments and support my work with your votes!