Note: I have posted this before, but it was laced with referral links, I'm posting it again with all referrals and affiliates removed to get the information out to the wider community in hopes that it helps people out. If you did like this post, please support me by donating below, or see my other posts. Thanks.

So, you've decided to get involved in the Cryptocurrency world but you have no idea how to start or what you are doing. I've created this guide for beginners and those new to this space help you out. I'm Australian so the info I've provided below is mainly focussed for Aussies. Our mates in other places of the world may also benefit from the info below though.

As there is a lot of information, it is recommended that you read the full article and do further research to get an overall understanding of what's involved before using/investing any money. I may post further articles with more specific topics and details later on.

Disclaimer: All information presented here is based on my personal opinion and these services may change overtime. I am not a financial advisor, just an average joe talking about Cryptocurrency.Please check each website for their individual information, any fees and all details before signing up and using their services. There are risks involved in trading Cryptocurrency& by doing so you accept those risks, do not invest anything that you are not willing to lose.

What is Cryptocurrency or Cryptoassests?

Cryptocurrencies are a new asset class that enable decentralized applications

What does that mean?
This article sums it up better than anything I can explain, I highly recommend you take the time to read.
https://blog.chain.com/a-letter-to-jamie-dimon-de89d417cb80

Abbreviations/Common Phrases

Coming fresh into this community, there are many abbreviations, terms and phrases that are quite commonly used, I’ve listed the ones that I found are the most common:
• Altcoin – Alternative cryptocurrency
• ATH – All time high
• ATL – All time low
• Bear/Bearish – Negative price movement
• Bull/Bullish - Positive Price movement
• DOYR – Do your own research
• Dump – Market manipulators sell their pumped coins for a profit
• FOMO – Fear of missing out
• FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
• HODL – Hold
• ICO – Initial coin offering
• Pump – Co-ordinated upward price movement with the intention to manipulate the market
• Satoshi – one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. Used by exchanges.
• Shitcoin – A coin with no value or use
• Sleeper – Under the radar
• To the moon - An large/significant upward positive movement
• Whale – Big wealthy trader which influences the market.
• Whitepaper– Informational document issued by a company to promote or highlight the features of the Cryptocurrency. Like a sales pamphlet

So many altcoins! What do they do?

There are hundreds of different cryptocurrency, each with different applications, benefits, pros and cons. I find this list to be overly simplistic but can be quite helpful in giving you an idea of the range of coins out there. It’s always best to do your own research, go dig around, read the whitepaper, watch some videos.
https://thebitcoin.pub/t/100-cryptocurrencies-described-in-four-words-or-less/14740

How can I buy, sell and trade Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in Australia?

Buying and selling can be done at a few different places; the ones I've listed below seem to be the most popular, well known and trusted websites for Australians. I've listed the pros, cons and recommendations of each, pick one that suits you and go from there! It's generally good to use a range or services and see which ones have the best price at the time.

To buy, sell and trade crypto, you will need to open an account with one of the following websites listed below.
Sign up will involve getting verified before you will be able to buy, sell & trade. Depending on the site, this may include providing your drivers license, passport, utility bill and/or a photo with some written information on them. Verification approval can take up to 2 days depending on the site.

Note that you can use other US market exchanges not listed here, however you might end up paying additional international transaction fees depending on your bank! Note this may occur with Coinbase.

Why do these websites need identity verification?
To prevent money laundering, so they know who you are and who they are doing business with. You are investing your hard-earned dollars, it's worth the effort to get verified!

Most of these sites listed below have the option to use 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) as a minimum which uses Google authenticator for a second layer of added security. I strongly recommend that you add this service to your account, making your assets that much more secure. If you do use 2FA, make sure you write down/back up your authenticator keys and/or link your phone number to the website as a recovery option, because if you lose your phone or get a new phone, there is no other way to get through this 2FA.

COINSPOT

(My pick for Beginners just getting into crypto and want to buy alt coins, very user-friendly)
https://www.coinspot.com.au
This is the easiest website to use for beginners and I used it myself when I started out, so I do recommend it for beginners. Once you get a grasp on what you are doing I recommend you move onto to using a service with lower fees.

Pros
• Convenient & very easy to use
• Instant
• Large selection (60+) of cryptocurrencies including the most popular altcoins
• Buy and sell directly in AUD with POLi Payments – Bank Transfers (No fees for POLi)
• Tax Invoices in their accounts section
• Basic market for BTC, LTC and Dogecoin

Cons
• High Fees (1-3%) in general for buying/selling/transferring
• No price alerts
• Wallet is not really a wallet, only holds coinspot coins, cannot receive, only send, once you move your coins/tokens out, you cannot send them back to sell through coinspot directly [Only BTC is a proper wallet].
• As of 01/12/17, customers will not be able to make instant AUD deposits (POLi) between 6pm AEST Fridays and Midnight on Sundays.

Recommended for
• Beginners looking for an easy to use, functional and straight forward interface
• People who like to buy small amounts instantly
• People looking to buy the wide range of altcoins fast and hassle free.
• Long term investors who do not mind fees because they are going to make the gains!

INDEPENDENT RESERVE

(My pick & most recommended for buying BTC, ETH, BCC)
https://www.independentreserve.com

Pros
• Instant Bank deposit using POLI (<$5000) [$3.30 fee)
• Free Bank deposit > $100 if you are willing to wait.
• Buy and sell directly in AUD
• Low Fees starting at 0.5% which decrease with more volume.
• Can set a buy/sell limit price and view buy/sell orders (A proper exchange not like coinspot/coinbase)

Cons
• Not as user friendly, user interface isn’t as nice but workable.
• Limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash

Recommended for
• Beginners looking for more buy/sell/trade options for Bitcoin, Etherum and Bitcoin Cash.
• People who want to save money on fees.
• People who like to buy small amounts instantly
• Buying BTC, ETH to send to another exchange to buy altcoins.

BTC MARKETS

(My pick for larger volumes of BTC, ETH, LTC, Ripple)
http://www.btcmarkets.net

Pros
• More coins than Independent Reserve
• Good volume
• Popular
• Buy and sell directly in AUD with Bank transfers & POLi Payments
• Straight forward interface

Cons
• Deposits are not instant. Take a few days to process.
• Fees are relatively low 0.85% which decrease with sell volume.

Recommended for
• High volume buyers/sellers/traders
• Long term investors who do not need to buy instantly or a patient
• People looking to invest large amounts

COINBASE

(Listed for comparison only but has some Pros for certain non-AUS residents which are supported, help me out, use the link referral link below & you and I both get $10 worth of free bitcoin!)
https://www.coinbase.com

Pros
• Easy to use & convenient
• Phone APP with price alerts
• Instant
• Locks in price when you buy
• Large reputable company
• Secure online wallet (holds majority of your funds in offline cold storage)
• Weekly buys (Not an Australian feature)

Cons
• Cannot Sell BTC/LTC,ETH yet for Australians
• Accepts credit card payments only currently (Australia)
• Low initial buy limit is small (~$300) which increased slowly to $2000.
• High Fees 4% (Credit Card) [International transaction fee not included with some Credit Cards]
• Only supports 3 main cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin currently

Recommended for
• People who can buy and sell using their platform (Not including Australia & Canada) https://www.coinbase.com/global?locale=en
• People who like to buy small amounts instantly on their phone
• People looking to invest small amounts easily and conveniently for long term holding

Level Up – Time to expand your horizons!

So now let's say you have a good grasp on what's going on, you can send and receive from wallet to wallet, you now want to venture out into the altcoin world, but do it the normal way, not via coinspot.

You may also be thinking, mate! these fees are killing me, I know what I'm doing and have got the time to learn, tell me how the majority do it! Note that you’ll still need to use one of the above websites to convert from Australian dollars to BTC/ETH etc and send it to your wallet on these exchanges. These exchanges only exchange crypto to crypto.

Binance

(Recommended for more experienced to buy/selll/trade altcoins)
https://www.binance.com

Pros
• Extremely low fees (0.1% & 0.05% if you use their BNB coin)
• Better platform for trading
• Good features
• Nice user interface
• Steep initial learning curve for beginners
• Good range of cryptocurrencies
• Phone app
• Rest time prices

Cons
• Not as beginner friendly
• All coins are presented in Satoshi values
• No Stop loss feature
• Must wait for funds to be processed into wallet before use
• Range of Altcoins is larger but could be bigger.
• Must buy and sell via BTC, ETH, BNB, USDT pairs. (Suggest you use ETH due to faster processing times).

Recommended for
• People comfortable in the market looking for lower fees and better features
• More experienced people who are plan to hold.
• Everyone once they are comfortable and know what they are doing.

Bittrex

(Recommended for more experienced to buy/selll/trade altcoins)
https://www.bittrex.com/

Pros
• Low fees (0.85%)
• Better platform for traders
• Has a stop loss
• Popular so higher volume
• Steep initial learning curve for beginners
• Largest range of cryptocurrencies
• Real time prices

Cons
• Not as beginner friendly
• All coins are presented in Satoshi values
• Must wait for funds to be processed through wallet before use
• Must buy and sell via crypto pairs e.g. BTC, ETH pairs. (Suggest you use ETH due to faster processing times).

Recommended for
• People comfortable in the market looking for lower fees and better features
• More experienced people who are are leaning more towards buy/selling & trading quite often.
• People looking for a wider and large range of altcoins
• Everyone once they are comfortable and know what they are doing.

Other exchanges that are popular but I haven’t covered, note there are so many and I haven't used them all:

• Kraken
• Bitfinex (Some rumours with tether at the moment so would not use this)
• Poloniex
• Coinjar

I want to buy an altcoin but it’s not listed on these exchanges?

Note there are so many exchanges, so if you are after a specific coin, find it on coinmarketcap, click on the coin you are interested in and click on the markets tab to see where you can buy it.

You may also be wondering about ICOs - Initial coin offerings. This is when a cryptocurrency is in its infancy phase and they will offer you a discounted rate on their coins/tokens prior to it being listed on an exchange. Note that as these groups are new, there is a high risk involved in dealing with ICOs. Yes you may make a huge gain, but also a huge loss. Each ICO will have its own specific way to get involved. I would not get involved in ICOs yet until you know what you are doing, there are multiple scams out there and some of these are just pure pump and dumps.
You can view a list of upcoming ICOs here: https://www.icoalert.com

How do I keep my cryptocurrency secure? Wallets 101

Once you have bought your cryptocurrency/cryptoasset, it will be sitting in a wallet. All wallets are specific to the type of cryptocurrency that it is. Note that you cannot store different types of coins in the same wallet (e.g. Ethereum cannot be stored in a Bitcoin wallet).

Most exchanges do have their own web wallets but leaving it in these wallets can be risky, I wouldn’t leave anything that you are not actively trading in these wallets. If the site/exchange goes down for whatever reason, your funds will more than likely go too. It can happen, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox

There's a few options what to do with your crypto below:

You can visit the website of the crypto that you hold for more information.
e.g. if you hold NEO, their site lists a range of wallets you can use to store your crypto (like Neon Wallet).

There are some desktop software wallets which can store multiple cryptocurrencies like Exodus (https://www.exodus.io/) or Jaxx (https://jaxx.io/)

While these wallets are considered safer than leaving them online on an exchange, they are still vulnerable to hacks.

Address/Public Key

All wallets will have a public key which is like the postal address of your home. It is the link you provide to receive funds into that wallet, It is safe to be seen by everyone and shows the transactions on the blockchain.

As with all new wallets, make sure you test the address and send a small amount over each time to ensure the process works, before sending the full amount. The wallets must be compatible, Bitcoin wallets can only send to Bitcoin wallets, Neo wallets to Neo wallets, etc.

The exception to this is the Ethereum wallets which can hold all the ERC20 Tokens. ERC20 Tokens are the tokens which were developed based on the Etherum Platform. If you look at the public address for these tokens you’d notice that they generally will be the same as your Ethereum address. A list of ERC20 tokens can be found here https://etherscan.io/tokens.

My address keeps changing!
Note that your address may change everytime it receives funds as a way of keeping your balance private such that it is harder for someone to find out how much total balance you have. Don't worry if you sent to your old balance, you can use any of the previously generated addresses to receive funds anytime without any issue. I do recommend you check your address and use your new addresses for receiving payments for privacy reasons.

I transferred some funds but they aren't appearing!
Funds take time to transfer, someones from a few seconds to a few hours. These need to be verified and it's not always instant from wallet to wallet. That is why I recommend that you send a small amount first to ensure it works before sending the full amount.
You can track transactions are websites such as https://etherscan.io/ or https://bitcoincash.blockexplorer.com/

Private Keys

Private keys are like the keys to your house, they are used to access, manage and send your crypto assets.
THEY ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! YOU MUST BACK UP YOUR PRIVATE KEYS. Write it down with pen and paper or copy and pasting it to a USB as a text file.

You should NEVER share or give anyone access to your private key, this is handing them your money. They will have full access to your crypto and can do whatever they wish with it.
If you lose your private key you might lose your money forever.

Alternatively, there are also paper wallets which are codes with all of your information listed that you can print off and keep safe until you want to access your funds later again online. These are very safe but can be inconvenient if you want to move your funds or if you lose your special valuable peice of paper! They are generally better for long term holdings and you would generate a new wallet each time.

I recommend that once you have a decent amount of money in your wallet, that you invest in a hardware wallet.

Hardware Wallets

The safest way to store your crypto is to buy a hardware wallet. These are basically a USB like stick, which comes pre-loaded with software and encryption to store all of your crypto offline. They are pin protected and hide your private key, even from you. If they are damaged, stolen, lost, you can still get your cryptocurrency back provided you keep your recovery settings handy.

Make sure you write down your backup phrase that comes with your device. Below are the most common and popular hardware wallets. Only buy directly from their website, or their list of supported resellers.

• Ledger Nano S - https://www.ledgerwallet.com/
• Trezor - https://trezor.io/
• Keepkey - https://www.keepkey.com/

Useful websites:

• https://www.coinmarketcap.com – Good umbrella site to view and monitor all cryptocurrency, their market cap, price & volume graph and charts etc.
• https://www.blockcoin.com.au - For the best real time buy and sell prices and associated fee's for Bitcoin purchases with different exchanges you can use .
• https://www.shapeshift.io is a great way to swap one alt coin for another or to swap BTC to alt coins instantly without the use of exchanges. ShapeShift is also built in to the Exodus & Jaxx wallet and is a great quick way of swapping between coins but the fees may be a bit high.
• https://changelly.com/ is another site similar to shapeshift.
• https://www.livingroomofsatoshi.com/ is a great site to pay bills directly with your cryptocurrency. You can also use it to withdraw money to your bank account.

Useful Android Apps:

These are apps that I use (on Android) and have found to be helpful and quite good.
• Coinmarket App
• Blockfolio - Keeps track of your purchases to show overall profit/loss.
• Cryptonaut - Keeps track of your purchases to show overall profit/loss (I prefer this one over Blockfolio)
• Cryptocurrency News
• Telegram – Join Altcoin Groups for updates

Cryptocurrency Youtubers:

These are youtubers that I'm stumbled on and found to be knowledgeable; of course there are heaps of others!
Watch a few videos, see which ones you like.
• Nugget's News - https://www.youtube.com/user/australiaalex
• Crypto Lark - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2oCaw8hdR_kbqyqd2klIA
• Cryto Daily - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67AEEecqFEc92nVvcqKdhA
• Crytocurrency Australia - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVQJXvrcil-95HcnSiUjNmg
• Crypto Tips - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCavTvSwEoRABvnPtLg0e6LQ
• David Hay - https://www.youtube.com/user/DavidHaydotOrg
• Crypt0 - https://www.youtube.com/user/obham001
• Boxmining - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxODjeUwZHk3p-7TU-IsDOA
• Cryto Bob - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt_oM56Ui0BCCgi0Yc-Wh3Q

General Tips (My own opinion)

• Don’t invest what you are not willing to lose – Be financially responsible with your money.
• Don't day trade unless you know what you're doing and have lots of time – the fees do add up and you might think you know how to read charts but generally you will end up worse than you started. Day trading can become extremely stressful and time consuming.
• Do your own research, at the end of the day, it is your money, be happy with what you invest in.
• Invest in fundamentals – Pick cryptos which have real world value and purpose, these are the ones that will last. Ensure all the highs and lows make sense and correlate to real events that occur.
• HODL – Cryptocurrency is extremely volatile and sensitive to news and FUD, don't be afraid to HODL, if the fundamentals are there and the company delivers what it says it does, it will be okay long term.
• High risk – high rewards – Know your risk appetite.
• Secure your assets, Protect your private keys. Don't take photos of them, write them down on a piece of paper/print them out, laminate and store them safely. You lose this and you lose everything. Hardware wallets are a good option.
• Read the white paper.
• Get involved in the community – Join Facebook groups, subreddit groups, telegram groups.
• Diversify your portfolio – Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. Balance out the risk; develop a wide range with different applications.
• Never click on sponsored Ads – They are probably scams who will take your money.
• Always check the URL of websites before you enter any login information.
• With emails, ensure the sender is real, that it is not a scam, often they make it seem like they are legit but they just use you to grab all of your login details.
• The market doesn’t sleep, it trades all day everyday 24/7, but you should, set your buy/sell limits and stop losses.
• Try to not let cryptocurrency consume your life, look after your health – I know it's exciting; you want to know more but make sure you remember to drink water, eat and sleep. If you are well rested and healthy, your brain is more likely to be functioning and you'll make more wise investment decisions and do better research. You will experience a rollercoaster of emotions.
• Resist the FOMO (Fear of missing out) - These may not always turn out the way you think. What comes up, generally will come down, you do not want to buy at the top of the peak or an all time high. Where is the top? Hard to say, just keep your emotions in check, use your brain. What goes up must come down, eventually.
• If it sounds too good to be true, generally it is,
• Be very careful and cautious regarding groups which offer you guaranteed returns, no one can offer you guaranteed returns. These may be pyramid schemes. I would avoid them all together.
• Mining is generally not worth the costs, you will be generally better off buying and holding.
• Don’t be afraid to take profits. If you are experiencing FOMO, take it out in small amounts of 10%, 20% increments.

DONATIONS

If you liked this article, found this information helpful and/or made some nice profits and would like to give back.
Donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
• BTC: 1At17xzpEV7j2zu6UPSFFMZqpXfNxdkBPy
• ETH/ERC20: 0x149ec21709585d29c497793cc29b50bd332b38ec
• NEO: AUsmDchvW3cF22YH196cpxWB9jAhoHNHgV