Hi All,

I have just joined Steemit and thought i would introduce myself with a post regarding my experience of Cryptocurrency, hopefully it may help some newcomers to the Crypto world.

I was first made aware of Bitcoin (BTC) around 2011 when I was at college, me an a few guys spoke about trying to mine it, unfortunately we didn't do it! Even if we did to be honest I had no idea what it really was and would have sold it @ around $100 feeling like a boss!
So in a way I am glad we didn't attempt to mine as I would be full of regret now!

Fast forward to November 2017 and I finally took the plunge to buy some Crypto. Unfortunately I didn't use the time between 2011 - 2017 to educate myself, I just blindly dived in & made loads of stupid decisions.

Below you can see the process I went through and read about those stupid decisions and hopefully avoid doing them yourself!

So its Crypto time lets get started!

I done a bit of research around 2 mins of research, and that research suggested I join Coinbase and download Exodus .

Coinbase would allow me to easily buy Crypto using my debit card and Exodus would allow me to exchange my Crypto to other Crypto if required.
So within around 30 mins, I had bought £60 Etherium (ETH) or £57.01 after fees.

Why did I buy ETH? I dont know, I had no idea what it was. I assume it had a nice green plus sign showing it was doing good so that was enough for me. I then transfered my ETH now worth £56.67 to Exodus, why did I transfer well why not???

I then decided to use Exodus to exchange my ETH (now £55.84) into EOS, probably because I seen a chart that showed EOS was moving up the way.
That seemed to be working well, I was now over my £60 initial investment! So that was it I was a pro, I was the man investing like a boss!

So now I am the boss I put in more £, but this time Litecoin (LTC), then I bought some BTC, some more ETH and LTC, all the time transferring this onto Exodus and gambling by transferring to another Crypto within exodus, hoping it was the new BTC that was going to let me at least double my £.

I am now no longer the boss, I was way down and kept missing out on all the big gains.
I would Exchange my LTC to ETH and LTC would rocket. I would then try get in on the act and transfer back to LTC only for it to go down, so I would panic and jump ship again!

I knew I was gambling when I bought that £60 worth of ETH, but I had assumed that with the rise of BTC that I was guaranteed a profit.No thought was required just get your money in and you will be fine, but now i'm down about 30% with a good percentage of that lost in fees. I had to stop gambling and start learning.

I started looking at YouTube videos to get an idea of what Crypto was, this led me onto blockchains and then I realized how naive and stupid I had been.
I now realize that I am not investing in a monetary coin that will be the next BTC, I am investing in technological ideas. All of these Crypto currencies are individual entities that provide a function, for e.g some Crypto can be used to buy things,build things or provide banking facilities.

So I have now researched a few different Crypto and looked at the positives and negatives of them. This allowed me to get a feel for the need and idea behind that Crypto and decide if it made sense and something I believed in. I have now settled on 4 different Crypto and I mean settled. I am no longer looking at other Crypto making big gains and jumping to that, I have my 4 and thats where I will be staying unless any research I do suggests otherwise.

Whats your point?

If your looking for a gamble or quick £ your probably best going to the casino and sticking your money on black.

There is £ to be made in Crypto, since I calmed down & done research I am now sitting around 100% profit but my attitude has changed.
I fully believe that Crypto is a movement and it will become part of everyday life, the work and the vision that some of these developers have shown is phenomenal. I now feel I have invested in technology that excites me , I am no longer chasing the next £.
Im not going to lie I want that 100% to grow and I fully believe it will as I have faith in the technology behind it but there is nothing stopping that 100% becoming a loss.

If you are looking to get involved SLOW down, take your time & ask yourself why you want to do it. Make sure you do your research, do not hop about Crypto hoping to make a quick £ as all you will do is drown in fees. As shown my initial ETH investment was down £4.16, that may not seem a lot but its around 7% keep repeating that and you are throwing a lot of £ away.

I am very much still a n00b as you can tell from above but hopefully my stupidity helps others avoid the mistakes I made.

Resources I used

There are tons of resources out there, below are just some that I used.

http://cryptoradio.io/

https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxDU-1ZGkRsoxgTy5JIdhw/featured

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrYmtJBtLdtm2ov84ulV-yg

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDollarVigilante

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGyqEtcGQQtXyUwvcy7Gmyg

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrHQtN-cJxm_GdOF-RfFKlw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSxhm5JSMKbL2D1UKi7YEA