Hi Steemians!

As I've said in several of my posts throughout the last week, I've had an enormous number of questions from friends, colleagues, followers, and others about how to get started with cryptocurrency beyond Steem.

This is a beginner guide for those people. Feel free to link your friends that are interested in crypto, too.

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Step 1: How to get your government funny money into Crypto

First, you'll need to obtain some of the local currency, be this through employment, the sale of surplus goods, or you performing services for others. I don't care how you get the money, but once you do, you'll need to purchase some sort of crypto currency via a FIAT (this is the government money) to crypto (this is where we have fun)!

In Australia, there are a few local exchanges that you can use to go from Aussie Dollary-dos to Crypto. I'll only mention the ones that I have used in the past, as well as my brief opinions of them.

First, there's

BTC Markets

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The trading pairs currently on BTC Markets include Bitcoin,, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash. Their trading interface is basic, contains a night mode, and like all the other exchanges I'm going to mention, you'll need to go through some KYC (Know Your Customer) validation before being able to deposit some money (either by BPAY, or POLI (POLI has been suspended by several Australian exchanges in the recent days, which means that on BTC Markets you'll need a minimum of $500.

The exchange itself is pretty active, containing APIs, which enable the provision of trading bots, ensuring that the exchange remains fairly liquid at all hours. You can also see all time charts since the trading pairs were added, as per the above image.

Coinspot

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Coinspot (Shameless affiliate link included) is probably the easiest exchange to use, and the most appealing for newcomers for a number of reasons. First, it has a number of AUD to Crypto trading pairs, far too many for me to list here. Its ease of use, however does see you pay a slight premium for coins over the rate you would obtain should you buy Ethereum or Bitcoin (well maybe not with the current fees) and send it to an alternative exchange and just buy the coin you wanted anyway. There are a few drawbacks that I have noticed with Coinspot, beyond the obvious "paying a premium for ease of use", and this is in relation to what happens when you withdraw crypto from their exchange to alternative wallets. Sometimes, these transactions will originate from Bittrex, which makes me call into question whether Coinspot themselves control the keys to the wallets they hold customer's funds in. This is a complex question, and not one that I have investigated.

I would never hold funds on an exchange for a prolonged period of time, but Coinspot is nice, quick and easy to buy your coins, withdraw them to a wallet where you control the private keys, and are able to mitigate the risk of loss.

This isn't FUD - I have several transactions where I have withdrawn Ethereum from Coinspot to my Ethereum wallet, and it has come from Bittrex. This definitely doesn't instill confidence, as you're adding an extra layer of potential risk.

CoinJar

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Coinjar (affiliate link again) is an exchange where you can buy and sell Bitcoin using Australian Dollars. I haven't used it in a very long time, as I tend to do most of my trades out to other exchanges to invest in other crypto currency via Ehtereum these days. You can deposit via the same methods as the other exchanges.

Coinjar also have a few products where you can use your bitcoin reserves as "cash" via a debit card that does conversion on the fly. They also have hedging accounts, which are far better explained by them than me.

Now, you have your crypto. You want to buy something that's not listed on the exchanges above.

This is where the other exchanges come into play. There's three that I would recommend are used, in no particular order. The best way to transfer out of the above exchanges at the moment is probably via Ethereum, or Ripple, owing to low transfer costs and fast transactions.

So you've got Ethereum, and now want to invest in a coin that isn't listed on the exchanges above, you need to withdraw this to the alternative exchange, and that this will involve obtaining a deposit address once you've signed up and made an account.

First, there's:

Binance

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Binance is an exchange where you can trade with either ethereum, bitcoin, or binance bucks, or USDT (USD tether, a type of crypto version of the US Dollar) There is a larger range of coins available, and you find yourself overwhelmed by the trading options available. Binance is a fantastic exchange, with regular promotions, lots of volume (its the largest exchange in the world by volume!) and regularly adds new coins.

KuCoin

KuCoin is relatively new, and its advantages are a revenue sharing model with all members who hold KuCoin Tokens, which are traded on the exchange itself. It adds tons of coins each week, and has a voting platform, where users can vote for new coins to be added.

The exchange has good volume, and lots of options within the trading engine. They also run regular promotions, and look like they are set to emulate the success of Binance.

Bittrex

Bittrex is an exchange that has many trading pairs - with markets in Ethereum and Bitcoin - you can also sell your hard earned SBD on Bittrex, which isn't a market available on either of the two above exchanges. I'd recommend starting here if you want to play with your Steem Bucks Dollars. I wrote a guide on how to do this on my alternate account, @holozaps for a mate.

Bittrex is easy to use, and has a large amount of features. The trading fees are a little higher than Binance and KuCoin, however.

That's it for Part 1, and you're now a beginner in buying alt coins

TLDR

1. Convert your Australian / US / Other Currency to Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, or something else on a FIAT to Crypto Gateway.
2. Withdraw (and Deposit) this into the other exchanges, such asBinance , KuCoin, or Bittrex.
3. Wait for the BlockChain to confirm your transaction and your deposit to be credited in the exchange of your choice.
4. Buy the alts you want.
5. Withdraw these to a wallet where you own the private keys. (I will cover this in part 2, but there are plenty of guides, use google.)

Have fun

If you can't be bothered doing all the stuff above, feel free to participate in my "funtimes" trading group. You only need a minimum of 5SBD to join.