I was going to say something on these linesPosted by Blastolabs (here)
With coinmetro do you actually own the coin?
If you don't have your keys you don't own the coin.
While there are advantages to using exchanges to buy there are also many disadvantages.
I'm not familiar with coinmetro but with Robinhood, Coinbase and the other big names you are not actually purchasing cryptocurrency.
In the event of that company being hacked or worldwide catastrophic events you will likely lose the money.
The whole point of decentralized currency is to give power back to the people. By having a third party hold your coins for you it kinda defeats the whole purpose in my opponion.
It is easier to lose your money due to user error when you actually own them. I would recommend playing with $10 in crypto for a week or three sending money back and forth to truly understand it before buying any large amount.
Then be SURE to keep a hand written copy of your key in a few safe places like a safety deposit box or buried in nature somewhere.
The way blockchain works means that even if the internet goes down for a few months once a few nodes are back online you will still have your money, the same can not be said for keeping your money with a bank or any exchange.
If you don't have your keys you don't own your coin.
This really only applies to people with significant amounts of money invested or those who care about ending our dependence on the system built by our rulers.
But Jayke made a good point, if one are going to invest in crypto in a long term, the best option is to look for those crypto backed by monster corporations but beware research well before buying.
Nowadays anyone can fork a coin and hit the network with a cute marketing campaign targeting specific communities (take a look how easy it is -->> https://cryptonotestarter.org ), without saying all the scams out there with incorporated companies in those beautiful island out there just to make a front (Do you know anyone can open a corporation in Seychelles for just $500?).
There is thousands of crypto coins out there (currently 8416 registered in https://coinmarketcap.com), the majority is just crap and will fall along the cracks, just give time and you all see.
Also I would advice anyone going long term with crypto investment to use a dedicated hardware (install a cold wallet in a computer not connected to the internet and sign transactions when moving the funds, it is perfectly safe that way) for that specially if one is going to buy a lot.. DO NOT KEEP IT in the exchanges unless you are a trader, but we talking about investment long term, look it up how many times exchanges all around the world got hacked and lost all the customers funds! I know today they have insurance and this and that bla bla, but if you do not own your private key, you own nothing.
Take a look at "white label cryptocurrency exchange software" and learn how it works, any numbers can be faked, include trade volume and liquidity.
See how anyone can start such a gamble business https://www.blockchainappfactory.com/
Last time I checked prices for a start up it was 20.500 Euros including licensing and company registration in the Caribbean area.
Fair warning, exchanges are gamble and highly manipulated just like those casinos online, unless you are an insider I would keep far far away from it.
Posted by Ben Macdonald (here)
I've just been reading up on a new crypto called 'Arrr', made by Pirate chain.
It's particularly intereting to me, because it's main USP is the privacy aspect. See this link for info: https://pirate.black/about-pirate-chain/
What with a large percentage of the world now moving to platforms that uphold privacy and free speech, the likelyhood of Arrr coins gaining significant value seems a given to me.
It's current value is around $.08, so I bought $40 worth, which is 508 coins (roughly). So not much of an outlay, no stress involved, and i'll be looking on with interest to see what happens.
Other coins I have are Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum.
XRP I find intriguing too, because if the rumours of the supposed QFS are true, then apparently it will be the currency used in that system.
I saw it months ago and decided to download their blockchain and wallet to my laptop, after installation the thing won't work, it get stuck at about 5% when downloading their blockchain, also the wallet is very hungry it uses up my entire RAM and the CPU keep spiking to 90% most of the time, then I gave it up, but before I was reading in their github account in the issues section and there was a few with the same problem, but not a peep from the maintainers, not sure if it is an active project and for what I learned they are based on Zcash and another coin can't remember now. I would love to try again, because I liked their proposal in the same line with Monero, but I refuse to use an exchange, if it does not work in my computer then it will not work at all for me.
The entire purpose of crypto currency is decentralization (P2P), it is a way to be your own bank system when using it correctly.
Exchanges has records of all the transactions, they know who their clients are and they are willing to cooperate with all governments upon request, in fact they send reports of monies movement (read their terms), also it is not anonymous or private as many believe.
I have a cold wallet with bitcoin, monero and namecoin and I keep it in a virtual machine file, backed up in 3 different locations, that means even if my laptop crash, I still able to recovery the funds.
Another useful information if one is going to sell it, no need to use an exchange either, you can sell it to someone willing to buy it, there is quite a few websites that people post offers. Localbitcoins is one that comes to mind.