Are the other, less expensive cryptocurrencies worth buying?
you can purchase chunks of each cryptocurrencies, so just any amount starting to a cent and up
in fact, they are quoted with decimals and a maximum of 8 digits: 0.00000001
the minimum "tick size" or unit if you prefer, is called a Satoshi, after the name of the inventor of the Bitcoin
so 0.00000001 is 1 Satoshi
Thus, the concept of pricey or inexpensive cryptocurrency is void of meaning
However, when it comes to moving cryptocurrencies, each one has its own context, based on its protocol, the network and its congestion of activity at a given time, which translates into "network fees" or "transactions fees" when you withdraw a coin out of somewhere
To keep it simple, the fees of moving funds is not fixed but variable, on each isolated coin. If there is a peak of transactions, the miners who validate the transactions will be saturated with work and the costs will rise. As a general rule, it works with a queue system based on incentives. You can pass first in the queue by skipping the order of processing, if you decide to pay more fees.
All in all, Bitcoin movement fees are definitely not the cheapest. There are many more coins which will cost a few cents instead of a few dollars to move around. Way too many to list but some major ones to explore are Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, etc. However these coins also tend to be less liquid, thus when you trade them, the market conditions will be worse and it will lead to higher trading costs due to larger "spread" (best prices bracket of buyers and sellers) and eventually "slippage" (price drift if the quantity requested doesn't meet enough of a counterparty)
So the benefit to use different currencies will generally depend on several factors to asses, but it tends to be of minimal interest to optimise unless we are into one period of frenetic crypto madness then the fees will skyrocket then only it becomes worthy to consider
@Viro_Major holy shit dude, first, thank you so much for the play-by-play. I really appreciate it, and my smooth brain does too.
So I would rather not have to pay fees and not link my debit card- I know you said it was safe, but it still turns my stomach. I checked out Kraken, and it seems trustworthy-they also sell Bitcoin, so I think that is where I will buy it.
So on the website, they have 3 different levels. The starter level does not allow for cash-out. So you can buy and sell bitcoin, but you can't get your money out. Does this seem sketchy to you?
Cheers!
Also I'm using a Windows laptop, and an android phone for 2FA
Actually, card is not a worse idea than bank transfer because you will leave an obvious trail behind in your bank account anyway. You may also try your luck with prepaid Visa card (they can be bought on Amazon and at local shops) but it may lead to lesser amount restrictions or even transaction blocked by the policy of the exchange you use. It may or may not pass.
But really, cards or bank transfers is about equal in the end. The main disservice you can do to yourself is to use non anonymous coins, like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, etc that I mentioned before, because then you're fully exposed to activity monitoring since their blockchain is transparent, meaning we can learn what you do with them from start to finish. It is the bad idea to avoid.
Instead, at some point, you should introduce a privacy minded coin in the circuit, like Zcoin (soon Firo), Monero, Zcash or Horizen, but the best ones are Firo and Monero because easy to handle and with privacy feature enabled by default (not yet for Firo but optional, soon by default)
About Kraken, it's one of the largest and with highest reputation exchange. Binance is the number one exchange in terms of volume (at least for what we call centralised exchanges)
The starter level allows you to deposit, trade and withdraw coins only but does not permit you to handle fiat money (USD, EUR, GBP) so it is not an option for what you intend to do. Everywhere, as soon as you need to fund your account with traditional currencies (called "fiat" in jargon), you will need to pass verification steps that identify you. It's mandatory and you barely can escape it.
There are ways to escape AML/KYC procedures but they're not really meaningful, as long as you do other steps right, like use anom coins sometime within your loop. These alt ways will come at higher fees (usually 10+%) and will be less straight forward to manage for rookies
Depends what you're trying to buy, or if you're just trying to trade them. I have specific products in mind, and the vendor only takes bitcoin. If you just want to trade though, Monero (or XMR) is worth looking into
A and B are considering to setup Monero wallets as we speak
But even if only Bitcoin is accepted, that's not a good way to look at things and not an excuse to use Bitcoin only
Monero wallets like
Cake and
Monerujo come with built-in exchangers which allows you to convert Bitcoins and other non-anom coins in Monero in and out of the wallet. So basically, you acquire Monero at some point, withdraw the Monero to Cake/Monerujo, then withdraw the Monero as Bitcoin to the merchant
this is much more secure for your safety and privacy. And again, not even yet 100% optimal but WAY better than Bitcoin
Firo will be better than Monero. I'll talk about it when the time comes. I'm on contact with their core team and bridging Firo with CTemplar
