How To Buy Bitcoins For The First Time, Step By Step- for Noobs
Disclosure: I am NOT an expert in Bitcoins… I simply compiled the step by step I did to have my first bitcoins…
Now if … these are the steps to follow to buy your first Bitcoins:
1- Open an account in an Exchange
2- Anchor the account
3- Buy Bitcoins
4- Pass your Bitcoins to a Wallet
1- Open an account in an Exchange
The first thing we have to do to buy your Bitcoins is to choose an Exchange. There are many types of Exchanges such as Bitstamp / Satoshitango / Bitex.la / Poloniex among others … Without getting into a retailer and comparing each one (they differ in commission costs, types of cryptocurrencies that can be purchased, currency quote, credibility or support, etc) the biggest difference or the most important reason why you would choose one or the other, will depend on the answer to: Where do you have the money with which you are going to buy your Bitcoins?
If your money is in Dollars or Euros in a bank account outside of Argentina, I would recommend Option A: Bitstamp.
If your money is in Pesos Argentinos in a bank account (or even if you keep it in cash, under the mattress), I would recommend Option B: Satoshitango.
(If your money is in USD, in Argentina… Satoshitango is still your best option, but I’m sorry to tell you that it’s the worst combination)…
Once you have chosen an exchange, you have to register and complete the information requested to enable the account.
To create an account in any of the two exchanges, they will ask you to send:
A photo of your Passport or ID
Any tax/service to your name with less than 3 months old to corroborate your address,
and in some cases an extract from your bank account.
IMPORTANT TIP: Both in Bitstamp and in SatoshiTango it is normal to reject the application the first time you apply, and immediately after, they ask you for a very simple verification:
“We kindly ask you to provide a high-quality photograph (not scan) of your international passport (double page), taken with a camera/phone, including a handwritten note of when the image was submitted following the example below:” [current date] For Bitstamp Limited Only “
It basically asks you to take a picture of your passport and in the same photo, next to the passport there must be a handwritten paper that says: ” Today’s date + the phrase” For Bitstamp Limited Only ” (for satoshi tango te they ask for something similar, but obviously with another legend). You send the picture, usually, in 48 hours you open your account, and you’re ready to operate!
Times to keep in mind:
The first thing you have to know before opening an account, is that this process can take you between 2 to 10 days approximately (depending on whether they accept your application in the first instance or not). Each time the price of bitcoin is triggered, all who make the decision to buy for the first time and were able to see that the price of Bitcoin continues to rise as the exchange continues the process of opening your account. Therefore I recommend creating the account as soon as possible (it’s free) regardless of whether you’ve made the decision to buy or not. This way when you decide to buy, with an account already open you can do it in minutes and with a couple of clicks.
Read: Top 10 Things About Bitcoin You Should Know
2- Anchor the account:
To buy your first Bitcoins, you can not do it directly from your bank account, you need to first deposit money in your exchange account, and with that money, you can only buy Bitcoins.
Option A, Fund your account with Bitstamp:
Once you have the account enabled, you must go to the ” deposit” section, choose the option “International Bank”, complete the form with your data and in “Amount” you must place the amount you want to deposit.
Once you have completed the form and click on “Deposit” they will show you the details of the account where you must deposit via bank transfer.
In the course of 2 to 5 days, your Bitstamp account will receive the money transferred and you will be ready to buy your Bitcoins! (follow the tutorial in step 3 “Buy Bitcoins”)
TIP Important: The name of the person in charge of the bank account that makes the deposit must match the owner of the Bitstamp account!
Option B, Fund your account with Satoshi Tango
Once you have the account enabled, the first thing you have to do to buy Bitcoins with Argentine Pesos, is to change the currency type of your default account (usually USD) to Pesos Argentinos, from the menu on the top right.
Then, from the “my account” section you have to go to “Upload Funds”. There you enter the amount in ARS that you want to invest, and you choose an option to make the payment. You can choose Bank Transfer via CBU (it is credited in the day) to go to a Rapipago, or Even pay in cash coordinating a place and a schedule, they are responsible for withdrawing the money in Cash… (for now, this option is only available only in Buenos Aires).
If you chose the bank transfer option, you will see the bank details where you must make the transfer, and you will also see the taxes and debts that will charge extra to your capital (approximately 1.22%).
Once you make the transfer from your bank, I went back to Satoshitango and click on “inform transfer”. Generally, in less than an hour, you will already have the money credited to your account.
3- Buy Bitcoins
Once you have money in your exchange account, it’s time to buy the Bitcoins.
Option A: How to buy Bitcoins with Bitstamp?
Click on the “Buy/Sell” section and there I chose the “Buy BTC” option
I chose how much you want to invest, and you will quickly see the calculation of how many bitcoins you can buy, discounting the commission of 0.25%. When you are ready, click on the green button below “Buy BTC”… and ready! The operation could take a few minutes, and you will have your Bitcoins in the Bitstamp account.
Now that you have your bitcoins I recommend that you spend them on a Wallet. (Go straight to step 4 “Pass your bitcoins to a wallet”)
Option B How to buy Bitcoins with Satoshi Tango?
Unlike other exchanges (like Bitstamp) Satoshitango changes your Pesos in Bitcoins, but does not save them, therefore, before buying Bitcoins with Satoshi Tango, you have to have a Wallet to send your money to.
It seems complicated, but it is very simple. To make an analogy, let’s say this example: I am going to buy dollars from a bank (in this example the bank would be an exchange like Bitstamp), I ask to change $ 1,000 pesos to Dollars and the banker says “perfect Mr., his thousand pesos that he had in the current account number xxxxx are now USD62 and are in your savings account number xxxxx ” What happened here was clear, the bank changed my money from ARS to USD but I never saw the physical money, the Bank is still the custodian of this capital . In contrast, the case of Satoshi Tango is like going to a house of exchange where you give the thousand pesos to the cashier and they give you the USD 62 in your hand, but they do not keep them, you have to carry them in “your wallet” .
Before finishing the process, let’s see What is a wallet and how do we obtain one:
4- Pass your Bitcoins to a Wallet
What is a Wallet? How do I transfer bitcoins to a Wallet? Where do I get one? Pros and cons of saving your bitcoins in a Wallet.
Thinking that this may be a long-term investment, it is important to know where I am going to store my bitcoins for the next few years… The most popular options for this purpose are two: an Exchange or a Wallet. Without dwelling on technical explanations of each one, we go to the most important “operative” pros and cons.
An Exchange is a private company, which in addition to allowing us to buy cryptocurrencies, also (some) lets us store our Bitcoins in their “safe” as if they were a bank. In this way, you can access your account from any device connected to the internet, simply by accessing your username and password from any cell phone, tablet, PC, or cyber cafe …
In case your phone is broken or stolen, your Bitcoins will be safe, as a security it is advisable to simply change your password as you would with your Facebook account or your email so that the thief does not log in to your account and you’re ready … you can re-login from another device immediately.
The most dangerous thing about leaving your coins in an Exchange is that your investment depends on this company being alive. If the exchange melts, closes, hacks it, or suffers any eventuality, your coins sink with them, or to make it more Argentine at the end, let’s say that your investment “stays in the corralito”.
A Wallet, on the other hand, is literally a virtual Wallet and makes you your own bank. Once you buy your bitcoins in an exchange, the most advisable thing is to pass it to a wallet, so that they are safe in case the exchange has some kind of problem. With a Wallet, you are the only one who can access this capital, as well as being able to send and receive Bitcoins in a very simple way to any person/entity.
There are many types of Wallets, one of the most popular is Copay, a mobile app for your smartphone.
Read: Bitcoin: What Is It, and Is It Right for Your Business?
Once you have a Wallet, every time you want to receive Bitcoins, you must send the address of your wallet (your address is that long code that is under the QR Code), the exchange or the person who wants to pay and ready.
To finish the process of buying Bitcoins in Satoshi tango:
Enter in SatoshiTango, to the section “Buy Bitcoins” and in the first step stick the address of your wallet.
Click on Next, choose the number of bitcoins you want to share, and click Next. In the third step, confirm the operation and you’re done. in a few minutes, you will receive your bitcoins in your Copay Wallet!
IMPORTANT, Do not forget to save your Backup Phrase: Having your Bitcoins in a Wallet is like having literally the money in your wallet (in this case your cell phone), that means that if your cell phone is stolen, it is broken, or you lose it, your bitcoins will go with it… there is no account in the cloud that you can access from another device connected to the internet to recover them, they are ONLY IN YOUR PHONE. Nor is everything as dangerous as it seems! There is a simple solution for this and it is the ” Backup Phrase”. Each Wallet has a phrase of 12 words with which you can restore your bitcoins and pass them from one device to another without any problem. You only have to write those 12 words and keep them somewhere safe (under the mattress, or a safe, for example).
Ready…. you already have your Bitcoins that possibly will become your retirement… In the doubts, for now, get to work really.
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