I remember when Bitcoin first started finding its way into conversation in libertarian circles. Bitcoin traded for under a penny. The first recorded purchase made with Bitcoin was 10,000 Bitcoins for two pepperoni pizzas from Papa John’s. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin trades for $8,520.
Some said it was going to change the world, free us from central banks (before I even realized they were Jewish!), and unleash the market from the toxic tentacles of the State. Others thought it was just another fiat currency, distracting from our desperate need to return to the Gold Standard.
As you can probably tell from the exchange rate, quite a bit has happened since then. Shutting down the Silk Road did nothing to diminish the Dark Net Markets. Bitcoin is now accepted at thousands of brick and mortar vendors worldwide, and even more online vendors. There are Bitcoin ATM machines all over the world. New “Alt Coins” emerged, with varying levels of privacy protection and other feature sets, complementing the market.
Try as they might, traditional financial institutions just could not ignore the crypto markets any longer.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange is reportedly working on a Bitcoin trading platform. Goldman Sachs has recently added a cryptocurrency trading operation. A new trading platform powered by the same technology as the NASDAQ is about to launch, called DX.Exchange.
All three of the above linked stories broke in May of 2018. Given the growth and innovation the crypto space has seen over the years while largely limited to technophiles, anarchists, criminals, gamblers, and adrenaline junkies, try to imagine what will come when the most well recognized financial institutions in the world start bringing more established investors into the market.
Of course, it isn’t just the long established institutions getting into the business, either. Free stock trading platform Robinhood.com recently became the second most highly valued financial technology startup, behind Leftist credit card processor Stripe, after launching Robinhood Crypto. Some analysts suggest Robinhood could rival Coinbase, which is currently one of largest crypto exchanges in the world.
Gemini.com, a US licensed crypto exchange which until recently only offered Bitcoin and Ethereum, is about to start offering ZCash as well. ZCash is a privacy focused alt coin recently endorsed by notorious NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Though lacking the “always on” privacy features of Monero, seeing a licensed exchange in the US pick up a privacy coin could be a sign of big things to come for other Bitcoin alternatives.
Now, before I tell you how to get involved in cryptocurrency, I should probably point out that this is not financial advice. I’m not qualified to give you that sort of thing. The financial industry hates me because I’m an anti-Semite and the banks are run by Jews. You don’t want to be in the same boat as me financially, trust me.
That said, here are some helpful links to get you started.
You can buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a credit or debit card using Changelly.com or Uphold.com.
There are fees associated with using a credit card though, so you would probably be better off getting verified on an exchange like Gemini.com, and then funding your account with an ACH transfer. From there you can trade in Bitcoin and Ethereum, and soon, ZCash. You can also cash out back to dollars, and have the funds deposited back into your bank account.
If you want a wide variety of cryptocurrency options, with massive trading volume and day trading opportunity, Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. They only trade in crypto though, so you’ll have to convert your dollars to crypto on Gemini, and then withdraw those funds to your Binance account.
Feeling generous? By all means, donate some cryptocurrency to me, here.