How can I get started investing in Crypto-currencies?

If you're new to cryptos, and are wondering what kinds of legitimate investments are out there, I'm hoping you'll find this guide useful.

Starting out

If you've not bought any cryptos before, then I suggest you start off by signing up on Coinbase] and buy the following, in my order of preference:

Litecoin (LTC)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Ethereum (ETH)
Bitcoin (BTC) -- if you don't mind paying $15 to $50 per transaction (e.g. transferring to your wallet)

Once you have purchased some cryptos, the next step is to download and install the Exodus or Jaxx wallets (I use both because although they have some overlapping cryptos, they each have some the other doesn't), and then transfer your cryptos from Coinbase to your wallet.

Next Steps

Once you have some of the basic cryptos in your wallet, and you want to branch out to other good ones, I recommend the ones below.

You can go to Coin Market Cap not only to see current prices, but you can click on a coin name and see which exchanges they are trading on.

With that said, you should also sign up on Kraken, Gemini, Binance, and BitStamp.

Signing up takes a while, so I would do them all at once. Also, it is good to have multiple entry and exit points becauseÇ

a) Each exchange has its own price, so you can pick and choose the lowest before you transfer some fiat
b) It gives you multiple exit/entry strategies if one ore more exchanges are too busy or having difficulties

So, once you're on these other exchanges (esp. Kraken and Binance) you can convert some of your current cryptos into other cryptos. Kraken also lets you convert fiat directly into other cryptos.

Some of these you can exchange inside your Exodus or Jaxx wallet as well (via the ShapeShift.io exchange which is built-in).

EOS
NEO
QTUM
NEM (XEM)
OmiseGO (OMG)
DASH
ZCASH
Monero (XMR)
DigiByte (DGB)

What else can I invest in?

Once upon a time, we had IPOs, or Initial Public Offerings, which was a way for a company to raise capital for its business, for expansion.

And then, good ol' Uncle Sam decided you needed to be prevented from investing in companies, and reserved the rights for the big boys... for your protection, of course. And so, they made all IPOs register with the SEC, file a bunch of paperwork, and force those companies to use a big bank for the IPO, and they decided to give said bank 60% of the IPO.

And so, fewer businesses were built, we the public was safe!

Enter the ICOs -- initial coin offerings are a way to raise funds for new technology companies. They come in 2 flavors. Utility tokens, which the SEC can't claim falls under their jurisdiction, and non-utility tokens which much register with the SEC and go through all the barriers to entry. Or, they can incorporate in a different jurisdiction and say, to hell with it since no one can stop you from sending cryptos across the internet.

ICOs take a lot more research than a regular coin, because you have to make sure the business idea is solid. Is there competition? Are they better than the competition? How good is the management team? And the development team? Do they already have a business in place, and are simply expanding, or is this a brand new business?

Sure, you have to go through a lot of the same questions for the coins, but you can already see their value on Coin Market Cap, and see their history/performance over time, whereas most ICOs are brand new and you have no idea what they're worth.

With that said, here are some ICOs I've invested in, that I believe still have a long way to valuate:

VERI – Veritaseum, Reggie Middleton’s company which is going to bring truth and honesty and transparency to the Stock Markets and other such applications. Clif forecasts its value to be comparable to Bitcoin, eventually. Unsure if it is in market cap or token value, but either way, there’s a long way to value VERI.
SALT – a great buy at current prices (they’ll let you pay for your loan with SALT tokens valued at $27.50, but they’re current price is around $5?)
PLR – Pillar will be the de facto crypto wallet and will eventually guard your privacy, a must buy.
PPT – Populous is an invoice factoring crypto letting the average person invest in these. The tokens are used to buy the invoices. Once the platform goes live the tokens should increase in value, a lot.
PPP – Paypie is similar to PTT but instead of using publicly available information to determine credit worthiness, it’ll use a company’s books.
WILD - this is a gambling token, and they are about to launch their platform this month. Once their games go live and you have to use their token to play/get paid, I expect the value to increase nicely.

Mining Cryptos

This is a whole different ball game and it requires you doing some math and deciding whether the hardware and electrical expense are worth the return. It will change throughout time, and depending on the crypto in question, but I expect it to become more and more popular... just like panning for gold back in the day.

Trading Cryptos

Just like trading the stock market, you can trade cryptos on their high volatility. If you want to embark on this venture, I recommend you get a lot of training on how to read charts, statistical analysis, etc. You also need to educate yourself and about the cryptos you're investing in, to know if they're likely to increase/hold/lose their value.

Scams

BitConnect, USI Tech, and so many others offering fuzzy products like "lending" and other things you can't quite put your finger on, are all scams. There are plenty, and some of them are already being sued, but there are so many ways to escape prosecution.

Just stay away. Even if a trusted person says it's good, do your own due diligence. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you can't identify who the CEO is, or where the headquarters are, then it's probably a scam.

Don't click on links in an e-mail -- always keep a bookmark on your web browser and use it instead. You never know when you're clicking on a phishing link.

Don't call numbers in an e-mail -- if that e-mail is a scam, you may be calling a scam number.

NEVER GIVE YOUR PRIVATE KEY TO ANYONE unless you're ready to hand your cryptos over to them. The same applies to the 12 word mnemonic phrase that Jaxx, Exodus and other wallets give you.

Final Thoughts

Fear and greed drive markets. Don't let them rule you.

Get educated, get informed. That's the only way to survive. Don't be lazy, it's not worth it. The information is widely available.

With that said, I hope you found this useful. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good fortune to you, and as always, thank you for sharing your Light with me.

Download the Tor Browser here - protect your cryptos from hackers and malicious websites.
Sign up for ProtonMail here - protect your crypto related communications from hackers.

Hold your own cryptos -- don't leave them at the exchanges:
Download the Jaxx wallet here.
Download the Exodus wallet here.
(I do recommend you download and install both!)

Convert your worthless fiat into cryptos:
Sign up on Coinbase here, and we both get $10
Sign up for Binance here:
Sign up for Kraken here
Sign up for Gemini here
Sign up for Poloniex here

If you're interested in Liberty, sign up here for your 1776 Tokens.

Or feel free to shower me with cryptos:
Bitcoin: 12Npj8xAAKnf7EJxZStgeecpniE1pbSvcd
Ether: 0x2636538545ebbcea63fd47af1d4fe3e27f5c3936
Dash: XjGWDB7twAHiN9jk3RUmcQRHq6FxvHvYJu
Litecoin: LN4DeZwJDgTbcaXoBXatrGq2JaXVfkMdi5
ZCash: t1fwHkzXfNGCDV19Xq9esWkCRLcCQFcDddN
And Doge, just because it's Doge: D7wuTkhicw2P2vwKx49RXJ9dhVJoXJoKTQ

How can I get started invest in Crypto-currencies?