I've put together a list of hopefully helpful resources for crypto enthusiasts who have are entering the cryptosphere and starting to get their feet wet with buying, selling, and learning about crypto. I've been aware of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies since ~2013 when I began to see conversations about it on Reddit, but at the time wrote it off as a fringe interest or too complex to get involved with. Giant mistake, in hindsight. C'est la vie.
This is NOT a comprehensive list. Not by a long shot. These are, however, some of my favorite resources that I refer to on occasion. If you see something here you disagree with or you think I've omitted a resource that may be useful, please mention in the comments. I will also mention that I have nothing to gain from writing this. I have no affiliation with any of the organizations listed below.
Exchanges (centralized cryptocurrency purchasing platforms)
Coinbase - Accessible through their app or website. Coinbase is a good place to get your feet wet learning how to purchase cryptocurrency. The interface is simple and straightforward. They offer opportunities for earning free crypto. One caveat is that they charge high fees. Consider making your first purchase here, but don't linger on this specific platform unless you enjoy paying a premium to purchase. Market orders are the only type of purchase supported by Coinbase.
Coinbase Pro - This is the full-featured Coinbase platform. If you sign up for Coinbase then your credentials will grant you access to Coinbase Pro. Despite the Pro moniker, Coinbase Pro is free to use, with no subscription or one-time fee required. Coinbase Pro has lower purchase fees and offers a greater availability of cryptos for purchase. If your Crypto of choice isn't listed on Coinbase, check Coinbase Pro. The Pro platform also grants the ability to place limit orders, a useful feature if there is a specific price at which you wish to purchase or sell.
Binance.us - Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. Binance currently hosts a platform specific to the US market, i.e. Binance.us. If you're unable to find the crypto you want to purchase on Coinbase, try Binance. You can save on fees by purchasing and holding the BNB coin.
Kraken- A US based exchange that touts 24/7 customer support and low fees. You can choose to use their platform through the Kraken Pro app or your computer browser. They have an easy to use, clean interface. Kraken supports both market and limit orders.
FTX.US - Low fees, attractive UI. Web based and mobile app.
Gemini- A US based exchange licensed in New York. Gemini touts their focus on security. They have a mobile app or you can use your browser.
Security
Security needs to be your number one priority. The crypto space is new and mostly unregulated. There's money to be made and plenty of bad actors who want your crypto. These are the easiest steps you can take to secure your crypto.
- Use a password manager and create secure, unique passwords for each account.
- Enable two-factor authentication but DO NOT rely on your phone for receiving 2FA codes. Bad actors can use social engineering to change the SIM card associated with your mobile phone. Use a service like google authenticator, Authy, or freeOTP. An even better option is a physical key like the Yubiko Yubikey.
- Address Whitelisting. At some point you will likely want to move your crypto from the exchange to a secure wallet. Even if you decide not to move your crypto off the exchange, address whitelisting can add an additional measure of protection. When address whitelisting is enabled, the exchange will permit withdraw of your coins ONLY to the verified addresses listed in your address book. There's often a set waiting period of 24-48 hours after adding an address to your whitelist. This allows you time to review changes to your address book if, for example, your exchange account is hacked and a bad actor attempts to add their wallet address to your address book. Whitelisting is also useful in minimizing copy/paste or transcription errors when transferring coins. Once your wallet address is whitelisted, you can perform a small transfer as a test to make sure you've entered it correctly. Hereafter you won't be required to copy/paste the address from your wallet to the exchange transaction page.
- Custom email headers are useful for reducing the chance of falling victim to a phishing scam. You will select this option on the exchange security page and enter your own customized header word or phrase. This word will appear in the header of all email communications from the exchange to verify that the communication is legitimate.
- Don't use public WiFi for anything crypto related.
- Don't use the exchange apps to track your gains/losses.
- Don't do anything crypto related on shared devices.
- Write down your seed phrases and keep them secure.
- Don't print out your seed phrases or store them on any digital device. Ever. Never ever.
- Never share your seed phrase or private keys with anyone, ever, for any reason.
Staking
Staking is a method for earning passive income with coins that utilize the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. The short of it is that networks want coin holders to stake their coins because it increases the security of the network. When you stake your coins, and enhance network security, you are rewarded with more coins at a (usually) variable annual percentage yield (APY), i.e. interest rate. The rough analogy is earning interest on dollars in your savings account. However, when you stake your coins your rewards are paid in crypto rather than dollars. For example, if I stake Cardano ADA, my rewards will be paid in ADA.
The method of staking, APY, cooldown period, withdraw restriction, etc. will all be determined by the respective blockchain rules. Some blockchains, like Algorand, have simple and straightforward rules. Algorand holders automatically generate staking rewards by holding ALGO in their wallet. There is no need to delegate ALGO for staking and no need to claim rewards. Rewards are granted automatically.
Other blockchains, like Cardano, have more complex staking rules. This infographic explains the process far better than I can. You can see that there is a 20 day waiting period after staking before you receive your first rewards. Don't freak out when you don't see your rewards after the first week.
When in doubt, visit the official blockchain website for staking rules. Most blockchain projects also have subreddits that can be a helpful resource.
It should be noted that Ethereum is a special case, in terms of staking. Ethereum is a proof of work blockchain with plans to transition to proof of work blockchain (Ethereum 2.0) at a yet undetermined date. It could be late 2021 or 2022. There's no certainty. ETH holders can stake their ETH in some places, e.g. Coinbase, but you will be unable to withdraw your ETH until after the transition to PoS. This has both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are earning yield on your ETH and more or less being forced to hodl, regardless of price action. Paper hands take note. The disadvantages are that your ETH will be locked up for an unknown period of time, so if you believe you may need to sell for fiat or sell to take profits, you will not want to stake. There's also the risk that the PoW -> PoS transition could be unsuccessful or hit a major complication, which could cause the price of ETH to drop dramatically.
Cryptocurrency Wallets
You have a number of options for storing your cryptocurrency. Wallets can broadly be categorized as custodial and non-custodial. Custody refers to the agent who holds and controls your private keys. A private key is your proof of ownership for your coins or tokens and grants you permissions to spend them.
Custodial wallets store your private keys on centralized servers. You do not control your keys and you do not have access to them. You rely on the custodian to keep your private keys safe and secure. The advantage of custodial wallets is that you can restore access to your account in the event of a lost password. Custodial wallets, however, are susceptible to hacker attacks. There is a risk of losing your crypto. E.g. MtGox and Blockchain.info were both hacked and users lost hundreds (thousands?) of bitcoins.
Non-custodial wallets store your encrypted private keys on your device. You have full control and access to your private keys. If you lose the device (e.g. phone) containing your non-custodial wallet, then you can restore your wallet and private keys using a mnemonic seed phrase. The seed phrase is a string of 12-25 words that will restore your wallet when entered. Word order is important.
If you want to read more about wallets, /u/niehle recently wrote an excellent primer here.
Hardware (the gold standard for security)
Hardware wallets are the gold standard for security. They are non-custodial wallets which work with multiple blockchains and allow you to restore assets with a single seed phrase. Hardware wallets connect to your device via USB or bluetooth when you want to make a deposit or withdrawal. It's important to understand that the hardware wallet doesn't actually store your coins; they reside on the blockchain. Your hardware wallet stores your private keys and your private keys are protected by a PIN, sometimes a phrase. This prevents your funds from being accessed in the event that you lose your wallet. Trezor and Ledger are the two industry leaders for hardware wallets. It is important to always purchase hardware wallets directly from the manufacturer. Buying from Amazon, eBay, etc can put you at risk of using a corrupted wallet.
Ledger- Seems to be the most popular option and offers two models: Nano S and Nano X. Coin options are more limited with the Nano S, but is a good option if you don't own many altcoins. See link for models comparison. Do note that Ledger exposed 270,000 customers' personal data to hackers in July 2020. Specifically names, emails, home addresses, and phone numbers were leaked. This leaves those customers highly susceptible to phishing attacks. See above for importance of custom email headers.
Trezor- Second runner up for hardware wallets. Trezor makes two models; Trezor One and Trezor Model T. Trezor has the advantage of Ledger in terms of screen size and supporting more cryptocurrencies, although they recently stated that they are not considering addition of new coins/tokens (probably needs to be confirmed).
Non-Custodial Wallets
Coinbase Wallet - A non-custodial mobile app wallet which can be linked to your Coinbase exchange account. Mentioned because this may be the easiest option for new crypto traders who get their feet wet buying with Coinbase. Supports BTC, LTC, XLM, DOGE, and all ERC-20 tokens. Does not support staking in wallet. In-app DEX support and NFT support.
Exodus- Offers both computer and mobile apps. Exodus can be used with your Trezor wallet, has responsive customer support (see their subreddit) and offers support for over a hundred cryptocurrencies. You are also able to stake some cryptos within the Exodus wallet, including: ADA, SOL, ALGO, VET, ATOM, etc. Also offers an in-wallet exchange, but the minimum exchange amounts and fees are high. You're paying for convenience with this feature.
Atomic Wallet - Supports a large number of coins and tokens. Allows staking of a large number of coins with attractive interest rates.
Trust Wallet - Supports a huge number of assets. Staking available for a limited number of coins. DAPP support in-app.
Metamask - A popular browser and app wallet that supports a large number of coins including all ERC-20 tokens. It is compatible for use with Ledger hardware wallets. This wallet can be bridged to the polygon network and is very popular with DeFi users. Note that the browser extension has a number of permissions that some consider risky. If you use Brave browser, you can limit this wallet extension's access to websites only when you click on the extension.
Custodial Wallets and Services
Why would you use any of these services considering 1) they hold your private keys 2) there are myriad options for excellent non-custodial wallets? Earnings potential. For starters, proof of work coins, like bitcoin, cannot be staked so you are unable to earn interest from those in your non-custodial wallet. (I'm excluding DeFi liquidity farming here).
Many of these services earning money by lending your crypto to institutions, similar to conventional banking. You deposit an asset, like BTC, and earn interest at a variable APY. A particularly attractive option if earning interest on stablecoins like USDC, USDT, or GUSD. Very simply, stablecoins are crypto assets linked to fiat currency, e.g. the US dollar. They very best stablecoins have 1:1 backing and do not vary significantly from their matched asset. Why is this an attractive option? Many of the services listed below offer excellent interest rates on stablecoins. Where your "high yield" savings account may offer 0.4% on USD deposits, the services below currency offer >10% APY on stablecoin deposits. Meaning if you have a liquid USD emergency fund sitting in the bank, you can move a portion to stablecoins and stop losing money to inflation.
If you want to read a comprehensive analysis of the revenue models and security for the institutions below, see Steve Sokolowski's report here.
Ledn.io - In terms of security, Ledn is the most attractive option for interest earnings on stablecoin and BTC. Ledn is backed by Genesis, a juggernaut in crypto lending. Ledn is transparent and undergoes proof of reserves attestations semi-annually.
BlockFi- Probably the industry leader by name recognition. BlockFi offers more currency options than Ledn, including ETH. They security is not as good - you may be familiar with a recent snafu where they mistakenly deposited BTC into user accounts and then allowed users to withdraw that BTC, which rightfully did not belong to them.
Celsius- Offers interest rates higher than many competitors and supports a large number of coins. Reportedly poor customer service, though I can't personally attest to this. Somewhat riskier business model that Ledn and BlockFi.
Nexo - Similar to Celsius in business model. Also offers attractive interest rates and supports a large number of assets.
Portfolio Tracking and Coin Performance
As mentioned above, you don't want to open your preferred exchange app to watch the progress of your crypto purchases. Consider using one of the services below to create a portfolio for tracking your profits losses. Some of these services offer an option to connect your exchange accounts for automated portfolio tracking. I can't in good conscience recommend that. Enter your transactions manually and consider reducing every entry by an order of magnitude to obfuscate your actual holdings.
CoinMarketCap- Accessible through browser or their app. An excellent resource for price tracking and coin education.
CoinGecko- Very similar to CoinMarketCap. Offers some coin performance metrics not available on CoinMarketCap.
Coin Codex - Haven't used this one personally, but they do offer portfolio tracking and real time prices.
Trading View - Useful if you want to do your own technical analysis.
Prices.Org - Crypto news, prices, and market insights.
Crypto Edutainment
There are seemingly inexhaustible resources for crypto education and entertainment. These are the content providers I favor.
YouTube
Coin Bureau - Hosted by a guy named Guy. Coin Bureau delivers excellent content about specific coins and status of the crypto market. Probably my favorite crypto focused YouTube channel. (Note that as of this post Coin Bureau is locked out of their YouTube account)
Benjamin Cowen - One of the best YouTube channels for technical analysis.
Rekt Capital - Another great channel for technical analysis.
Lark Davis - Good content creator. Has some useful how-to videos that can be good resources for beginners.
Podcasts
Bankless - An excellent podcast and YouTube channel. Bankless discusses the current state of crypto and hosts interesting guests. One of my favorites.
Unchained - Hosted by journalist Laura Chin, one of the first cryptocurrency journalists.
Lex Fridman Podcast - Not a crypto specific podcast, but Lex does interview cryptographers like Silvio Micali (ALGO), Vitalik Buterin (ETH), and Charles Hoskinson (ADA). Excellent long format interviews.
Decrypt Daily - Host Matt Diemer covers crypto news, prices, and hosts guests from the cryptosphere.
Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) - see above
Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) - see above
Whale Alert (@whale_alert) - Useful for seeing what crypto whales are buying and selling.
Sam Bankman-Fried (@SBF_Alameda) - CEO of FTX and Alameda research.
Srinath Hariharan (@srinathariharan) - Has some good breakdowns of specific coins.
J.Li. (@FibonaccLi)- Interesting market insights and breakdowns.
Other Crypto Tools and Resources
The Coin Perspective - Useful tool for estimating coin price by market cap.
Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow Model - A model which attempts to predict bitcoin price based on current number of coins in circulation and the rate of production through mining.
Bitcoin Rainbow Chart - Plots historic price movement and overlays price category bands to help visualize buying/selling opportunities.
Ethereum Rainbow Chart - Similar to the bitcoin rainbow chart.
Bitcoin Dominance - Tracks bitcoin market cap share of the entire crypto market cap.
Bitcoin Dominance Index - Bitcoin dominance among proof of work coins only.
Glassnode Insights - Market news, analysis, and on-chain insights.
Congrats if you've made it this far. I hope you found something of use here. If there are crypto resources you find helpful then please share them in the comments section.
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