Convincing an average Nigerian to invest in digital finances has been quite the task in the spent years and the last decade has witnessed many instances that has reinforced the distrust of many in digital economics. Many more have been sidetracked by the very high amounts needed as inputs at the entry points of these digital markets. Many have embraced the reliability of physical goods and fiat currencies over the speculative, volatile nature of digital ‘money’ and for many who in parts have the stomach to take risks and trust the system enough to attempt, the high-end input cost have dissuaded them. The reality of the global economy, with respect to these times; trade wars, pandemic and lockdowns that has crippled economies, recession and the sharp fall in the value of crude oil that has suffered on the livelihood and sustenance of people necessitates the need for an easier entry point.

Further justifying this, sequel to the surge in the values of BTC and subsequently, the profitability and the rates of the dollar against the Naira, that has informed, inspired more and more thousands of investment into the digital currency, there is an increased need from many point of views for subsidies and ease of transaction and trading for easier access, transitioning and the benefit of the common/average man, who would like to buy into the ‘cool” money BTC is positioned to yield.

A common misconception that is generic to new investors and many interested parties in BTC and one of the FAQ’s asked are;

1. How do I make my very first investment in Bitcoin and
2. What is the least amount I can invest in BTC?
3. Do I need up to a million or tens of thousands of Naira to make my first BTC purchase?

Let us answer the questions in reverse.

3. No, you do not need millions, you do not have to invest in cryptocurrency. If you have, however, the same rule of economics applies in cryptocurrency. The higher the investment, the higher the likelihood of better profitability.

2. There’s fantastic news for those who are new to the crypto community: you can buy any fraction of a single bitcoin! And in Nigerian terms, as little as 5k’ (#5000) can buy fractions of BTC. The smallest unit of Bitcoin is called a ‘satoshi.’ It represents one hundred millionth of a bitcoin, or 0.00000001 BTC, and is named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin. These smaller units pave the way for tiny pieces of bitcoin to be obtained, which ensures that in incredibly small denominations you can acquire.

1. Acquiring Bitcoin is not as hard as flying a plane and with a little help or some research, you can put your money safely in a system that assuredly secures a guaranteed percentage yield.

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you understand how to quickly and safely buy small amounts of bitcoin.

i. Smartly select your purchasing platform

You need to carefully pick a trading platform that best suits the transaction when dealing with cryptocurrencies, whether it is buying or selling. Either through a standard exchange or a peer-to-peer network, there are two ways to trade digital currencies.

ii. Periodic transactions vs. peer-to-peer networks

Let’s start with standard crypto-currency exchanges to better understand these two choices. These are the businesses or centralized organizations that receive, purchase and sell orders and match them from individuals. These exchanges will pair you with a trading partner and make it easier for your cryptocurrency or fiat to be converted safely to bitcoin and vice versa.

To allow them to transact directly, these platforms link the buyer with the seller, while the escrow service ensures that the BTC is secure. Third-party arbitrators can participate only if a dispute has been filed. Other than that, no other human intervention in the trade will occur.

iii. Create a digital wallet

Create a digital wallet, with your wallet address and keys safely stored preferably offline for safekeeping. This will serve as your bank for transactions and storage for digital values and assets. You will find recommendations of digital wallet in your research. Choose wisely as this could be the undoing of your investments

iv. Make your purchase

Subsequent to the account and wallet creation, the next thing is the purchase. There are several offers tailored to fit individual preferences and needs. Choose the offer that best fulfill your preference. Find the Bitcoin equivalent of the amount you intend to purchase using Bitcoin calculator tools online, then, proceed to click on the “Buy Bitcoin” button.

Next…

v. Input amount

Enter the amount of bitcoin that you would like to purchase. It’s important to always be aware of the minimum exchange amount when you buy small amounts of bitcoin. From 10 USD, 20 USD, 50 USD, and up, you can go.

vi. Select your currency

Specify the currency for the bitcoin purchase you are using. If you ever forget to indicate one, it will be selected with 99 percent accuracy automatically based on your position.

vii. Choose payment method

Clicking on the “Buy Bitcoin” button will redirect you to a drop-down where you can pick the payment method you want. There are hundreds of types of payment you may choose from. Cash deposits are among the most common via bank transfers; multiple online wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller; iTunes and Amazon gift cards, cash in person; and altcoins such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and many more. Remember that the price of your transaction is influenced by these payment methods. Bank transfers and other traditional types of payment typically have lower fees than the less common ones.

viii. Scout for your desired offer

You can press the ‘Search’ button after completing all the required information. This will guide you to a list of deals on the site that are available. Hundreds and even thousands of deals are available to choose from.

Okay take a breather here. Before you proceed…

ix. Vet every single detail of the transaction

Don’t forget to review every detail and read all the deal terms set by the seller once you’ve found your perfect offer. This will assist you to understand which deal you should comply with. You should click on “Buy” when you are good with the terms and pleased with the bid.

x. Complete the transaction

Clicking “Buy” opens the trade with the chatbox and the instructions. Click the “Mark as Paid” button after completing the trade instructions, submitting all the documents and files required, and the payment. The trade will expire if you do not click this, and bitcoin will be released back to the vendor from escrow.

The trade cannot be canceled by the seller at this stage. At any time, only the buyer can cancel the trade. That’s the only time when the seller’s bitcoin is moved from escrow back to the seller’s wallet if the buyer cancels the transaction.

If followed to the letter, buying Bitcoin with as little as #5000 is just as easy as making purchases up to hundreds of thousands. Now you have no reason not to invest in the future and have your share in the digital economy.

It’s now becoming certain that a significant number of investors are grabbing flagship crypto asset, Bitcoin, for wealth gains, as about 12.6% of Bitcoin supply is held by investors who bought at over a $30,000 price tag.

• Data retrieved from Glassnode reveals 12.6% of the Bitcoin supply (2.3 million BTC) was moved at prices above $30,000.
• This is substantial, given that $BTC crossed $30k just this year. It suggests that investors are injecting capital, and therefore confidence in further price appreciation.

READ: 273,000 Bitcoins taken away from crypto market within a month

12.6% of the #Bitcoin supply (2.3M BTC) was moved at prices above $30,000 USD.

This is substantial, given that $BTC crossed $30k just this year. It suggests investors are injecting capital, and therefore confidence in further price appreciation.

Chart: https://t.co/Q0OZye5SIk pic.twitter.com/mUFA2cRtPw

— glassnode (@glassnode) January 25, 2021

READ: List of Cryptos expected to outperform many financial assets in 2021

Also, the number of addresses holding 1,000 BTC just reached a new all-time high of 2,446.

What this means: Over the last 21 days, 141 new whale addresses with over 1,000 BTC were created, suggesting large entities are expecting a significant price rise for Bitcoin in the near future.

• The total amount of capital inflows into Bitcoin in the past 30 days (as estimated by the realized cap), is as high as the whole $BTC market cap in Sept 2017 and early 2019 at $70 billion USD.
  Bitcoin is seeing the largest depletion of liquidity in years.
• Not only are funds being withdrawn from exchanges, but coins are continuously moving to strong hands.
• In the past 30 days, around 270,000 BTC moved to entities considered HODLers.

READ: Crypto traders suffer heavy losses of $639 million within a day

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $32,208.24 with a daily trading volume of $58.9 billion. It is down 0.50% for the day.

It has a circulating supply of 18,611,475 BTC coins and a max. supply of 21,000,000 BTC coins.

Chainalysis found that although retail traders are responsible for 96% of transactions, professionals move the bulk of the volume.

READ: Why Ethereum is becoming more attractive than Bitcoin

“Retail traders, whom we categorize as those who deposit less than $10,000 USD worth of Bitcoin on exchanges at a time, appear to be the large majority, accounting for 96% of all transfers sent to exchanges on an average weekly basis.

“Professional traders, however, control the liquidity of the market, accounting for 85% of all the USD value of Bitcoin value sent to exchanges,” it said.

READ: 94% of Bitcoin investors are making money

The report continued by stating:

“Bitcoin moving from the investment bucket (or potentially even the lost bucket if the earliest adopters still have their private keys) into the trading bucket could become a crucial source of liquidity.

“However, one would expect this will only happen if Bitcoin’s price rises to a level at which long-term investors are willing to sell.”

Cheers. Here’s to something we all know, maybe most of us but mostly, here’s to something some of us most likely want to deny; “Bitcoin has come to stay” and we must raise our glasses to the doggedness of all and sundry involved in the efforts to complement and consolidate the stability, acceptance, profitability, and growth of BTC world over.

In recent weeks, Bitcoin and holders have enjoyed over 8 percent increase in the prices of Bitcoin world over, justifying the decision to hold on to the digital currency and has, in turn, led to a spike in the acceptance, recognition, and investment of individuals and corporations in the digital currency. Going forward, with teeming interest in Bitcoin, it is imperative to educate enthusiasts and potential investors on and about the story so far and in tandem help inform better decisions as to the future of the ‘gold mine’.

On the surface, one of the many perks of BTC and/or cryptocurrency is the accessibility. Without any middlemen, government officials, monetary economists, and other intermediaries or regulators, such a system can operate. Essentially, Bitcoin is the first successful global peer-to-peer cash implementation that lets everyone, no matter who or where they are, store and exchange value with others.

However, the unregulated use of bitcoin itself and the possibility of leaving a holder legally unprotected should anything go wrong has been one of the major concerns in the global market. Secondly in the eventuality of a hard drive crash, or if a virus corrupts your data and subsequently corrupts the wallet file, Bitcoin held on such wallet will be essentially been “lost” with no way to recovering it. The coins in context will then be forever orphaned in the system, therefore, increasing the chance of bankruptcy for a wealthy Bitcoin investor.

Pros and cons of Bitcoin

Pros

• The most transparent financial system to date is Bitcoin. All over the planet, and where there is no banking system, you can make payments with Bitcoins 24/7.
• With Bitcoins, foreign money transfers can be quicker and cheaper than with conventional banking and services.
• Bitcoin is the only asset ever created that cannot be taken from you by force (if taken proper precautions). Often, BTC transactions are also not censorable, and no one can stop you from performing transactions.
• Bitcoin also has valuable business features, such as multi-signature authorization and accounting transparency. Multi-signature ensures that many individuals need to sign off on an invoice, which provides more security. And the very existence of a blockchain, where all transactions are public, strengthens a company’s transparency.
• Bitcoin is pseudonymous, and without any authentication or credit history, anyone can open their wallet through the internet. In under-banked regions and third world countries, it is particularly beneficial where most individuals are struggling to get access to capital.
• Bitcoins can be spent on a desktop device, cell phone, or debit card in the same way you spend conventional digital money.
• Bitcoins are deflationary, unlike fiat currencies, implying that their value is set to appreciate by default.
• The most portable asset ever produced is Bitcoin, which can be transmitted via satellite or even radio.
• Bitcoin has the most brand awareness, liquidity, the most integrated ecosystem, and most acceptance among numerous retailers and organizations compared to other cryptocurrencies.
• For small fee, regular retail transactions such as buying tea, groceries, or simply tipping someone online, the Lightning Network can be used for this.
• Bitcoin presents a programmable money principle that allows for more financial developments, such as “smart contracts.”
• By providing an alternative to people who mistrust their government, certain institutions, politicians, or simply believe in the power of decentralization, Bitcoin disrupts the monopoly of capital.

Cons

• When things go south, little or no regulatory oversight is needed.
• Despite attempts to allow offline Bitcoin transfers, the use of the currency still depends largely on the availability of the internet.
• As Bitcoin is still in progress, depending on mining efficiency and network congestion, the transaction speed and fees appear to differ.
• Converting Bitcoins to fiat requires payments that are often expensive.
• Bitcoins are not approved by many shops or service providers. The figure is rising, though.
• Bitcoin transactions are immutable, which means there’s no way to bring them back once the money leaves your wallet. While several reputation management tools are being created, the thing with Bitcoin is that there is no “buyer’s protection.” Conversely, since accepting BTC removes the risk of fraudulent chargebacks, it may help merchants.
• Many individuals are not prepared to assume full responsibility for their properties and are unable to safely handle their private keys. Beyond recovery, several private Bitcoin keys have been lost, thereby leading to Bitcoin’s deflation and value appreciation.
• A steep learning curve is given by learning all the latest ins and outs of the Bitcoin ecosystem. In most Bitcoin applications, the user interface is still not foolproof, and the network is not ready to support anyone in the world.
• Securing Bitcoin needs basic knowledge and understanding of cybersecurity. Although the network is practically unhackable, there are organizations and individuals that are trying to hack Bitcoin wallets.
• Bitcoin’s central philosophy goes against the most influential institutions, governments, politics, banks, regulators, and censorship, and before these players can tolerate or approve it, it is likely to face a lot of opposition.

The future we project

According to Coindesk, some economic analysts expect that a big shift in cryptography is coming in January 2021, as institutional capital enters the market. There is also the possibility of floating crypto on the Nasdaq, which will further give prestige as an alternative traditional currency that is powered by the blockchain. Some expect that a regulated trading platform is all that crypto needs.

Any of the restrictions that cryptocurrencies currently face, such as the fact that a computer crash may delete one’s digital fortune, or that a hacker may ransack a virtual vault, may be resolved in time through technological advances. What is more difficult to solve is the underlying paradox of cryptocurrencies the more common they become, the more regulated government scrutiny. They are likely to be drawn, eroding the essential premise of their life.

While the number of merchants embracing cryptocurrencies has risen gradually, they are still very much in the minority. They must first gain widespread acceptance among consumers for cryptocurrencies to become more widely used. However, except for the technologically adept, their relative difficulty compared to traditional currencies would probably discourage most individuals.

A cryptocurrency that aspires to be part of the mainstream financial system may have to follow widely divergent requirements. It will have to be mathematically complex (to deter fraud and hacker attacks) but easy to understand for customers; And maintain user anonymity without becoming a backdoor for tax evasion, money laundering, and other nefarious activities; decentralized yet with sufficient customer protections and security. Since these are enormous requirements to meet, the most common cryptocurrency will probably have attributes in a few years between highly regulated fiat currencies and the cryptocurrency of today? Although that possibility looks distant, there is little doubt that the success (or lack thereof) of Bitcoin in coping with the difficulties it faces as the leading cryptocurrency at present will decide the fortunes of other cryptocurrencies in the years ahead.

It might be wise to handle your ‘investment’ in the same way you would treat any other highly risky enterprise if you are considering investing in cryptocurrencies. In other words, realize that you run the risk of losing the bulk, if not all, of your investment. As previously mentioned, aside from what a buyer is willing to pay for it at a point in time, a cryptocurrency has no intrinsic value and have your share in the digital economy.