Welcome to my Coinbase Pro review.

In this review I will be going over everything that you need to know before deciding whether or not to use this cryptocurrency exchange. I will be giving a brief tour inside the exchange, giving details about trading, withdrawals/deposits, going over the fees, security, support, and more. And if you are wondering if Coinbase Pro is a scam the answer is No.

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Coinbase Pro Review

Coinbase Pro (located at pro.coinbase.com) is basically a new version of GDAX, which is a cryptocurrency exchange and by Coinbase and was basically there more professionally designed exchange compared to the regular old Coinbase exchange.

Coinbase Pro is a good cryptocurrency exchange if you are looking to actively trade and avoid high fees, all while being able to feel safe and trust that your funds are in good hands.

On this exchange you have the ability to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin back and forth with USD, EUR, and GBP. The ability to trade cryptocurrency with fiat money, such as USD, is one of the reasons why this will be used. In addition to be able to trade back and forth with fiat money and cryptocurrency, you can also deposit and withdraw fiat money to and from your account. Because of this, it is a good exchange to “onboard” into cryptocurrency, meaning to buy cryptocurrency for the first time with fiat money, and of course it’s also a great way to cash out.

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A Look Inside The Exchange

After you create your account and log into the exchange you will see this interface in which there are three main areas: there is the section in the top left where you can with draw or deposit funds, there is the section in the bottom left where you can make trades, and then the large portion in the center consists of a price chart and an order book which you can use to zero in on good trading opportunities.

The price chart in the order book are pretty basic. There are a couple different overlays that you can put over top of the price chart to analyze the market, but there really is not much here if you really rely on technical analysis.

You also have the option of selecting the Trade History and the Depth Chart which is nice. So you will be able to see the most recent trades to hopefully get an idea of where the price might be going and you will be able to get a nice visual representation of what the order book is looking like with the depth chart.

Setting Trades

Setting trades is very simple and straightforward. You will be able to select what currency you are looking to buy or sell, choose whether you want to set a Market, Limit, or Stop order, enter the amount and make the trade.

When you enter in the amount you’re willing to spend it will automatically calculate the total amount of currency you will be buying for this amount along with the fee. As you can see below, just as an example, I entered in to buy $500 dollars worth of Bitcoin and it shows me that I will receive .06622508 of BTC and that this trade will incur a fee of $1.50.

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A Look at The Trading Fees

If you are using the regular Coinbase exchange and are looking for an alternative with much lower fees, then Coinbase Pro is a great way to go. The fees here are minimal and almost unnoticeable.

When it comes to placing trades in the order book there are two different kinds of traders, makers and takers. A maker is someone who places an original trade in the order book and a taker is another trader comes along and takes that trade. This isn’t anything you need to know, so if it is confusing don’t worry about it.

Just know that they charge 0% maker fees and between 0.3 – 0.1% taker fees. So at most you’ll be getting charged a 0.3% fee, which is very small, and some of the times you will not be getting charged any fee.

The taker fee varies depending on how much trading volume you have for the month. If you have under a $10 million trading volume in the past 30 days then you will be charged the 0.3% taker fee, and if you are above this volume then the fees are as follows…

• $0 – $10 mil Trading Volume = 0.3%
• $10 mil – $100 mil Trading Volume = 0.2%
• $100 mil + Trading Volume = 0.1%

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Deposits/ Withdrawals

If you are depositing/withdrawing cryptocurrency then the process is simple… you get your own wallet address for whichever cryptocurrency you are sending and you send it there. But for depositing/withdrawing fiat money (USD, EUR, GBP) its a bit more complicated but still pretty easy.

3 Options For Depositing Fiat Money

• Bank Transfer – This is my option of choice when depositing money. Before you can do a bank transfer you will have to verify your bank account with Coinbase, but that is easy. After that depositing money is very simple and there is no fee for doing so which is great. However there is a $25,000 limit per week, which some people may run into.
• Wire Transfer – Wire transfers or for those who are depositing massive amounts of money on a weekly basis. There is a $10 fee that will be charged for deposits, but I’m guessing this really won’t matter since the amount you’re probably depositing if you use this method is massive.
• Coinbase Account Tranfer – If you already have a normal Coinbase account then you can also transfer fiat money from there into your Coinbase Pro account.

Withdrawing

• Withdrawal to Bank Account – Just as you can deposit money from your bank account you can also withdraw money from your Coinbase Pro account back into your bank. There is no fee for this.
• Withdrawal to Coinbase USD/EUR/GBP Account – And of course you can also withdraw your fiat funds back into your normal Coinbase account if you choose.

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Security

One of the great things about Coinbase Pro is the level of security that they offer. Coinbase Pro is owned by Coinbase (of course) and they offer the same level of security and protection.

One of the things that they do is make good use of cold storage. Cold storage is when you store cryptocurrency off-line which makes it un-hackable. On their website they state that they hold less than 2% of all crypto funds online. So even if they were to suffer a massive hack they would not lose much of customers’ funds.

And if you live in the US you also are protected by the FDIC. They do not insure your cryptocurrency holdings, but they do insure your USD holdings up to $250,000. If you live outside of the United States and are not a US citizen then you are out of luck here unfortunately. However, I wouldn’t worry too much because Coinbase has never been hacked.

One thing that is important to note is that Coinbase Pro’s insurance policy does not protect your personal account. If you are lazy and leave your personal account’s password laying around and someone finds it, logs in, and steals all your funds, Coinbase is not responsible. That said, they do provide you the ability to keep your account very secure.

Personal Account Security

Everyone nowadays should know that a strong password is a must. The longer and the more random the better. If I were you I would shoot for over 15 characters at a bare minimum.

In addition to your password you also have 2 Factor Authentication, or 2FA. This is when you are provided with an additional code on your mobile phone that you have to enter before logging in or withdrawing funds. This is an added layer of security that makes it much more difficult for a hacker to get into your account.

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Customer Support

One thing that I really praise Coinbase for is their level of support. I have been using them for years and a while ago when I first started using them their support was pretty poor. It was hard getting in contact with them and getting good answers to questions and fast solutions to problems. However, nowadays, they do an amazing job.

Not only do they provide support online where you can submit tickets to them and receive answers via email, but they also provide live phone support. If you ever need it you can find their phone support number on the official website. Do not use phone numbers listed on other sites because there are scammers out there that are just looking to get enough information to hack into your account. So make sure you are talking with real Coinbase Pro representatives and know that they will never ask for account details such as passwords.

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Is Coinbase Pro Worth Using?

I am a big fan of Coinbase Pro and I do recommend it as an exchange, however it is not great for everyone. There are downsides to it.

The Downsides

For one, not everyone can join as a member. This exchange is not open to every single country in the world, so some people don’t even have the option of using it.

In the major other downside is that they simply do not offer all that many trading pairs. You have Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin along with the fiat currencies USD, EUR, and GBP, but that’s it. It is a great exchange for trading between these currencies but there just aren’t all that many options.

If you are looking to trade hundreds of cryptocurrency pairs then exchanges like Bittrex, Binance, etc. are better options. However with many of these other exchanges you are not able to deposit and withdraw fiat money.

Some Downsides But Still Worth Using

If Coinbase Pro is available in your country and you are looking to trade currency pairs that they do have available, then it is an excellent choice. You can’t find a more trustworthy exchange anywhere and the fees are great.

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Final Thoughts

Overall, as I said in the beginning, I’m a big fan of this exchange, just as I am GDAX, which this basically is. It offers a safe and easy way to buy into cryptocurrency and to sell back out of cryptocurrency, which is what I use it for. I’ll be honest, I don’t really actively trade on this exchange, but you definitely can if you want to.

The exchange is extremely cheap to use when compared to the normal Coinbase exchange, the user interface is a bit more complicated but increases your ability to analyze what’s going on and make better trades, and they offer a level of security that the majority of exchanges out there do not.

Coinbase Pro might not be the exchange you are looking for but it is still a good trustworthy exchange to use.

Anyway… That’s all I have for you here in this review. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please leave them below and I’ll be back to you as soon as I can 🙂

The XYO Network has been receiving a lot of attention recently and I have been seeing a lot of people questioning the legitimacy of it. Is XYO Network a scam that you should be avoiding or is this going to be the next big thing? Should you be buying XYO tokens or is this just another opportunity that is going to be a waste of your money?

In this review I will be going over what you need to know.… Such as what the XYO Network is, how it works, the future outlook and more.

What Is The XYO Network?

XYO Network is the  first “crypto location oracle network”. But what the heck does this mean? It means that the network uses location based signals that smart contracts can gather data from in the real world.

The network specializes in “findable technology” and communicating among devices. Basically what they do is bring location-based technology to the blockchain. They produce small GPS and Bluetooth tracking devices that can be used to track anything all over the world and the network is kept up to date in a decentralized manner with devices of the network communicating with one another.

The network is kept trustworthy and accurate by what they call “proof of origin” which cryptographically guarantees that the location information being relayed is accurate along the entire network. Detailed information on this can be found in their whitepaper.

Some Real World Examples:

So for example, e-commerce is a growing industry that will likely make good use of this technology. E-commerce vendors will be able to place these a small XYO tracking devices on shipments so that you buyers can track and find out exactly where there packages are in real time.

And there are many other applications for such findable technology. With the growing number of autonomous vehicles that need to know the exact coordinates of other vehicles to avoid collisions, this could grow in use and there is definitely a market for it.

How The Network Works

There are four different components that hold the network together.

1) Sentinels – These are the actual tracking devices. They consist of GPS trackers and Bluetooth trackers (and in the future will also consist of satellite trackers). They tell where something is that and can take “selfies” with others around.

2) Bridge – The bridge takes entries from the sentinels and forwards them to the archivists. This is what connects the two, which is why it’s called a bridge. The crypto location miners come into play because they are what power the process basically.

3) Archivists – smart phone could be both a bridge and a centinole – has wifi to connect to archives and can connect with other phones

4) Diviner – The diviners are what analyze the data and provide answers to location questions. When there is a question on one of the blockchains they pulled the relevant data, find the answer, and reported back to the smart contract.

The network is kept running by crypto location miners. The miners consist of devices that run software for the network to keep archives up-to-date. Miners could be a smart phone, a computer, a PS4, etc. If you are tracking in e-commerce shipment that uses the XYO Network’s tracking technology, your packages location might be kept up-to-date by someone driving nearby the delivery vehicle with the mining software installed on their smart phone… Just one of many examples.

The Tokens

The XYO tokens are what you call ERC 20 tokens, meaning that they run on the Ethereum blockchain and meet the standards of ERC 20, which is the standard that pretty much every token on Ethereum’s network goes by.

These tokens are used as incentive to help keep the network running. Users are rewarded when they run miners and help provide location information with the proof of origin algorithm.

Future Plans

The team behind the XYO Network has some pretty large goals they are set out to accomplish, one of which being low orbit satellites. Right now they have GPS and Bluetooth sentinels that provide location tracking for the network, but the low orbiting satellites that they plan to launch are going to be a massive step forward in providing fast and efficient location tracking across the world.

When it comes to the blockchain tech team behind it all they are also up to par and even have top profile advisers such as the bitcoin legend Charlie Shrem on-board.

And besides what the team is doing, you also have to think about the future of the location tracking industry in general. As I mentioned earlier, the increase in e-commerce and autonomous vehicles are going to bring about an increased need for trust-less location tracking which the blockchain based XYO Network can provide.

Final Thoughts

Overall this seems like a good project and is definitely not a scam in any way. It is nice to see new blockchain projects such as this one bringing blockchain to the real world. This project has real-world application which means it will have real value. The tokens will actually be worth something.

However, you can never predict the future you no matter how good something looks you never really know how it’s going to turn out. I am going to be keeping my eye on this one.

As always, leave any questions or comments that you may have below. I know there is a lot more to the XYO Network that I did not cover, so if you are looking for more information feel free to leave one below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Indacoin is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to purchase various cryptocurrencies with Visa and MasterCard. But is this exchange worth your time and money? Or is Indacoin a scam that is just going to rip you off in one way or another?

I have been seeing this question asked a lot lately so I’m finally getting around to writing this review on it. I’ll get straight to the point here and tell you that No, Indacoin is not a scam. HOWEVER… If you do purchase through the site you will be paying very high fees which you might not be aware of, which is the reason most people were calling this place a scam.

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Indacoin Review

Indacoin is very similar to the Changelly exchange, if you’re familiar with this place. On this exchange you are able to easily purchase cryptocurrency with Visa/Mastercard bank cards, which makes things easier for most people.

On Indacoin when you purchase cryptocurrency with a Visa or MasterCard you can have it sent directly to your wallet somewhere else. There will also be a box you can check to create a wallet on the Indacoin exchange if you do not already have a wallet. This is nice because of course if you don’t have a wallet you can create one for free when you purchase your cryptocurrency and if you do have a wallet that you are planning on storing your cryptocurrency and you will be able to send it directly there during the buying process.

One of the big upsides to using the Indacoin exchange is that they do not require account verification like many other exchanges. You do not have to wait for days or maybe even weeks to be verify before you can use exchange. Anyone can go on and purchase cryptocurrency in a pretty short period of time, hopefully within an hour even if you have never use the exchange before. You are required to verify your bank card but this is simple, as I will go over.

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The Buying Process

The buying process is pretty simple and self-explanatory as you go through it so I’m not going to go into great detail here, but here is a brief step-by-step outline of how you go about doing it:

1) Create Your Order

The first thing you will have to do of course is create your order. You will be able to enter the amount of money you are looking to spend and it will automatically calculate the cryptocurrency you will receive, or vice versa.

2) Enter Your Payment Info

Up you will enter your payment information from your Visa or MasterCard.

3) Enter Contact Details

Here you will enter contact details… Pretty straightforward stuff. You are going to need your phone for for this.

4) Verify Ownership

To verify ownership you will have to show that you do in fact own the card that you are placing the payment with. You can easily do this by using the video verification on Indacoin and holding up the bank card and a passport beside your face to prove that it is you and that you do own the card.

You will also have to verify your card by viewing your online statement and entering a three digit code.

5) Confirm

Lastly you will confirm everything and go through some final steps.

Limits On Orders

Indacoin has strict limits on how large of orders you are able to place. If it is your first time purchasing on this exchange with a certain bank card then you will be limited to a $100 transaction, but it must be more than 30. On the second and third transaction you are also limited.…

• 1st Transaction – $30 – $100
• 2nd Transaction – $200 limit (can be made in 4 days)
• 3rd Transaction – $500 limit (can be made in 7 days)

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The Downside…. MASSIVE Fees!

The fees are what most people are complaining about and the reason for many of the people calling this place a scam. If you are buying cryptocurrency on this exchange you might not even be aware of the fees because they are not very upfront about them. They claim that there are “no hidden charges” on this exchange but this is debatable.

What they do is basically jack up the price of whichever cryptocurrency you are going to purchase. So all you really see is the amount of cryptocurrency you will receive but it will not say anything about the fees that are included in this amount.

For example, right now on Indacoin here are the amounts of Bitcoin you will receive based on paying $30, $100, $250, or $500 (USD)…

As you can see from this example of a show you that if you buy $30 worth of Bitcoin you will receive 0.0027 BTC. There is no mention of any fees or anything like that. But when you do the math you will find that the prices they are charging are extremely high.

Of course the numbers are probably going to be much different when you are reading this because of the volatility of cryptocurrency prices, but as I am writing this Bitcoin’s current price is listed at $9,096 on CoinMarketCap. I did the math and if they were selling Bitcoin to you at this price you should receive 0.0033 BTC instead of only 0.0027. This is a 19% difference, which means that they are charging 19% fees… Pretty darn high if you ask me.

I also did the math if you were to spend $100, $250, or $500, and you are charge the same 19% fee with everything.

This is the problem. This is the reason so many people were calling them a scam. It would be nice if they would make it obvious and well known what their fees are but they pretty much hide them in the price so you don’t really know what they are and less you do the math like I just did.

I have even read over some complaints on review sites such as TrustPilot of people claiming that they paid 30% fees. So maybe the fees will vary or something but the point is that the fees are extremely high.

I was reading over a response that the Indacoin support team gave to someone where they stated that their fees are usually around 10% but can be higher or lower than this depending on the market and other variables. A 10% fee honestly wouldn’t be all that crazy when it comes to purchasing crypto with bankcards, although it is still pretty darn high, but anything over that is just ridiculous.

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How Is The Support?

When reviewing cryptocurrency exchanges I always make it a point to talk about the support provided. When it comes to the world of crypto there are all sorts of problems that you hear about and not having support to help fix problems can be a disaster.

Luckily Indacoin has some pretty darn good support on their side. I have read too many reviews talking about how the customer service is good and I do know that they have live chat support which can be very helpful and is great to see.

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My Overall Opinion of Indacoin

When it comes to the layout of the exchange I like what I see. It is very simple and straightforward so that anyone should be able to go on their and purchase cryptocurrency. It reminds me very much of Changelly.

The fees are the only problem that I can see. Other than that everything looks fine to me. I mean of course they are going to have to charge some fees to make a profit and stay in business, but fees of 20%? And some people claiming that they have been charged 30% fees??? Come on now… Do they really have to charge that much?

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Conclusion on Indacoin – Is It Worth Using?

If you are thinking about using this exchange I would first do a few simple calculations to see how much the fees are going to be that you will have to pay. If they are ridiculous then I would avoid it but, like I said, these seem to vary a good bit.

If the fees aren’t too bad and you are new to the whole cryptocurrency world then Indacoin does seem to be a good choice. They are very easy to use, offer good support, and I like how you are able to send cryptocurrency directly to another wallet or create a wallet on the exchange.

I also recognize that many people are using Indacoin because they did not have many options in their country. Some of my top recommended exchanges for purchasing cryptocurrency with fiat money (USD, EUR, GBP), like Coinbase and GDAX, are not available everywhere. So some of you reading this may be looking into Indacoin just because there are not many options for you. In this case I would say you do not have to worry about being scammed, just be sure to figure out the fees you are being charged before confirming your purchase.

I would also suggest looking into Changelly, which as I said is very similar to Indacoin, as well as peer to peer exchanges such as Paxful and LocalBitcoins. I would definitely suggest looking into Changelly first though because with peer to peer exchanges you are usually ripped off pretty bad when it comes to price.

But anyway… Indacoin is a decent exchanges just yet to be careful with the fees.

Please leave any questions, comments, or concerns below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

I have been seeing a lot of people questioning the legitimacy of CCG Mining lately so that is what I want to address in this review. Is this place the real deal? Is it legitimate? Or is CCG Mining a scam that you should avoid?

These are important questions that need to be answered before you buy into any of it. There are so many scams out there in the realm of cryptocurrency that it can be difficult at times to see through all the BS and find what is real versus fake. And of course the fact that there have been a lot of cryptocurrency mining scams in particular means that you should proceed with caution when looking into any cryptocurrency mining program.

In this review I will be going over what CCG Mining is, how it works, the cost, a look at the team behind it, pyramid scheme concerns and more.

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What Is CCG Mining?

CCG Mining is a cloud mining service that is headquartered in Poland but also has branches in four other countries throughout Eastern Europe. If you are familiar with HashFlare or Gemini mining then you probably already know what is going on here but for those who do not this is the service they provide in a nutshell:

Basically CCG Mining is a big mining operation that allows anyone to buy into it. Mining can be very costly if you’re looking to do it as an individual and unless you have the technical know-how it can be very complicated as well, which is why many people opt to buy into mining pools. What CCG Mining allows people to do is basically rent a share of their mining equipment. So what you would do is pay money to rent a certain amount of hashing power and you would earn from the mining proceeds made by that portion.

Anyway it’s kind of like investing in stocks that pay out dividends. You invest in the company which in turn helps that company develop and grow. And because you are invested you get paid a portion of their profits. It’s pretty much the same type of deal here.

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A Look at The Costs

The costs will vary a lot depending on what type of cryptocurrency you are looking to mine and how much cash power you want to buy, or rather rent.

Currently as I’m writing this CCG Mining is involved in mining BTC, ETH, ZCash, Monero, Dash, LTC, and LBRY. If you go to BTC for example, you are able to choose from four different packages including…

• Mini – $14.99 – 100GH/s
• Starter – $49.99 – 400GH/s
• Advanced – $418.99 – 3,500GH/s
• Pro – $2,959.99 – 25,000GH/s

Of these prices will give you the specified amount of hashing power 24/7 for one year. In addition they also have “unlimited contract” options that you can choose.

Because mining differs a good bit between the cryptocurrencies offered you will see large differences in the price and hashing powers associated with those prices.

By looking at the prices alone nothing seems to stand out as a red flag that would signal this is a scam. Prices are not overinflated and seemed to be in the normal range for this industry.

*They also sell mining rigs if you would want to set up your own mining rig on your own. These can get very expensive and are only for people who are very serious about this.

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The Team Behind It All

One thing that you always want to look into when thinking about getting involved in something like this is the team behind it all. Of course you have to look at the people who created all. If it was created by a scammer then there is a good chance it might be a scam and you’d want to avoid something like this.

In CCG Mining’s case everything seems to check out. On their website they provide pictures of everyone on the team. They also provide links to their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles which is nice because you can get to know them a little better and see if they are people you can trust.

I did notice that some of the links to the team members’ Facebook profiles did not work but I am not too concerned about this. I was able to view their LinkedIn profiles and from what I can tell everything seems legitimate. Now I did not spend hours of time diving deep into the background of every person here but based on a bit of research on my part there is nothing concerning to see.

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Any Pyramid Scheme Concerns?

One of the major concerns with cloud mining services like this is that they might possibly be pyramid schemes. There are a heck of a lot of pyramid schemes in the cloud mining space that claim to be providing profits from their mining operations but really they are just a big cycle of money changing hands where they pay off older investors from the investments of newcomers, and they really are not involved in mining at all.

Now CCG Mining does have an affiliate program where you can get paid to get other people to buy into this, but there is nothing wrong with this. Yes, every pyramid scheme out there will pay people to recruit others in and this may leave a bad taste in your mouth, but there are many legitimate companies that pay affiliate commissions as well.

CCG Mining is only paying 6% affiliate commissions anyhow, which really isn’t all that much. This is not like the bold claims you will see from pyramid schemes that will pay out large commissions multiple levels down.

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Proof of Operations

Something that is very nice to see is that CCG shows proof of their operations. This is the type of thing that you will not see with scams and pretty much proves that they are not a scam.

Now of course everything could have been staged and it could be a very elaborate and well-funded scam, but I just do not see any reason to believe that it is.

Below is a video I came across, which is on their site, where they show you one of their largest mining operations…

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Conclusion on CCG Mining – Legitimate

Everything about CCG checks off as being legitimate. Their website is well-made, they provide a fair amount of information about the company itself, they provide information on the individual team members, their affiliate program does not provide insanely high commissions, they provide proof of operations, and their prices are not over-inflated.

Of course I always suggest doing your own research but based on what I see this place is not a scam in any way.

That said, you should really think about what you’re getting into before purchasing a cloud mining contract. And I’m not talking about potential profits here… I’m talking about damage and destruction. I for one will not be getting involved in any mining because I find it to be one of the most absolutely ridiculously wasteful and harmful industries that exists. I already wrote a post about bitcoin mining and how stupid it is, but the same goes with all cryptocurrency mining. It wastes an insane amount of electricity and is just ludicrous to even think that a cryptocurrency that uses this sort of POW protocol can possibly become realistically usable.

So just think about what you’re getting into and the potential devastation and impact that this business could have. Think about something other than the money. If I wanted to make money I could promote the heck out of this CCG Mining opportunity but I am not because of the impact this kind of stuff has.

But anyway, leave any comments, questions, or concerns below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Is Gemini better than Coinbase? Maybe you are new to cryptocurrency and looking to make a purchase for the first time or maybe you are a Coinbase user looking for a better exchange, and thinking that Gemini is it. No matter what the reason it doesn’t matter. I will be answering the question in this short post but what you should know is that the answer is not as straightforward as just Yes or No. It depends in what you are looking for in an exchange and your situation.

For the majority of people out there Gemini is going to be a better choice than Coinbase, but there are some reasons that you might want to use Coinbase instead. In this comparison I will be going over the similarities, differences, going in-depth on the fees you will be charged, and giving my opinion of which is better to use for particular people.

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Gemini vs Coinbase

Both Gemini and Coinbase give users the ability to buy cryptocurrency with regular old money, such as USD and EUR. On the flipside users are also able to sell cryptocurrency back into regular money and then transfer into their bank accounts. This is what makes these two exchanges so popular because many of the exchanges out there do not deal with fiat money.

On both exchanges you can buy Bitcoin and Ethereum, but Coinbase offers Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin as well which Gemini does not. Once you have purchased cryptocurrency on either of these exchanges it will be held in your wallets that are connected to your account. Your cryptocurrency wallet can also be used to send cryptocurrency to if you are looking to sell it off back into regular money.

When it comes to trust there isn’t much of a difference in my opinion. Both exchanges are well trusted because they are transparent and are regulated within the United States, which provides much more strict regulation than many other countries out there. They have also been around for quite some time and are pretty darn popular. Coinbase was started in 2011 by Brian Armstrong and Gemini was started in 2015 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

The Big Difference

So what’s the big difference then between the two? The main difference are the fees that are charged for transactions. Coinbase is more user-friendly, has great support, and might be better for beginners in this way, but the fees charged on this exchange are much higher than that of Gemini. It is okay to purchase cryptocurrency or sell it on Coinbase, but it would be a poor decision to make trades back-and-forth.

There is also the difference that Coinbase allows users to make instant purchases with credit/debit cards, which Gemini does not. However, on Gemini you can deposit money into your account via a bank transfer and you are actually allowed to purchase cryptocurrency before the transfer goes through, which can take a few days. So although Coinbase allows more of an instant purchase, Gemini is not too far behind.

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Comparison of Fees That You Will Be Charged

The fees between Gemini and Coinbase differ quite a bit and some of this is due to the fact that the services they offer differ quite a bit.

If you are looking to purchase your first cryptocurrency on either of these exchanges then Coinbase is going to be the easier method of doing so since you can purchase with a credit/debit card, but Gemini is going to be the less expensive choice.

Fees for Purchasing Crypto

Coinbase:

So let’s say you are looking to buy bitcoin or Ethereum for the first time. On Coinbase you have four options for doing so. You can:

1. Pay with a credit/debit card = 3.99% fee
2. Pay with a bank transfer = 1.49% fee
3. Deposit money into your account on Coinbase with a wire transfer or bank transfer = 1.49% fee

Buying cryptocurrency with your credit/debit card charges the highest fee of 3.99%, but the upside to this is that you will have it available instantly in your account, whereas the other methods it can take a few days to a week.

With the second option, which is “pay with a bank transfer”, you will be able to make a purchase of cryptocurrency at market price right then and there, but the purchase will not go through for several days.

In the last option is that you can deposit funds, such as USD, EUR, or GBP into your Coinbase account and have it available so that you can make instant purchases.

Gemini:

On Gemini you do not have the ability to make purchases right away. You will first have to deposit money into your account with either a wire transfer or ACH bank transfer. Luckily both of these are completely free to do.

The only fees that come into play when purchasing crypto come into play when you make the exchange to buy it. So first you deposit the money into your account and then you will exchange it for bitcoin or Ethereum. Luckily the fees are extremely low. They have what are called “maker” and “taker” fees, which I’m not going to go into detail on, but basically what you need to know is that the highest fee you get charged here is 1%. But this fee depends on the amount of volume you trade on a monthly basis. The more you trade the less your fee will be and you can actually get this down to a 0.1% fee.

Fees for Withdrawing

if you are going to withdraw cryptocurrency from either of the exchanges you will get charged a small fee along with the network fee for actually processing the transaction on the blockchain. These fees will vary quite often so I’m not going to state any numbers here. However I will say that these aren’t anything to worry about much.

Now if you are going to be selling cryptocurrency back into fiat money, such as USD, EUR, etc., and then transferring it to your bank account there is a big difference.

On Gemini it is free to withdraw money like this but on Coinbase you will have the options of doing a bank transfer or a wire transfer and either way you’re going to be charged 1.49%.

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Which Is Better?

It really depends all on what you’re looking for. If you are an absolute complete newbie and want things to be as easy as possible then Coinbase might be the better option for you but if you are looking to pay as little fees as possible then Gemini is definitely the better option.

If you are looking to actively trade between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, such as USD, then using Coinbase is out of the question. If you trade back and forth with Coinbase you will be absolutely hammered with fees and it will not be worth it, which is why I wrote a post warning people not to daytrade on Coinbase. But if you’re actively trading back and forth on Gemini the fees can be very small, of course depending on your trade volume for that month, and Gemini also gives you the ability to trade between Bitcoin and Ethereum. On Coinbase you are not able to trade between cryptocurrencies.

Both exchanges are trusted, both give you the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency in and out of fiat money, it’s just that Coinbase charges much higher fees, which a lot of this is due to the fact that they are more user-friendly.

If I were you I would just go with Gemini. Although I’ve been saying that Coinbase is more user-friendly, which it is, Gemini is still also pretty easy to use and even if you have never bought cryptocurrency before it’s not that difficult to use this exchange.

I would also suggest looking into the GDAX exchange. GDAX is actually another exchange that is owned by Coinbase but is more like Gemini. It charges minimal fees and allows users to buy cryptocurrencies with fiat money as well as sell them back into fiat money. The upside to using GDAX over it Gemini would be that they offer more trading pairs. But anyway, you can read my comparison of Coinbase and GDAX here to learn more about that.

As always, leave any questions or comments you may have below. I will be happy to answer them and help you out when time permits 🙂

Believe it or not it is possible to get free Bitcoin on Coinbase and in this short post I’m going to be showing you exactly how you can do this. How much free bitcoin can you get? Well technically there is no limit, but as you will see it’s not as great as it may seem. While you can keep receiving free bitcoin over and over again, the majority of people out there will not be able to do this realistically… They just won’t have the means to do so.

But before I get into how all this works and how you can get free bitcoin I first want to give a brief summary of what Coinbase is real quick just in case anyone reading this doesn’t know. If you are already well aware of what Coinbase is and you can skip ahead.

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What Coinbase Is In a Nutshell

Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. They are one of the most popular exchanges out there and for good reason. For one, the exchange is very user-friendly. It is well laid out and easy to use making it a simple process for people to buy their first cryptocurrency. Additionally, users are able to buy cryptocurrencies with fiat money such as USD, EUR, and GBP with credit/debit cards as well as bank transfers.

This exchange is often used for “on boarding” into the world of cryptocurrency, meaning that many people purchase their first Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. here because of its simplicity and its available payment methods. And I guess another reason why so many people use Coinbase is because of the trust factor. Coinbase is well trusted. They are one of the more transparent cryptocurrency exchanges that exist and because they are based in the US they are subject to more strict regulations then many other exchanges which means they aren’t going to just run away with your money.

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How You Can Get Free Bitcoin at Coinbase

The way that you can earn free bitcoin at Coinbase is through their referral program, which is where the reward people for joining and reward the person who got that person to join. So for example if you don’t have a Coinbase account and want to create one you could use my referral link and earn $10 in free bitcoin. In addition I would also earn $10 in free bitcoin.

I’ll show you how it works. The screenshot below shows the dashboard of my account. If I go over and click on the drop-down menu under my name you will see a link you can click on to invite friends and get $10…

You will then be taken to this page where it tells you “invite friends and get free bitcoin”, and as you can see I have referred six friends to Coinbase already and have earned 0.005726 BTC and rewards.

The catch is however that the person you refer to join has to buy or sell at least $100 in cryptocurrency before both people are rewarded with $10 and bitcoin. So you could use my referral link now in joint but you wouldn’t get anything, nor would I, until you buy or sell $100 worth of currency. Once you do buy or sell that amount both you and I would be rewarded with $10 of free bitcoin.

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Join & Get $10 Once – Refer People & Get $10 Unlimited Times

So if you wanted to you could join Coinbase through my referral link here: coinbase.com/join/594920f8d3b8750f59fb8373, get paid $10 when you buy/sell $100 in cryptocurrency and then refer others to join to earn $10 every time, which you could do an unlimited number of times.

Above you can see I drew two arrows. The one points to your referral link. This is the link that you can use to get people to join Coinbase through that will give you credit for them joining. And below that is a place where you can put someone’s email address, click the “invite” button, and it will automatically send them an email inviting them to join through your referral link.

Sounds easy enough right?… Well it isn’t

Most people aren’t going to be able to make much money doing this. Just think about it… How are you going to get people to join? You can post your referral link on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, but really how many people are going to see that click your link? Or you can send people you know emails, but how many people do you really know that are going to want to join Coinbase and buy cryptocurrency?

Unless you have a massive social media following where you can make a post and have tons of people seeing it, or if you have your own website with lots of visitors, you likely aren’t going to make much money doing this. But I guess it’s nice that you can at least make little bit of money with it… Right?

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Where Does The Money Come From In The First Place?… This Sounds Fishy

Coinbase makes their money through fees. When you buy or sell cryptocurrency through Coinbase you will get charged a fee for their service. This is how they make the majority of their money at least.

Unfortunately, Coinbase charges some pretty high fees compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges out there. If you buy with a credit/debit card you it charged around a 3.99% fee and if you buy/sell with a bank transfer you it charged a 1.49% fee. So for example if you were to purchase $100 worth of bitcoin with a credit/debit card you will get charged $3.99 in fees and if you do the same thing with a bank transfer you it charged $1.49 in fees. The fees will vary a bit depending on where you live but overall there pretty high.

Why are the fees high?

Well because of several reasons. First off, as I went over at the beginning of this post, Coinbase makes things very simple and straightforward for users. This simplicity and well laid out platform comes at a cost. They also provide some pretty good support and even have a phone support line where you can talk to a live person.

And of course they have to charge somewhat high fees if they are going to be giving out free bitcoin with a referral program like this right?

So yes they do charge high fees but I wouldn’t call them a ripoff…there is a reason for this.

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Thinking About Joining?

If you are thinking about joining Coinbase I would appreciate it if you would use my referral link. This way both you and I will be able to get $10 for free in bitcoin. It would help support my site here so I can keep providing truthful in good information in the realm of cryptocurrency.

My Referral Link Here: coinbase.com/join/594920f8d3b8750f59fb8373

And now you know what people are talking about when you see posts about being able to get free bitcoin from Coinbase. Yes, you can get free bitcoin but it is not nearly as good as it seems. It’s not like you just enter your name on some list and get some free bitcoin.

If you have any questions comments or concerns please leave them below and I’ll get back to you when time permits 🙂 I hope you found this post helpful and informative.

If you are interested in learning more about Coinbase you can read my full review here where I’ll go over everything you need to know.

If you want to create a Ripple paper wallet the process is pretty simple and in this short guide I’ll be showing you how to do this step-by-step. I’m guessing that you have some ripple that you are looking to store long-term and keep it as safe as possible. If this is you then you’re in the right place and a paper wallet is a good choice.

Hardware wallets are also a great choice for storing cryptocurrencies like Ripple long-term but they cost a pretty penny to buy, whereas paper wallets are free and all you have to do is make one yourself. Most hardware wallets like TREZOR and KeepKey don’t support Ripple anyhow… Ledger Nano S would work though.

But anyway… before I get into the process of creating your own Ripple paper wallet I think it’s important that I touch upon what exactly a paper wallet is real quick in case anyone reading this doesn’t now. If you already are well aware of what one is you can skip ahead.

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What Is a Ripple Paper Wallet?

A paper wallet is nothing more than a piece of paper with numbers written down (or printed) on it that are associated with an account on the Ripple blockchain.

With cryptocurrencies like Ripple each account on the blockchain has a public and private key associated with it. The public key is the wallet address that you would use to send Ripple to your wallet and the private key is kind of like a password that you would use to “unlock” your Ripple account to be able to send your funds elsewhere.

The reason people create paper wallets in the first place is because they are a type of “cold storage”, meaning they are off-line and un-hackable. If you store your Ripple on an exchange it is possible for the exchange to be hacked and for you to lose your funds. But with a paper wallet that has no connection to the Internet or any sort of remote device it is un-hackable and safe. On exchanges you actually don’t really have much control of your funds. The exchange is the place that holds your private keys for you so it can be quite dangerous, which is why you hear about exchanges being hacked all the time and people losing tons of cryptocurrency funds.

So if you buy Ripple on Kraken (for example), its only a good idea to keep it there if you are going to be actively trading it or something like that.

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What to Do Before Creating Your Paper Wallet

What you will be doing is using a program to generate a Ripple wallet for you online. What these programs do is interact with the Ripple blockchain and set you up with your own public key and the private key that goes with it.

Since you will be online when you generate your wallet you will want to make sure your computer is completely safe so you should scan your computer for viruses before hand. It is possible that you could have malware on your computer where a hacker could possibly see your computer screen and see the Ripple wallet’s public and private key when you generate them.

So play it safe and run a quick scan before moving on.

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The Process of Creating Your Wallet

There are many different Ripple wallet generators out there that you can use but you want to be careful on which you choose. You have to make sure you create a ripple wallet through a legitimate source. The last thing you want to do is create a ripple wallet through a “shady” tool that spies on the private key it generates you and then steals your funds after you deposit them.

A good wallet generator will not have any knowledge of your Ripple private key. It will generate it for you but only you will know it and see it. In this guide I’ll be showing you how to use the Bithomp generator, which is one of the more popular ones out there.

Step 1: Go to Bithomp.com/create

The first thing you have to do is go to Bithomp.com/create. Once you are there you will see that it says “Create your new Ripple account” and below this it has a spot for your Ripple address and your Ripple secret with a button below that says Generate.

You will be clicking on the Generate button to create your new wallet but do not do this yet.

Step 2: Disconnect Your Internet

Then what I would suggest doing is disconnecting your Internet from your computer. If you are using a Windows computer with Wi-Fi then there should be a Wi-Fi symbol down in the bottom right of the screen that you can click on, then click on Wi-Fi and choose to disconnect the signal you’re connected to.

The Ripple wallet address generator tool does not need Internet to run. As long as you loaded the page shown above it will work and be able to generate you a new wallet.

Step 3: Generate Your Wallet

With the Internet disconnected click on the Generate button on Bithomp. This will automatically generate a public and private key for you. The string of numbers and letters on the top is your public key and the numbers and letters on the bottom are your private key, which is the one that no one should see except for yourself.

Step 4: Print It Out

Now it’s time to print out the wallet. You should be able to do this by right clicking anywhere on the screen and going to print in the menu. When you print use and ethernet cable if possible without using Wi-Fi, since still don’t want to use Wi-Fi at this point.

If you want to you could just write down your public and private key on a piece of paper yourself and not print anything out, but it’s your choice. Either way will do.

Step 5: Make a Copy

You do not want to store all your Ripple funds on a paper wallet and only have one copy of it. What if that copy would get damaged? What if you spill coffee on it or what if your house burns down?

You can make as many copies as you want but I would suggest at least two. And store them in different places. It would be smart to keep one on or near you and keep the other somewhere completely different, such as a safety deposit box, your parents house basement, etc.

Step 6: Wipe Your Computer & Printer (Optional)

If you are planning on storing a lot of Ripple funds in this paper wallet and want to play things extra safe then you should wipe your computer and printer clean. I’m not going over how to do this because it will vary depending on your computer and printer, so you will have to look it up online if you want to.

This is just another layer of safety to ensure that you and only you have access to the private key that was just generated for your wallet.

Step 4: Sit Back and Hope That Ripple Rises in Price

That’s it, that is all you do. Now it’s time to just sit back and hope that Ripple rises in value.

*Oh ya… and be sure to turn your internet back on!

If you have any questions about anything at all do not hesitate to leave them below. I will gladly get back to you as soon as I can. I know this process can be a bit confusing. Also leave any comments down below if you have any suggestions for better Ripple wallet generators out there.

 

Yes you can buy Bitcoins with a Walmart gift card and in this short post I’m going to show you exactly how to do this step-by-step. It’s actually rather simple but it may seem a bit complicated at first. In each step I will explain in detail what you need to do and how to go about doing it to make it as easy as possible.

So if you have a Walmart gift card laying around and would rather have Bitcoins then listen up and pay attention.

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How You Are Able to Buy Bitcoins Like This

It may seem a bit strange that you’re able to buy Bitcoins with a Walmart gift card, and it is kind of strange, but it’s possible. What you have to do is use what you call a P2P or peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange. These cryptocurrency exchanges are not your “normal” cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, GDAX, Bittrex, etc. These exchanges are ones where you make your transactions peer-to-peer. You communicate directly with the seller of the Bitcoins to make the exchange and the platform that you will do it on facilitates the process and makes it safe.

There are more than one P2P cryptocurrency exchanges out there. Two of the biggest ones are LocalBitcoins and Paxful. Paxful is the only one of the two that allows users to buy Bitcoins with Walmart gift cards so this is the exchange I will be using in this example.

Paxful has been around for a while and is well trusted, but there are some safety concerns with P2P exchanges like this. You can think of them as an eBay for cryptocurrency exchange, because like eBay anyone can sell bitcoin on the exchange. This is what worries people about exchanges like this because “what if you are buying from a scammer?” and don’t know it? This is something I will address at the end of this post but it’s really nothing I would worry about too much.

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The Step by Step Process

The first thing you’re going to have to do before you can start the process is create a free account at Paxful.com. Then you can begin…

Step 1: Click on the “Buy Bitcoin” button in the top menu

When you go to the homepage you will see a green button that says BUY BITCOIN, click on that…

Step 2: Go to “Select a way to pay” and choose Walmart Gift Card

Then you will want to go over to the right where you see the box labeled “Select a way to pay”. Click on that and scroll down to the bottom where you will find the Walmart gift card selection. Click on that and then click on the green search button. You don’t have to enter in anything else. If you search like this it’ll bring up quality results from sellers that are willing to accept Walmart gift cards as payments.

Step 3: Find an offer that you are interested in and click the “BUY” button next to it

What you will find next is a list of different offers from all the sellers that are willing to sell bitcoin for Walmart gift cards. There are a couple things you want to look at here before clicking on any offer.

First you want to make sure the little green number that appears as “+82” for example, that is beside the person’s name is somewhat high. I would say 50 or higher just to be safe. This is their reputation score and the higher the better. Then you are going to want to make sure that you are able to pay the way the seller requires. Under the “Pay with” section in the middle you will see that some people requiring you have an ID and others don’t, some people require you to have a physical gift card while others accept e-codes, and so on. So pick a seller that accepts what you are able to provide. And of course you are going to want to choose a seller that offers bitcoin at a rate that isn’t a ridiculous price. The sellers that are selling bitcoin for the cheapest prices will appear at the top of the list.

When you have found a seller you want to buy from click on the green “BUY” button on the right.

Step 4: Read over the rules and initiate the trade

When you click to buy from a seller you will come to this page where you will be able to see an overview of the trade, an overview of the person’s profile to the right along with some feedback they have received from other buyers, and below that you will see what the “Offer terms” are…

The “Offer terms” or something you really want to look at before initiating the trade. These are the set of roles that the seller outlines for the trade. You will have to follow them in order to get your bitcoin so read them over and make sure you are able to do so before starting.

Usually they are pretty straightforward and easy to follow but if they are not then you might want to avoid buying from that particular seller. As an example here are some of the “Offer terms” from one of the sellers that accepts Walmart gift cards… These terms will differ from seller to seller but usually are pretty similar.

Step 5: Make payment to seller and wait for bitcoin to be released to you

You will be able to chat back and forth with the seller in real time as you make the trade. The seller will provide you with additional details such as where to send your gift card or e-code in order to pay them. After having done so you will have to confirm that you have paid on the Paxful platform and then you just have to wait until the seller verifies that you have paid.

After the seller has verify that you have paid Paxful will release the Bitcoins to you and they will end up in your Paxful bitcoin wallet. From here they are yours and you can do whatever you want with them. If you want to keep them there you can do that or if you want to send them to a more secure hardware wallet like KeepKey or TREZOR then you can do that too.

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Is This Safe?

So is this really safe? This is the big question that everyone wants to know before actually going about doing this. The answer is yes and no. Paxful can be safe but it also can be risky if you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you choose a reputable seller and follow the terms of the trade as outlined then you should be fine and have nothing to worry about. If I were you I would click on the seller’s username before buying from them to check on their reputation and feedback. You will be able to see how many positive, neutral, and negative feedbacks they have received along with being able to see what people are actually saying about them. You will also be able to see how many trades they have made, whether they are verified and so on. Here’s an example of someone’s profile which I would say is very trustworthy. They have a +361 positive reputation score was zero negative and neutral feedback.

Paxful also makes the process more safe by holding Bitcoins in escrow. Whenever you initiate the trade Paxful will take the Bitcoins out of the sellers account automatically and hold them in an escrow account. Then after you pay in the seller has verified that you have paid Paxful will release the Bitcoins to you. This helps to keep you safe from the seller deciding they don’t want to give you the Bitcoins anymore after you have already paid.

But this also brings up the concern of “what if you pay in the seller says you didn’t”? Well this is where mediation comes into play. Paxful also has people working on the platform as mediators. What you would do then is provide proof that you did pay and followed the offer terms and if you did everything correctly and can provide proof Paxful will release the Bitcoins to you. If you cannot provide proof then Paxful will be forced to give the Bitcoins back to the seller.

So overall the platform is pretty safe. There are definitely scammers out there that are scamming people on here along with other P2P exchanges but if you know what to look for you should be fine just as you are fine buying things on eBay although there are scammers on this platform as well.

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The Downside of Buying Bitcoin With a Walmart Gift Card

There is a big downside to buying bitcoin with Walmart gift cards that you should know about beforehand. The downside is that you will pay a higher price for bitcoin then market value. The reason for this is because sellers can charge whatever price they want to for their bitcoin and they often charge more depending on the complexity and risk of the payment you are using. Some payment methods are easy to accept and deal with while others are not so easy.

With Walmart gift card payments you will be paying a good bit more than the market price. When you are looking at the different available offers you will be able to see this column that will tell you how much you are receiving for each dollar. So as you can see the first result in this column below shows that you will receive $0.69 worth of bitcoin for every $1.00 you pay. Now I’m not saying that this is the best offer you will be able to find. In fact just before I took the screenshot there was another seller on the platform selling over $0.70 of bitcoin for every dollar. But generally speaking you will get “ripped off” a bit.

This is the downside with P2P cryptocurrency exchanges in general. Whether you are buying bitcoin through these exchanges with PayPal, cash, gift cards, Moneygram, etc., you will always be ripped off at least a little bit.

So is it worth buying bitcoin with your Walmart gift card? Well that is something you can form your own opinion on. If your Walmart gift card is just gonna sit around and collect dust then buying some bitcoin might be the better play.

If you have any questions or comments about anything please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂

Transferring bitcoin to Coinbase is very simple and straightforward. And in this short post I’m going to be making it even more simple by going over each step of the process. I making this guide on how to transfer bitcoin to Coinbase as newbie friendly as possible so that anyone can follow along and do this correctly.

Since you are looking to send your bitcoin over to the Coinbase exchange I’m guessing that you are possibly thinking about selling it for “real money” such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. But anyways whether you are doing it for this reason are not matter, the process is the same. The reason I bring this up is because there are other alternatives out there that you can do this with and that I would recommend more so, but I will go over this more at the end.

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What You Need Before Starting

Before you can transfer your bitcoin to Coinbase you are going to need two things: you will need a Coinbase account of course and you need some bitcoin.

Now I’m assuming that you have bitcoin and you probably already have your Coinbase account but if you don’t you will need to go to Coinbase.com/join to create one. It’s free to do so in the sign-up process is easy to get there is still not going to be explaining any of this

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The Process of Transferring

Step 1: Click on “Accounts” in the upper menu

After you are logged into your Coinbase account you should see the page that I took a screenshot of below. It will have a price chart shown along with a menu at the top. In this top menu you will see Accounts and you’re going to want to click on that. This will bring you to your different cryptocurrency wallets, such as your bitcoin wallet which is the one we are interested in here.

Step 2: Click on the “Receive” button under your BTC Wallet

Next you are going to want to click on the Receive button that is located underneath your BTC wallet. Since you are transferring the bitcoin to Coinbase you will be receiving it here, which is why you click this button.

Step 3: Click to “Show Address”

After you click the Receive button you will be greeted with this little pop-up window. It is just a warning to tell you only to send the bitcoin to the address. If you send a different cryptocurrency you will be out of luck and the cryptocurrency you sent will be lost forever. Once you understand this you can click on the Show Address button, which will bring up your bitcoin wallet address.

Step 4: Copy BTC Wallet Address

Now you will be able to see your bitcoin wallet address. This is what is known as your “public key”. It is a string of numbers and letters that stands for an account on the bitcoin block chain. Whenever you are sending bitcoin to your account/wallet this is where you want to send it.

There is also a QR code above the address that is just a visual representation of it. They both have the same address so what you can do is either scan the QR code if you’re able to do that or copy the address.

Step 5: Enter this address in the “withdrawal” or “destination” address box from your current wallet

So this step will vary a bit depending on where you currently are holding your bitcoin. If you are holding your bitcoin on another exchange and are looking to send it to Coinbase then you’re going to want to go to withdraw the bitcoin from your wallet and enter the address you just copied into the box that is usually called the “withdraw”, “destination”, “receiving” address or something related. Then you will be able to enter the amount you are looking to withdraw and submit it.

The same goes for if you are currently holding your bitcoin in any type of wallet such as hardware wallets like TREZOR and KeepKey or an app wallet like Jaxx. All wallets will have a box where you enter the bitcoin address you are sending the bitcoin to as well as a box where you enter the amount you are wishing to send.

Some Examples: 

So here is what it would look like if you were going to send bitcoin from your wallet on Binance…

And here’s what it would look like if you’re going to send it from a Jaxx wallet…

There are dozens upon dozens of different wallets out there so there’s no way I’m going to go over and explain how to do this in every single wallet. But the process is virtually the same with the exception of different words used and it may be a bit confusing to navigate to the area where you are able to withdraw your bitcoin and some wallets.

Step 6: Wait

After you have submitted your withdraw on the wallet you were holding your bitcoin in you will just have to wait. How long will it take? It all depends on how fast the bitcoin network is processing transactions.

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An Alternative to Coinbase That Might Be a Better Choice For You

If you are looking to transfer bitcoin to Coinbase because you want to cash out, since Coinbase gives you the ability to sell bitcoin and to deposit the normal currency into your bank account, I would suggest otherwise. Why do I say this? Well because Coinbase charges some pretty darn high fees to this and depending on how much bitcoin you’re actually going to sell it might be a quite a bit of money.

The better alternative here would be GDAX. GDAX is actually owned by Coinbase but is there more professional exchange. It is made more for institutional investors/traders and professionals. The reason I would suggest using it is because it gives you the same ability that Coinbase does where you can sell your bitcoin and then transfer the money to your bank account, but the whole process is virtually fee-less. They do charge fees but it is nothing compared to Coinbase and to learn more about the differences between these two exchanges you can read my comparison article.

But anyways I don’t know your reasoning for wanting to transfer bitcoin to Coinbase. I’m just saying if this is the reason then I would not suggest using Coinbase.

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Something Else to Consider

If you are going to use Coinbase something else you might want to consider is the Coinbase vault. Coinbase has their normal wallet in the also have their vault, which is basically a more secure and less accessible storage for your bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. So if you are looking to store your bitcoin on Coinbase long-term and have a rather large amount to store then the vault is definitely something you should consider.

I actually wrote a review of the Coinbase wallet versus the vault that you can read more about if you are interested. I’m not going to go into all the details here.

If you have any questions about anything at all that has to do with this post please leave them below. All comments can be left down there too and I’ll get back to you when time permits on anything 🙂

LocalBitcoins, at localbitcoins.com,  is the first place I ever bought Bitcoins… back in 2015 I think it was or maybe late 2014. Back then there weren’t near as many options to buy bitcoin as their are today and this place seemed to be safe from what I could tell. But now it’s years later and I know it a lot more about cryptocurrency safety, what to look for before using an exchange and so on. Do I still trusted the way it used to? Is Local Bitcoins safe? Or is this in exchange you should avoid?

The answer to this question is a bit more complicated then just a simple yes or no. Overall the exchange is pretty safe. It does a great job at providing safety to users buying and selling bitcoin but if you are not careful you could possibly be scammed.

In this review I will be going over what exactly Localbitcoins is, showing you around inside the exchange so you can see how it works if you don’t already know, and of course I’ll be going over the safety of the platform and some serious concerns there are.

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What Is Local Bitcoins?… In a Nutshell…

LocalBitcoins is what you call a P2P cryptocurrency exchange. P2P stands for “peer to peer” and basically what this means is that on the exchange you will be buying or selling directly with another individual on the exchange. It’s basically the same thing as the Paxful exchange if you are familiar with them.

I once heard this type of exchange described as the “eBay of cryptocurrency exchanges”. Everyone is familiar with eBay for the most part so this is a great way of putting it in really helps to understand how these exchanges work. Just like eBay, anyone can create a profile on the LocalBitcoins platform to buy or sell bitcoin. So it’s not like you are buying or selling from LocalBitcoins or anything like that. LocalBitcoins just provides the platform which helps facilitate a safe exchange between buyers and sellers.

This is great in many ways but it also leads to some serious concerns, which is why you are probably asking if LocalBitcoins is safe or not. You don’t know who is behind the computer screen selling bitcoins on this exchange so how can this be safe? Well… I will go over the safety of the exchange shortly but first I want to take you on a little tour inside the exchange.

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A Look Inside The Exchange

Inside the exchange you can do two basic things: buy or sell bitcoin. If you want to buy bitcoin you can enter in the amount you are wanting to spend, your type of currency that you will be spending, your country, and then you will choose the payment method that you want to use to purchase the bitcoin.

The upside to P2P cryptocurrency exchanges like this is that they have dozens upon dozens of different ways you can pay to buy bitcoin. The reason for this is because sellers of bitcoin can choose to accept many different payment methods and because there are tons of different sellers on this platform there are people looking for all different kinds of payments. So you can pay with PayPal, Moneygram, Alipay, Amazon gift cards, cash deposits, cash by mail, credit card, Google wallet, Walmart gift cards, Walmart to Walmart transfers, all coins like Litecoin and Dash, and many more.

Because there are sellers from all over the world another big upside to platforms like this is that you can buy bitcoin from pretty much anywhere, unlike more popular exchanges such as Coinbase or GDAX that do not allow people in many countries to purchase cryptocurrencies on their exchange.

Anyway…

As an example I chose to look for sellers that are willing to sell bitcoin for $100 USD in the United States and accept PayPal as a payment. It doesn’t matter what you search for the results screen will look the same. It’ll give you a list of the different sellers willing to sell bitcoin to you based on those conditions and the price that they are willing to sell it at…

A downside to this type of exchange is that the sellers bitcoin prices are higher than market value, sometimes a lot higher. This depends on the payment method that you are using and how much of a hassle it is for them. They can choose to sell at whatever price they want so you just have to try to find the best deal.

When you click on the “Buy” button next to one of the offers you will then be directed to a page where you can initiate the trade. Here you will be able to read over the overview of the trade and initiate it that’s what you want to do.

Once you initiate the trade you will be able to chat back and forth in real time with the seller. This is important because you have to deal with the seller directly. Over on the right-hand side of the screen you will see a “Terms of trade” that outlines the sellers rules for the trade. Sellers can make any roles they want to hear so it’s very important that you read this and make sure you are able to follow them.

Sellers will usually require that you verify your payment by sending a screenshots to them and also that you verify your identity by uploading pictures of an ID…

After you have sent the seller your payment you will have to verify having done so on the LocalBitcoins platform. Then after they have verified receiving the payment you will receive your bitcoin.

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How Safe Is This Place Really?

There are several different safeguard measures that LocalBitcoins has in place to help keep you safe, a few of which I’ll touch on below.

Feedback

The feedback system that they have in place is a pretty big deal. Just like eBay you will be able to give feedback whether you are buying or selling. This way other buyers and sellers can see who they are dealing with and see what other people think about them before engaging in a trade.

Whenever you are searching for different bitcoin offers from different sellers you will see a number beside the sellers name that appears as: (100+, 97%), just as an example. What this number tells you is the number of trades this person has made and the percent of positive feedback they have received. So a feedback number shown as (1000+, 99%) would mean that that seller has made over 1000 trades and has a 99% positive feedback rating overall.

And if you click on anyone’s name you will be able to see the statistics along with how long they have been a member, how many different partners they have traded with, what language they speak, whether or not they have verify their identity, and so on…

And if you would scroll down below this you would also be able to see what people are actually saying about them and their feedback.

Escrow

LocalBitcoins also uses escrow to help keep users safe. I’ll give you an example of how this works…

So let’s say you initiate a trade with a seller. As soon as you initiate this trade LocalBitcoins will take Bitcoins out of the sellers account and hold them in an escrow account. Then after the payment is verified by both you and the seller, LocalBitcoins will release this Bitcoins to you. This helps to ensure that you actually get the Bitcoins you paid for. Sellers won’t be able to take your money and just refused to release the Bitcoins to you.

However there is the concern: what if the seller does not confirm your payment? What if you send your payment to them and they claim they haven’t received it? Well this brings me to dispute mediation…

Dispute Mediation

If there is an argument between a buyer and seller over whether or not payment was sent the LocalBitcoins team will help mediate the dispute and come to the bottom of it. And since they are holding the Bitcoins in escrow at this point they will have full control over what happens.

So if you did do everything right and really did send your payment you will be able to give LocalBitcoins proof of this so that they release the Bitcoins to you. But if you cannot provide proof of this they will be forced to assume that you are lying and did not send the payment which will lead to them releasing the Bitcoins back to the seller.

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Conclusion on LocalBitcoins – Good Exchange to Use?

There is no doubt that there are some safety concerns when using a peer to peer exchange like LocalBitcoins. Just as with eBay, there are going to be scammers using this platform and there is risk involved. However LocalBitcoins does a great job at minimizing this risk in providing a safe platform to exchange on.

As long as you choose a seller or buyer that is very reputable and follow the terms of the trade you should be fine. Just be sure to do these two things as well as take screenshots or collect whatever type of information necessary to prove that you did pay, or to prove that the buyer did not pay if you are a seller.

In my opinion LocalBitcoins is a safe exchange and I really like it. But it’s as safe as you make it in a way. It’s better to use more normal exchanges such as Coinbase, GDAX, Kraken, etc. because you will be able to buy Bitcoins at market price, but if you live in a place where you are not able to use these exchanges or you are trying to pay with a payment method that is not accepted with normal exchanges then LocalBitcoins is a great choice.

Anyway, I hope you have found this review helpful and insightful. If you have any questions comments or concerns please leave them below and I’ll get back to you when time permits 🙂