Welcome in decentralized generation and long-time readers. We’ve officially started our product which will likely cost a few bucks more and will be used to fund our trolling purposes on Twitter (more on this soon – wink wink, hint hint). Over the coming months/years we’ll exit the Fiat system (this will be a long-term process as we’re unfortunately not nine figure people). Many have complained that we don’t have an intro guide to crypto and the below intro will serve as the intro guide. (honestly we should remove the investment banking Q&A soon as we transition all of our interests)
But Wait… Some Quick Notes: For those that believe we’ve sold out we commend you on being broke. The future of finance is crypto currencies and the world is changing at rates we’ve never seen before (we lived through the birth of the internet – unfortunately getting old). The reason we have to do this product and people need to pay attention is because of Darwinism “Adapt or Die”. If we didn’t focus our attention in this area you would know that we fell behind in terms of advances in technology. If we figured out VPNs, Aff. Marketing, Hypervisors etc… It would make sense that we were following this space as well.
Will there be blow ups? Yes. Will there be 100x returns in certain projects? Yes. Do you want to have absolutely zero exposure to this type of market? No. The writing is already on the wall as high tech rarely goes to zero.
If you look at history, the internet was a massive bubble but it ended up being life changing technology. The car was laughed at and was a bubble with 1,000s of car companies but that was also life changing technology. We can go on and on. If you see a massive bubble in anything that pops and comes back to life… You’ve found a real technology. Remember that sentence for the year 2030, 2050, 2080 and for those that live longer 2100.
This is arguably the greatest opportunity the Millenial/GenZ population will see. With all the advances in AI and automation coming, you know that the digital world will come into play over the long-term. The key is positioning yourself for the future in a pragmatic and intelligent way.
With that we can give an overview for the newbies on how to “Get Started”
Starting Out for the Beginners
This is a painful section. Sorry to say that if you’re reading this section, you’ve got a TON of catching up to do and are at least 5 years behind. We wish we were kidding but we are not. With the big warning out of the way, we’re putting this section in here since basic questions are not a good use of time. For those that already understand the basics, just delete this entire chapter and throw it into the trash bin!
Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins: If you understand crypto currency this is one of the first things you learn. Under no circumstances do you use a third party custodian. This is the entire point of crypto currencies. You want to become your own bank, your own lending pool, your own stock exchange (so on and so forth – also more on these things later).
Not your keys not your coins means you need to have a hardware wallet. Previously, we wasted time telling people about all of the different options (paper wallet, phone wallet etc.). Since this section is for complete newbies you need a hardware wallet. Hardware wallet means Trezor or Ledger (at the time of this writing).
A hardware wallet is something that contains your crypto currencies without any connection to the internet. You plug it into your computer, send your coins to the device and unplug it. You can then store it somewhere safe and never lose it. This is by far the easiest way to get started. Yes it will cost you money to buy the wallet but if you understand the last three paragraphs you will understand that it is worth it.
If you’re using a third party to hold your coins (Coinbase, any exchange etc.) you’re adding additional risk for nothing. We repeat. Any coins held in a third party exchange is at risk as you cannot move them freely. This is why you’re seeing large outflows from exchanges to self custody wallets (richer people are coming and they did their research).
What Are Keys: When you get your wallet, you will have to open it up and hook it up to your computer. At this point you will then receive a pass phrase. This is 12-24 randomly generated words. These words represent your keys.
Pausing for a second. If you do not hold your coins in a place that requires your 12-24 word pass phrase, it means that someone else holds your coins. Therefore it is not in your control. If you do not control your own coins you’re defeating the entire point of crypto currencies in the first place. We’re repeating ourselves but we have to drive in the point for newbies. You must own and control all of your coins. Period.
This 12-24 word password should be written somewhere in the physical realm. Do not type the numbers into a phone, document or any electronic device (never). Someone can very easily go on your computer and find it, then you lose everything. So you have to write the physical password down somewhere and keep it safe. Once you have a sizable amount of money (whatever that is for you), you want to invest in a fireproof product. Cryptotag is a good example of this if you’re hoping to buy a fireproof product that memorizes your seed words (again as of this writing).
If you don’t want to use Cryptotags, then you could physically engrave the words into metal. No, we’re not kidding. Once you have enough assets you want to make sure they are fire proof and secure forever. A piece of paper is perfectly fine if you have a small sum, however, as the amount becomes more important you’ll need to take it more seriously.
Now You Are Set Up: As a quick review, if you have next to no money, the minimal set up is a Ledger S or a Trezor. The smart/richer people will have Cryptotags for additional security.
Where to Acquire: The punch line up front is that you should acquire peer to peer. If you understand the absolute basics of crypto you know that it is better to pay a small fee to go peer to peer versus buying for a fee on an exchange. This will be covered in more detail later, however, everyone has at least heard of crypto so if you don’t understand that sentence, the next 5-10 years is going to be extremely painful.
The best way to go peer to peer is to simply use chat rooms, twitter or your social network. At this point there is a near zero percent shot that your friends do not own it. As you spend more time in the space, you will eventually meet bigger and bigger holders which makes this a lot easier for you. This is also a fantastic “barrier to entry” as most will stop at this paragraph and give up since it is too hard to go onto websites and talk to peers. This removes 90% of the competition on day one.
If you end up buying on an exchange, that is your faulty decision (not ours). In the case that you make a bad decision like this, at least move it to a hardware wallet. That said, you’ve already messed up and you may as well store your coins somewhere else. (Note: PayPal would be the worst solution of all time as you can never take your coins off and move them into a hardware wallet, you don’t even own crypto you just think you do)
Now What? Well, Triangle Investing certainly aged like wine. Sold at the peak of hype and gave everyone three years to accumulate during the downturn. Could not have been better, not to mention the recession call we made with the Spending Book which also occurred! Being honest here a ton of this has to have been luck. And. As usual, luck favors people who don’t need it.
If you read that product, then you know the first step is to look at the “base layers” which primarily consist of Bitcoin and Ethereum at this time (according to market capitalization as of this writing, we’ll touch on other ones later in the product).
What do you do? You simply purchase these base layer assets slowly over time with the income you’re generating. In an ideal world you’ve followed Efficiency to the T and you can even convert some of your E-commerce sales directly into BTC or Eth.
Next Steps! Now that you have a basic structure set up (won’t take more than a day or two to do), you can now look for high risk/reward opportunities. This means you’re looking for promising projects with Air Drops (explained later). Essentially if you find promising new projects, you’re paid to put your capital at risk. Uniswap was a fantastic example of this. When it first came out there were practically no supporters. If you got in with a small amount of money and simply held, you’d be up 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50x! Most people don’t hold on long enough (or don’t get in early enough) so the ladder was for illustrative purposes.
Now you’re asking, how do I get into the new stuff? Well you need to do a ton of work. We’ll highlight a lot of the “how this works” in the product and give some high level advice. But. In the end, the space is changing at a rate that requires 8-10 hours a day of attention. This is also why you’re seeing a complete course change on our blog and twitter. Again. Adapt or die.
Okay I Get It Endless Opportunities But How?! Glad you asked. If you look at the paragraphs above by the time you’re here you have both some BTC and some ETH. In order to invest in a ton of these projects you usually need one of them (BTC or ETH). So. Make a decision. Which protocol do you want to support and which one will you dedicate time and research into. We’re not “Bitcoin Maxis” and we’re not “Ethereum Maxis”. We’re simply looking for promising projects as it is either a 10, 30, 50, 100x or a zero. That is the name of the game. So we can get started….
