Skip to main content

How to get started with cryptocurrency, Coinbase, Bitcoin and Ethereum

If you want to get into crypto, here are five things to get started. If all you want to do is invest in Bitcoin, skip to step 3 and then jump to my referrals to get started right away.

Step 1 – Do Your Homework And Learn The Lingo (See additional Resources below)

Step 2 – Don't listen to me, a podcast, or read an article and decide to buy some random cryptocurrency you think is going to be the next big thing. You need to do your homework before you invest. Believing someone talking up a project, a token, or an alt-coin without doing your own research is foolish. Never trust anyone pushing a project; often, they have some benefit from others buying in.

Step 3 – Decide where you are going to keep your investment - digital wallet(s) - an exchange - stake it... (I do all three, but personal ownership through a cold wallet is the safest.)

Step 4 – Identify the token(s) you want and then learn how to buy them. The two most common places are exchange or a decentralized finance protocol that is used to exchange cryptocurrencies. If you are buying crypto on Robinhood or PayPal, you aren't actually buying crypto; you are buying exposure to crypto. If you don't have the keys, or in other words, if you can't transfer the crypto off the platform into a personal wallet, you don't own it.

Step 5 – Don't invest more than you are willing to lose.

REFERRALS

Coinbase: The most trustworthy exchange of cryptocurrencies in the world and the largest in the US. Learn how to trade and use it here. This is my referral link: https://coinbase.com/join/P335X52?src=android-link

Strike App: Use this link for a referral to an easy-to-use app that allows you to buy and sell Bitcoin using the lightning network, faster and cheaper transactions, and a great pay-to-use Bitcoin to pay for things and receive payments. Please use my link so I can receive the referral bonus; thanks. I also have a Roth IRA retirement account with I Trust Capital that allows me to buy, sell, and trade crypto, Gold, and Silver with zero tax on gains. If you use my referral link, I get $200.

Decentralized digital currency exchange (DEX): Safer in some ways than using a centralized exchange, DEXs allow peer-to-peer transactions that can provide cheaper transactions, greater privacy, and security as there is no use of a third party. This is for people who are a little more savvy or have put in the time to do their homework. I would suggest Uniswap, but there are several options, including Curve, 1Inich, PancakeSwap, Balancer, SushiSwap, and many more. 

Additional Resources:

The best Explanation of Bitcoin I have ever heard:


YouTube channels I follow:

Altcoin Daily: Youtube.com/channel/UCbLhGKVY-bJPcawebgtNfbw (Best daily update and crypto news)

Lark Davis: Youtube.com/watch?v=EPhA99FPLM0 (Good regular news updates and greater market analysis )

Digital asset News: Youtube.com/@DigitalAssetNews (Good regular crypto news updates)

Chico Crypto: Youtube.com/channel/UCHop-jpf-huVT1IYw79ymPw (Great in-depth analysis and research) Update: No longer creates new content, but there is a lot you can learn from searching past content.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When Government Demands Papers We Refuse

 By Matthew Hayward  9/19/2025  The Supreme Court just paused a lower court order that had limited federal immigration stops in Los Angeles. That stay lets federal agents resume roving patrols and interior operations that critics say rely on appearance, language, job, or neighborhood to pick people for questioning.  This matters because it normalizes a posture of suspicion. Checkpoints miles inland and roving patrols turn movement inside the country into a condition to be earned rather than a freedom to be enjoyed. The government already claims expanded authority inside the 100-mile border zone. That claim, plus an open green light for stops based on appearance, is a recipe for arbitrary enforcement.  Philosophy of resistance John Locke told us that the consent of the governed is the foundation of legitimate power. When rulers invade life, liberty, or property, or when they become arbitrary disposers of people’s lives and fortunes, the social compact is dissolve...

The National Guard Was Never Meant to Be a Federal Tool

By Matthew Hayward 7/13/2025 Let me say this clearly: the National Guard was created to defend the states, not to enforce the will of the federal government. It was meant to serve as a local militia—an armed extension of the people under the control of the state. The highest authority a Guard member was ever supposed to answer to is their elected governor, not a bureaucrat in Washington, not a federal agency, and certainly not a sitting president weaponizing military force on domestic soil. Yes, I know the laws have changed. I know the Montgomery Amendment, the National Defense Act, and the Supreme Court's decision in Perpich v. DoD rewrote the rules. But legal doesn’t mean constitutional. Gradualism doesn’t legitimize usurpation. You don’t get to trample foundational principles and call it progress. What’s happening now—federalizing state forces to deploy them in cities without gubernatorial consent—is blasphemous. It's an insult to the very spirit of the Constitution. The ...

Reality Is Rigged and You Can Hack It

By Matthew Hayward 7/29/2025 Manifesting Reality: How the Matrix, Quantum Entanglement, and Consciousness Intertwine Look, science fiction and science fact have been flirting for decades. But lately, the line between the two is starting to disappear. The idea that we’re living in a simulated reality isn’t just a late-night stoner theory anymore. It’s a framework, a lens to view those weird, unexplained moments that leave you thinking, "What the hell just happened?" Quantum entanglement, synchronicity, manifestation… they all start to make a lot more sense when you stop pretending reality is some rigid, mechanical machine. It’s not. It’s code. And if you’re paying attention, you might just figure out how to rewrite it. NPCs vs Manifestors: Who’s Really Running Things? Picture the world like a massive open-world video game. Some people are just running the default programming. They go to work, follow the script, consume what they’re told, and never ask questions. NPCs. Then the...