How to Buy Bitcoin
Bitcoin is bought on exchanges and is then either traded for other cryptocurrencies or stored in a wallet. The exchange you use will mostly depend on where you live. The bulk of cryptocurrency trading happens in North America, UK, China, and Korea. Coinbase is where a lot people start off because of it’s ease of use. From there they may transfer their coins to other exchanges where they can trade different types of cryptocurrencies based on market trends in hopes to make more profit.
Most exchanges will ask you to confirm your identity by uploading a picture of your driver’s license and maybe another photo of yourself to confirm it is actually you. Identity confirmation criteria varies between different exchanges.
Getting Started on Coinbase
We will use Coinbase in our example since it is the exchange used most by beginners. Go to coinbase and follow the steps to sign up. You will need to verify your phone number and identity before you can deposit and withdraw funds from Coinbase. During the signup process coinbase will make two small transactions on your visa of $1.xx and ask you how much the transactions were in order to verify your credit card. If the transactions do not so up right away on your online banking try giving your bank or credit card provider a call. It might be a good idea to give them a call anyway and let them know you’re buying cryptocurrency as some banks will temporarily freeze your card if they have not been notified.
Once you are signed up and verified you can now purchase bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies. The process for buying each is the same. We will go through the process of buying bitcoin now.
Buying Bitcoin on Coinbase
Step 1: Log into coinbase and click on “Buy/Sell” in the top navigation
Step 2: From here you can buy or sell a number of cryptocurrencies. Make sure you are on the “Buy” tab and you have Bitcoin selected. Choose your payment method and the amount of bitcoin you wish to buy. Your fees are automatically updated on the right as you enter your purchase amount. Click on “Buy Bitcoin Instantly” to continue.
Step 3: A confirmation page shows up to confirm your purchase. It will show how many bitcoin you are buying, the price it costs, and what your fees are. Click “Confirm Buy”
Your coinbase account will be credited with your bitcoin within a few minutes. It takes a little time for the transaction to take place so don’t worry if it takes a little while. Sometimes the system gets bogged down during busy times.