Bitcoin has been the single most talked about investment over the last decade by a country mile. Having just taken a record dip in value, many people who missed the boat the first time around are considering investing. So I thought it was an excellent time to publish the Male Mastery's beginner's guide to cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

Let's talk Bitcoin

It has made a lot of people extremely wealthy; however, like most investments, there are still plenty of people who haven't been so lucky, having lost vast amounts of money by selling too soon or too late in some cases. All the conflicting headlines in the mainstream media have left many people confused about how the basic principles of Bitcoin work and whether or not to invest?

The reality is if you're uneducated about any investment you've made or looking to make, you're simply gambling on the financial markets, much like betting on the horses, nothing more, nothing less.

Male Mastery's beginner's guide to cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

Whether you're looking to go balls deep or just skim the surface, I want to ensure that you know at least the basics of how cryptocurrencies work before you potentially invest in Bitcoin. It's worrying how many people I speak to who are investing considerable amounts of money into crypto without fully understanding how it works. Simply because everyone else is, and they're suffering a huge bout of FOMO.

In this short but informative article, we are going to go over what I believe are the four key areas you should be aware of -

1 - What is Bitcoin, and how does it work?

2 - Will Bitcoin be the future adopted cryptocurrency

3 - How do you go about investing in Bitcoin?

4 - Is Bitcoin a good investment?

What exactly is Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the most common form of cryptocurrency and certainly the most well known, and it's also the one that's been the most adopted. To fully understand cryptocurrency, you first need to understand what money is and how it works.

In layman's terms, money is just an agreed-upon store of value accepted by the world's population as a form of payment. Money itself doesn't actually hold any value. The only thing that makes money hold any value is that 99% of the world's population has accepted it as a trading commodity in the form of payment.

The issue with money is that it's centralised. Governments and the central bank control it. This means that you're entirely at the mercy of their choices and decisions with the pound, dollar or any other currency. If governments constantly print money, which is what they're currently doing, they risk devaluing it. We don't really have much of a say. Basically, your hard-earned money in the bank gets eaten away by inflation and becomes worth less, which is precisely what we are seeing throughout the world in 2022

Another thing the banks have had a monopoly on is the extortionate fees they charge when sending money overseas. You get hit with service fees, admin fees and poor exchange rates. In addition to that, if you need to withdraw cash from ATMs overseas, you're hit with yet more fees. The benefit of using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is it eradicates all of these issues.

Another advantage of cryptocurrencies

Is that it's not centralised, it's decentralised, so you don't just have to rely on a central bank's records for keeping track of everyone's money. All computers that participate in the system keep a copy of the records, so it's near impossible to bring down the system because you will have to take down 1000s of computers that keep copies of the records, so it's significantly safer as well.

Everyone can see its transparency, and it's protected against inflation. One of the most important aspects is that no central authority controls it. And let's not forget there are only 21 million Bitcoins in total in the system, so you can't print more and devalue it.

So how do you invest in it?

What typically happens with a currency or just business, in general, is that one usually rises to the top and dominates most of the market share. For example, with search engines, most of you aren't aware of Archie, Excite or Lycos; you only know Google. You don't use Second Life, MySpace or Friendster; you use Facebook. Typically one company or platform dominates the entire market, and that's likely to happen with cryptocurrency.

Will Bitcoin be the cryptocurrency of the internet?

I would hedge my bets and say it most likely be the one that positions itself at the top of all cryptocurrencies as it's leading the race by a country mile.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, said, "The internet is consensus-driven and built by everyone, and anyone can change its course. Bitcoin has the same patterns, and it was built on the internet. I think the internet wants a native currency. And I think Bitcoin is probably the best example of that so far.

Ultimately money is just about mass adoption, and it's about everyone agreeing that it's an exchange of value. As it stands now, Bitcoin is the closest to getting this done. Most people haven't heard of Polkadot, Terra, or XRP. But you ask the average person on the street if they could name a cryptocurrency; they will likely mention Bitcoin.

How to Invest in Bitcoin?

Essentially, there are three steps that you need to take in order to buy Bitcoin. First, you need a wallet - the same as you do with cash. Bitcoin is no different, aside from the fact that the wallet in this instance is digital. Somewhere to process transactions and store it somewhere safe.

There are two types of wallets available to you -

Software wallet, which runs on your computer or mobile device. Easier if you have a small amount invested in Bitcoin.
Hardware wallet which connects to your computer and is considered a much safer option.

Once you have a wallet, you'll need to buy some bitcoin, and you do this through an exchange. Some of the best-known examples are Coinbase, Electrum, and Mycelium. Lastly, once you have bought Bitcoin through an exchange, you must withdraw the funds from the exchange and send it over to your wallets. It's a relatively simple process.

Is bitcoin a good investment or not?

The best way to think about investing is through the lens of risk and reward. How much can you afford to lose? Alternatively, how much can you stand to gain, and what are the chances of each.

Let's start with the risks of Bitcoin - Step away from all the Bitcoin hype for a minute. I know it is the sexy thing to invest in at the moment, and many of you want to be part of the conversation. Sexy or not, investing in cryptocurrency is a risk much like any other investment, and there is a chance you could lose all of your investment

Bitcoin is a currency that is 100% technology-based. It's reliant on people accepting it and eventually using it as a currency. As time goes on, more and more people are learning about it, accepting it and using it. But it's in its infancy stage; there is no guarantee that people will continue to do so in the future. Your investment disappears if everyone decides to sell it and not think about it anymore.

On the other hand, however, the potential reward for Bitcoin is huge. Its reward is much higher than the risk. Let's look at the reward. I'm going to give you a path for measuring this. Take gold, for example. Gold is similar to Bitcoin in many ways. Although gold is physical, it doesn't have much use other than as a store of value. It can be mined just like Bitcoin. It has a limited supply, just like Bitcoin. It's used as a safety hedge from an economic crisis, just like Bitcoin. So if we look at the total worth of all of the gold in the world, it comes to around $12 trillion. As I write this article, Bitcoins' total market cap is approximately $600 billion, roughly 20 times smaller than gold.

If Bitcoin were to grow to the same market cap as gold, which many experts believe it could, you could see 10 / 20 / 30 times return on your investment. I'm not saying it will get there, but it could.

That's why so many people see Bitcoin as a sound investment. In a nutshell, there's a lot more potential to gain than there is to lose. So you're on the right side of the risk-reward equation.

However, you don't want to bet your house that Bitcoin will go up. Let's not forget that the smart investor diversifies his investment portfolio and never puts all his eggs in one basket. Or all his chips on the black would be a more appropriate analogy. So you only really want to invest what you can afford to lose.

Schemmer's, scammers and bullshit artists

And lose, many people have. But not necessarily through investing in crypto itself, but through some fake guru or so-called expert flogging some bullshit training course, claiming to have the blueprint for successful crypto trading/investing. In my travels over the years, I have met many people who have invested in forex and futures trading courses, and the crypto courses available today are no different. For the best part, they are absolute bollocks, and I've never met anyone who has amassed significant wealth off the back of attending a get rich quick investing course.

Then you have the computer geeks flogging “MONEY MAKING MACHINES” - AKA crypto mining rigs. This strategy has been proven NOT to work, exposed by Mike Winnet, who hosts the Contruprenuer youTube channel. I also recommend checking out the Tim Ferris Show, where he interviews people far more qualified to talk on such matters.

Conclusion

I wouldn't bet my entire life saving on cryptocurrency; nevertheless, at the end of the day, Bitcoin has the potential to be a superior currency in years to come. The immediate flawed money system we are faced with is inflation. You have governments printing money like it's going out of fashion, devaluing the pound by the second.

Plus, governments are playing god, judge and executioner by dictating how, when, and on what terms we can trade for business and make an honest pound. A hard pill to swallow when the buffoon Boris Johnson continues to do what the hell he likes and faces no consequences.

Beginners Guide to Crypto & Bitcoin