As millions across the globe now begin to make their first foray into the world of crypto, this new world might seem exciting, but much more than just a game.  

Here are seven key tips to help get you started in the crypto market.

1. Make sure you understand not just how to buy but also how to sell and exchange crypto to your flat currency.

It’s not exactly easy to walk into a grocery store with 100 Dogecoin and pay for your groceries, so it’s fundamental you’re aware of how to buy, sell and withdraw your cryptocurrency so it’s easy to access.

Many crypto platforms make this process easy to do, but it’s not always clear cut. 

2. Diversify your portfolio, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

This is one of the most common rules when it comes to any form of investment – it’s important that you aren’t relying on just one investment to give you a return on your cash. If this one investment goes big, great, but if it doesn’t, you could come out wearing a loss, and a big one at that. 

Investing is a game of risk, and when you do it right, the reward can be astronomical. But if you do it wrong, you could find yourself in a much worse spot than you began. Be smart about where you put your cash.

3. Always do your due diligence.

Crypto isn’t just Bitcoin. There are thousands of different varieties of currency out there – some with very different methods of management and levels of return. 

Don’t ever buy something simply because it looks good. Do your background, chat to some people, read some forums and make an informed decision.

4. Check the price history and developer activity before picking a project to invest.

Some of the best due diligence you can take is looking at the detail behind a particular project. Price histories are usually a great place to start. Are you buying in a dip? What’s the recent trajectory of the stock?

Developer activity is always key. Is the project simply artificially inflated?

5. Timing is everything.

Beware of FOMO and FUD – don’t buy because of FOMO and don’t sell because of FUD – always check the factors before you buy or sell.

With a growing market comes a growing investor base. While you may be seeing indications a certain currency might be rocketing towards the moon, a lot of this might simply be hype. 

Always make smart investment decisions, and don’t rely simply on Reddit to tell you where you should be investing.

6. Never invest more than what you can afford to lose.

Another key tip when it comes to any form of investment. If you’re relying on what you’re investing to put food on the table, chances are you probably shouldn’t be investing in the first place.

The world of crypto trading is rewarding and exciting, but it’s also risky. The risk of losing everything can never be eliminated, and it’s important you don’t find yourself in a position of struggling to afford to live.

7. Think long term.

Avoid keeping all your money in exchanges if you would like to trade on a day to day basis, do that with only a portion of your portfolio and keep the rest in a secure wallet. 

Choose only a trusted exchange for trading and always secure your wallet’s private keys. Trading is perfectly fine, but you shouldn’t, ideally, trade more than 30% of your crypto assets.

Often the best returns will be seen from longer-term investments. Keep an eye on your portfolio, but know that sometimes things take time. 

Blockchain, the decentralised digital ledger, became so important as the application it put up, the virtual currency Bitcoin rose to fame with massive adoption. The technology, that further developed in to the public and private sectors, has attracted worldwide attention for its ability to permanently register and track assets or transactions in all industries. Artificial intelligence is one of the technology sectors that attracted large funds to the technology this year.

The European blockchain company, The Bitfury Group, is setting up its artificial intelligence division (IS), the company’s chief executive officer told Reuters in a recent interview. Data is becoming the next oil, says Valery Vavilov, co-founder and CEO of the firm. He added that the company collected so much information that only 2% of this data could be analyzed so far; 98% is still awaiting analysis.

According to reports, the unit of artificial intelligence is still exploring the range of products it offers, and more details are expected by the end of this year or early next year.

Bitfury is supported by significant investors, who collected $ 80 million from risk firms such as Digital Galaxy, Macquarie Capital and Dentsu. The blockchain company was also exploring the making of an initial public offer or IPO last year, possibly in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong.

The house is for sale for a price between € 250,000 and € 300,000. But Hanekamp prefers to receive hard bitcoins for his house. Hanekamp: “It’s useful because I don’t have to change. There’s a lot involved. You have to go to a mortgage advisor, you have to deal with the interests again.” According to De Brabander, a transaction with bitcoin means that it will mainly have fewer administrative problems. When Hanekamp has sold his house, he goes on a trip to the motor home: “The value could well be one million per coin, so I buy a much nicer house.”

Therefore, Bitcoin is particularly useful in this situation to avoid several intermediaries. Bitcoin is a payment method, but it is by no means suitable for all situations. That does not prevent an Arnhemmer from shopping with BTC. A Redditor proudly shows the receipt of your purchases. The sumBTC user has paid very well through the Bitcoin Lightning Network for, among other things, some nuts and fish sticks.

It is an official payment method in the corresponding supermarket. In many places on the Internet you can already pay with bitcoin, but physical stores do not yet support it. If you still want to pay with bitcoin or other crypto currencies, it depends, for example, on a debit card like Coinbase. In this specific store there is a way to pay directly with bitcoin and the second fast layer called Lightning Network. A scan of the QR code and it’s ready.

In order to sort out 203,769 transactions for a total of $ 6 billion, the research team used a machine-learning algorithm. The results were highly controversial: 77% of transactions were not classified at all, 21% were recognized as full and only 2% were illegal. And yet, researchers confidently state that artificial intelligence can significantly increase the effectiveness of anti-money laundering procedures.

Less than month ago, a similar study was conducted by Chainalysis and, according to its data, the share of transactions in the Bitcoin network related to criminal activity in 2019 is estimated at about 1%. That is, in general, the data from Elliptic analysts are almost no different from the results of a study conducted by Chainalysis. Note that in 2012 this figure was 7%.

Law enforcement agencies often turn to Elliptic for help, especially when it is necessary to identify cases of illegal use of cryptocurrencies. Algorithms developed by the company help determine whether Bitcoin is used for legitimate purposes, for example, by people who do not have access to banking services, or if unknown attackers try to use cryptocurrency for illegal activities.

“Despite the high performance indicators of our algorithms, their use is still fraught with some problems, the largest of which is false positives. The main objective of this study was to reduce the number of such responses. However, the key conclusion is that such machine-learning algorithms are very effective at detecting illegal transactions, ”said Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson.

Robinson also noted that in some cases, the system detected patterns for which it is difficult to find a description, but they corresponded to confirmed cases of illegal activities related to darknet markets, attacks by ransomware and other criminal activity.