Several weeks ago, we posted a few ideas to get you started with cryptocurrency. You know, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some of the other coins and tokens that we discuss on this here forum.

We thought that we’d spend some time today revisiting that idea: How Do You Get Started?

Our goal today is AN ACTIONABLE LIST. A few things to possibly whet your appetite.

We have a few ideas below – and, since this continues to be an experiment, some of the links are going to be different from the last time we did this. As usual, we’ll include a few AFFILIATE LINKS with this post (so we may be compensated if you take some sort of action, like signing up, buying currency, or investing) and we’ll be as blatant as we possibly can when we share one.

Let’s begin.

An Airdrop and This Will Cost You NOTHING

We talked about this “airdrop” last week and it’s still going on. Here’s a link to the POW Token webpage. Simply put, you sign up with your Facebook credentials and the token creators give you a bunch of tokens (or coins).

We have been asked “Why Are They Doing This?” and the best answer to that is that there’s value in a widely distributed network. While the creators make some…interesting…claims on their web page, there is something to the fact that a network with a million people using its product will be much more valuable in the long term than a network with just 30,000 users (which is where it stands today).

For now, think of this as a Western US land grab, and you’re putting stakes in the ground and hoping that it becomes fertile farmland in the future.

Coinbase – STILL the Fastest Way to Get Started

This one will cost you money, but one of the beautiful things about Coinbase (AFFILIATE LINK) is that, for Americans at least, there’s a decent amount of seamless integration between traditional banking and this new economy. The AFFILIATE LINK gives you a $10 bonus (paid in Bitcoin) if you spend $100 on any combination of the three currencies they offer (Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin). (And once you join in, you’ll get your own link and can invite others yourself and possibly be compensated…which is cool with us.)

Trade Coins on an Exchange

While there are a few established exchanges that we’d suggest – Bittrex, Cryptopia (AFFILIATE LINK) and Poloniex are three that we currently use – you should also consider signing up for one of the newer exchanges, too.

• Altcoin Exchange (AFFILIATE LINK) may very well be lucrative for you – we know that other exchanges that started this way (through referrals) compensated their early adopters rather richly. Use our AFFILIATE LINK over there, and then start referring others yourself as you see fit.
• WCX  (AFFILIATE LINK) is another one, with an ICO coming in a few weeks.
• COSS is brand new. Not an affiliate link, but we do like the fact it’s based in Singapore and has developers throughout the world.

Passive Income Platforms

Yes, we have been talking A LOT about Passive Income Platforms, or PIPs, that can help you profit with limited amounts of effort. We currently recommend two of them – that’s not to say there aren’t others that are worth your time and investment, but these are the two that we (1) have experimented with and (2) have not let us down.

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! Seriously, with any of these, your coins could end up in a black hole of nothing. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.

• Bitconnect (AFFILIATE LINK) is beautiful, we think, because it is backed by an actual coin, one that has a large market cap (as of this writing, around $1 Billion). The odds of it disappearing are small.
• Bitpetite (AFFILIATE LINK) acts more like a mining platform, in that your “investment” will not be returned to you. However, we now have a nine-week track record of daily payments from the site; note that payments are larger during weekdays than weekends.

An Actionable List?

That’s our hope. You can spend a couple minutes on the first one and it costs you nothing, then, if you’re ready to invest some real money, you can consider trying the other ones out.

In any event, don’t invest more than you can afford to lose…once you get started in this world, it might get a little addictive.