Bitcoin Trading 101: the Newbie's Guide to Buying a Bitcoin

Welcome to the world of crypto currency! You have probably heard a lot about bitcoin and since you would like to test the waters with buying bitcoin as well as exchanging and trading, we have a brief guideline on how you can do just that.

There are only two ways...

For you to get some bitcoins, you can do that in two ways currently:

Bitcoin mining

Buying the bitcoins

Mining bitcoins

Bitcoin mining is basically creating new bitcoins. You will need to instruct your computer to go through a set of mathematical problems. When it has solved them, you get a bitcoin.

There are several challenges associated with bitcoin mining. First, installing the software required to process those mathematical problems is quite tough, as is running it. Second, you can only get a certain number of bitcoins.

Your computer can only create 21 million bitcoins. Even then, this number will be harder to reach because with the increase in bitcoin miners, increasing computing power will be needed to get just one bitcoin. This means that you will need some serious (read: expensive) hardware that uses so much power that you would probably be making nothing at the end of the processing.

Buying bitcoins

Unless you have a way to use Iceland's cheap geothermal energy, it is safe to say that mining is not for you. Next option - you can buy the bitcoins. Here's how to do it:

1.Create a wallet

When you register on bitcoin exchange and trading platforms, you should get a free bitcoin wallet. For instance with bitwallet, you will get a free bitwallet bitcoin wallet where you will keep your public and private keys and use them to conduct bitwallet bitcoin exchange transactions and much more.

At the end of this process, you will get a bitcoin address that you can use to receive payments.

2.Make your request

Here you have the option of buying online or meeting the seller face to face. For instance, you can go to bitwallet - buy bitcoins and then key your location, preferred payment method and the amount of bitcoins you want to buy.

3.Choose a trader

Using your requirements, you can select a trader who wants to sell bitcoins on bitwallet from the list provided. Make sure to check the trader's reputation score, which you can see beside their username on bitwallet.

4.Send a trade request

Click on 'buy' and send a request to your preferred trader. You can conduct your bitwallet bitcoin exchange on the trade messaging interface. Make sure to indicate that you have made your payment.

On receiving the payment, the seller should release the bitcoins to your bitwallet bitcoin wallet, which you should be able to see instantly.

A word to the wise...

As with any online transaction, there are security issues that you need to think about. While most trading platforms do their best to get as much information as they can about the sellers, you need to be vigilant as wel,l so that you are not scammed in any way.

David E is the author of this article on bitwallet. Find more information, about bitwallet bitcoin exchange here.