ULTIMATE

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

MAX MAHER
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................ 3

Cryptocurrency....................................................... 4

What is BITCOIN?................................................... 5

What is a Blockchain?........................................... 6

How does Blockchain work?................................. 8

What are crypto miners?...................................... 10

What are altcoins................................................... 11

Difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum

( s m a r t c o n t r a c t s , N F T S , m o r e ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 2

Crypto investing & types of crypto investors..... 13

C r y p t o t e r m i n o l o g y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 4

Сгуpto myths.......................................................... 19

Which crypto exchange is best........................... 20

B e s t c r y p t o s t o b u y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2

Crypto portfolio examples.................................... 23

W h a t i s d o l l a r - c o s t a v e r a g i n g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 6

Crypto risks............................................................ 27

Summary.................................................................28
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Cryptocurrencies. Before we
dive deep into the world of crypto, let's take a minute to understand what
a cryptocurrency actually is.

In simple terms, a cryptocurrency is a digital asset based on a

decentralized system that allows you to make secure online payments.
This network is not reliant on any central authority such as a government
or bank.

Now, you might be wondering why cryptocurrencies were created in the

first place, as banks offer the exact same services. Simply put, our current
banking system isn't great and we didn't fully realize how bad it was until
we got a taste of something ten times better.

With the introduction of cryptocurrencies, people were able to make

instant transactions across the globe without heavy fees, long waiting
periods, or government restrictions.

While we do have some front-end systems like Venmo to make small

transactions that seem instant, in reality, there is a ton going on behind
the scenes. That is exactly why 13 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto created
the idea of bitcoin.

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CRYPTOCURRENCY
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that was invented by an
unknown person or group of people under the name "Satoshi Nakamoto".
The currency was created in 2008 but it didn't capture the attention of
people until a few years later.

Since then, this cryptocurrency has been witnessing a megatrend and

recently it reached an all-time high of over $68,000 in November 2021.

Bitcoin is one of the hottest cryptocurrencies in the world. Before Bitcoin,

it wasn't possible to make electronic payments to someone without the
help of a third party. This can be expensive and slow especially when
sending payments to another country.

The fact that banks and payment processors have access to user data and
will sometimes even sell this data for their own benefit makes
cryptocurrencies a very attractive, secure, and anonymous payment
alternative.

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 WHAT IS BITCOIN?
Bitcoin is a new secure digital currency system that provides true peer-
to-peer transactions from anywhere in the world. No third parties, no
middlemen, low fees, and is totally decentralized. Bitcoin is a currency
run by the people, for the people.

A lot of people view the creation of bitcoin as the start of the

democratization of finance, which is giving power back to the people.

Launched in 2008, Bitcoins were created as a reward for a process

known as mining. They can also be exchanged for other currencies,
products, and services.

13 years later, the concept of Bitcoin has proven to work well and people
are realizing its potential. This is why we're seeing the crazy increase in
the price of Bitcoin year over year.

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 WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN?
Now that we know what Bitcoin is, let's talk about the technology
behind it: Blockchain

In simple terms, the technology behind Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

is called blockchain. A blockchain is a growing list of records, called
blocks. These blocks are linked together using cryptography.

Blockchain put simply is a public, verifiable, and tamper-proof ledger of

transactions. They are typically managed by a peer-to-peer network for
use as a publicly distributed ledger.

Blockchain was also popularized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve

as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

To understand the entire structure of a blockchain better, let's break it

down into four parts: Public, Verifiable, Tamper Proof, & Ledger of
Transactions

PUBLIC means anyone can look at the transactions.

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 VERIFIABLE means you can compare the transactions with others to
make sure it looks accurate.

TAMPER PROOF means there's no funny business. This is because there

are so many copies of the transactions that you just can't get away with
changing one copy.

Finally, a LEDGER OF TRANSACTIONS is quite literally a list of all the

transactions. If you buy bitcoin, that particular transaction is added to
the list and it is kept there forever.

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 HOW DOES BLOCKCHAIN
WORK?

To help you understand how a blockchain works, here's an analogy.

This analogy will help you piece all of this together and visualize how
it works in an easy to understand manner.

Imagine you and two of your friends are working together on a

paper in Google Docs. Here, you all can see the doc at any point of
time and you can also see the full history of changes.

If one friend adds a good sentence in there, you can see that he
added it. On the other hand, if another friend adds an incorrect
sentence, you can also see that. This allows you to say, "Hey, you
know what? That sentence is actually wrong. We need to get that
sentence out of here".

This allows you three to come up with an agreement, also known as

a consensus as to how the paper should look. It prevents any funny
business and is totally transparent. That's the general idea of how a
blockchain works.

Why do they call it a blockchain? Well, as transactions are

completed, they're added to the public ledger, and that ledger is
stored in blocks of data.

You can consider each block of data as a little house that fills with
data. Now, visualize the data in the house as furniture.

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 Each house stores three things. Firstly, it stores the transaction data,
which is the furniture. So you know which house is which, not only
does it have an address, but it also has the address of the neighbor.

Now, imagine each house has a sign outside pointing at the

neighbor. This sign displays the neighbor's address. Here is where it
gets really secure and very cool.

A house's address is determined by its contents. Imagine if you

move some of the furniture around inside the house (the furniture
being data). This causes the address of the house to change.

This alerts your neighbor that something has changed. Because

remember: the neighbor knows your old address. This prevents
tampering from happening.

Your neighbor knows that the furniture was moved or that the data
changed. So, if data in the block is changed, neighbors are alerted
and the system knows there is an issue and it can work on solving
the problem.

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 WHAT ARE CRYPTO MINERS?

Now that you understand how a blockchain actually works, let's see
who puts the data in these blocks.

This is done by a network of nodes. These nodes are basically

computer programs that crypto miners run. You can think of crypto
miners as the maintenance crew and the security in our little
blockchain neighborhood.

Crypto miners are responsible for the maintenance and security of

these houses. They're building new houses and they're making sure
everyone's address is still correct.

I know this might be a little bit overwhelming, but don't feel bad if
you need to read this section a couple of times just to really
understand it. But realistically, you don't have to completely
understand it all.

What you actually need to know is that the network Bitcoin exists on
is virtually unhackable and completely transparent. In short, no one
has control over it.

The reason I say virtually unhackable is because it's technically

possible but it would require someone to convince 51% of all Bitcoin
miners to join in this evil scheme. If they joined, they would lose
money so it's very unlikely to happen.

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WHAT ARE ALTCOINS
Over the course of the last 13 years, Bitcoin has gone from a fraction of
a cent to almost $60,000 per coin and everywhere in between.

During this time period, many other projects have emerged, all hoping
to use blockchain technology for better uses.

These new coins that have popped up are referred to as Altcoins.

One of the first projects to really take advantage of blockchain

technology for more than just a currency was Ethereum (ETH).

The major difference is that Ethereum's network also has tokens that
are completely programmable.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BITCOIN AND
ETHEREUM (SMART CONTRACTS, NFTS, &
MORE)

Instead of just being a currency, Ethereum can be anything else

including images and videos which are known as NFTs, contracts
called smart contracts, and much more.

Innovation in blockchains did not stop there. Several projects have

been popping up lately, all of which use blockchain technology in new
and creative ways.

One example is Vechain (VET). VeChain is a blockchain network that

aims to help track and maintain real-world goods in supply chains.

There are perfect real-world use cases for cryptocurrencies that

are being explored as we speak, and the outlook for this industry
is quite positive.

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 CRYPTO INVESTING & TYPES OF
CRYPTO INVESTORS
Now that you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals, let's
talk about crypto investing. Bitcoin and all the other altcoins fluctuate
in price like there's no tomorrow. Crypto prices could swing 8% in sixty
seconds and no one would think twice about it.

This isn't your S&P 500, let me tell you that. Of course this attracted
investors looking to diversify as well as "wall street bets" apes looking
to yolo their life savings into an altcoin.

Realistically speaking, there are two types of investors in crypto. If

you're reading this, I think it's very important to decide which type of
investor you're aiming to be before you plan on investing.

The first type is a HODLER, this is the type of person who's in it for the
long run.

A HODLER invests in projects that they feel have strong underlying

value and regardless of price swings, they don't plan on selling in the
near future. This is because HODLERs feel like the project they're
invested in will be worth significantly more in the long run. This type of
investor typically stays away from small projects or at least minimizes
exposure to them.

The second type is a swing trader. This is someone who's looking to

cash in on those eight percent swings that I mentioned earlier. Swing
traders speculate on the short-term price movements of a crypto in
order to make a fast return on their money in exchange for occasional
losses.

No matter what your investing style is, it's always good to learn more
and to have a community around you.

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 CRYPTO TERMINOLOGY
Now, let's talk about crypto terminology. This will help you better
understand any future YouTube videos or articles that you come
across, and also help you sound a little bit smarter-er at work.

We're going to rapid-fire some words and brief definitions, so feel free
to read this section a couple of times if you really want to understand
them properly.

ALTCOIN
Altcoin is any cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin. It can be considered as
an alternative option to Bitcoin.

BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchain is a secure and decentralized ledger system. This is the
technology behind most cryptocurrency networks.
.

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 FIAT
A currency that's backed by a government. The U.S. dollar is a fiat
currency.

CRYPTO ADDRESS
This is a destination for a cryptocurrency being sent. It's no different
than when you mail something with the post office, you write an
address on it, and the mail goes to that address - except it's with
crypto.

EXCHANGE
A crypto exchange is somewhere where you can exchange one crypto
for another or exchange fiat for crypto.

There are centralized exchanges like coinbase and there are

decentralized exchanges like uniswap.

Decentralized exchanges are not controlled by any one entity unlike

centralized exchanges.

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 dApps
dApps are decentralized applications, hence the "d". This is any
application that runs on a network that is decentralized. All
applications running on ethereum are dApps.

DeFi
DeFi is decentralized finance. Just as simple as dApps, it's a blanket
term for anything financial that is the decentralized alternative to
traditional finance. For example, getting a crypto loan would be
considered DeFi.

GAS FEES
A Gas fee is a small fee, depending on the network that you pay for
sending crypto to a specific address. This is an important part of
crypto-systems because it prevents spammers and helps uphold the
network.

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 MINING
Mining is a process where computers solve complicated math
problems called hash problems in order to earn the right to verify new
transactions on a network and be paid in that network's currency.

STAKING
Staking is the process of locking up your cryptocurrency to help
facilitate the network. In return, you're paid back that cryptocurrency
as passive income.

HARD FORK
This is when a significant change is made to a crypto. It is similar to a
software update. In some cases, a crypto forks into two separate
currencies: a new version and an old version. Most of the time, this
doesn't happen, but there have been instances where the previous
version remained due to disagreements, and a new version crops up.
Bitcoin cash is an example of this. It's a product of a Bitcoin hard fork
that created Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash.

SMART CONTRACTS
This is a core feature that makes Ethereum so great. Smart contracts
are like legal contracts, but they are digital. They are created, managed
and executed by the network. Therefore, no middleman is involved.

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 MARKET CAP
This is the total value of all coins in circulation put together of a specific
cryptocurrency.

The market cap of a coin is helpful in determining the value of a crypto

project.

Remember: the PRICE OF A COIN DOESN'T MATTER, the MARKET CAP

DOES. Always look at the market cap when you're comparing
cryptocurrencies

WHALE
This is someone who owns a notable chunk of one crypto. A whale is
really anyone with enough holdings of one crypto to move the price
when either buying or selling.

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 CRYPTO MYTHS
Now that you know the terminology, let's talk about crypto myths that
you may have heard of before.

Myth number one: "Crypto is a bubble".

Well, this isn't necessarily true or false. Some people think that crypto
is just one big joke and it's this huge speculative trading bubble of
people moving money around that's bound to collapse any day now.

Others think cryptocurrencies will be used for literally everything, but

the reality is: crypto is likely somewhere in the middle. However, it's still
very hard to determine how much these projects should be worth and
if they are overvalued or not.

Myth number two: "Crypto is just gambling".

Well, there's no denying that crypto is highly speculative. But the

reality is that a lot of crypto projects aim to have real-world value.
Projects like Ethereum have actual real-world value and help users
solve problems.

Myth number three: "Governments can ban crypto anytime, and

then it's going to zero".

Well, there are governments who just simply dislike cryptocurrencies

because criminals take advantage of the anonymous nature of crypto
networks. But at the end of the day, governments don't really have
much control over the currencies themselves.

While they can do everything in their power to prevent people from

using fiat to buy crypto, it will continue to exist. Plus, there will always
be certain countries who embrace crypto and will benefit from that.
This is bound to pressure other countries into accepting it.

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 WHICH CRYPTO EXCHANGE IS THE
BEST

Now that you're all caught up to speed, let's talk about how you can
actually buy crypto.

If you are brand new to crypto investing, you should definitely stick to
centralized exchanges because they are much easier to use.

Here are two centralized crypto exchanges that I personally use.

The first one is Coinbase. Coinbase is the most popular exchange for
beginners and for a good reason.

Coinbase offers a really easy-to-use and intuitive UI and many fiat

options. One big downside though is they have high fees. But despite
their high fees, if you're brand new to crypto and everything in this
guide is new to you, I would still highly recommend going with
Coinbase and not worrying about the next option, until you get used to
crypto in general.

The second option, the one that I primarily use is Kucoin. Kucoin is
great for your all-around crypto needs.

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 They have extremely low fees and a vast selection of altcoins that you
can buy, stake, and lend. In general, they offer a lot more options,
although no exchange is perfect.

So, why do I recommend Coinbase to beginners? Firstly, there's a

higher learning curve. Kucoin is far harder to use than Coinbase, and
second, they don't support fiat transfer.

In order to get money onto Kucoin, you actually need to use another
exchange like Coinbase to first buy crypto and then transfer it over to
Kucoin.

Kucoin paired with Coinbase is a pretty awesome option. But again, if

you are brand new to crypto, don't worry about Kucoin. Just use
Coinbase as it's super easy to use. You can create an account in both
these exchanges with the buttons below.

COINBASE

KUCOIN EXCHANGE

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 BEST CRYPTOS TO BUY
Now that you're all set up and ready, you might be wondering which
crypto you should buy? Well, what you buy should really be based on
your personal risk tolerance. Bitcoin and Ethereum are considered
lower-risk options when it comes to crypto.

Generally, beginners should stick to buying those two until you're

more familiar with everything else. Bitcoin is a store of value for
millions of people and companies and it's unlikely to disappear.

Ethereum is the backbone of thousands of blockchain projects and

that's unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon as well.

If you're looking to invest in crypto but want to minimize your risk,

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the way to go. However, it's worth noting
that despite being lower risk in the long term, they still can fluctuate
pretty heavily on a day-to-day basis.

Now, let's say you're willing to take on a little bit more risk and you
want to put your money in more than just Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Well, I have many videos on my channel diving deep into various
crypto projects like Cardano, Solana, Chainlink, V chain, and more that
can help you make better investments.

However, always make sure to do your own research before buying

anything. Never buy a cryptocurrency just because someone tells you
to.

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 CRYPTO PORTFOLIO EXAMPLES

Now, let's look at four portfolio examples so you have a better idea of
potential options for your very own crypto portfolio.

We're going to call the first portfolio: BIT-THEREUM.

This portfolio is for those investors who don't want to learn much
about crypto and want fairly low-risk. This portfolio is 50% Bitcoin and
50% Ethereum.

This is probably the lowest risk crypto portfolio, but again, that's low-
risk in the long term. There can still be heavy day-to-day price
fluctuations.

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 The second portfolio we're looking at is: I DABBLE IN CRYPTO. This
portfolio mainly consists of Bitcoin and Ethereum to reduce risk, and a
small portion is larger altcoins like Cardano, Polkadot, and Chainlink.

The third portfolio we're going to look at is: MR BALANCED. This

portfolio is a balance of all the top cryptos weighted slightly towards
larger projects with lower risk.

This is a popular portfolio for those investors who want some of the
potential upsides of smaller altcoins but still want to stay fairly
grounded in terms of risk.

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 The fourth and final portfolio we're going to look at is: ALTCOIN GORE.

This portfolio is made up of a little bit of everything with very little

regard to risk. But to be honest, if you're new to crypto, stay away from
portfolios like this.

Although creating a portfolio that includes several altcoins is not

exactly a horrible idea, it will most likely require a lot of work,
rebalancing, keeping up with the news, and has far more risks

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 WHAT IS DOLLAR-COST
AVERAGING
Now, let's talk about Dollar-Cost-Averaging. Due to the volatile nature
of crypto, it's probably not the best idea to go and throw all your cash
into crypto at once. If you buy all at once, you might end up buying at a
peak or at an inopportune time.

Therefore, a good option to avoid this is Dollar-cost-averaging. This is

where you slowly buy in overtime over the course of days, weeks or
even months depending on how much you have to invest. This
method averages out your buy-in price so you're not buying on peaks
or on valleys.

Dollar-cost-averaging prevents you from getting super lucky but also

prevents you from getting super unlucky. In simple terms, you're
hedging your bets.

Put it this way: would you rather flip a coin before you eat to see if the
meal is going to cost you $10 or $30? Or would you rather just pay $20
every single time and get your meal. This is exactly how Dollar-cost-
averaging works.

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 CRYPTO RISKS
Throughout this guide, we've gone over everything that you need to
know before you invest in cryptocurrencies. So, let's quickly remind
ourselves of the risks of crypto before we completely jump in. First off,
crypto is a very volatile asset. Always remember: don't invest your hard
earned money that you need in the near future.

Risk number two is hacking. Cryptocurencies are still a very new

technology. While larger projects and exchanges are quite secure,
smaller cryptocurrencies and smaller exchanges can be vulnerable to
hacking, which of course we need to consider as a risk.

The third risk is human error. Mistakes can and do happen all the time.
For example: sending crypto to the wrong address, or losing certain
security passphrases. The thing about crypto is it's not reversible.
There's no customer service for you to call. That's why you need to
double-check everything before you make any decisions. You can
watch tutorials on everything that you're unsure of, and don't be afraid
to do that. You're doing it here already so you're ahead of the game.

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 SUMMARY
Throughout this guide, we've covered everything that you need to
know about cryptocurrencies. This information will help you make
better investment decisions and select the right cryptos for your
portfolio.

My recommendation is to simply learn as much as you possibly can by

watching videos, reading books, articles, and staying up-to date with
the crypto universe.

However, investing in cryptocurrencies is subject to market risk, so

always "do your own research" before you invest your hard earned
money into any asset.

This concludes our beginner's guide to cryptocurrencies. Thank you

for reading and I hope you have a profitable day!

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