Welcome back Magic Crypto NFT friends,

And it’s been a long weekend and we’re still getting ready for the big new year event. Like everyone else in the world, I am staying put indoors and avoiding big groups and parties until this omicron thing dampens down.

So I made a list for new crypto curious people of essential skills to have. The truth is that you should really understand the mechanics of crypto trading before you go all in on NFT trading and collecting. The dynamics are similar and the two types of tokens, fungible and non fungible, will eventually have somewhat similar user interface logic as we go forward.

This advice is really for people who are really very nervous and new in the crypto and NFT space.

1. Start easy by opening an account in a centralized crypto exchange. I recommend coinbase because it has one of the easiest and clearest onboard interfaces for understanding and exchanging  crypto. (This is how I started as well).
2. Get yourself a crypto wallet. Again I recommend the coinbase wallet which is separate from the coinbase exchange although they are both from the coinbase company. I primarily use the Coinbase app on an iPhone. I never go on an actual laptop or desktop computer. Coinbase wallet and coin base exchange are both separate apps in the Apple iOS App Store.
3. In your learning phase, allocate something as low as $100 to convert into crypto and use that as your main trading account. Don’t go crazy and put your savings into crypto until you’ve learned the basics of exchange and currency transfer and most important all the security and recovery phrase procedures that you will need to know.
4. In your trading account on a centralized exchange, converting and adding money is relatively easy like using a banking app or a payment app like PayPal or Venmo. To keep in mind that transaction costs are low because you don’t really hold the keys to your own crypto, it’s held by the exchange and you are simply recorded as owed an $X amount of crypto. 
5. The purpose of a digital wallet is that you hold the keys to your crypto so you are actually recorded as the owner on the blockchain. Again, start with a small amount to put into your wallet. From the exchange, send some crypto to your wallet. I recommend starting with Bitcoin or Ethereum as your first Crypto Tokens. To send funds from an exchange to your wallet, you need to send the right currency from the exchange to the right wallet address in the right currency as well. You will see that for all transfer transactions going to the Blockchain you need to specify the currency you are sending and you need to receive the wallet address in the right currency from the target destination. Note that some wallets are only ETH or ERC 20 tokens so they cannot receive or send bitcoins. The Coinbase wallet accepts most major currencies but you still need to know the specific address for the currency in the Coinbase Wallet. Note that currencies like Solana and Shibu are not accepted in all digital wallets.
6. The truth is you can do probably most of your transactions in the Coinbase exchange and just keep it there. I know many people who have never used a digital wallet or needed one. However, if you really want to take full advantage of the decentralized world, you will need to learn about wallets, particularly MetaMask and decentralized exchanges.

This should be a good start for now, in the future I’ll probably do a part two with NFTs and other more exotic crypto tokens.

Tips for crypto newbie investors

“Are you willing to lose 1-2% of your entire portfolio? If so, that may be a good allocation, but it is all up to your gambling risk tolerance.”

Think of your crypto stash as your mad money. If you lose value, chalk it up as the cost of learning. Also try not to time or day trade because you will never sleep in this 24 hour trading market. As a small trader, you are at a disadvantage against the whales and institutions who not only have better inside information than you, they also have better analytical tools at your disposal as well as experience. The most important is also to be safe and to never give your recovery phrase or password to connect your wallet to unknown apps or quick money schemes, especially on forum contacts or “help lines”

Generational wealth is freedom: mom turns to crypto and makes money

“The San Antonio resident began investing smaller amounts in cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 before taking the full plunge to leave her 9-to5 job. She acknowledges that cryptocurrency is a risky investment, but her experience in finance and the process of due diligence helps her feel comfortable investing in the space. After gradually investing more, she began to see her investments pay off by early 2021.”

I really do believe the Crypto and NFTphiles have the power to enable previously disenfranchised communities to better manage their wealth beyond the stranglehold of financial advisors.

Wired is keeping it real with metaverses

“More precisely, platforms like Decentraland or the Sandbox sell NFT-based tokens that point to sections of a map in their specific virtual worlds, but those spaces don’t cross over”

What do you think is the metaverse not really the metaverse? I myself think that web browsers are the best example of what metaversus are. Tools that connect things together.

Best sites to mint NFTs

“But, without minting your NFT, you cannot make it a digital asset on legitimate platforms. So, what sites are best for NFT minting?

Minting  is a whole new level of stress but also opportunity, start with a jpegs NFT on OpenSea like everyone else, and MoveOn two more sophisticated NFTs and alternate platforms.

COOL LINKS

Top NFT creators of 2021 – “Here are the top creators whose NFTs raked in the largest amounts of money in 2021 ordered from smallest to largest, according to their rankings on Cryptoart.io.”

This is the less you want to be on as a creator or collector in 2022.

The soul of the new Internet web 3.0  is the digital wallet. – Going back to my thoughts that the web browser best exemplifies a metaverse, the digital wallet could be a metaverse tool for identity and interoperability like a web browser.