Beginner’s Guide #10: Buying, Spending and Earning Bitcoin with Matt Odell

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“Bitcoin is all about personal responsibility; there is no customer support line. You have to take matters into your own hands and make sure that your Bitcoin is safe and secure.”
— Matt Odell

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Skype
Date: Monday, 3rd February
Project: Tales from the Crypt & Rabbit Hole Recap
Role: Co-host

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing. 

Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world. 

The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift. 

Beginners Guide Part 10 - Buying, Spending and Earning Bitcoin with Matt Odell

Most people looking to buy Bitcoin for the first time will use an exchange such as Kraken or Coinbase because they offer a simple way to buy and sell Bitcoin. Using your debit card or bank transfer, you can quickly swap your fiat currency into Bitcoin. 

Once you have bought Bitcoin, you will receive it in your wallet on the exchange. While some exchanges such as Kraken pride themselves on their security, these custodians, who look after hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin are a prime target for hackers. Exchanges are continually fighting off attackers, and many exchange hacks have led to significant losses for those holding their Bitcoin with them.

In Bitcoin, if you don't control your private keys, you don't own your Bitcoin. That means the first thing you should do once you have bought your first Bitcoin is to move it to a wallet you are in control of.

Buying on an exchange isn't the only way to get your hands on Bitcoin. While many buy their Bitcoin, Andreas M. Antonopoulos encourages people to, instead, earn Bitcoin. 

While countries like New Zealand have taken steps to make paying employees in Bitcoin easier, it is still not an option that's available to everyone. So, if your employer won't pay you in Bitcoin, how else can you earn it?

Bitcoin cashback is one way of increasing your holdings. Services like Lolli and Fold, offer cashback from retailers, including Amazon, Starbucks, Expedia and hundreds more. With sats back credit cards coming, there are now many ways to stack sats without buying Bitcoin.

In Part 10 of the Bitcoin Beginner's Guide, I talk to Matt Odell, co-host of Tales from the Crypt and Rabbit Hole Recap. We discuss the best way to buy Bitcoin, privacy as well as how to spend and earn Bitcoin.

TIMESTAMPS

00:05:01: Introductions
00:05:43: Why do people buy Bitcoin?
00:10:19: Hedging against inflation and currency collapse
00:13:54: First Bitcoin purchases
00:15:51: Irreversible payments in Bitcoin
00:16:34: Anonymity in Bitcoin
00:18:18: Tax in Bitcoin
00:18:35: Private key security
00:21:29: Setting up a wallet
00:24:51: Hardware wallets
00:27:23: Where to buy Bitcoin
00:32:24: Considerations before buying Bitcoin
00:34:44: Spending Bitcoin
00:37:58: Earning Bitcoin, including discussing Lolli and Fold
00:41:13: Mining Bitcoin
00:42:36: Privacy when transacting
00:46:51: Volatility
00:48:16: Trading
00:49:17: Alt coins
00:52:46: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

PodcastPeter McCormack