Opus Magnum

Crypto Beginner’s Guide

Below is an easy to use guide to Crypto, beginning with the very basics, so if you are a complete beginner, remain on this page… However, if you are already somewhat familiar and want to understand more about what CRYPTO truly represents, and the potentials it holds, the link below offers a full spectrum, extremely important breakdown of what Crypto Currencies and Blockchain technology truly represent for the world:

The CRYPTO CODE: Philosophical Principles for the Blockchain Generation

Also, for continuous updates join:

Opus Magnum’s Crypto Academy Facebook Group

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Beginner’s Guide

Bitcoin Basics – WHAT IS CRYPTO?

DO NOT BE OVERWHELMED!!! If you are starting from scratch, you are in the right place… Though at first glance it may seem intimidating, Crypto-currencies are very easy to understand and use. By doing so, we are helping to support equality, opportunity and unity on a grassroots level across the globe! Crypto-currencies and Blockchain Technology have the power transform the world into a global community, in which the people take responsibility for their own economy, energy, government, and more! Most people do not yet realize that ‘crypto’ constitutes a new economic structure for the entire planet; much less do they recognize the full implications of blockchain technology, which reach far beyond the economy.

Crypto can create an entirely new way of life for all livings beings on the planet!

We now possess the technology to harness directly and instantly the will of the people – through accountable systems that are watched by all of us, yet identities and private information can be protected. Imagine a world in which every person has a fair say in how things operate… The ‘coins’ and ‘tokens’ you may choose to support, could soon be solving all the world’s greatest problems…

Oh yeah, and while saving the world, you will ‘FINANCIALLY THRIVE’ as well… Like you never thought possible…

[DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. This is for educational purposes only. All investing involves risk. Make sure you understand these risks and only invest what you can afford to lose without jeopardizing yourself or your family. DO NOT GO ALL IN ON YOUR FIRST HAND! If you are a beginner, perhaps try starting with $100 or less and just try to make that amount grow for a week or two.]

TERMINOLOGY

Crypto Currency – Any coin, token or other digital asset that you can hold

Blockchains – networks that securely host crypto holdings/exchanges

Wallets – any place that you can store your crypto currencies

Exchanges – Marketplaces where you can buy, sell or convert coins

Staking/Lending – Earning interest on your crypto

Mining – means of creating new coins (method varies by coin)

Market Cap – the total dollar value of a crypto or market

Volume – a measure of how much a coin has been traded in one day

Circulating Supply – total number of coins in circulation

Stable Coin – coin that is price-locked to an existing currency/market

Decentralized Finance – currency that is not regulated by central authority

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Is it safe, secure? Yes!

Is it ‘too late’/Did I miss out? No! It is just beginning and you can start with a one penny!

Is it risky? No! Set your own risk level, from 100% risk free (stable coins, gold and silver coins, etc…) to taking long shots if you like!

Is it worth the time it will take? YES!!! It will take very little time to get started and you will be very glad that you did! You could be retired within months…

with just a little bit of knowledge…

which is all right here!

First I will cover the WHAT (short version – what are cryptos), then the ‘HOW TO’ (including the WHERE), followed by the WHICH, WHY, WHEN and finally, the WHAT (long version – what does ALL of this mean?) If you choose to read that far, I even approach the root philosophy of Crypto, the political and financial context of it’s origin, the true history (and cost) of dollars and the truly limitless potentials of blockchain technology and Quantum Computing! The short version is, it means the liberation of the human race through direct democracy, made possible by blockchains that can simultaneously provide TRANSPARENCY as well as ANONYMITY and much more. (This is a recipe for solutions to our world’s greatest needs…!) But understand that the basics are quite simple indeed; the ‘How to’ section is all you really need to know in order to transform your own life (RETIRE)…

All these things are inevitable, it is only a matter of how long it takes, and ultimately, that is your choice.

The rest will only help you to do so easier and quicker, and it will be thrilling and exciting, but it could be as simply as placing $10 and checking back in next year… So let’s begin…

What is Crypto?

‘Cryptos’ (or crypto-currencies) are coins or tokens that are stored on a blockchain network. Technically, whether or not all or some of them are currencies (or could be) is somewhat debatable, but for the most part, they are not considered currencies. Rather, they are ‘digital assets’, which, for all intensive purposes, makes them similar to a bottle of wine you might buy, knowing that it’s value will increase with age, and that if you ever wanted to sell it, you could always expect more dollars than you paid for it.

This makes it difficult to tax… If you buy $10 worth of wine, and a year later it’s worth $100, the $90 profit was not income…

Are you going to file capital gains tax on a bottle of wine? Would you pay capital gains tax when selling an old lamp at a yard sale?

You see? It is not so easy to tax… In fact, the only real way to tax it, is when it is converted back into currency…

and the big secret is…

it never has to be converted back!

Crypto is now being accepted directly everywhere! As of this year, it is legal for banks in America to offer ‘digital asset holdings’ in their accounts (crypto accounts at your bank!) and even Paypal and Cash App offer crypto payment options now.

There are even many ‘crypto debit cards’ that simply turn your crypto holdings back into any currency you need, whenever you need! So you can literally spend your Bitcoin anywhere, anytime – at the grocery store, the gas pump, online – it simply converts back to dollars, and perhaps you will be charged sales tax on it, but all the rest of your money is still invested in crypto; still increasing in value…

One of the most popular ‘crypto debit’ cards is called BitPay, which also offers online payment services much like PayPal. CashApp also allows not only easy crypto payments, but also the ‘Cash Card’ which is essentially the same thing. CoinBase is announcing their Coinbase Card and so on. The options abound, more and more each day.

BitPay

Once it’s growth covers your living expenses, you never have to ‘work’ again, unless you choose to… but in that case, you will not work at a ‘job’, but rather, a PASSION…

We are used to holding dollars that naturally depreciate due to inflation, so the dollar’s buying power is constantly dropping… With Crypto, it is the opposite. Bitcoin, for instance, has steadily rose for over a decade straight, from mere pennies to $40,000!!! Volatility has been an issue at times with cryptos, but the truth is, all currencies and all forms of value (markets) have volatility. In the long run though (overall), cryptos are skyrocketing, bringing returns to everyday people that are making stockbrokers and ‘wolves of Wall St’, frankly, quite scared indeed.

Meanwhile, the dollar drops in value year after year…

But not only that, the depreciation of the dollar is bound to exponentially quicken as the ‘dollar machine’ enjoys limitless spending in order to bail out all the rich friends of bankers and corporate CEOs during the pandemic chaos. There is only one result to ‘limitless spending’ and that is hyperinflation. Though it is hard to accept, the dollar’s time is nearly over… Like post war Germany, we may find that we need a wheelbarrow full of cash in order to buy a loaf of bread, sooner than we may think.

As more people realize the benefits of crypto and also realize the dangers the of the Dollar, the world’s wealth will shift into crypto. The sooner you make the shift, the better off you will be. If pushed by the mass announcement of a Crypto-Gold standard, or some other major news, this shift could be kicked into high gear and hastened even more, but eventually, the rate at which crypto appreciates and the dollar depreciates will exponentially increase. And then, worst case scenario, those holding the dollar could be left high and dry… Retirement plans could vanish instantly… OR, retirement plans could be attained very quickly… depending on if you understand this situation right now…

SO, let’s talk about how to get started…

To begin, you will need a WALLET or EXCHANGE where you can buy and hold COINS and TOKENS. There are several types of wallets.

Cold Wallets:

Cold Wallets can be stored offline in a device like Ledger or Trezor (Hardware Wallets). These are protected even with loss of internet or power and are generally accepted as one of the most secure ways to hold crypto. However, Ledger Nano X costs about $120 (see link below), so it’s not usually for beginners, but it is quite worthwhile if you have a significant portfolio. (Don’t worry – most wallets are free…) Also, Ledger Live, the new trading app, conveniently being tied to the Ledger devices, is inconveniently not being offered in the US yet… Anyone (even US citizens) can use a Ledger to store the large variety of coins it supports, but hopefully this live-trading option will also be open to all, soon. Trezor devices are among the leading competitors in the field but cost a little more. The Ledger Nano S however, costs only about $60. When ordering Ledger, you may be asked for some personal info, but last I knew, this was optional so you could opt out or make a new email account to register it with, if you choose.

Desktop Wallets:

Desktop Wallets can be stored on your computer’s desktop (such as Atomic Wallet, which also allows you to CONVERT or TRADE between coins). Desktop wallets have their own benefits as well, especially for those who don’t trust the online wallets or exchanges, but most end up at least starting with this third and final option, as many exchanges have come to be regarded as equally secure, if not more secure, than any online stock exchange, gold or silver exchange, or online banking network.

Online Exchanges:

Exchanges are where you can buy and sell crypto coins. While some exchanges may look like the New York Stock Exchange, others look almost exactly like your own online banking page, in which you can easily shift funds from your checking account to savings account, or pay off a credit account. Of course, the truth is, the dollar IS essentially a crypto currency; the ‘dollar’ consists of merely numbers numbers on computers, and is no more secure than the NEW SYSTEMS being innovated by the crypto community…

Some other popular exchanges are Bittrex, Binance, Kraken, Crypto.com, though initially, many will agree, it is best to start with the very easiest platform… Coinbase is generally considered to have filled that niche – which is really the fundamental principle that generates the ever growing Crypto-Economy itself – solving problems that need to be solved! It is a wise move to begin with what is easy, and Coinbase makes it easy. Yes, you have to give them your information, and tie either a debit card or checking account (or both) to the online account, but they are the most widely trusted and easiest to use (and you can make your secret, anonymous accounts later… or continue reading below to explore that option…). As a bonus, if you use the link below, you will be offered $10 in FREE Bitcoin when you add $100 into your new account, plus Coinbase will give Opus Magnum $10 in Bitcoin as well! (Which is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!)

[Create a COINBASE Account by Clicking Here]

Other Exchanges (not all available in all areas):

CoinMama

It may take a few days to get your first account verified so that you can start holding crypto-coins on Coinbase. When you put money in, you will have the option to convert the Crypto-coins back to cash in your bank at any moment!

or,

you may also keep the ‘money’ conveniently stored in a coin like DAI (a decentralized US dollar ‘stablecoin’) or USDC (US Dollar Coin), both of which always remain tethered to the current price of the US Dollar (generally within a fraction of a penny) and both of which can easily be held and traded in Coinbase…

‘STABLE COINS’

are any coins that are tied to an existing currency, precious metal or other non-volatile investments. This helps you to begin learning with very little risk. I only say very little, because in truth, if you hold cryptos that are tied to the price of the dollar, they will lose value, because the dollar is losing value every day due to inflation… but we can at least feel that our money will not depreciate any faster than it already is in Dollars or Euros for example. So it may be even safer to look into the coins that are now beginning to tie themselves to precious metals like gold and silver. This is an exciting, developing challenge, which many coins are trying create an efficient model for. For now though, it is worth simply mentioning that if you wanted to, you could simply put $100 into a Coinbase acct and keep $99 of those dollars in a DAI, while only converting, $1 to Bitcoin – just to see what happens for a week perhaps, while having the option to drop in a few more dollars when you like.

Or just start with $10.

Or set it to automatically invest $10 per week into your account…

Alternative WAYS TO BUY:

If you want a more immediate option, you can use Instant Exchanges. You can usually buy coins with dollars and other currencies on most Instant Exchanges, generally with a debit card, and on some, you will not have to create an account or share any personal information at all. Instant exchanges also allow you to SEND one coin or token (like Bitcoin for example), have it converted to another coin (like Ripple), and then send it to a Ripple wallet that you specify. So instant exchanges are a quick option for changing one coin for another, and having them show up in any wallet that you trust immediately afterwards (generally within minutes if not seconds, but speed varies by coin and by exchange). Here are a few…

SimpleSwap

This video helps describes how instant exchanges can help you to get coins that may difficult to find if you live in countries or states (like New York in particular) that have severe restrictions on crypto trading. Wall Street has been fighting against the crypto-economy since the start, because they realize that they cannot control it, so they have attempted to impose regulations (such as the BitLicense for NY…) which make it difficult for exchanges to allow services in certain areas. Tezos and Monero are just two coins used as examples in this video, but you will understand that if you have a wallet you trust, and an instant exchange that works, you can hold any coin wherever you are, ideally anonymously…

Much of the ideal behind crypto-currencies has to with decentralizing the economy – in other words, creating a system in which new wealth is shared equally, rather than being created only by the Federal Reserve or international banks. It is an equal and fair system with no one controlling it from the top, though I realize that may sound too good to be true… That is what is mean by the term ‘Decentralized Finance’ or DeFi currencies, and that is what most crypto currencies are generally attempting to accomplish, though it reaches far beyond just.

So to summarize, Crypto-currencies (meaning generally all coins, tokens, ‘digital assets’) are held in wallets, which are kept either on external hardware (Ledger, Trezor) wallets, desktop wallets, or most commonly, especially for beginners, online exchanges like Coinbase (the easiest of all).

Managing Money with Model Portfolios

[Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. I am offering simply, for the means of education, techniques that have helped me to simplify my own finances. They are strategies that you enter at your own risk.]

I plan to expand this section in the near future, but for now I will give some basic steps that could help you immensely…

Let’s assume that you already have a bank and a credit card…

I take all of my bills, insurance, automatic payments of any type and set them all to be automatically paid by my credit card. All gas, food and other goods, I also buy on my credit card.

Then I set my bank account to automatically pay off the entire balance of the card every month from my checking account. This way, every purchase you make helps to build your credit, but it is vital that you make sure your credit card is always paid off entirely, and not just paying the minimum amount due. In other words, if you have a $5,000 credit limit, You must make sure that every month, you begin with the full $5,000 available. Paying the minimum amount due is what leads into a black hole of debt that can easily destroy one’s life…

BUT, if you ensure that the amount is completely covered each month, then your credit rating will rise quickly. Plus, you’re finances will all be seen on your credit card transactions and your bank statements will just show one simple payment per month.

Monitor your outgoing funds on your credit card account so that you are always sure of what your total balance is. Make sure that you always have at least this much in your checking account on whatever day of the month you are billed by the credit card’s automatic payments.

Other than that, keep ALL YOUR SAVINGS STORED IN ASSETS!

Assets can mean anything from dollars to crypto currencies to stocks to precious metals to real estate…

The point being, if you want to outsmart the system, create your own system – in which you begin to build a portfolio of value, diversified as you see fit… Holding dollars in a bank is a mistake. When you borrow money from banks, in dollars this is what they ask from you:

YET, when you give banks your dollars to hold (and to use as they like while they hold!), this is what they give you (per YEAR)!

But THEN, depreciation of the dollar due to inflation takes back 1.36%, so your + .05% in a given year automatically becomes a -1.31%…

MEANWHILE,

in CRYPTO CURRENCIES…

YES – these are returns within a single day!

Add them all up and you will get 35.2 %, divided by the number of coins (10) equals 3.52%.

So, if you had an equal amount in each of these coins, you’re portfolio would increase by about 3.5% in 24 hours, rather than .05% in ONE YEAR of holding it in a ‘Dollar bank’…

Let that sink in…

The above is a snapshot from my portfolio. It is not showing my balances, but only what each coin costs. (For instance, I do not own a whole Bitcoin, but only a small fraction of one.) Granted, the crypto market is having a particularly good day today, but the more people begin to discover crypto, the more days like this we will all be seeing…

Even still, the markets are volatile to some degree, so invest with caution! On the other hand, recognize that the Dollar is actually more volatile than anyone realizes, and due to limitless spending on Covid measures, the Dollar is dangerously close to utter collapse due to hyperinflation…

So you can count on the dollar’s value to drop like never before in the coming year, and you can count on a mass influx of wealth in the crypto market…

Even still, it is always safest to diversify your holdings. You may not think that you have enough to even begin growing a portfolio, but with Crypto, a little bit of knowledge and a tiny bit of cash can make you a millionaire quickly. Even if that is not your goal, the point is that this new economy will transform your life, as much as you need it to.

The more your holdings grow, the more important it becomes to secure it with tangible holdings, like real estate. As a good rule of thumb, always keep at least half of your portfolio in holdings that are nearly guaranteed to hold if not increase in value. If you want to invest in ‘long shots’, like alt coins that may be the ‘next big thing’, do not use any more than 10-20% of your total.

If you keep these principles in mind, and do a little research, you can put your savings to work, and rather than depreciating in value, your account will begin to expand all on its own! Of course, at a certain point, that means that it’s growth will cover your expenses… meaning you are retired…

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