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Crypto currency bitcoin etc? Best way to buy, sell convert….

AlanJ

AlanJ

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5Years
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
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Leeds, West Yorkshire
Decided it’s time for me to take a look at this crypto stuff. I know almost nothing about it, so looking for beginners advice.

I remember years ago (circa 2011) having a look at bitcoin and having to download some software to my pc which created a wallet and I got a bit coin or 3, then never did anything with it. I guess that’s all lost forever! Ha.

What are the options today to buy, use, sell bitcoin please?

I saw kraken app, but no idea if they’re any good?

Any help advice appreciated. Thanks.
 
I've used Kraken for a few years and have no complaints. I'm sure there are other options, I used Bitstamp for many years but fairly recently they put their fees up.. too much for the small amounts I was buying.
Self custody wallets are the way in my view, otherwise you're liable to someone else getting hacked or just running off with your money. I use a Trezor device and it's great, I think it was around £100 to buy.

I thought i'd found 6 Bitcoin recently when going through my old computer, turned out to be a fraction of that but was still a few hundred quid. 3BTC would be a nice find for sure. :)
 
Trezor has an app for PC, within that you can see and generate wallet addresses. You make a withdrawal on Kraken with your wallet address as the destination, they charge a small fee I think but nothing too outrageous. There is also a small (<£1) network charge when sending Bitcoin anywhere.
With Bitcoin (and I think most crypto) you have to wait for so many 'confirmations' when making a transaction before it's seen as valid. With Bitcoin this can take a while (20-30 mins) so it's not really suitable for small transactions or if you're in a hurry.
 
What are you hoping to do with crypto? The only stuff you can buy with it is on the darknet, and as an "investment" it's basically a ponzi scam.
 
Fubar said:
What are you hoping to do with crypto? The only stuff you can buy with it is on the darknet, and as an "investment" it's basically a ponzi scam.
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Just as a speculative investment. It’s something I’ve never done and has up tonow, not interested me. Now I’d like to try it and see what happens.
 
Have used coinbase and crypto.com in the past when I used to mine but that was quite a few years ago now and was more for just cashing out what I had mined. Stopped mining after etherium went proof of stake instead of proof of work and the other coins at the time weren't worth mining vs electric prices, did also have a chia farm as well but again stopped when the value of chia dropped to the point of not being profitable, and became able to sell excess solar power from my DIY setup which gave a better use of the generated power.

Did see an advert recently for a water heater that uses an asic to mine and the excess heat from mining heated the water and also gave some payback from mining, no idea if it is actually worth it as mining now I think uses huge amounts of power and likely just cheaper to directly heat the water.

Never tried actually just trading crypto to try and build funds but have considered it, but like stocks and shares there is always risk involved. I think there are rules in place now as well much like eBay, Airbnb etc where any UK investor gets there holdings reported to HMRC so there's that to account for as well.
 
Yep I just signed up for kraken and it had to validate my identity, address, get my tax info etc. So any profits or losses will be taxable capital gain/loss
 
AlanJ said:
Yep I just signed up for kraken and it had to validate my identity, address, get my tax info etc. So any profits or losses will be taxable capital gain/loss
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Yes your total realised gains (after deducting realised losses) will be subject to CGT, depending on the amounts involved and your other tax affairs it may be covered by your £3k CGT allowance per tax year. Bear in mind that crypto-to-crypto transactions are also CGT chargeable events, so say you exchange Bitcoin for Ethereum then you could realise a chargeable gain even though your investments are still wholly in crypto.

If you get into staking or mining, the value of any rewards received are subject to income tax. The £1,000 “trading allowance” is available to set against this income.
 
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