Investing into Cryptocurrencies as a Kenyan review

After a long time debating like Williams Shakespeare or like a teacher checking out their student's pencil (this is a to be or not to be joke, in case you're wondering), I finally decided to throw money into a venture that will shape my life as currently is, and that is, the cryptocurrency space.

For those that don't know what cryptocurrencies are, allow me to quote a short excerpt from our very friendly neighborhood source of information, Wikipedia.

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a collection of binary data which is designed to work as a medium of exchange. Individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger, which is a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. Cryptocurrencies are generally fiat currencies, as they are not backed by or convertible into a commodity.

The tldr of all that is that cryptocurrencies are an alternative to current fiat currencies such as the US dollar.

Frustrations

I know, I know, it's very weird to start a blog post with the frustrations faced but this is the first thing I remember about starting out in crypto.

1. Very annoying KYC procedures

The most frustrating part about getting started with investing in cryptocurrencies is completing the centralized exchanges (more about this a bit further down) procedures. Well, the research and heart breaks are the most annoying but I think I'll have to dedicate an entire blog post to that. It typically involves you proving to the exchange that you're an actual human and them being able to identify you by providing either your national ID or passport and a photo of yourself.

2. No one cares about third world countries

I believe there is a huge opportunity to anyone who decides to focus on easing the process of converting fiat from countries such as Kenya, Nigeria etc etc into other currencies at a cheaper rate. This is because our current banking system adds at least a 5 shilling difference to the current exchange rate(daylight robbery if you ask me).

Also, (I'll just mention them but please don't sue me, I don't have money) in some exchanges such as Coinbase, they allow you to buy crypto using your bank card but you can't take profits, and/or sell whatever you've bought because they do not “support” our country yet. Why though?

Most of these centralized exchanges (except Binance and Kucoin, God bless those people) will not allow you to buy crypto unless you're from a non third world country. The transaction costs you have to incur for any purchase(except for P2P purchases) should be investigated as a criminal offence, especially if they have to convert to another currency such as from KSH to USD.

3. The heartbreaks

Disclaimer: If you have high blood pressure, or any heart related issues, I highly advice against investing in cryptocurrencies

The price fluctuations that occur in cryptocurrencies in general are mind blowing to say the least. One moment you're 30% up in profit and smiling at the beautiful green graphs, the next moment you're 80% down in losses because some media personality(not mentioning names because, like I said above, I cannot afford being sued) said they don't trust all cryptos.

The only constant with cryptocurrency investments in general is that you should always do the opposite of what those get rich, checkout this 10x altcoin, you wouldn't believe, crypto you-tubers say you need to do. Also, that you need to do your own research, a heart of steel and diamond hands if you want to survive in this type of investment.

At least you don't make losses until you sell, so take heart.

4. The scammers

If I had a penny to invest in crypto for every time I have received a “once in a lifetime offer” immediately I've joined a telegram group, I'd be a crypto millionaire by now. If someone is promising you ridiculous returns for doing absolutely nothing, it is more than likely a scam. If you're being persuaded to join a group and/or asked to reveal your seed phrase, then you're one step away from being scammed.

If you see a link that promises to double your crypto if you send it to a specific wallet, that's a scam. If you receive a very enticing message from a super good looking girl, that you don't know, just block that man before you lose all your hard earned money. Trust no one, except me of course, you can trust me with all your seed phrases and passwords. I'm joking by the way, but you're still free to send me all your personal information.

5. Forget about your social life

If you have decided to join the cryptocurrency investment club full time, then forget about your free time and social life. You'll find yourself either reading some cryptocurrencies white paper and conducting research or staring at very disappointing graphs every second of your day.

Also, if you make the fatal mistake of introducing your friends and family to some coin, then you'll have no friends because immediately they buy the coin it will immediately dip by at least 30% and they'll blame you for it. Who needs friends and family anyway when you have crypto though, am I right?

Gems of Wisdom

If you decide to make the same mistake I made by committing your life to the blockchain cult(it's a joke for those highly religious people who will eventually find this blog post), I'll at least try and help you deal with the issues by offering these very few words of the wise.

1. Lower your expectations. That altcoin you just dived into will not go up by 100000000% in the next two days. Actually, it might do the exact opposite and you'll lose all your savings.
2. Only invest what you're willing to lose (This should actually be number one). If you put too much money into crypto, you'll be emotionally attached and this will affect your normal day to day life. In short, you'll get rekt(recked)
3. Do your own research. This does not mean watching crypto YouTubers talk about how amazing a project is. Actually DYOR(Do your own research), read about the project, checkout how many people are invested, how much is invested, what the underlying blockchain is trying to solve and the project's tokenomics(research about this too)
4. You don't make any losses unless you sell, neither do you make any profits. Take profits when need be and cut your losses if a certain project will not go anywhere in the long term.
5. If a project is being hyped too much on social media, stay completely away from said coin.This applies to those get rich quick coins everyone is advertising
6. Don't try to time the market. If you've made profits take that as a win and forget about the ifs.
7. Save your seed phrases securely so that you will be able to recover your wallet in case of anything.
8. If you do not have enough money to pay for a hardware wallet and/or to transfer money to your own wallet, it's okay to just leave it on the exchange. For small scale investors(I'm talking about people like me who are buying approximately $10 of crypto), it's not worth incurring the transaction costs, especially on ethereum where the transaction cost is usually higher than whatever you're trying to send.
9. If you can buy via P2P(peer to peer) instead of buying directly from the exchange, kindly do as it usually is a lot cheaper, but do the math before buying first.
10. DO NOT USE YOUR USUAL EVERYDAY NORMAL CREDIT CARD ON EXCHANGES. I've written in all caps because it is very crucial to know of this. If you do use a credit card that holds all your money to buy from exchanges, you're raising the chances of you being hacked and having all your money transferred from your bank account.
11. In case you don't know what to buy but still want to keep your money in digital format, you can buy a stablecoin(mainly those backed by the US dollar) such as USDT, UST, USDC, BUSD, DAI just to mention a few. These coins do not fluctuate as much as they are pegged to the US dollar.

Final Remarks

I know you're wondering why I've finished this blog post this quickly whereas there is a lot I haven't talked about yet. I'm also wondering the same as well. I didn't want to write a very long blog post, but do not worry, a part two is coming very soon where I'll give more insight on what to do and what not to do and how to get started with cryptocurrency.

I am also not paid by any company(as of this blog post), so you can be assured that these posts are my own personal, of course biased, opinions on my journey as a crypto investor.