Crypto Currency
In today’s world, just about everyone has heard of Bitcoin which was created in 2008 and first traded in 2009 and has had a massive 9 Million % astronomical increase since 2010 and how even High School kids jumped in and became multi-millionaires. If you have been following this wild potentially get rich phenomenon like I have you probably have similar questions.
The questions I’ve had included:
Should I buy in?
Is it real?
Am I missing out on the highest economic growth of the century?
Will I lose my money?
Is it a scam?
Will it all fall apart?
Should I wait until it crashes to buy?
Do I need to pay taxes and how do I file, which form do I use?
Which exchange should I use?
Is it truly anonymous?
Which crypto coin should I buy?
Is it safe?
What is cold storage?
What is a crypto wallet and a hot wallet?
What is fiat?
How difficult is the process to get an account, fund it and start buying Crypto?
How difficult is it to get my cash back and how long does it take?
How do I exchange money, cash, credit or debit card for Crypto?
Where are these exchanges located and what are the rules?
Can I get my cash back quickly the same day or when I want to cash out?
Is there a limit on deposits and withdrawals?
What does the language people speak mean when discussing Crypto – copy trader, integrated multisig wallet, hot wallet vs cold wallet, 2FA, staking, fiat-to-crypto trading, crypto-to-crypto, trading pairs, etc.?
Should I stick to the standard investments of Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, Treasuries or short-term cash equivalents, Gold, Silver, Metals or Commodities?
I made the decision: I’m going to test this Crypto thing out!
But first, I need to research all of the questions above plus more to determine how to move forward.
I started reading every week about Crypto and started following the ticker symbol of a few to watch for trends and simply studied comments from people all around the world. I would do a comparison search as I learned more.
Examples:
Kraken vs Coinbase or Kraken vs Coinbase Pro
Bitstamp vs Kraken
Binance vs Kraken
eToro vs CEX.io
GEMINI vs BITTREX
BITFINEX vs BITMEX
Robinhood vs Uniswap
On and on, I compared exchanges, but Kraken kept coming up as one to compare against.
Why buy, why now, why Kraken?
Most people have heard of Crypto currency but most don’t understand it. This is why I think now is the time to open an account and begin funding it to prepare to buy when there is a correction or maybe a new coin that you want to purchase. I believe getting in now is still early enough that demand will continue to increase over time and supply is limited so the limited supply and high demand will eventually drive up pricing. This is speculative but has shown some trending since 2009.
So, based on research, I decided to give Kraken a try. https://www.kraken.com/en-us/
When I started to create an account I wanted to determine what the username and password recommendations were so I opened a chat and I was quickly and efficiently connected to a live chat session and provided these two links to read up on.
Username: Partial Description:
https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029008212-Username-requirements-and-recommendations
Username purpose
The only purpose of the username is for you to sign into your Kraken account in a way that is hard to guess for others. We do not allow sign in via email because by their nature email addresses are shared with others and thus not private.
You should never share your username with anyone. When discussing your Kraken account with a third-party (an accountant, bank, auditor, tax agency, or even Kraken Support), only use the Public Account ID and beware of phishing scams.
Kraken Support is already able to view your username, so they would never ask for it.
Usernames are permanent!
Once created, the username cannot be changed or deleted. So choose carefully and do not include any personal information.
Password:
https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/201396497-Password-requirements-and-recommendations
Password requirements and recommendations
These guidelines are designed to help you create a secure password for your Kraken account.
Password requirements
- Minimum length is 8 characters, maximum is 128.
- Must contain at least one number.
- Must contain at least one special character (e.g. !, @, #, $ etc.) — spaces do not count.
- Cannot contain your username.
- If the password is less than 15 characters long, it cannot contain “common” words (e.g. common passwords or names).
Password security recommendations
- Do not use the same password as on your email address or any other service!
- Use a password managersuch as KeePassXC to generate random passwords (ideally 64 characters or longer) and to keep your passwords safe from theft or forgetfulness.
If you do not want to use a password manager:
- The best passwords are usually nonsensical phraseswith a few misspelled words, capital letters, numbers, or special characters thrown in.
- g. “figurativ should3#3 Hula-sing”
- The phrase should be easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess.
- Famous quotes should be avoided.
Be sure to also check our username requirements and recommendations.
Important: A good password is not enough to secure your account! It’s critical to take advantage of all of our security features, including a Sign-In 2FA for both your Kraken account and for your email account.
Once I set up a username and password they emailed an activation code. It took about 15 seconds to receive the email.
It Read:
Activate your account
We just emailed you an activation code. Enter it below and sign in to get started.
Note: Copy and paste the activation code, enter your password as your username should autofill and you are all set with an activated account. If the username isn’t auto-filled, simply add it.
Next Steps: This is located at https://www.kraken.com/u/trade
- Verify your account for Crypto – Choose from options Personal or Business. Next, select an account type – Starter, Intermediate or Pro. I selected Personal and Intermediate. See requirements for this selection below.
Uploaded front and back of Driver’s license and then had to take a selfie. Uploaded all three pictures each takes about 30 seconds to process.
Response I received: By providing us with some basic information you can start trading with cryptocurrency, or with more information you can get verified to also deposit, withdraw or trade with fiat currency (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.)
The Intermediate option states verified with a check and it was instant after providing the three pictures. Although, it had stated I needed to show proof of address with a utility bill, it didn’t ask for it. Maybe because my driver’s license matched?
Personal:
Starter:
- Full Name – Your Legal name on Passport, Drivers License, etc.
- Email address
- Primary address
- Phone Number
Intermediate: Everything in Starter, plus:
- Occupation
- Social Security Number
- Government Issued ID – Take a photo front and back of driver’s license and upload as an example.
- Proof of residence
- Face verification
If you wanted to go Pro, you would also need the following:
Everything in Intermediate, plus:
- AML verification
- Financial statements
What you get:
Starter
LOW LIMITS
- Deposit & withdraw digital assets
- Buy/sell/trade digital assets
- Trade with margin
Intermediate
HIGHER LIMITS
Everything in Starter, plus:
- Deposit & withdraw with fiat
- Buy/sell/trade with fiat
- Higher funding limits
- Crypto futures trading
Pro
HIGHEST LIMITS
Everything in Intermediate, plus:
- Personalized Funding Limits
- Higher margin limits
- Higher API limits
- Over-the-counter trading
- Fund your account
This is what I received when I went to fund my account with Fiat (USD).
Important information regarding your first fiat deposit:
- There will be a 72 hour withdrawal hold placed on your first fiat deposit amount.
- Additional fiat deposits made during this time will also be held for the remainder of the 72 hours.
- You will not be able to transfer these funds to Staking and Futures until after the 72 hour hold period.
- Deposited funds can be used to trade while the withdrawal holds are in place. Learn more
There is a drop down menu for funding your account, it was a little confusing so I asked in the chat contact the following.
“I just started with Kraken and verified intermediate. I want to fund my account with fiat (USD) from my bank account ach transfer. Which option do I pick from the drop down?”
The Kraken response “Unfortunately, we do not support ACH transfers or ACH verification micro deposits at the moment. Please ask your bank to send your funds via Fedwire transfer instead of ACH. For more details, please see: https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000410563-No-Automated-Clearing-House-ACH-suppor “
Are automated c l e a r I n g house (ACH) transfers supported?
Kraken does not support United States (US) domestic deposits or withdrawals via automated clearing house (ACH).
ACH is an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. If your bank advises you to make a bank transfer using ACH, you should not carry this out.
If you send funds using ACH, they will take roughly 5 business days to reach our bank and they will automatically be returned to you, which will take another 5 business days.
As such, attempting to deposit using ACH will result in significant delays.
This is a bit of a hassle! I’ll have to wait until next week to speak to my bank to make a wire transfer.
I’ll need to ask my bank if they can send an MVB Bank wire or a Signature Bank wire.
I decided to ask – “What is the difference between an MVB Bank wire and a Signature Bank wire for my funding from the United States?”
Kraken response – “For details about our fiat deposit options, processing times, fees and minimums, please see the following article. You can select the deposit method you are interested in for more details on how to use it. support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000381846 You can view the fiat funding options available to you by navigating to the Funding page in your account and clicking “Deposit” next to the currency of your choice. Once there, you will see the transfers details that you need to use to initiate a bank transfer from your bank account to ours. There is nothing to fill out in your Kraken account during this process, as the transfer must be initiated on your end. You will receive an email notification once your deposit is credited.”
Okay, this is going to take some extra effort and time. I’m going to move forward and post this to my blog and write a follow up for finishing the funding experience and then will discuss the required 2FA or Two-Factor Authentication for security on a future blog post, item #3 below.
In the meantime, here are some details from the Kraken site – https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000381846
https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049073651
Fiat currency deposit options (fees, minimums and processing times)
Before you can buy or trade cryptocurrencies on our platform, you’ll need to deposit funds into your Kraken account. Below is an overview of deposit options and their minimums, fees and processing times for each currency.
Kraken supports the following currencies: USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF and JPY.
Important deposit information
- This information can change without notice and is not always current. Please login to your Kraken account and navigate to the relevant funding page to see the most current information.
- All first-time fiat deposits will result in a temporary (72 hour) withdrawal holdon the account.
- Deposits must match the same currency specified in the deposit option. For example, CAD funds should only be sent to CAD deposit options. Funds sent to deposit options that they do not belong to, may be returned and could result in charges.
- Deposit feesare what it costs Kraken to accept your deposit and do not include your bank’s charges (if any) for sending a transfer.
- Deposit limitswill depend on your verification level.
- We cannot accept deposits from certainthird-party payment processors.
- Verified residents in Canada can deposit with cash and debit cards using our In-Person
- Majority of our verified residents in Europecan use their debit or credit card to purchase cryptocurrencies in EUR with our Buy Crypto
- Processing times are estimates only and are outside of Kraken’s control. Delays are possible.
- Please be mindful of banking holidays.
- If your deposit does not arrive within the estimated time frame below, click here for the steps to take.
- Secure your account with two-factor authentication – This will be on a future post!
Here are several of the many sites and links I used for my research to get an understanding of Crypto.
https://www.cryptovantage.com/best-crypto-exchanges/
https://www.covemarkets.com/blog/why-you-should-buy-bitcoin-on-coinbase-pro-and-not-coinbase
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. MoneyDogMedia.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Jerry Lang
