This thread is a continuation of the original v1 Bitcoin thread.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3051328



An Overview Guide to Investing in Cryptocurrencies in Malaysia (courtesy of @kmarc)


A friendly warning before you proceed
If you're new to cryptocurrencies, then welcome to the world of cryptocurrencies!!! Before you proceed further, if your intention is to invest in cryptocurrencies, please be informed that cryptocurrencies are VERY high-risk high-return investments. If you have the money, you can earn a lot but you can also lose all and CRASH & BURN! You need to do your own research and make up your own strategy including the important exit strategy i.e. when to cut your losses.

In general, for safe conservative investors, it is advisable to allocate not more than 10% of your funds to high-risk instruments such as cryptocurrencies.

Enter AT YOUR OWN RISK and if you lose your money, it is NOBODY's fault but yours! You have been warned!

With that out of the way, let's begin!


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Post #1
1) How to buy cryptocurrencies (bitcoins and altcoins) in Malaysia (using MYR)?
2) How to buy altcoins?
3) Where should I keep my BTC and altcoins?
4) Sending bitcoins/altcoins to exchanges/addresses and wallets
5) Incurred fees
6) What is the current price of BTC or altcoins?

Post #2
1) Grow your money on Poloniex - How to lend out your coins
2) Cryptocurrency market capitalization
3) Cryptocurrency news
4) Forums
5) Important or potential coins
6) Cryptocurrency's progress

Post #4
1) Important advices and tips for cryptocurrencies

How to buy cryptocurrencies (bitcoins and altcoins) in Malaysia (using MYR)?

Note : This guide does not cover obtaining cryptocurrencies through mining.

In Malaysia, using MYR, there are limited options to buying bitcoins (BTC). Unfortunately, at the moment, altcoins can only be acquired using BTC.

Let's start with buying BTC.

You can buy bitcoins from these platforms (click to go to the website):
1) Localbitcoins
2) Remitano
3) Xbit Asia
4) Luno

Important :
Do note that BTC prices in these websites are generally more expensive than the average global price, but you can sometimes get a good price if the seller is desperate to sell. In order to get the best BTC price, it is recommended that you check out the prices on all 4 BTC/MYR exchanges. For example, on 29th April 2017, Localbitcoins and Remitano prices are higher, while Xbit Asia was lower, but the best price was at Luno. The only problem with Xbit and Luno is that you need to login/sign up to see BTC market details, and before you can buy, you need to transfer money to the exchange's bank account first, which will only be reflected in your exchange account after they have processed it.
Also, VERY IMPORTANTLY, if you use any of these websites, it is of utmost importance to activate 2-factor authentication (2FA) for better security.

Localbitcoins
- Peer-to-peer exchange (P2P) where the website serves as a platform for you to deal directly with a seller (or buyer)

- Since you are dealing with a stranger, it is very important to :
----- a) Deal with verified trader who has very good reputation/feedbacks and has done many deals. You can check -------------- their profile by clicking on their ID.
----- b) Ensure they are online
----- c) Read the traders terms & conditions before you trade
----- c) Ensure you can do instant bank transfer especially for different banks and ensure instant interbank transfer is -------------- instant! I usually prefer using the same bank to avoid delays.

- the good thing about Localbitcoins is that you can send messages (and pictures if needed) during your trade. Say you want to buy 1.0 BTC, you click the "Buy" button, indicate the amount you want to buy, and type the message. I usually type something like "Wanna buy BTC. Can proceed?" and wait for them to respond.

- once you have transferred the money, you have to click on the "I have paid the seller" button. The seller will be automatically notified and will release the BTC when he confirms the money is in his bank account. You must NEVER accidentally press the "Cancel trade" button when you have already transferred the money or you will lose your hard-earned cash!!! The "Cancel trade" button is only used when you really want to cancel the trade and have not transferred any money.

- for safety purposes, once you initiate a trade, the BTC is kept in escrow (kept by the website) until the trade is complete. In the event that there are problems with the trade, the BTC will be held until the issue is resolved.

- your BTC is kept in the websites BTC wallet

Remitano
- P2P exchange

- operates similarly to Localbitcoins except you can't communicate with the seller

- your BTC is also kept in the website's BTC wallet.

XBit Asia exchange
- Online cryptocurrency exchange, similar to stock market exchanges.

- XBit Asia is a bit different from abovementioned peer-to-peer platforms, as you need to first transfer money directly into your "account" in XBit Asia before you can buy BTC.

- Transfer of money is not instantaneous. You need to bank in money to XBit Asia's designated bank account and then email them the evidence. Once the staff confirms your bank in, it will be made available in your "account" and you can then buy BTC. Confirmation can be quite fast but only occur during working hours and working days.

- The disadvantage of XBit Asia is that there are not many buyers/sellers, hence the liquidity is low, leading to larger buy/sell spread prices.

- Your BTC is kept in the website's BTC wallet.

- When you sell your bitcoins, the proceeds are credited into your account in XBit Asia, which you can then withdraw, and the funds will transferred to your Malaysian bank account via GIRO. Withdrawals are processed 3 times a day, on working days only.

Luno
- Online cryptocurrency exchange, similar to XBit Asia.

How to buy altcoins?

As previously mentioned, at the moment, there's no way to buy altcoins using MYR. You have to buy BTC and send your BTC to an exchange that can convert BTC to altcoins.

There are many exchanges available. Take a look at this link : https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/btc/markets/USD

You can use any exchange but different exchanges have different altcoins. Some unique ones worth mentioning are as below (click to go to the website):

Note : As of 23/4/2017

1) Poloniex
- Poloniex is currently the largest online exchange in terms of overall volume (according to coinmarketcap.com), and it also carries many altcoins. At the last count, around the figure of 80 types of coins!!!

2) Bitfinex
- currently the second largest exchange in terms of overall volume
- only carries Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), Litecoin (LTC), and Dash.

3) GDAX
- carries BTC, ETH, LTC

4) Shapeshift
- a unique platform where you can easily convert cryptocurrencies into the ones you want. With fees of course.

5) Bittrex
- carries even more altcoins than Poloniex
- in terms of volume, it is still very low compared to Poloniex. (as of 23 April 2017, Poloniex has a volume of 70k BTC while Bittrex only has around 7K BTC)
- does not have lending facilities like Poloniex

Personally, if you want to acquire lots of different types of coins, Poloniex would be the best platform for this.

Where should I keep my BTC and altcoins?

Yay! You bought your first BTC or your first altcoin. If you plan to hoard coins with high net worth, it is important to keep them in a safe place.

Here are some articles on coin wallets:
https://www.weusecoins.com/en/find-the-best-bitcoin-wallet/
https://99bitcoins.com/best-bitcoin-wallet-...parison-review/
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/bitcoin-wallets/

In general, you would want to keep your coins out of reach of hackers and the best way to do that is to keep it offline i.e. your coins are not connected to the internet. Hardware wallet is a very good option. NEVER keep any significant amount of cryptocurrencies in online exchanges, except those that you plan to use for trading.

Currently, there are two hardware wallets that are popular:
1) Trezor - https://shop.trezor.io/
- supports BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC, ZCash, Dogecoin, Dash, Namecoin and Testnet

2) Ledger Nano S - https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s
- supports BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC, ZCash, Dogecoin, Dash and Stratis - Click here for more details

The only problem is that it is quite difficult to get these wallets locally as cryptocurrencies are still not popular in Malaysia. Probably easier next time when it becomes more popular here.

Sending bitcoins/altcoins to exchanges/addresses and wallets

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when you transfer cryptocurrencies:
1) It is not instantaneous. It may take a few minutes to hours!
- take a look at BTC's confirmation times : https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time
- there's a whole lot of issues on this but it is hoped that the long confirmation time will be resolved soon

2) Ensure the address is correct
- This is VERY important. If you send to the wrong address, you WILL lose the coins!

3) Ensure the address is correct for the type of coin
- Also very important. You CANNOT send BTC to an ETH address. Cryptocurrency addresses are not compatible with each other

4) There's a transfer fee for all transfers but it is usually negligible.

5) You can always track your transfer. Just enter your receiving address into the link and you will be able to see the status of the transfer : https://blockchain.info/

Incurred fees

Keep in mind that, just like any other investment vehicle, you will be charged some fees when you make a transaction or transfer, depending on the platform you use. Here's how it generally work:
1) Buying BTC - generally free
2) Selling BTC - free or fees charged by platform
3) Sending BTC from one address to another - network transfer fees
4) On exchanges, fees vary.

These are some examples of fees being charged by different websites/platform:
- Poloniex - https://poloniex.com/fees/
- Bitfinex - https://www.bitfinex.com/fees
- Localbitcoins - https://localbitcoins.com/fees
- Shapeshift - https://shapeshift.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/art...-fee-structure-

Examples of fees being charged:
- Transfer from Airbitz mobile app (in phone) to hardware wallet twice - 0.000812 & 0.00045 BTC.
---- If BTC was USD 1000/BTC, that would mean a transfer fee of USD 0.812 & USD 0.45. Do note the difference of fees is also affected by the price of BTC at that time.
- Transfer from localbitcoins to Poloniex -
- Transfer from Remitano to Poloniex -
- buy altcoins from poloniex (direct buy)
- buy altcoins from poloniex (bidding)

What is the current price of BTC or altcoins?

There are a lot of ways to check the prices.
Cryptocompare.com is one of the best sites where you can see:

- prices of any coins across different exchanges : https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/btc/markets/USD
- overall prices of coins : https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/#/usd
- and much much more! Explore the website to see the wealth of information it provides.



This post has been edited by wengherng: May 15 2017, 03:10 PM

Been really busy with work these days, so I don't really have much time for research and forums, unfortunately.
Would be great if everyone could help out, and I can edit the 1st post as you suggested.
What kind of updated information are you thinking of?

Just logged in to Poloniex several minutes ago and saw a huge drop in my ETH, and I was like WTF?! and then realised that I was looking at the BTC/ETH price, and the price drop was because BTC had just recently had a tremendous spike.
Phew......!

What would you recommend as a decent, secure online wallet for ETH, assuming that I do not want to buy a hardware wallet at the moment?
Mine does not support ETH.

As I mentioned before, in the weeks leading up to the SEC decision, the BTC prices have been greatly volatile, and as the vast majority of the community had already expected a rejection from SEC for the ETF, the prices of BTC had already factored that in......which means that it is unlikely that the prices will drop so drastically to USD 850 - 900.

I had to consciously stop myself from jumping on the bandwagon and buying Dash......I envy the people making quick bucks due to the crazy hikes recently, but I just could not see the real reason behind the hikes, and had no confidence in the sustainability.
As I am more of the paranoid type of investor, I think I will just stick to BTC and ETH.
I wouldn't be able to handle the heart attacks.

I use Poloniex amongst other exchanges.
The good thing about Poloniex is that its got very high trading volumes, very liquid.

Been hearing about RSK for some time now. Even though I think it's a very good initiative and that merge-mining is an interesting concept, however I think there are still many hurdles to overcome. Even now they are still in the experimental stage on testnet.
Assuming it even works, it will still take quite a while more before they can actually transition to the live network, maybe one year?
And one year is a long time in the cryptocurrency world.

I did mention several weeks ago that I do not expect BTC to drop below USD 1k even if the ETF was denied.
But even I was surprised at the resilience of BTC. It dropped only about USD 150, and has even since regained about USD 50 of that, and we're not even 48 hours since the announcement.
This says a lot about the confidence of the population in the decentralised nature of BTC.
Right now, it's got so huge and decentralised that no single government or world event can affect it as much as it could have back in 2014.

Yes, that may be true.
But bear in mind also, that the US is not the only country trying to get a bitcoin ETF approved.
Several other countries. including South Korea, are trying to do that as well.
I tend to think that it's just a matter of time until one is finally approved, in whichever country.

Easy there mate.
I know it's none of my business, but you're starting to sound just a little too euphoric.
The current so-called bull run started around December 2016 and although showing no signs of stopping yet, you should be very cautious still.
As you said, the market is getting crazy and there's really no fundamentals to support this kind of bull run for long.


I'm not fully convinced about the flippening (not to say it won't happen, of course, just that I have my reservations).
But in any case, I am quite optimistic that both BTC and ETH have their respective roles to play, and that I envision a future where both co-exist.
Just like how I think that many of the cryptocurrencies today will still be in existence for quite some time, although they do not seem to have any actual use at all.

I wouldn't call anyone crazy, as long as they know the risks and are aware of what they are doing.
Your money is your own business, after all.
Of course, I wish you all the very best in your investment endeavors.
I myself also have Dash and Monero, so who am I to judge?

I have both ETH and BTC (although with a bigger portion in BTC) so a rise in either one will benefit me.
I will slowly increase my stake in ETH, that's for sure.

No, I have no idea how this "lending" works, and have not actually had time to read into it, to be honest.
How's it working out for you?
What's the risk?

Thanks for the detailed explanation.
Except the part where your coins are locked during the duration that they are loaned out (which is logical), there doesn't seem to be any risk involved.
Sounds a little too good to be true.


I think the ones at risk would be those that have no real function and are purely sustained by hype and investors' greed.
True cryptocurrencies with real life uses (even though they overlap) like bitcoin, ether, monero, etc. will still have their place in the game.
And with the world population getting more and more acquainted with cryptocurrencies in general, it will be more and more difficult for any world government to "kill" them.
Exchanges earn their money from trades, either in bull runs or bear crashes, so I do not think they will close shop, except in extreme cases like a hack and theft.

Personally, I think this week is going to be another volatile week with a lot of new All Time Highs achieved.
In a couple of days, Donald Trump and the congress will have to deal with the American debt ceiling issue which Obama deferred from Oct 2015 to March 2017.
If they do not suspend or raise the debt ceiling in time, and the US Treasury exhausts its extraordinary measures, the federal government would no longer be able to borrow more money to service its financial obligations, including government bonds and securities. If that happens, then basically that would mean that for the first time in history, the US government has defaulted on its payments, and that would surely mean that all the rating agencies around the world would immediately downgrade the credit rating of the US, and I am pretty sure that in the ensuing chaos the US stock market will crash, the GDP will contract and the US economy will go into a recession, bringing several other economies with it.
Or......Trump could just suddenly decide to abolish the entire debt ceiling legislation altogether, which has been around for the past 100 years. He's crazy enough to pull something like that.
I might be mistaken, but I think 15th March was the deadline......or was it 30th?
Either way, there's going to be a lot of uncertainty in the coming days/weeks, and every time that happens, you can bet there's going to be massive capital inflow into cryptocurrencies, as the masses try to store their wealth away from fiat.
Exciting times.

Personally, I am more of a hodler, so I don't really do active daily trading.
There's another forummer here who mentioned that there is already a telegram group, you might want to check out the final page of version 1 of the thread.


I've never used Remitano, but USD4 transaction fee sounds quite high.
I remember I transferred to XBit Asia with 0.0004BTC transaction fee, which at today's rate, is less than USD 0.50.

Who knows what the joker will do.
Technically speaking though, they really have no need for the debt ceiling legislation anymore, so he might as well just abolish it. But that will cause another uproar among the people, who already believe that the US government has totally lost control over the federal budget since years back, especially with the defense funding.

Sixteen types of holdings......that's a lot.

One of the scariest things you can see......is that you have just lost 99.9% of your investment.
Gave me quite a shock several minutes ago......





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I think it was a glitch in the system to show mBTC instead of BTC.

I agree, DASH has nothing to sustain the current gains except hype, euphoria and FOMO.
At the end of the day, it's all about the greed.
That said, however, I do have a little bit of DASH on my portfolio, which I use for "crypto-gambling" (no fundamentals involved, just buy at the start of a crowd-frenzy and sell at a high).
I think there will be a sharp correction for DASH very soon, but I do believe that the price will break the psychological USD 100 barrier before that happens.

These few weeks have been absolutely bananas.
It's incredible how even the most obscure altcoins are seeing unbelievable pump/dump frenzies that see more than 300% gains in 24 hours (e.g.Namecoin).

4.5 BTC per month is a huge target to set for......you'd need some really serious hardware costing hundreds of thousands of ringgit.
Or do you mean you want to sell 4.5 BTC per month?
To send bitcoins from one wallet to another, it doesn't matter which exchange you use, you will still have to pay the transaction fee, which is about 0.0004 BTC last I checked.
That's why I wouldn't even bother sending bitcoins in very small quantities.


Let's just agree to disagree here.
I believe that any kind of investment has its fundamentals. It has to be grounded on something, some need, some real world application.
Otherwise it's gambling.
And cryptocurrency investment is not gambling.

Just go to the post you want to delete, click "edit" and delete all the text.
Put "deleted" as the new text, and click save.


There are always positives and negatives, so as long as you are fully aware of your choices and are convinced that you have made an informed decision, then just go ahead with it.
I think it highly unlikely (I'd say nearly impossible, but I usually try to never say never) that DASH will ever go higher than bitcoin, even in the extremely unlikely event that bitcoin crashes, I bet DASH will crash with it, and go much lower even.
It is clear that a 400% gain within one month is not sustainable, and there seems to be nothing that can support this price level once the euphoria dies down, so I agree with WooTz that there will be a correction soon, but then again, I don't think it will suddenly crash down to USD 20 or such levels...... more likely it will crash about 30-50% off its peak at the time, after which, the drop will probably taper off slightly......but that is just my crystal ball pluck-from-the-sky prediction.

From my personal experience, with 0.0003 to 0.0004 BTC transaction fees, my transaction confirmation times were somewhere between 15 minutes to 40 minutes.
But it also depends on the backlog of transactions on that day as well......on a good day, I had one transaction with 0.0002 BTC fee and still got confirmations within one hour.

Exchange to BTC and sell on XBit Asia or Luno, then withdraw RM.

If you're worried about the price crashing while you're at work, why don't you just set a stop-limit sell order?
Then, as the price keeps getting higher, just keep revising your stop-limit sell order price.


Sorry, I'm not a miner so I can't give you any good advice on that.
You might want to try asking other sifu here.