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Comment by thinbeige | Hacker News Reader

Don't read guides. They won't help you. Try to use the stuff. Get some money on the exchanges, on MyEtherWallet, use the Ledger Nano, invest in some ICOs, use the Etherscan API, etc.

I did the mistake reading too much about all this crypto stuff for too long actually doing nothing.

Once you do something it clicks and you understand the whole picture much better and you read automatically stuff that matters and which gives you a deeper context.

Edit: Why the downvotes?

View on HN

While I think there is always a benefit to having skin in the game, as it makes things more real and gives you a better understanding, not everyone has the disposable income to do so. I think making the assumption they do is why you are getting the downvotes.

Using most crypto projects is on the scale of cents if anything at all to try, the decentralised storage options offer 25 gb free.

Regardless,anything half decent likely has a testnet running where you can play around.

Read all the marketing in the world, but you won't see how decentralised systems fair against their centralised competitors until you try.

Great advice for people with a disposable income.

Some people just want to understand.

Want to donate money to me so I can play around with it? Thanks!

While it won't be as effective as actual skin in the game (investing real money), you could try virtual investing. Give yourself some imaginary money, 'buy' your currency, and see how it does, like with virtual stock markets.

Or you can just buy $X a month, every month, and get whatever you can get out of it. Some places allow you to set up automatic purchases, so you could have it happen without you having to pay attention to it (I know Coinbase does). It accumulates over time.

Hey, a real suggestion that doesn't presume I have a job with a crazy salary and no idea what to do with my newfound fortune! I'm honestly surprised to find this on HN.

On which platform can I try virtual investing?

The website seems a little broken, but https://coin-folio.com/ let's you enter values per coin manually, then aggregates it. Claim you bought however much you want of any coin they support (which is a lot), and see how it performs.

Pepe

I doubt you need a lot of money just to get your feet wet. Anyone's entertainment budget would suffice.

PS: at the risk of sounding pedantic, anyone with any income in a jurisdiction with less than 100% tax has "disposable income". See: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disposableincome.asp

TIL that "disposable income" is not what I thought it meant.

> Disposable income is total personal income minus personal current taxes.

> (...)

> Discretionary income is disposable income (after-tax income), minus all payments that are necessary to meet current bills. It is total personal income after subtracting taxes and minimal survival expenses (...)

"Discretionary income" sounds odd to me, but probably derives from the more logical "discretionary spending".

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_and_discretionary_i...

Considering my income is $0, I suppose my statement was correct.

considering your income is $0, maybe you should fix that first.

but in any case, what's your point?

Being a student is enough of a job, thanks.

Your assumption that I should have a job on top of this, without knowing my life or financial situation, is evidence that people rarely consider lives apart from their own on websites such as this.

You don't need money to use testnets, which particular tech are you interested in? Happy to point you in the relevant direction.

Heres free coins for Ethereums ropsten testnet

http://faucet.ropsten.be:3001

Can i note begging is considered bad form around most forums also. There's plenty of solutions to your problems. It just requires some effort on your part.

Why so confrontative? You don't need a lot of money to start. And it's not about playing around. Once you invest $100 you are forced to understand and to learn what's going on. Much better than reading some guides without having any goal (the linked guide is still good).

I have no income at the moment and I will likely remain in this state for the next two years. I am not sure that my savings will last me that long, so I am erring on the safe side while still being interested in learning about the current technologies.

Not everyone reading HN has money to spare, or a job that allows them such luxuries. Not everyone who wants to study blockchain is interested in making money just because they can.

Some of the things advice can be applied to are gambling, drugs, extreme sports...

There is probably some kind of lesson here.

Comparing investing to gambling and drugs is misleading. Yes, daytrading feels very much like gambling but long-term investments with a diversified portfolio?

Edit: What is going on here, why the downvote? Downvoters thhink that long-term investing in assets equals gambling and drugs?

Is this how you have almost 600 positive karma in just six months, by complaining so much about downvotes? Three posts in just the last hour, in this thread and another thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15142269

Plus (in just the first few pages of your other comments that I looked at):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15083862

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15059972

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15054815

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15048756

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15040389

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15030354

Yes, if I get downvoted I like to understand why and ask, you call it complaining. I have no problem with that.

> if I get downvoted I like to understand why and ask

How many times have you misunderstood why you were upvoted and had to ask?

> you call it complaining.

    "If downvoters keep on this hypocrisis I will
     delete the post again. This is ridiculous."

Yes, I call that complaining.

Yes I agree with the last example you brought, this was def complaining, I should work on that.

A few times though, I got good feedback and was also able to make my point more clear after I asked about the reasons for the downvotes.

Also, I prefer that people reply instead of downvote (except it's trolling) which is also a reason I address this. Look, I reply to you as well. Hope I didn't make you too angry and I try to improve.

> I prefer that people reply instead of downvote

I agree. I don't think downvoting is particularly conducive to good discussion (there's already a way to flag posts that may be inappropriate or spammy), but most people who downvote probably just disagree and don't want or have time to reply or argue.

> Hope I didn't make you too angry

I wouldn't say I was angry, I just saw three comments about downvotes which seemed a bit excessive, then saw more in other comments.

Thanks for the replies and reasons though.

Could someone with a grudge be following him around downvoting him? Is there a mechanism in HN to flag that?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com