Spot. Good one! :lol:

That (border-crossing) is one of the interesting things about cryptocurrencies. There's a common misconception that they are something you can actually hold and carry around with you (inc. through borders), especially if you use a mobile 'wallet'. Which is understandable, given that we use such terms as 'wallets' and 'holding'.

Of course you never actually 'hold' cryptocurrencies at all, you merely hold the keys that enable you to claim and move the funds on the blockchain database, which is a distributed ledger controlled by nobody and held by everybody. So, even if you were to cross a border 'carrying' your Bitcoin in mobile wallet, technically you wouldn't be carrying the funds across the border at all. You'd actually just be carrying the keys to the funds, which is akin to carrying the login details to your bank account. The funds are already across the border and accessible from anywhere that has an internet connection.

Its good if you can detach from previous value of whatever your investing in and make decisions based on where you think it will be going. This is easier said than done.

I attempted buying quite a few Bitcoin several years ago. It was not a lot of money but Bitcoin were only about £300 each. My transaction didn't go through for some reason and by the time I came back to sort it out the price had increased significantly to about $400, so I backed off. LOL can you imagine turning down Bitcoins for $400 each, and that's my point. Don't worry to much about what's gone, concentrate instead on where you think its going.

Last thing, and I promise to shut up. Be cautious. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency differs from other investments in that it has a history of the trading platforms going up in smoke along with whatever your were holding.

That's a very good point. And I think that's one of the main barriers for investing, and not just for Bitcoin. If you plan to invest long-term I think, to some extent, you just need to forget the price and jump in. And if the price plummets just after you buy (as it seems to do every time I buy some more BTC!) you just have to hold and wait. I suspect anyone who bought at the top in 2017 and subsequently panicked, selling at a loss as the price plummeted, are really kicking themselves now.

I paid around £25 for the first whole BTC I bought. I bought it to gain access to a file-sharing site, which I think cost something like £15. At the time I knew little about Bitcoin and figured it was just some kind of token for gamers or whatever, so even £25 seemed like a lot to pay for 'funny money'. Luckily I kept my £10-ish change (which is now worth around £7000), but it wasn't until a year or two later, when 1 BTC was worth a couple of hundred pounds that it piqued my interest. That's when I began studying what it was and how it worked and started mining and investing more. Every single time I've bought more Bitcoin over the years though, even in the last few months, I've held back then wished I'd bought more later. With hindsight it's frustrating but it is better to be cautious.

The old saying "never invest more than you can afford to lose" definitely still applies. However, while investing your life's savings in Bitcoin would be crazy, given Bitcoin's potential and the state of the economy, I think it's even crazier to invest nothing at all. I believe that everyone should add at least a small amount of Bitcoin to their investment portfolio.

How?

I doubt I'm the only one here who wouldn't even know how or where to start

There are hundreds of ways, but there are lots of scam sites and fake wallets too, so you do need to be careful.

PayPal actually introduced the ability to purchase Bitcoin from within your PayPal account very recently, but I believe it's only available for US customers presently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54630283

Some of the 'neobanks', such as Revolut, also allow you to purchase and hold cryptocurrencies directly from their apps.

Buying from a well-established exchange (such as Coinbase or Kraken) is probably one of the simplest and most popular ways, since they provide you with an account and wallet(s) in which to store your Bitcoin, and you can use the exchange to buy and trade many other cryptocurrencies too. However, exchanges can and do get hacked, so it's best to transfer the funds to your own wallet.

Personally, I tend to use Bittylicious to purchase Bitcoin, mainly because I've been using it for years and it's relatively quick and easy to use. The asking price on Bittylicious can vary however, so you might need to wait a while to get the best deal.

With Bittylicious, once you've set up your account, you just enter the amount you want to buy and click 'Get some coins'. You'll then be asked to enter a Bitcoin address to receive the funds. After that, you'll be given the amount to send and the seller's bank account details, to which you need to send an instant payment. You'll also be given a reference number. It's important that you enter this reference number when sending the funds from your bank account. DO NOT modify the reference number, or add any reference information (such as 'Bitcoin') to it. Some banks are still quite hostile towards cryptocurrencies and have been known to block Bitcoin purchases or even freeze customer's accounts. The Bitcoin funds will usually appear in your wallet a few minutes after your payment has been received. The whole transaction typically takes no more than 10 minutes (assuming your bank supports instant payments).

You can use any reputable wallet to hold your Bitcoin funds. If you have a lot of Bitcoin or you want it to be ultra-secure, you should ideally use 'cold storage' or invest in a 'hardware wallet' (such as Trezor or Ledger). However, if you're initially just dabbling and investing small amounts, a mobile wallet is probably the easiest to get started. There are a number of good mobile wallets reviewed here:
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-wallet/apps/

It's a bit involving 1st time you set up to buy. You need to register and prove identity as the official platforms need to follow KYC. PayPal only does BTC in USA for now and you cannot transfer to external wallet, Revolut does it in UK but you also cannot transfer to external wallet. Coinbase fees work out quite expensive Bittylicous prices can vary a lot sometimes it's good, other times it's quite expensive and you get BTC straight to your own wallet so there is no need to do transfer and to pay Bitcoin network fee for transfer to external wallet. I use Wirex https://wirexapp.com/ most of time. The prices are OK and often cheaper than Bittylicious but if you want to transfer to external wallet you have to pay network fee which varies depending on network load so sometimes it's cheaper to buy on Bittylicious, especially lower amounts. Wirex also has regular Visa Debit card that you can fill up with pounds and you get crypto cashback using it for everyday purchases. Monthly card fee used to be £1 but I think they got rid of the fee now.

I also use purse.io to buy stuff on Amazon using BTC with discount up to 33%, in reality it's more like up to 25% after the fees. For example if I want to buy something on Amazon for £100, I buy £100 worth of Bitcoin on Wirex, order stuff on Purse.io choosing 29-32% discount and will have about £20-25 left over which I keep as investment.

Are you sure Revolut lets you own bitcoin?
I have Revolut. But I am fairly certain you can "buy" crypto currencies in the app, which is not the same thing as owning them. More like paper derivatives, unless I am mistaken.
Same thing goes for precious metals. You can buy and sell the derivative, but they will not give you access to physical gold or silver.

It does makes it easier in a sense. Because you can buy/sell instantly (at least the precious metal derivatives)

You are correct its just tied to the real price, so you can not send it out from revolut to other crypto wallets which you could if you bought it properly.

So... I have bit the bullet and purchased my first "crypto coins", using Revolut.

Ripple seems like a good place to start for a newbie like me. As it has crashed because of the investigation by the US authorities. And I do not believe they will do anything really.
For a couple of reasons:
1. They didn't successfully prosecute the Bernie Maddog er.. Maddoff scam, even if they received insider information that it was a Ponzi scheme.
2. Should they successfully prosecute and convict Ripple, that will have major implications for other crypto currencies.

When it is all said and done, I am betting that Ripple will vault much higher to catch up again

....
edit: not to mention how many times wall-street banks like J.P Morgan has been fined with a slap on the wrist for manipulating the silver market. No-one will ever be arrested for breaking the law. It's all part of the game, and cost of doing business

I think Ripple is probably a good choice, in the short-term at least, for the reasons you mentioned.

It's not a 'true' cryptocurrency because its not decentralised, so it's really just a digital payment system that uses blockchain technology. However, while it misses the point of cryptocurrencies somewhat, it's likely to do well in the short-term because, ironically, the very properties that make it fall short of the definition are what makes it attractive to many people. The idea of investing in a cryptocurrency that has no central authority controlling or overseeing it is just a step too far some people. Ripple bridges that gap right now and I suspect it will do well until cryptocurrencies become the norm.

Same goes for money laundering ...
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/...ndering-report
Billions of Dollars (trillions even) but nobody ever gets arrested or imprisoned for it. And yet if you're caught using Bitcoin to money launder, even just a few thousand Dollars, you'll be dragged from your home and thrown in a cell. It seems that the real reason governments and banks are so anti-money-laundering is because they don't like competition.