Skip to main content

How to buy bitcoin in the UK: Cash, wallets, price and everything you need to know

CONFUSED by Bitcoin? Here’s everything you need to know about the cryptocurrency, how to open a wallet, secure it, and get the best prices.



Bitcoin prices recently hit a new all-time high, with one unit of the cryptocurrency trading at £4813.32 ($6.345) on Monday October 30.
Analysts have put the recent price surge down to a number of factors, including the decline in support for bitcoin cash and other hard forks.
China resuming cryptocurrency trading earlier this year and South Korea’s recent announcement that it plans to adopt bitcoin as a commodity have also helped the market to soar.
Tens of millions of people have opened bitcoin wallets and are buying into the digital currency. Here’s how you can be one of them.
1. Sign up for a bitcoin wallet
A bitcoin wallet is a piece of software which acts like a bank account and holds your bitcoin.
There are countless options but the most popular is Blockchain with more than 15 million users and more than 100 million transactions processed.
Go to Blockhain.info/wallet or download the app to use.

2. Secure your bitcoin
Before purchasing any bitcoin it is important to make sure your wallet is secure.
Blockchain’s security centre helps users to backup funds and protect them for unauthorised access. Other wallet providers will have similar measures.
If you are investing large amounts of money, Bitcoin.org advises using an offline wallet for savings.
There are two approaches that can be used: offline transaction signing – which involves using two computers (one of which is disconnected from any network) to process a transaction, and hardware wallets – which are physical devices used to store bitcoin.



3. Find a broker
Once you’ve opened and secured your wallet, you’re ready to buy some bitcoin.
To do that, you’ll need to find a broker or an exchange, companies that sell bitcoin in exchange for currency.
As of 11.40am on October 30, one bitcoin costs £4683.20 ($6,171.04). You can, in theory, buy any decimal amount – but most sellers have a minimum of about 0.001 bitcoin (£4.68 as of this morning).
BittBoy.co.uk is a comparison website which shows the current rates at different brokers, minimum and maximum purchases and trust ratings.
Every broker will ask for your bitcoin address – this is different to your wallet log-in and is a string of characters which identifies your account.
On Blockchain it can be found in the request tab.
Continue Reading: How to buy bitcoin in the UK: Cash, wallets, price and everything you need to know

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sex robot SHOCK: Increasing sophistication of AI will cause massive issues, experts warn

The growing sophistication of creepily real sex robots is leading to moral and legal dilemmas, a leading academic has warned. As technology has expanded sex robots have become increasingly lifelike, bringing about a the need for a revolution in how we think about sex, morals and the legal status of these sex robots, according to Kent Law School Professor Robin Mackenzie. Prof Mackenzie specialises in areas such as robotics and the ethical and legal relations between humans and robots. She said: "Sex, law and ethics will never be the same. Sooner than we think, technologists will create sentient, self-aware sex robots, capable of emotional/sexual intimacy.” Prof Mackenzie added: "Humans having sex with other humans who are unable to consent to sex, like children and adults lacking decision-making capacity, is seen as unlawful and unethical. So is human/animal sex. Such groups are recognised as sentient beings who cannot consent to sex with interests in ne

Kremlin: Putin and Trump agreed to exchange information on North Korea

The Kremlin said on Friday that President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had agreed in a phone call to exchange information about North Korea and cooperate on possible initiatives to resolve a crisis around the Asian nation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Putin and Trump had also spoken about establishing contacts with North Korea. The two men had also talked about improving dialogue between Russia and the United States, Peskov said. The Kremlin earlier on Friday released a statement about the phone call between the two leaders. Continue Reading: Kremlin: Putin and Trump agreed to exchange information on North Korea

Why are more women than men illiterate?

Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women. So what is preventing girls and women from learning to read and write? As part of this year's 100 Women, a team in India's capital Delhi will be looking at ways to tackle this problem.  Why are more women than men illiterate?