During scholar years, especially as a student, you’re faced with the need to get a job and have a backup for your expenses. Although it’s difficult to balance studies and part-time jobs, sometimes it can be possible to work on something in your free time for pocket money at least.
One solution for earning money as a student is to invest in cryptocurrencies. However, as students do not own as many financial resources, it’s advisable not to invest all of them into trading because, as a beginner, it might be easy to get carried away and lose substantial value. But choosing to invest in more trustworthy cryptocurrencies is safer. For example, if you want to buy Bitcoin, checking the bitcoin price regularly will help you stay consistent and invest efficiently.
Let’s see if crypto investing as a student is possible.
Blockchain technology is vast
Before considering investing in cryptocurrencies, you should know that given the newness of this technology, there’s a lot of information and concepts you need to grasp properly. It might take some time to read everything about it and try to understand how mining works and how people hold their assets in a digital wallet, so you should be packed with a lot of patience and willingness to get deeper into this subject.
At the same time, the industry is still developing, so you should expect new upgrades every now and then. Since there are more than 20.000 cryptocurrencies out there, people are still struggling to find the best ones for their investments, and new ones are issued quite often to line up with people’s needs (like sustainable cryptocurrencies).
The cryptocurrency market can be unstable
The crypto industry is similar to investing in stocks, meaning that volatility is present, which is usually what makes both markets great and risky. Cryptocurrencies are unstable, meaning their prices can change so drastically that some people go from rags to riches (and vice versa) in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, trading is also about luck, although you’re more likely to win or lose something depending on your chosen strategy.
But the prices usually fluctuate according to supply and demand, user sentiments and media coverage. That means you should thoroughly research the cryptocurrency you want to invest in and be up to date with the latest regulations, which also takes time.
Some cryptocurrencies are safe
The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has become the safest one to invest in because it has proved that it can provide certain incentives and asset safety. For example, if you want to buy bitcoin, your wallet is more likely to be stable since many investors trust this cryptocurrency. Some experts have stated that bitcoin is even stabler than US stocks since it’s less volatile.
Usually, the most traded cryptocurrencies are also the safest because not only do they provide reliability in the long term, but they also allow users to build a stable portfolio that produces income. Therefore, as a student, you wouldn’t necessarily have to fear losing your cryptocurrencies, but you should consider balancing your assets.
The cryptocurrency communities are supportive
Each cryptocurrency has a community where investors, developers and all other users help each other and offer support whenever needed. For example, the Ethereum community is known to be the most connected because the blockchain is continuously developing, and there are many developers on that network who are eager to create apps and applications useful for other fellow crypto investors.
So, if you ever bump into a problem, the communities are always there to help and share their wisdom, depending on their experiences. However, you should take the advice that works for your needs and applies to your resources because you might encounter many advanced investors and users with different goals.
There are many different cryptocurrencies for everyone
Given the increasing number of cryptocurrencies, all of them are different and provide distinct features and applicability. For example, the latest trend in cryptocurrencies is to be linked with sustainable resources, so they’re not affecting the environment. For example:
- SolarCoin incentivize users through verifiable produced solar energy;
- Power ledger secures various products, such as energy trading and clean energy tracking;
- Cardano uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism through which energy is saved;
- Stellar doesn’t charge people for using the network (as most cryptocurrencies do);
- Nano has one of the most negligible amounts of carbon footprint produced, and it doesn’t work through the traditional mining process;
The issue with traditional cryptocurrencies is they consume an enormous amount of energy and contribute to global warming by generating a carbon footprint. Mining cryptocurrencies require strong computational power (expensive hardware) to earn a decent number of cryptocurrencies. Another trendy cryptocurrency activity is to play games and earn coins.
You need to be prepared for anything
When trading and investing with cryptocurrencies, you need to be prepared for anything to happen, including when the prices go up or down in a matter of minutes. Therefore, you need to learn how to mitigate risks and manage the rate of your portfolio of being exposed to unpleasant changes in volatility. It’s always better to be safe than sorry and avoid losing all your money on something you just got into.
But this depends on the type of investment you’re interested in. For example, long-term investors never sell their assets, no matter how the price changes, especially when there’s a FOMO period, and everyone is selling, panicking they’re going to lose the value of their cryptocurrencies. On the contrary, short-term investments require you to sell and buy assets regularly because of the high risk of volatility and liquidity. Going long-term is the best choice if you want to have less-significant but safe earnings. But if you want to get rich, short-term investing is advised (but risky at the same time).
Wrapping up
As a student, you have the opportunity of trying many jobs and getting into personal projects and investing, so if you want to learn how cryptocurrencies work and test how much they can provide you with, you can give it a try. However, remember never to invest all your money and resources into investing, especially as a beginner. Always start small and increase the investment as time goes by and you get more experienced.
