A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.

- Key Takeaways

• A cryptocurrency is a form of digital asset based on a network that is distributed across a large number of computers. This decentralized structure allows them to exist outside the control of governments and central authorities.
• Experts believe that blockchain and related technology will disrupt many industries, including finance and law.
• The advantages of cryptocurrencies include cheaper and faster money transfers and decentralized systems that do not collapse at a single point of failure.
• The disadvantages of cryptocurrencies include their price volatility, high energy consumption for mining activities, and use in criminal activities.

- Understanding Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies underpinned by cryptographic systems. They enable secure online payments without the use of third-party intermediaries. "Crypto" refers to the various encryption algorithms and cryptographic techniques that safeguard these entries, such as elliptical curve encryption, public-private key pairs, and hashing functions.

Cryptocurrencies can be mined or purchased from cryptocurrency exchanges. Not all ecommerce sites allow purchases using cryptocurrencies. In fact, cryptocurrencies, even popular ones like Bitcoin, are hardly used for retail transactions. However, the skyrocketing value of cryptocurrencies has made them popular as trading instruments. To a limited extent, they are also used for cross-border transfers.

- Blockchain

Central to the appeal and functionality of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is blockchain technology. As its name indicates, blockchain is essentially a set of connected blocks or an online ledger. Each block contains a set of transactions that have been independently verified by each member of the network. Every new block generated must be verified by each node before being confirmed, making it almost impossible to forge transaction histories.1 The contents of the online ledger must be agreed upon by the entire network of an individual node, or computer maintaining a copy of the ledger.

Experts say that blockchain technology can serve multiple industries, such as supply chain, and processes such as online voting and crowdfunding. Financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are testing the use of blockchain technology to lower transaction costs by streamlining payment processing.2

- Types of Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency. An anonymous person called Satoshi Nakamoto invented it and introduced it to the world via a white paper in 2008. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies present in the market today.

Each cryptocurrency claims to have a different function and specification. For example, Ethereum's ether markets itself as gas for the underlying smart contract platform. Ripple's XRP is used by banks to facilitate transfers between different geographies.

Bitcoin, which was made available to the public in 2009, remains the most widely traded and covered cryptocurrency. As of May 2022, there were over 19 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market cap of around $576 billion. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist.3

In the wake of Bitcoin's success, many other cryptocurrencies, known as "altcoins," have been launched. Some of these are clones or forks of Bitcoin, while others are new currencies that were built from scratch. They include Solana, Litecoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and EOS. By November 2021, the aggregate value of all the cryptocurrencies in existence had reached over $2.1 trillion—Bitcoin represented approximately 41% of that total value.4

A Binance account acts as your gateway into crypto trading. But before you can buy your first bitcoin, you’ll need to open an account.

1. Head to the Binance homepage and click [Register] in the top right corner.

2. Input your email address and choose a secure password. If you prefer, you can also sign up using your mobile number rather than email. If you’ve been given a referral code from a friend, now is also the time to enter it.

3. Follow the instructions for verifying your account by inputting the code sent to your email address or mobile number.

4. Once you’re verified, you should now be set up with your Binance account. You’re one step closer to buying cryptocurrency, so let's dive into making your first crypto purchase.
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How to secure your Binance account

Using a strong password and our security features will help keep your funds safe. Make sure to start with the following security steps.

- Use a strong password and change it regularly

This one is self-explanatory, but you would be choked with the number of people that still use passwords that are simple and easy to remember. Your password should always contain uppercase and lowercase characters mixed with symbols and letters. And of course, make sure you keep it safe and do not share it with anyone.

- Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

We strongly recommend you set your account up with Two-factor Authentication (2FA). This creates an extra layer of security, meaning that even if hackers compromise your password, they would need access to your physical 2FA device to log in.

The Google Authenticator app or SMS authentication are great places to start. Our Binance 2FA Guide can explain more about the process.

- Enable the Binance Anti-Phishing Code

When you add an anti-phishing code to your Binance account, every email you get from Binance will have this code displayed at the top. You can manually define what code it can be from a series of letters or numbers.

This way, you can be sure that the message you are receiving is actually from Binance and not from a fake email address. In other words, it helps you prevent phishing attacks.

To download the Phantom wallet extension, you need to go to the Phantom website or can directly go to the Google Chrome extension store or Firefox extension.

Click on the Add to Chrome/ Add to Firefox button whether you are in the Phantom website or Chrome extension store/ Firefox extension store.

or

Clicking the Add to Chrome/ Add to Firefox button will add Phantom Wallet Extension to your browser.

- Click on Phantom Wallet extension

Now you’ve successfully added the Phantom Wallet Extension to your browser.

On the successful installation, the Phantom wallet window will automatically open in the new tab. If not, you can click the puzzle icon on the top right of your browser and click on the Phantom Wallet.

For the faster access in the subsequent times, you can use ‘pin icon’ to pin the Phantom Wallet extension.

Or

In Firefox, click the Phantom Wallet Icon on the top right in your browser window.

Now, it will open in the new tab.

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- Click on Create New Wallet

After clicking the Phantom Wallet, you could see two options:

• Create New Wallet
• Use Secret Recovery Phrase

Since you are a new user, click on Create New Wallet

Checkout: How to Change and Recover Phantom Wallet password

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- Storing Secret Recovery Phrase or Mnemonic***

After clicking the Create New Wallet, you could see the Secret Recovery Phrase aka Mnemonic.

Kindly note it somewhere private. You could only recover your account via Secret Phrase. There is no other alternative to this. If you lost your Recovery Phrase, you lost everything.

You can copy the code by clicking the Copy button underneath the Secret Recovery Phrase.

You can store your Secret Recovery Phrase in a hardware wallet, a mobile wallet, or a desktop wallet. Otherwise, you can write it down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere private.

Once you note down your Secret Recovery Phrase, click OK, I saved it somewhere.

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- Create a password for your wallet

The next step will be creating a password for your Phantom Wallet.

You can type your password in the Password field and Confirm Password. Ensure to set a solid password with combinations of numbers, alphabets, and special characters.

After typing the password, you have to select the check box and Click Save; make sure to read the Terms of Service before selecting. In a nutshell, Terms of Service include a privacy policy, third-party services, content ownership and removal, rights, fees, account termination policy, and government law.

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- Keyboard shortcut

After setting the password, now your browser window will show an instructional message for ease of use.

That is nothing but a shortcut to open Phantom Wallet. Click Alt+Shift+P together to open Phantom Wallet without navigating in your browser.

Here, you need to click the Continue button.

This is one of the cool features to use.

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- Use Phantom

On the successful completion of all steps mentioned here, you could see the message below. Click Finish.

It indicates that you’ve successfully installed the Phantom Wallet Extension and created a Phantom Wallet account.

How to buy crypto on Binance

Before you can buy crypto on Binance, you have to complete the identity verification process known as Know Your Customer (KYC). KYC helps us make sure you are who you claim to be and fulfill our legal requirements.

When you are done with the identity verification, you will be able to buy crypto through different methods.

1. Credit/debit card: the most straightforward option for new users.

2. Deposit funds into your Fiat and Spot wallet: Transfer fiat currency from your bank account and use it on the exchange.

3. Binance P2P: Purchase crypto directly from other users with Binance’s peer-to-peer service.

- Purchasing crypto with a credit/debit card

1. If you are still on the Binance welcome screen, select [Buy crypto with your credit card]. Otherwise, hover over [Buy Crypto] and select [Credit/Debit Card] from the Binance homepage.

2. Select the currency you will be paying with and the coin you wish to purchase. In our example, we've gone for £100 of bitcoin (BTC). Press the [Continue] button to proceed with choosing your payment card. The [Recurring Buy] toggle will let you set up periodical purchases or sales if you’d like.

3. You’ll now need to add your credit or debit card details. Confirm the amount, and then click [Add new card].

4. Input your card details and click [Next]. Note that you can only use a credit or debit card that is registered in your name.

5. Fill out your billing address and click [Add Card].

6. You’ll now find yourself back on the [Buy crypto via card] page. Double-check the amount and click [Continue].

7. Double check the order details and, if you have read and agree to Binance’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, tick the checkbox. Then click [Confirm] to finish your payment.

8. Once the process is complete, your purchased crypto will be credited to your [Fiat and Spot] wallet. Usually, opening an account and getting to this stage can be done within 10 minutes.

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^{How to send crypto from Binance to Phantom}

- Click on Phantom Wallet extension

Once you download the Phantom wallet extension and set it up, you are ready to use your wallet.

Click the Puzzle Icon on the top right of your chrome browser and click on the Phantom wallet.

In the case of Firefox, click the Phantom wallet icon on the top right in your browser window.

- Select Deposit

In the Phantom wallet window, you get to see two options: Deposit and Send.

Click on Deposit to add Solana into your Phantom wallet.

- Copy your Phantom wallet address

Since we are going with Binance, you need to type Binance in the search box.

Upon typing, the Binance exchange option will appear. Click on it.

After clicking the Binance exchange, your wallet address and a QR code will appear.

Either you can copy that wallet address or scan the QR code that is visible on your screen.

- Go to the Binance website

Go to the Binance website.

You must already have an account. Enter your email address or mobile number and password and click Log In.

- Click Fiat and Spot

You will immediately be taken to your Binance dashboard after logging in.

On the right corner of the screen, you can see the Wallet dropdown.

Just click on it and click Fiat and Spot.

- Find Solana

On the Fiat and Spot section, you can see all assets that you’ve bought.

Find Solana on the list and click Withdraw, which is located on just the right side of your asset.

If you couldn’t find it, just type Solana in the Search tab.

- Paste your Phantom wallet address

After clicking the Withdraw, the Binance site will show you the Withdraw Crypto window.

There you can see a few fields; one of them is Address.

In that Address field, you need to paste your Phantom wallet address.

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- Enter the amount and click Withdraw

After pasting the Phantom wallet address, the Network field will automatically get updated. In case it is not, select Solana.

After that, in the Withdraw amount field, enter the amount of SOL you want to send. Click MAX, if you want to send all SOL you hold.

After filling in the all necessary details, click Withdraw.

Upon clicking Withdraw, the confirmation pop-up will appear. Check your wallet address and click Continue.

Note: you need to withdraw a minimum of 0.3 SOL. And the network fee is 0.01 SOL; however, it may vary depending on the blockchain.

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- Enter the verification code sent

Next is security verification.

Binance will ask you to fill in the e-mail and phone verification code that has been sent.

Note: You need to click Send Code to receive it.

Type the verification codes received to your e-mail and phone in according fields and click Submit.

A positive notification will appear once the verification codes are submitted.

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- Check in the Binance and Phantom wallet

Once the submission is successful, you will need to wait for the processing.

Usually, assets will be transferred within 5-10 minutes. For us, it took 2 minutes.

You can check your status in the Recent Withdrawals section if you scroll down a bit.

Once you see the Completed status in the Recent Withdrawals section, head back to your Phantom wallet extension and see your wallet balance on the front preview itself.

That’s it you’ve successfully withdrawn your SOL from Binance to Phantom wallet.

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Star Atlas Website

The first step to purchase any ships is to lead your way to the official Star Atlas website

Connect wallet

To interact with the Star Atlas website, you will need to connect your wallet

Ship Choice

Now is the time to select the ship of your choice, you have the possibility to search from categories that allow you to search depending on your budget, bigger ship will cost the more and smaller one will cost less.

We suggest you to check: This Webpage (Will show you the best deal out there at the moment)

Buyer and Seller

It's important to understand how the market place work.

First, you have the type of currency you can select. You have the choice to select from USDC or ATLAS. Depending on the current deal, it might be more profitable to purchase a ship in a one of the 2 currency.

The second element are sellers, sellers from the top are people that are trying to sell at the current lowest price (This mean that those people are the one asking the less to sell their items).

The third element are buyers, buyers from the top are people that are ready to spend the more to aquire the item wile the people at the bottom are the one ready to pay the less to aquire the NFT.

Buying NFT from Star Atlas vendor

Once your deciding with ship your interested to buy, you have the possibility to select from who you are ready to buy from it, we strongly suggest you to purchase an NFT from the Star Atlas vendor, this will bring a mall coition to the website and support us to continue to improve this website.

Purchase Ship with your Phantom Wallet

Once you have decided the ship you wanned and the price your agree to buy or set an order simply select the buy button, select the number of ships your interested to purchase and the price! If the price input is match with a seller, you will then receive your NFT.

Receive Ships

Once purchased, you should receive the NFT in the inventory section, this operation might take a few minutes depending on the Solana network congestion. It also a good idea to try to refresh the page and reconnect your wallet.

Faction Fleet

To stake your ship, lead your way to the faction fleet menu on the Star Atlas website

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Enlistment Ship

Go to the Enlistment Ship section, there you will be promp with some ship you have purchase. You will have the possibility to enlist them.

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Enlist More of the same ship

To enlist more of the same ship, you will need to process by an other way. First, you will need to go in the Faction Fleet tab from the Faction Fleet menu and find the ship your looking to add more of it. Once done, you need to click Manage Fleet and select Manage Ship tab. You will then have the possibility to add more ship to the current staking

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Refuel Your Ship

To refuel you ships, you will need to select the Manage Fleet section and then the ressources tab. You will simply have to click refuel all to refuel all the ressources that your ship need. If your looking to purchase some ressources, you will need to go to the marketplace under the ressources section to then purchase some ressource and after refuel your ships

There are many Cryptocurrency scams and Fake Exchanges on the Internet like fake giveaways, fake official Social media accounts on (Facebook, Whatsapp, and Telegram), fake communities and schemes, Crypto-jacking apps and malware but you can ensure your crypto security through proper knowledge and awareness. A few crucial tips are given below that you can follow to maintain secure crypto account.

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Fake Exchanges and Apps

Fake exchanges are fraudulent copies of actual exchanges they can look very similar to legitimate exchanges you might think that you downloading the legitimate exchange’s app or clicking on the link that looks like the one that you usually use but you could be mistaken.

These fake exchanges exist for one reason so they can fool you into thinking that you’re using the real deal so that they can steal your money and your personal details.

To keep yourself safe from fake exchanges always bookmark the legitimate exchanges URL and always check the URL before you log In.

For Binance you can use the Binance verify page to check the legitimacy of URLs all Binance groups and social pages can be verified there.

For mobile apps always verify the developer’s details and check comments reviews and the number of downloads. If there are no reviews or comments and the number of downloads is low it’s likely a fake application and this goes for both crypto exchanges and wallets.

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Fake Giveaways

If you’ve followed crypto communities online you’ve likely seen fake giveaways typically scammers will ask people to deposit to a crypto address to receive more crypto in return.

There have also been scammers that ask for private keys or other sensitive information. Legitimate crypto giveaways will never ask you to deposit to take part in a giveaway or ask you for private information.

Fake giveaways are usually found on social media platforms scammers comment on posts hoping that somebody will fall for it.

The best way to avoid these scams is to not participate in them, ignore them and move on.

Fake Website

‍Recently, we have seen an increase in the number of scammers attempting to impersonate websites in order to steal the reputation of the genuine project. They will frequently utilise Google Ads to rank top in Google searches for a project that is comparable to the one you are looking for. After you click on the page, they may ask you to input your private key in an app that looks exactly like Phantom (it's a copy). Another option is that it will allow you to do a transaction. This transaction allows the fraudster to withdraw all of your tokens at any time. This is why it is critical to carefully double-check the URL of the website you are visiting. We also recommend that you create a fresh wallet for each project with which you interact. If you do not have the means to acquire a ledger wallet, this will allow you to safeguard more of your crypto cash.

If you have any drought on a URL or something that might look like a scam, always ask the community for advice (Discord)
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Fake Social Media Accounts

Additionally, people can pose as legitimate companies to create fake social media accounts.

Take a look at the following image can you spot the scam the message from the ad Binance underscore account is a scam.

See how easy it is to fake an account and make it look almost identical.

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Phishing Attacks

Even if you’re not familiar with online scams, phishing is one that you have undoubtedly heard of. If you haven’t, “Phishing is a type of cyber-attack where scammers pose as a reputable entity or business to deceive people and steal sensitive information.”

Phishing can come in many forms, fake websites, text messages, on social media, and emails. Scammers usually pose as a person or business to try and extract sensitive information from you.

Take a look at this image which one do you think is phishing one of the first places to look when you are not sure about the legitimacy of an email is the email address.

In the image email, a is a binance.com email address and email b is a Hotmail email address this is a clear indication that email b is phishing, additionally, email b requests that details be sent to WhatsApp.

No legitimate business will ask for details to be sent in that way. There is no single playbook that scammers use to get sensitive information.

You could receive a crypto news article that you didn’t subscribe to and then click on the unsubscribe link, just by clicking that link you could be a victim of phishing.

If you suspect an email or message to be a phishing attempt always report it to your email provider and the company that the scammers are impersonating.

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Fake Official Telegram and Whatsapp Group

Another common phishing tactic is scammers lurking on official telegram groups for crypto wallets and exchanges.

When people report suspicious activity the scammers will reach out to that person in a personal message posing as a support agent from the group in question encouraging them to share sensitive information like private keys and logging information so they can steal their funds.

You should never share your private keys or your logging information with anyone otherwise they’ll have access to your accounts.

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Fake Communities

Whether you enjoy following the crypto community’s influencers or reading crypto news articles and blogs you should never base your trading strategy or your crypto purchases on what someone else says.

You never know what the person or company’s motives are? they could be paid to promote it or they could be investing in it.

It’s good to stay informed but always follow your own advice and never invest more than you can afford to lose.

When looking at a project, questions you should ask are, who is working on that project? does the team have a strong track record? what is the community like and what are they saying about the project?

Once you have a clear view you’ll be better equipped to decide what is best for you.

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Additional Security Tips for Cryptocurrency Scams

Here are a few more tips to combat cyber-crime and keep your crypto safe.

• Put a lock on your phone
• Use unique emails for each account
• Make sure that your internet connection is secure
• Install antivirus software
• Only trust secure apps and programs always use two-factor authentication like google authenticator
• Check what devices have been authorized to access your accounts
• Use strong passwords and change them regularly
• Allow crypto withdrawals to only addresses that you trust and check the whitelist regularly
• Use a secure password manager
• Complete KYC on your crypto account
• Consider keeping your funds on a wallet like Ledger wallet