Buy & Hold Bitcoin

Step 1: Where to buy

Below are the places I personally use to buy Bitcoin — in order of personal preference. After buying, you MUST transfer your Bitcoin to a wallet of your own! Step 2 below explains wallets and my preferred options.

I recommend having accounts set up with more than one exchange.

Australia & NZ Exchanges

Click any of the logos below to sign up and get bonus $$

SwyftX (Aus & NZ) Amber App Hardblock (Australia)

Note: SwyftX lists many cryptocurrencies. I 100% do NOT endorse or recommend buying ANYTHING other than Bitcoin! The rest of this market is incredibly speculative and high risk. You have been warned…!

International Exchanges

Click any of the logos below to sign up and get bonus $$

Coin Corner (UK) Swan (USA, Europe) River (USA only) Strike (USA, Europe)

Step 2: Withdraw to a wallet

DO NOT leave your Bitcoin on exchanges — remember: “not your keys, not your coins”. If your coins are “custodied”, it means you do not have full control over them (a bit like how you don’t have full control over money in your bank…).

Below are my personal preferences for beginner ‘hot wallets’ (essentially, a wallet on a mobile device, connected to the internet). Make this a priority to learn after buying your Bitcoin on an exchange. The preference is always a “non-custodial” wallet ASAP, before moving to cold storage using a specialised device (see Step 3). Cold storage is particularly important once dealing with larger balances.

#1

Wallet of Satoshi

The world’s simplest Bitcoin Lightning wallet. Perfect for absolute beginners. Note: this is a ‘custodial’ wallet — important to upgrade once knowledge and experience allows.

#2

Muun Wallet

Simple and powerful. Just like bitcoin. Muun is a self-custodial wallet for Bitcoin and Lightning.

#3

Aqua Wallet

The Bitcoin wallet your Grandma can use! If, that is, she has already used the other two first… Built-in stablecoin functionality — great for travel and protection against local currency volatility.

Step 3: Hardware wallets & cold storage

Did I mention the learning never stops?! This is THE most important thing to get familiar with once you’re dealing with larger balances of Bitcoin — such as major savings, retirement money, etc — any amount you wouldn’t otherwise feel comfortable travelling with as cash in the fiat world!

Warning: DO NOT purchase second hand devices or via third parties like Amazon etc. If you do, there’s risk your device will have been tampered with and malware installed on it before you receive it. The links below take you directly to the official websites of these providers.

This tutorial walks through setting up a Coldcard Hardware Wallet. Ben (aka BTC Sessions) is also a brilliant channel to subscribe to for all things Bitcoin set up and tech-related.

Step 4: Other considerations…

The Bitcoin Adviser are a global network of knights in shining armour… standing guard to protect us from our own mistakes! They have helped me immensely and are a bunch of genuinely lovely humans.

As someone who has dealt with their fair share of death, wills and the emotional toll that goes with that territory — I believe it’s incredibly important to take care of your “What if I get hit by a bus?” strategy.

It’s inevitable that once fully “orange-pilled” and ready for more significant investments, you’ll likely want some personal support to walk through the necessary security required.

Estate Planning & Inheritance: everything in Steps 1–3 above is based on what we call “single-signature” security — meaning a single seed phrase (password) is required to access your Bitcoin. “Multi-signature” is the next step, and a valuable one to learn when it comes to inheritance and estate planning.

Superannuation: for Australians (and New Zealanders living in Australia), this team can also assist in helping re-allocate some (or maybe all!) of your Superannuation into Bitcoin investment via a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF). This is well worth considering for long-term investment performance in an ever-increasing inflationary world.