8 Tips for Choosing the Right Crypto Trading Laptop

[This week we have a special guest post on the BDN Content blog courtesy of TechWarn.com! This article looks at some recommended factors to consider when choosing the right crypto trading laptop.]

Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels

People hold cryptocurrencies for different reasons today.

For some, it is a means of exchange with which they can anonymously and seamlessly make payments for goods and services over the web. For others, it is a speculative asset that they hold in hopes of a pump in price after which they dispose of the coins they have.

There is, however, a third group that trades cryptos.

If you are a day trader too, your choice of hardware can make all the difference. That is why we have put this piece up today – to help you find the right crypto trading laptop.

How Important Is the Hardware on Your Crypto Trading Laptop?

Trading requires a unique skill set and mindset to happen – every trader worth their salt knows this. From the knowledge of fundamental and technical analysis to the mastery of emotions, a trader is always on his or her toes.

However, all of that will not count for much if the trader does not have the right tools to digitally express their skills.

Combing through the news feeds from a couple of weeks ago, a recent launch from HP caught my eyes.

To many, this is just another flagship computer from a globally-known brand, but it was so much more than that to me. In fact, it stood out as a laptop that held much promise for not only crypto traders but enthusiasts too.

How?

Choosing Your Hardware Well

Whether you will be going with the HP Spectre x360 13 or any other pick, ensure these requirements are met.

1 Brand Recognition

This is the first thing I consider when making a crypto trading laptop purchase.

Brands that have been in the market for longer tend to have established a reputation of service and product efficiency, so I know what I’m working with. While I am not against giving the new guys a chance, I would rather stick with what I know to work than what I think would be a great idea too.

Of course, this is one of those things that will come down to personal preference. However, think of the ease of repair and servicing you would get with a known brand over the hassles and hoops you would have to jump for a relatively unknown company’s product.

2 Size

The majority of crypto traders are digital nomads. Thus, they need the freedom to move from one location to the other without feeling weighed down by the mass or sheer size of their units.

At 13 inches, this laptop is just the right size – not too small, neither too big – to be shuffled around with you. In fact, HP shaved off about 13% size of the last unit in this line-up to make this current device. In other words, you are promised an even smaller unit with more powerful configurations.

To buttress the whole point, the small size doesn’t steal screen real estate from you. Seeing as the bezels are cut to be as minimal as can be, you don’t have to worry about getting your charts and candlesticks all cramped up.

3 Disk Type

Even if not for trading, I have always been conscious of the kind of disk drive that’s on my laptop.

There was a time when Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) were the in-thing. They did serve their purposes, but their physical form came with its own limitations.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

For one, they are slow – much slower when compared to the Solid-State Drives (SSDs) – and that is something I would not settle for in this time and age. Knowing how important every minute can be to entering or exiting a trade position, you want something that gives you all the speed you can get.

Likewise, SSDs are at a lesser risk of crashing than their HDD counterparts, making SSDs the better choice for a crypto trading laptop.

On the off-chance that you like to save a lot of files on your devices too, SSD doesn’t have to be the dealbreaker here. After all, the HP Spectre x360 13 comes with up to 1TB SSD.

4 Graphics

Speaking of charts, candlesticks, and patterns, you need as much clarity as you can get to read them very well. That’s just what you get with a laptop that can achieve as much as 1000 nits of brightness on a 4K OLED screen, all the while featuring an Iris technology display.

All that doesn’t sound like English, so here’s the translation: the screen can get really bright, and the visuals are about as clear as the things you see with your eye.

5 Battery

Battery life is a very important aspect of any laptop, smartphone or other battery-powered gadgets. When trading crypto, the volatility of the market means you don’t ever want to be caught out with a flat battery when you should be entering a position, exiting it, modifying your stance or being on the ground to make winning analyses.

In short, every hour you lose being outside the market can lose you money.

Photo by Hilary Halliwell from Pexels

While you should always plan for a backup power source in case your mains fail, you should also be able to trust your laptop to keep going. With as much as 22 hours of battery backup on the HP Spectre x360 13, you are guaranteed close to a day of constant usage without having to reach for the power cable.

6 CPU and GPU

Crypto-based apps and platforms are usually graphics intensive. They will task your computers and systems as much as they can, but you won’t notice any lags at all if you are prepared for it.

Honestly, a 4GB RAM CPU will get you through most, if not all, of the trading platforms we have around today. However, that is not the ideal situation, and you would not exactly be future-proofing your trading process. Thus, I recommend starting with 8GB of RAM.

Unless you intend to do mild to heavy gaming on the same laptop, I don’t recommend having a dedicated graphics card. If that unit will be your entertainment console too, though, you should not trade that dedicated graphics card for anything.

7 Online Protection

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Cryptocurrency scams are growing by the day, and they are happening in numerous ways.

For some, it’s the High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs) promising insane returns only to cart investors’ monies way. For others, it is the hackers always snooping around for sensitive wallet details so they can illegally access and wipe out funds.

The biggest downside to all of this is that cryptos are decentralized, so you would not even know where your money went.

That said, this is the biggest reason why the HP Spectre x360 13 caught my attention.

Apparently, HP shared the spotlight with ExpressVPN when developing this unit. This partnership means that the laptop comes with system integration of ExpressVPN Windows software aimed at improved user protection.

Thus, you are covered against the dangers of public Wi-Fi networks (remember that coffee shop network you love), insulated against all of data monitoring and tracking, and can keep yourself from being deanonymized over the internet.

If that is not something crypto enthusiasts and traders need to look into, I don’t know what is.

8 User Privacy

Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels

Beyond online protection, user privacy is also important when dealing with such sensitive assets as those held on a crypto trading laptop. A unit like the HP Spectre x360 13 comes with:

• Microphone mute button – which kills the mic unit on the laptop so hackers can’t listen to what you are saying. Considering the fact that many users have labeled ad agencies being guilty of this, it is not surprising that hackers can use it to their own ends too.

• Webcam kill switch – designed as a physical button that takes the webcam out of the computer’s electrical components until you need it again. This makes access to the webcam, either onsite or remotely, impossible till the switch is toggled off. That helps put the numerous fears about webcam spying and snooping in check.

• Secure view – a feature that allows you to dim the screen’s brightness such that anyone looking over your shoulder doesn’t see what’s on your screen. Functionally, this is a great way to execute your trades, check your wallets, login and access sensitive data without the fear of being watched.

Crypto Trading Laptop Conclusion

Doesn’t sound like a bad choice anymore, does it?

Those are my honest thoughts about the latest introduction by HP which shows how much the company is working towards bettering user privacy and security. If you have any other choice laptop for trading, do let me know about it in the comments. Don’t forget to tell why you love that pick so much too.


What do you think? Would you consider the HP Spectre x360 13 for your crypto trading laptop?

*Legal Disclaimer*: This article does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any product or security. I am not a financial advisor or an electronics expert and this article shall not be taken as advice on what computing equipment you should purchase or what cryptocurrencies, assets, or securities you should buy, sell, or trade. I do not know the details of your specific financial situation, therefore I am not in a position to give you advice on what purchases or investments you should make. Consumers and traders must conduct their own research in order to conclude for themselves what products and investments are best suited to their needs. 

3 Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before Investing in Cryptocurrency

We asked Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital, the leading institutional investment firm that focuses on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, about the three most important questions to ask yourself when investing in cryptocurrency.

Here are his answers.

1) Know your risk appetite

As with any investment, investors need to consider their ability to shoulder losses. Just how much can you stand to lose in the event that things go south? To this end, Paul advises people to ask themselves:

“What’s your risk appetite? This is a new space and there are a lot of unknowns.”

We often hear about the risk inherent in cryptocurrency. When investing in any particular coin or project, it’s important to keep in mind your appetite for risk.

How much are you willing to risk? While many cryptocurrencies and related projects have what’s referred to as “asymmetric upside” (meaning the potential rewards outweigh the potential risks), that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win (ever).

There have been too many failed blockchain projects to count. That’s why being diversified counts.

2) How diversified do you want to be?

The second question investors should be asking is how exactly they want to invest.

Diversification is often best accomplished via an investment vehicle like an exchange-traded fund (ETF) rather than buying a coin on an exchange or through an ICO.

“Do you want to invest in companies or projects directly, or do you want to buy into a vehicle like a fund or an index?”

This is a point many people might never stop to consider. Simply exchanging fiat for a coin on an exchange is not the only way to invest in cryptocurrency, although it might be the most common.

This also plays into the third question.

3) Are you investing in things you’re passionate about?

This one is simple. Yet most investors might never consider it.

“It really helps to understand what you’re investing into…if you’re not willing to do the research, you should invest in an index or a fund or something that is diversified.”

Legendary investor Warren Buffet is well-known for his famous quotation saying that he only invests in businesses that he understands.

Why would investing in cryptocurrency be any different?

3 Reasons Crypto Needs Privacy

In 2012, a senate report disclosed the fact that international banking giant HSBC was involved in laundering money for terrorists and drug cartels. Billions of dollars were laundered over a period of seven years, much of that occurring before the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper had been published.

And yet, some might say that private crypto transactions are only for criminals. Really?

As the HSBC case illustrates, criminals don’t need privacy. All they need is a high-profile partner willing to look the other way.

So, who does need private transactions?

You and I do. If we want to be free, safe, and secure, that is.

Privacy in Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not really anonymous - they are pseudonymous. While your name may not be tied to every address you ever send BTC to and from, every transaction is recorded in the blockchain for everyone to see. All I need to do in order to tie you to a certain transaction is to verify that one of the public keys in question is associated with a wallet in your possession.

San Francisco Blockchain Week 2018 hosted an important fireside chat about this very issue entitled “The Privacy Hype.” The talk can be seen here:

Alternative cryptocurrencies have devised ways to obscure the details of transactions by default. This is a much-needed feature that protects individual rights and allows cryptocurrency to achieve its full potential as an empowering decentralized technology.

Here are three reasons crypto needs privacy.

1) Crypto Needs Privacy for Protection Against Censorship

The march toward online censorship has taken dramatic strides over the last several years. Often times, this includes stonewalling the financial activities of an individual or organization. Thankfully, cryptocurrency provides for the possibility of preventing such draconian measures.

In a paper published earlier this year, Jerry Britto explains why we need private transactions. He likens private cryptocurrency to cash in that both are untraceable. Without cash, society takes a sharp turn toward totalitarianism, he argues:

“In a world without cash (a bearer and peer-to-peer form of money) all transactions must be necessarily intermediated by financial institutions. Intermediated transactions are by their nature subject to surveillance and control. If third-party financial institutions must be part of all transactions, then they will be privy to the intimate details of everyone’s financial life. They can also choose to disallow certain transactions and potentially even certain persons from transacting.”

‌If all of us used a currency that allowed for private transactions (like Monero), however, this would not be the case at all. By protecting privacy, currencies like Monero protect individual sovereignty. 

2) Private Transactions Support Individual Sovereignty 

While a surveillance state empowers large organizations and powerful financial institutions, private transactions empower individuals.

An article authored by Abhimanyu Krishnanon of InvestinBlockchain.com describes the issue quite well:

"Privacy coins are one of the most hotly debated issues in the cryptocurrency market. Unlike many other coins, they rile up all of the powers in charge, from tech monopolies to governments to banks, thanks to their potential to pull the rug out from underneath them and invert the flow of power."

But this is not the primary reason that crypto needs privacy. Rather, it’s a potential side effect. The real reason, as you may have noted by now, is all about power to the people. 

 
3) Private Transactions Put Power in the Hands of the People

As government whistleblower and privacy pioneer Edward Snowden has intimated when speaking of other privacy-centric coins, privacy and security go hand-in-hand.

Agree. Zcash's privacy tech makes it the most interesting Bitcoin alternative. Bitcoin is great, but "if it's not private, it's not safe." https://t.co/HqwQOvSCiz

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 28, 2017

Being private means you can rest easy knowing that no one will be scrutinizing your financial activities.

If you’re a political activist living in a nation controlled by an oppressive government, you don’t have to fear your activities being slow-rolled by regulatory authorities. If you’re an independent journalist, you don’t have to worry about having your freedom restricted through financial channels. And if you just want to have full control of your own financial actions, you’re covered there as well, of course.

How do we conduct private transactions? Simple - use a currency that prevents user transactions from being identifiable.

Monero Enables Private Transactions

Monero (XMR) is the original privacy coin and was introduced in April 2014. Monero uses three privacy technologies to hide information about transactions:

• Ring signatures
• Ring confidential transactions (RingCT)
• Stealth addresses

These technologies hide the sender, amount of coin being sent, and receiver, respectively. Transactions on the Monero blockchain can’t be linked to any specific user because all the details of the transactions are obfuscated by default.

Monero is based on the CryptoNote protocol and has a dynamic block size, dynamic fees, and is ASIC-resistant. These features and more make it stand out from the pack of privacy coins.

You can learn more about the specifics of Monero on the official Monero website.

Steemit & Dtube: Social Networking, Blogging, and Video Sharing in the Blockchain Era

Mainstream social media networks have devised an ingenious yet insidious business model.

It involves having users generate content and data that then gets collected and monetized by the network. You spend lots of time posting photos, writing comments, liking/sharing content created by others…and you do it all for free  

Users do all of the work. Corporations reap all of the profits.

As the world becomes more decentralized thanks to blockchain technology, however, arrangements like this one start to look less and less appealing. One day, we may look back on them and think, “how did anyone think this was cool, and why did anyone participate?”

The New Model: Steemit Rewards Users

The introduction of Steemit in 2016 was a hallmark moment in social media history. For the first time, users could be in control of their content.

On Steemit, no one owns or controls the network. Just like everything else built on blockchain, Steemit is decentralized.

How does it work? Steemit rewards users with STEEM for participating in the community. Create valuable content that others enjoy while being a positive member of the community, and you will earn STEEM.

The more upvotes your content gets, the more you earn. You also get STEEM when you upvote posts created by others.

Upvotes by veteran users with more STEEM Power generate more STEEM than upvotes by newbies. There are three things you can earn on Steemit:

– STEEM, which is the cryptocurrency that can be traded on exchanges,– STEEM dollars, a debt-like instrument that promises the holder $1 for every Steem dollar at some point in the future,– STEEM Power, which gives you greater influence over post payouts  

You can choose how you want your rewards distributed. The default is 50/50 STEEM tokens and STEEM dollars. Another option is to convert all of your STEEM and STEEM dollars into STEEM Power, a process called “powering up.”

Voting, sharing, and commenting all represent transactions in the STEEM blockchain. They can’t be reversed by anyone. While this is a great anti-censorship feature, it may annoy some users (think twice before you post anything embarrassing or compromising – there’s no “delete” button). That holds especially true for the video-sharing element of Steemit.

Video Sharing with Dtube

Dtube is Steemit’s video sharing platform. It’s like YouTube combined with Steemit. Users get rewarded for the content they create on Dtube in the same manner as Steemit.

When you share a video on Steemit, it will be posted to Dtube. Your Dtube account is connected to your Steemit account. You will need a separate password to log in, but other than that there’s little difference between the two.

It’s elegantly simple and ridiculously rewarding – both in terms of crypto and user experience.

Steemit and Dtube Represent a New User Experience

Steemit is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Still, by participating in the community, you can:

– Have an independent platform free of censorship– Be a part of crypto social network history– Have fun with other users experiencing the new paradigm

There is a slight learning curve when it comes to getting used to the way Steemit works. Users of Reddit may find the user-interface intuitive while others may struggle to adjust.

Thankfully, the Steemit FAQ answers most of your questions.

Blockchain technology has ushered in a new and exciting era of social networking.

Crypto Social Networks are the Future

Imagine what the future can hold for a decentralized crypto social network.

Everyone will be rewarded for sharing photos of their dog and what they had for dinner last night. Funny video of something that happened when you went out for drinks the other night? Share it! You could earn something from it on a crypto social network like Steemit.

And keep in mind that there are plenty of other crypto social networks out there. Steemit is just the first and is currently the most popular.

A new era of editorial freedom is also upon us. It’s not just about profit sharing with users. It’s about user empowerment.

Those long-winded political rants or controversial blog posts won’t get your account banned. Previous posts won’t be censored – everything will be secure and immutable in the blockchain.

While there are a few bots that patrol the Steemit community watching for spam and plagiarized content, there are a lot fewer trolls and almost zero censorship. Compared to what has become of the more mainstream networks, Steemit feels like a breath of fresh air for most users.

Once you go Steemit, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

[Originally posted on the BlockPulse blog: https://blockgroup.global/2019/06/16/steemit-dtube-social-networking-blogging-and-video-sharing-in-the-blockchain-era/]