As a novice to bitcoin investing, could you share the best (most secure/trusted) way to buy bitcoin? Thank you!

I ran a public node as my wallet for years on both Ubuntu and Windows frankly, the same wallet.dat was used on my public node for years but that’s terrible opsec.

Do not recommend a novice doing this. Like someone below has mentioned there are numerous exchanges now that will gladly serve as your gateway into bitcoin.

Just remember though, if you not in control of the private keys securing your wallet, it isn’t your money.

Do not blindly believe cryptocurrency exchanges are not running a fractional reserve. Without a transaction I’d on the bitcoin network, it never happened.

FWIW I started in bitcoin trading for anything in a chat room on irc. The landscape has changed significantly since.

Depends somewhat where you live and what you plan to do with the Bitcoin (long term hold or actively trade).. but major exchanges in major countries are pretty trustworthy these days.

Kraken, Gemini, and Coinbase are all quite trustworthy, if any of those are available in your locale.

Buying and holding for 4+ years has produced amazing gains in Bitcoin since its inception. Trading often and fooling around with alt coins has caused many great losses and pain. Don't invest more than you can stomach losing or holding in the red for a few years.

Thank you for the info. I live in the US and plan to buy and hold (for diversification) with the money I can stomach to lose. I'll try out Coinbase because it's the one that is the most familiar to me. Happy holidays!

For reference to support parent: that tax implications of the bitcoin I owned and sold after 7 years of sitting on it was much simpler than the bitcoin I bought and sold over and over again trying to make money on both sides of an order book during high volatility.

I am a US citizen. I have fully complied with tax law as I understand it. To my knowledge, I’ve never been involved in any darknet marketplaces. I’ve seen an opportunity much sooner than my peers.

I have been waiting for the current price volatility since the last ATH spike in January 2019 since exiting a majority of my bitcoin positions. The block reward halving last summer combined with an ever increasing mining difficulty is a no brainer to me. Good luck

There’s 7000 shitcoin trading on an infinite number of shitcoin exchanges providing infinite liquidity; that’s what I see. What is there to stop bitcoin?

Coinbase is the easiest to buy. But, I suggest you try another option. Coinbase's whole goal is to make money (surprise!) by selling many "coins" easily. Swanbitcoin or kraken are my suggestions. DYR.

dollar cost average with swan bitcoin and try fold app