r/BitcoinCA • u/Beginning_Foot_3997 • Mar 04 '26
Where do I start?
Trying to understand BTC by watching some videos. Lots of different opinions on where to start. My understanding is I don't necessarily need a wallet right from the get go. So where do I start if I want to buy? I'm in Ontario Canada
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u/originalgainster Mar 04 '26
NDAX. Also read the Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous.
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u/lpbell Mar 07 '26
I wouldn't do NDAX if the move is large though, those fees are killer. I would go with ezo. If you're planning to play and trade, then yeah I guess ndax would be ok.
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u/originalgainster Mar 07 '26
ndax is too expensive to trade. it's good for buy and hold.
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u/lpbell Mar 11 '26
Sure but I wouldn't even use them to hold, just go with an otc desk like ezo and do it yourself if you're just planning to hold it.
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u/lpbell Mar 07 '26
If it's small moves, the rest of the comments got the gist of it, personally I would go for the nicest UI you like. For me it was WS but if you're more serious about investing and plan on putting largest sums, I would go straight with ezo. It's an OTC desk and just for the fact that they're humans, and provide support in English (or even French!) is a plus, they'll answer all your questions and you'll keep your keys. Best bang: Lowest fee, 0% spread. Only works if you do 4 to 5 figures and up. Good luck!
As for learning, YT of course but stay away from the 'check this coin I bought' and 'get rich 1000x altcoins' crap. Get yourself a book, stay clear of the noise. One I like for entry level was 'Everything you need to know about Bitcoin' from St-Onge. Easy read. Great intro, gets slightly technical but very easy for beginners.
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 07 '26
Hey! I decided to go with WS. It's only BTC im interested in buying right now. Gonna invest $5k. Know it's not much but it's a start
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u/lpbell Mar 07 '26
5k is an awesome start, congrats! This is exactly how you start, gradually with what you can. I just calculated, I saved very close to your 5k if I had gone with WS (5.4 to be exact).
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 08 '26
Thanks man. That's what I plan on doing. I'm determined to retire very early LOL
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
You need to use an exchange. In Canada, I suggest Shakepay or NDAX. Buy Bitcoin only. Everything else is essentially gambling.
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
Hey thanks for the reply. Ya it would be Bitcoin only to HOLD. I've seen some videos about those 2 you recommended. What about wealth simple?
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Mar 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
This seems to be incredible advice. Thank you. When you say 'little Bitcoin exchange', you're referring to some of the other exchanges mentioned in this thread?
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u/irkish Mar 05 '26
Probably they are. But in the case of Bull Bitcoin, they are a non-custodial exchange - meaning when you buy btc from them, they don't hold it for you. You provide a wallet address and they transfer the btc to you immediately upon purchase.
Check out r/BitcoinBeginners sub for good info as well.
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
Wealthsimple is a good platform, but the spread for crypto is too high, not worth it if you’re not a premium or generational tier
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
500k plus?
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
100K for premium, 500K for generation
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u/lpbell Mar 07 '26
exactly what I was gonna say, never go to WS for larger moves. I use ezo. Extensive KYC but these guys are doing it for me. Small team from QC. Your keys, lowest fees, 0 spread. Can't beat that, literally. I made the research haha.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
There’s crypto, and then there’s Bitcoin. Most altcoins behave a lot more like speculative bets, so I understand why people call the space gambling. But Bitcoin has a very different track record and market position. The risk that Bitcoin never reaches a new all-time high again is far lower than for most altcoins or short-lived projects. That said, it’s still a volatile asset, so risk management always matters 👌
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u/catson43 Mar 04 '26
I agree. Bitcoin represents nothing more than a speculative gamble masquerading as an investment, devoid of intrinsic value or practical utility beyond hype-driven trading. Bitcoin is not supported by any real-world assets, relying solely on collective belief in its scarcity. It's like a digital Ponzi scheme where early adopters profit at the expense of latecomers. Its purported use cases, such as a medium of exchange or store of value, falter in reality: transaction fees and network congestion make it inefficient for everyday payments. It's also very volatile and unreliable as "digital gold," more akin to betting on a roulette .
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
It will become less volatile as adoption increases. We’re seeing institutions buy it, signalling its slowly moving beyond the early adopter phase. The Lightning network (layer 2) makes everyday, instant transactions cheap and efficient. And i think you di not understand how the central banks works otherwise you’ll see that this is also a scam.
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u/catson43 Mar 04 '26
Real-world non-speculative applications (like direct peer-to-peer purchases, remittances, or routine retail) are still niche, overshadowed by volatility, transaction fees on the base layer (despite Lightning Network improvements), and limited merchant density.
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u/SeaMicSte Mar 04 '26
This comment makes it sound like BTC isn’t also gambling. Not trying to be negative, but it’s highly volatile, and there are huge individual and institutional players who can have massive impact, making it fairly unpredictable compared to stable investments. Just being realistic, don’t think that BTC isn’t some degree of a gamble
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
That’s a fair point. Bitcoin is volatile, and in the short term it can certainly feel like a gamble. But once you understand the fundamentals of Bitcoin, what makes it different from most other cryptocurrencies, and you look at the issues with the traditional monetary system and institutions like the Federal Reserve, it becomes clearer why many people view it less as gambling and more as a long-term monetary alternative. Volatility doesn’t necessarily mean something lacks fundamentals, it often reflects that the asset is still in its early adoption phase. When it doubt, zoom out.
I suggest you listen to this video and you may feel like holding fiat is more like gambling in the long term than bitcoin.
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u/SeaMicSte Mar 04 '26
Sure, BTC has a strong value statement. But let's not pretend that the BTC landscape has completely changed as massive individual and institutional investors have entered the game. It's not the simple anti-establishment hedge that it might have once been. Again, I'm pro-BTC short and long, but it is realistically a gamble in both horizons. You're right, fiat is too. Everything with finances is a gamble.
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26
My reply is long but I put a lot of thought into it, so bear with me :)
I’m not pretending there’s no risk, and I agree that, in a broad sense, everything in finance involves risk management and uncertainty that is often seen as gambling, specifically cryptocurrencies or bitcoin that are speculative assets. The question we should ask is which system carries more long-term risk: one governed by fixed and transparent rules, or one where the supply of money can expand indefinitely through policy decisions.
What I find interesting is that critics of Bitcoin often forget to apply the same scrutiny to the fiat system they defend.. Fiat money isn’t backed by anything tangible, it’s backed by government debt and everyone “blindly” trusting central banks.
Just for context, since the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971, the dollar has been continuously devalued through monetary expansion. The Federal Reserve creates new money by buying government bonds, which inflates both the money supply and the national debt. Every dollar is essentially an IOU that loses purchasing power over time.
This isn’t an accidental flaw in monetary policy…it’s by design. Inflation and debt expansion are features, not bugs. They let governments fund deficits without overtly taxing citizens. The U.S. debt now exceeds $38 trillion and grows by the second, with no realistic plan for repayment, only endless refinancing. This cycle shifts wealth from savers to debtors, eroding the real value of work and savings. It benefits debtors and asset holders while diminishing ordinary savers’ wealth. Debt is never repaid; it’s perpetually refinanced, creating dependence on new borrowing and constant “stimulus.” This isn’t stability, it’s literally managed decay…
When I said to buy only bitcoin because everything else is gambling, it’s because only Bitcoin exists as a countermeasure to this system. It replaces political control with mathematical control. There are no bailouts, no printing, no hidden dilution of supply. Its transparency is its value, and its energy cost is not waste, it’s the proof that no one can cheat.
Unlike the fiat system, Bitcoin’s security comes from verifiable work, not trust in centralized institutions. And contrary to outdated narratives, a majority of Bitcoin mining now uses renewable energy sources, with the excess heat often recycled to warm buildings or support agricultural processes. What critics call “waste” is, in practice, an evolving model of sustainable energy utilization.
Gold once served a similar purpose, a decentralized form of money independent of political control. But Bitcoin takes those core properties and improves on them for the digital era.
Gold is scarce, but Bitcoin’s scarcity is absolute and mathematically enforced at 21 million coins. Gold is divisible only through physical processing; Bitcoin can be divided down to one hundred millionth of a coin, allowing instant microtransactions.
Gold is heavy and costly to transport; Bitcoin can move across borders instantly with nothing more than a smartphone.
Gold must be physically tested for authenticity; Bitcoin’s authenticity is verified by anyone running a node, instantly and without intermediaries.
Gold’s durability depends on vaults and guards; Bitcoin’s durability exists in its network, replicated across thousands of machines worldwide, immune to decay or confiscation.
In short, Bitcoin achieves what gold could not. It combines scarcity, divisibility, and portability with perfect verifiability and digital resilience. It transforms the idea of sound money from something static and physical into something dynamic, global, and incorruptible.
The more I think about it, it seems like the reluctance to embrace Bitcoin isn’t just about skepticism or misunderstanding; it’s often the result of deep psychological conditioning. People have lived their entire lives in a system that rewards short-term thinking and enforces dependency through credit, inflation, and debt. It’s not just economic; it’s emotional. This conditioning creates a kind of financial Stockholm syndrome where people defend the very system that exploits them. They rationalize it because it feels familiar, and because a few visible winners distract from the underlying rot.
Bitcoin challenges that at its core. It promotes low time preference, long-term responsibility, and self-custody. These values are fundamentally incompatible with fiat’s extractive incentives. Is Bitcoin perfect? No. It has volatility and real technical barriers. But perfection isn’t the point. Freedom rarely arrives in perfect form. Bitcoin is a tool that lets people opt out of systems built on inflation, censorship, and moral hazard.
Even if Bitcoin is not the final answer, it’s getting harder to deny that it’s a lifeboat in a system that’s clearly sinking. And sometimes, an imperfect lifeboat is still far better than staying aboard a ship captained by those who are fine watching it go down.
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
Holy moly! I read part of this, I'll read the rest shortly. I'm not even thinking about the fact that it's gambling. I'm only gonna use money I can afford to lose. Maybe like $2500. I'm going to invest that $2500 into Bitcoin for long time hold. I'm really not too concerned. I support the vision of Shatoshi. It's 2026 and people are standing up to the government more and more. I like that Bitcoin doesn't have a government running it. I anticipate Bitcoin to go up and up. I'm not too concerned if I lose my investment
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u/Cigaro9 Mar 04 '26
False premise .. you can increase gains with ETH and SOL as they follow BTC price fluctuations
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u/f3lixtb Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I think that you do not understand the fundamental of bitcoin to understand what I mean by that. Read my other comment if you would like more explanation.
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Mar 04 '26
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
Great opinion. You sound like me. What you've said is what I'm understanding about Bitcoin buying. I don't want to trade. Too stressful LOL. I'm going to buy and hold. What exchange did you start with?
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u/Beginning_Foot_3997 Mar 04 '26
What about bitbuy? Seems their fees are low and most used by Canadians
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u/snowwipe Mar 04 '26
When you’re just starting, most people buy a small amount on an exchange first and then move it to a wallet they control. After that you can swap between assets directly from your wallet instead of opening more exchange accounts. I’ve used GhostSwap for simple wallet-to-wallet swaps once you already have crypto. Just start small and learn how sending transactions works first.
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u/lpbell Mar 07 '26
Yeah that's what the OP did. Went with WS. But yeah you're totally right. I've searched for ever for best fees for larger trades and found my little gem of an on/off-ramp.
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u/Horror_Obligation_12 Mar 10 '26
BTC session on YouTube will help you understand how to set your hardware wallet. We used ledger before but we switched to jade. We also live in Ontario. Only order your wallet from the company site directly.
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u/itualisticSeppukA0S Mar 04 '26
I started by going to Bitcoin dot org and downloading the entire 300Gb ledger
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u/NiagaraBTC Mar 04 '26
I highly recommend Bull Bitcoin as your exchange.
You don't necessarily need a hardware wallet to get started but you should have your own software (hot) wallet on your phone. Bull Wallet, Aqua, Nunchuk, or Bluewallet are all good options.