Hello!
In the comments to one of my articles, there was a heated discussion about cryptocurrencies, as well as the prospects and risks of investing money in this relatively new business. These disputes became the reason for writing this material.
In fact, like everything new, cryptocurrencies carry both huge risks, since they have many signs of a financial pyramid and, in fact, no guarantees, and huge prospects.
The basic principle of cryptocurrency is decentralization. In simple words, this means that no one in the world has sole control over the currency itself and cannot dictate its terms to market participants. Moreover, each device that is engaged in the production (mining), for example, bitcoin, is a member of the system. For more information about what a cryptocurrency is, you can read, for example, on Wikipedia.
As with conventional currencies, cryptocurrencies are listed on the exchange and have their own rate. There is a rate for both regular currency and other cryptocurrencies. At the moment, the main method of influencing the rate is speculative trading. By and large, we can say that this is money out of thin air and, as many people like to frighten neophytes, a soap bubble that is about to burst.
Time will tell whether it is true or not. Today's material is about how to follow cryptocurrency rates using your smartphone or tablet based on Android.
For this, there is a large number of applications with various functionalities that allow you to track rates both on one exchange or on several exchanges at once.
CoinCap was the first application I started using to track cryptocurrency rates.
When you enter the program, the start page displays a list of cryptocurrencies (coins) sorted by market capitalization, or, in simpler terms, by the amount of traditional money invested in this currency. At the moment and always the top line is occupied by BitCoin (it is also called 'Batya').
Right there on the main page, you can search for the required currency by typing in the search bar either the full name of the currency or an abbreviation. In addition, if you tap on the settings icon in the upper left corner, a menu with available functions will open, including:
- Search for a specific currency
- My Altfolio
- Notification manager
- Settings
With the search for currencies, everything is clear. We are looking for a currency and look at its current price and the dynamics of the rate change for different periods.
'My Wallet' allows you to list the currencies you want to track. There are three wallets available where you can deposit the currencies you have on various exchanges.
After selecting a currency and its available volume, the central part of the screen will show the total amount of money transferred to the traditional currency set in the settings, as well as the percentage of growth or losses depending on the change in exchange rates in the wallet. As with a specific currency rate, there is a choice of periods.
In the next paragraph, it is possible to set an alert for various conditions.
You can select an alert for a specific coin, wallet, or for all wallets.
Among the alert types, you can configure an alert either on a schedule on certain days and times, or upon reaching a certain price, both maximum and minimum.
You can add several types of notification at the same time.
Thus, it will be convenient to track price changes and control your assets.
In the settings section, besides the ability to share a link to the application through various channels and contacts with the developer, you can:
- Select the currency in which your assets will be displayed (there are also rubles).
- Set a password to access specific information.
- Select a channel for updating data on exchange rates in real time (by default, it is updated via Wi-Fi).
- Change the name of the wallets.
- Specify whether to ask when adding a new currency and whether to display different data on the display and in the menu.
Of all the functions of the application, I like the display of a graph of changes in the exchange rate for different periods and the ability to form a portfolio of currencies and immediately see both the volume of real money and the dynamics of changes in this volume.
The application is not without sin – there are crashes when entering data and setting up notifications. In the online mode of updating data on exchange rates, the application loves to eat the battery and does it with gusto.
Conclusion
As I said at the very beginning, at the moment there are a large number of applications that allow you to do all the same and even more. Among such applications, TabTrader stands out, for example, which not only has broader functionality for tracking rates, notifications, but also allows you to trade currencies on various exchanges.
Why then am I not deleting CoinCap? I never considered myself sentimental, but you can say that the main reason I don't uninstall this app is nostalgia. This application started my acquaintance with the world of cryptocurrencies and everything connected with it.
In addition to tracking rates and trading cryptocurrency, there are applications that allow you to use the power of a smartphone for its mining (production), but it hardly makes sense to consider them seriously.
Like everything new, such a phenomenon as cryptocurrency raises many questions in terms of the reliability and security of investments, however, whether we like it or not, cryptocurrencies have already become a part of our life, and this new area is rapidly developing.