A lot of people get nervous about cryptocurrency because it seems like a confusing world that requires risks. I however, recommend that if you have your own website, you should absolutely allow people to send you tips/donations in the most important two currencies: Bitcoin (the classic digital gold) and Monero (the private and cheaper to use version of Bitcoin).

To accept donations costs you absolutely nothing. It costs you nothing to hold these donations for years before you bother to figure out how it works. You don't have to do anything now but create a wallet and put a public address up.

## Cryptocurrency is the only open source and peer-to-peer currency

The whole point of being an Internet Landchad is that you do not have to rely on centralized platforms running privacy-violating proprietary software which can be used to censor you and others.

Cryptocurrency is the first ever technology that secures digital scarcity and allows people to transact with one another digitally without any intermediary.

Cryptocurrency might be a wild west, but it is the monetary equivalent of free and open source software.

I will not give investment advice about it, but I will say this, independent of the possibility of a bitcoin being worth more than $1 million later this decade, it is a generally good idea for you to have a way to exchange value without some proprietary intermediary system.

It's a good idea for any person to put some spare money in Bitcoin and Monero and encourage their friends to do so for the mere fact that it can be used to exchange and store value you might owe someone. It's easier than cash and Monero at least is cheap and easy to transact with.

## Why Bitcoin and Monero?

Bitcoin obviously is the original cryptocurrency. It is clunky, old, sometimes expensive to transact with for small amounts, but it is consistent and is coming to function as "digital gold": a way of storing value over years. As the Bitcoin network comes to be used by more and more people, companies, countries and others to store value, it also increases the price, which obviously has made many people very rich. Bitcoin will surge and crash in cycles, but the long-term trend is unambiguously up as more people store value on the network.

Monero is a more recent cryptocurrency that better preserves privacy and fixes nearly all of Bitcoin's other flaws. All Bitcoin transactions (and those of nearly all cryptocurrencies) are publicly visible on the blockchain. That means that people can watch where wallets get and spend money, which can be a massive problem. Monero, however, uses clever cryptography to avoid this. This makes it the choice "dark web" currency, but because it has many other benefits (low transaction fees (unlike Bitcoin), ASIC resistance) it is now a staple of the internet.

There are many other coins and tokens used for technology projects, but Bitcoin and Monero are by far the most important.

Due to the difference in transaction fees (it is expensive to transact with Bitcoin), you are probably more likely to get more little tips via Monero. Big donations might come in Bitcoin though.

- Get a Bitcoin wallet and accept Bitcoin donations.
- Get a Monero wallet and accept Monero donations.