Tool · the path with tick boxes
First purchase roadmap
The same seven steps the rest of this site is built around, broken into ten things you can actually tick off. Your ticks are stored in this browser and nowhere else — there is no account and nothing is sent anywhere.
Your progress
0 / 10 done
Ticks are kept in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account behind this page.
- What this does
- Removes the one decision most likely to be made badly, and makes it in the only moment when it can be made calmly.
- How long
- Ten minutes, and it is the ten minutes that matter most.
- If you are stuck
- How much do you actually need to start?
- What this does
- Removes the four most common causes of a failed first attempt before you meet any of them.
- How long
- Five minutes, if your documents are where you think they are.
- If you are stuck
- Do I need ID to buy crypto?
- What this does
- Opens the account. Nothing here is difficult; the parts that fail come later.
- How long
- Five minutes, plus waiting for a confirmation code.
- If you are stuck
- Opening your first exchange account, field by field
- What this does
- Satisfies the anti-money-laundering checks every regulated platform is required to run.
- How long
- Minutes if the automated checks clear, days if a human reviews it. Both are normal.
- If you are stuck
- Why does my verification keep failing? · How long it takes
- What this does
- Closes the gap between funding and hardening, which is the window that actually gets exploited.
- How long
- Ten minutes, once, and never again.
- If you are stuck
- The security checklist, item by item
- What this does
- Puts ordinary money on the platform. Nothing has been bought yet at this point.
- How long
- Card: minutes. Transfer: seconds to a few working days, depending on your country's payment rails.
- If you are stuck
- Debit card or bank transfer? · Payment method table
- What this does
- Converts your deposit into crypto. This is the irreversible step.
- How long
- Two minutes. Read the quantity you will receive, not the amount you typed.
- If you are stuck
- Market or limit? · Order type helper
- What this does
- Answers the "I bought it and cannot find it" panic in advance, and introduces what an exchange balance really is.
- How long
- Two minutes.
- If you are stuck
- Where do my coins go after I buy?
- What this does
- Creates the cost-basis record you will need at tax time, while the numbers are still in front of you.
- How long
- Thirty seconds. It is the item people most often wish they had done.
- If you are stuck
- What to do right after your first purchase
- What this does
- Stops the checking habit before it forms, which is the first week's only real risk.
- How long
- One second, and it is harder than it sounds.
- If you are stuck
- What goes wrong on a first purchase
How this roadmap is ordered, and why step 05 is where it is
What this tool is for
A first crypto purchase is not difficult, but it is long enough that people lose their place in it — particularly across the verification wait, which can put a day or more between step 04 and step 05. This is a place to keep the thread, and a way to see how much is left.
How to use it
Tick a step when you have finished it. Each one carries three things: what that step actually accomplishes, roughly how long it takes, and a link to the guide that covers it in depth if it stalls. Nothing is required in order, but the order is the one the screens will present to you.
Why security sits at step 05, before funding
Nearly every guide to this puts security last, as a tidy afterword. By then the account holds money, and the interval between funding and hardening is precisely the window that gets exploited. Turning on two-factor and an anti-phishing code while the balance is zero costs ten minutes and nothing else. Doing it afterwards costs the same ten minutes and almost nobody spends them.
Where your ticks are stored
In your own browser, using localStorage, under a single key. They are not sent anywhere, cannot be read by us, and are not tied to any account — there is no account. Clearing your site data, using a different browser, or opening a private window will show an empty roadmap. That is the trade-off of storing nothing on a server, and we think it is the right one for a page about money.
Who this is not for
Anyone who has already bought. The useful page after a purchase is the post-purchase checklist, which covers the settings and the record that most people skipped on the way through.
Related pages
- The full walkthrough — the same path in prose, with the screens described.
- Payment method comparison — for step 06.
- Order type helper — for step 07.
- Glossary — for any word on this page that is doing more work than it should.