This past holiday season, I gifted a noticeable amount of cryptocurrency to my family and close friends. And no, I’m not crazy.
After time and time again telling those close to me to own crypto, I’ve taken in upon myself to nudge them in the right direction. Instead of an Amazon gift card, they were all surprised to find a USB in their stocking. The first question they asked was how they could liquidate the crypto and all I could do was shake my head (#HODL). I told them that the USB had a text file with instructions on how to fully liquidate via Coinbase, as well as how to safely store their crypto and exchange it for other.
By gifting the joy of crypto, I have introduced more people into the crypto world. Although a small effect on the market, I have created more demand for crypto as a whole and challenge you to do the same! Below are the steps on how I organized every USB so that you can too.
Step 1 — List Every Person You Want to Gift Crypto To
On an Excel sheet, I listed every person I wanted to gift crypto to, as well as the dollar amount I wanted to give to each. I structured what crypto I wanted to gift (ETH and Altcoins) and their respective price point at that time. I always made sure to give them a bit of ETH for gas when they wished to move the crypto around. I also limited the types of Altcoins in order to minimize the number of transactions I had to make and thus limit the gas fees I would have had to pay. In the sheet, I also made a column for their private key and wallet address in order to act as a custodian in case they lost their USB.
Step 2 — Generate a Wallet for Each Person
On MyEtherWallet, I generated a wallet for everyone, while always documenting the password, private key, and wallet address in the Excel file. Although I do have access to each gifted wallet, I also provided instructions on how they can generate their own wallet (with their own password) and transfer the crypto there. By doing this, I am no longer the custodian of their account as they are free to fly out of the nest.
Step 3 — Fill the Gifted Wallets with Crypto
After about a couple dollars worth of gas fees, I successfully loaded every wallet with the gifted crypto. Once again, I focused on sending them ETH to cover gas fees and limited the types of Altcoins to minimize the gas fees on my end.
Step 4 — Organizing the USB
After receiving several USBs for a cheap price on Amazon, I quickly created a text file with instructional content, links to their wallet’s Etherescan (in order to monitor the dollar value), and my contact information in case they needed more assistance. I also loaded the USB with the wallet’s respective JSON file and a text file with all of the information they needed to access their wallet.
Very simply, I made a small effect on the crypto market. I might have given away a piece of my pie, but the remaining pieces will be part of a much bigger pie!