Bitcoin Alternatives: How to Buy Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and Other Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin’s rising value has grabbed all the attention, but it’s not the only cryptocurrency out there. Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero are just some of the other cryptocurrencies out there. If you wish to buy any of these in India, you might not find it very easy to do so directly. A quick search only revealed rather less-known and suspicious looking sites selling Ethereum in India — something you want to avoid in general.

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However, there’s one reliable way of buying Ethereum or any other cryptocurrency in India, which essentially involves buying Bitcoin and then converting it to the cryptocurrency of your choice. For this, first you need to buy Bitcoin in India and then convert it. We used this method to buy Litecoin in India, but it will work for practically all other cryptocurrencies.

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1. First you need a wallet for the cryptocurrency of your choice. You can visit the official website for Ethereum or Litecoin or others to find a download link.
2. Once you’ve downloaded this wallet on your PC or phone, you need to set it up. This involves setting up two passcodes, one of which is a series of up to 24 words. Copy the receive address for your cryptocurrency.
3. Next, you need to head to a cryptocurrency converter such as ShapeShift.
4. Select Bitcoin as the input currency, and the output currency is obviously the one you want. In our case, the output currency was Litecoin.
5. The address you copied in step 3 above needs to be pasted into the Deposit Address field on ShapeShift.
6. You can copy the receive address from your Bitcoin wallet and paste it into the Bitcoin refund address field in ShapeShift. In case the transaction fails, the money will get refunded to your Bitcoin wallet quickly.
7. Now check I agree to terms, click Start transaction.
8. ShapeShift will now give you a new deposit address. Copy this and go back to your Bitcoin wallet. Now send the Bitcoin amount to this address.
9. Switch back to ShapeShift and wait. Once the Bitcoin is received by ShapeShift, it will quickly convert it to the cryptocurrency of your choice.

Note that ShapeShift also has mobile apps, and while the process remains the same, the steps differ slightly if you want to use those to convert cryptocurrencies there. It’s also important to note that ShapeShift charges around 0.5 percent for conversion, and sending Bitcoins to ShapeShift also has a miner fee associated with it, which is something you have to pay for every Bitcoin transaction. That said, this remains the easiest way to buy Ethereum or Litecoin in India.

For more tutorials, head to our How To section.

Bitcoin is at an all-time high but should you still invest in it now? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below.