HOW TO BUY A CRYPTOCURRENCY (USING THE UDOO AND THE COINTIGER EXCHANGE AS AN EXAMPLE)
IMPORTANT NOTICE
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UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF BUYING A CRYPTOCURRENCY
Buying cryptocurrency for the first time can be complicated but it’s much easier if you understand some of the basic features of cryptocurrencies and how they work.
Pairings
Most utility tokens can’t be purchased with conventional currency such as the dollar, pound or euro. You’ll first need to buy the cryptocurrency that the token is paired with, usually bitcoin or ether. Think of it as being similar to buying something in a foreign country but having first to buy that country’s currency to make the trade.
Exchanges
Primary Exchanges
These are the gateway to the crypto world which allow you to buy bitcoin and ether with a credit or debit card. They’ll normally ask you to verify your identity which is a regulatory requirement.
Once you’ve bought your bitcoin or ether you’ll be able to hold them in your account in what’s known as a wallet.
Secondary Exchanges
Secondary exchanges are the exchanges that allow you to trade your bitcoin or ether to the cryptocurrency that you wish to buy. They also have wallets and you’ll first need to send your bitcoin or ether to the secondary exchange’s wallet.
Wallets and Keys
Unless you are confident that your exchange is secure and has a good reputation, then you’ll want to avoid leaving your new currency on any exchange for longer than you have to. The reason for this is that whilst most established exchanges use security measures to protect their customers, they can be prone to hacks and theft of your new assets.
This especially applies to secondary exchanges where you are advised never to leave your tokens for longer than you have to.
You can move your crypto off an exchange into a wallet which you control and for which only you have access to the key.
For tokens such as μdoos which are built on the ethereum protocol and use ether as a transaction fee (known as GAS) a good example is MyEtherWallet, which is secured by a private key or through an app held on your mobile phone.
An important factor to remember is that a wallet does not store your crypto but rather your identification information (known as your private key) allowing you access to the blockchain ledger. It’s a bit like keeping the keys to your house in your purse except that you need to protect that purse against losing its’ contents.
Wallets use a public address (typically around a 40-digit code) so you’ll need to know the address of each wallet that you create so that you can send crypto to that wallet. You can access your wallets on exchanges by logging in with your username and password but for wallets like MyEtherWallet you’ll need a private key or password as well as a back-up phrase, all of which will need to be kept securely.
SHOULD YOU LOSE YOUR PRIVATE KEY OR PASSWORD TO A WALLET THEN YOU’LL LOSE ACCESS TO YOUR TOKENS, SO IT IS IMPORTANT THAT IT IS KEPT SAFELY OFFLINE WHERE IT CAN’T BE STOLEN.
Transaction Fees
Most utility tokens are built on the ethereum blockchain and are known as ERC-20. Whenever you transfer ERC-20 tokens, you’ll be charged a small transaction fee which is known as GAS. GAS for ERC-20 tokens is paid in ether and is normally around 0.1% of the value of the transaction, it represents the fee for your transaction being added to the blockchain by miners.
What this means is that in any wallet in which you are storing ERC-20 tokens, you’ll need to keep some ether to pay for GAS fees. MyEtherWallet suggests that you keep 0.1 ETH in your wallet for every three transactions.
ABOUT HOWDOO AND ITS UTILITY TOKEN, THE UDOO
A CRYPTOCURRENCY BEING USED TO CHANGE SOCIAL MEDIA
Howdoo is a decentralised Social Media and Content Delivery platform that offers users and content creators control over their own data and content. Howdoo thinks that it is fair, for example, that if users give permission to receive adverts that they get a share of the revenue. In addition, Howdoo think it’s fair that content creators should get tips and payments directly from fans with low or no fees.
Everything on Howdoo is based around the utility of its ERC-20 token, the μDoo (UDOO). Passive income, tips, payments, advertising are all performed using the μDoo which is limited in circulation.
Whilst users will be able to buy μDoos at the site when it is live, the amount that they can buy will be limited as larger amounts will require identity verification for legal reasons. For anyone that wishes to buy larger amounts, this can be done through the exchanges where μDoos are sold and these are available now.
HOW TO BUY THE UDOO TOKEN
The Four Step Process
STEP ONE - SELECT A PRIMARY EXCHANGE AND BUY ETHER (ETH)
μDoos are paired with ether and bitcoin, in this example we are going to use ether (ETH) so you’ll first of all need to buy ETH from a primary exchange. There are several options for choosing an exchange and three leading ones are shown below.
STEP TWO – SET UP YOUR SECONDARY EXCHANGE ACCOUNT AT COINTIGER AND MOVE YOUR ETH FROM YOUR PRIMARY EXCHANGE TO YOUR COINTIGER WALLET
After you have transferred your ETH to CoinTiger, you’ll then need to move them over to the exchange section of the CoinTiger platform in order to trade them for Udoo before moving them back to your exchange wallet.
STEP THREE – CHANGE YOUR ETH TO UDOOS USING THE COINTIGER EXCHANGE
After you have transferred your ETH to CoinTiger, you’ll need to move them over to the exchange section of the platform in order to trade them for Udoo before moving them back to your exchange wallet.
STEP FOUR – SET UP A PRIVATE WALLET USING MYETHERWALLET AND SEND YOUR UDOOS TO IT TO KEEP THEM SAFE
Although most established exchanges deploy security protection features, there have been cases where they have been hacked and people have lost their tokens.
Because of this we strongly recommend that you store your new μDoos to your own personal wallet.
One of the most popular wallets is MyEtherWallet which you can set up at https://www.myetherwallet.com/
TIPS FOR STEP ONE
1. When you visit any exchange, always check for the SSL padlock sign in the domain name bar to ensure that the site that you are visiting is the real one.
2. As an added security precaution, we recommend that you enable 2–factor authentication which will require you to download an authenticator such as google authenticator. This will generate a login code on your smartphone which changes every 30 seconds.
STEP ONE - SELECT A PRIMARY EXCHANGE AND BUY ETHER (ETH)
AS WITH ANY UTILITY TOKEN, BEFORE BUYING UDOOS (UDOO) YOU’LL FIRST OF ALL NEED TO BUY ITS PAIRED CRYPTOCURRENCY AT A PRIMARY EXCHANGE. IN THIS EXAMPLE, THE PAIRED CURRENCY FOR UDOO IS ETHER (ETH) AND THE PRINCIPAL SECONDARY EXCHANGE WHERE YOU CAN CHANGE UDOO FOR ETH IS COINTIGER.
Once you have set up your account, you’ll be guided by the site that you have chosen about how to buy your ETH, with support available if you have any questions.
Once you have done that you’ll be able to transfer the ETH to the secondary exchange and change the ETH into μdoos (UDOO).
SELECT AN EXCHANGE
COINBASE
Founded in June 2012 and based in San Francisco Coinbase is a digital currency wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can buy digital currencies like bitcoin, ether, and litecoin. It’s one of the largest and most established exchanges in the world and being based in the USA provides regulatory protection.
BITPANDA
Bitpanda is all about ease of use. An easy verification process gives you access to an intuitive, fast and secure trading experience. Bitpanda wants to make investing in digital assets as easy as ordering a pizza or a taxi. Therefore, Bitpanda offers the simplest and fastest access to buying, selling, swapping or sending digital assets. Bitpanda accepts Euro, Swiss Franc, British Pound Sterling and US Dollars.
CEX.IO
The CEO.IX exchange has developed a multi-level account system with an individual approach to each customer, from Bitcoin beginners to institutional traders. Worldwide coverage, multiple payment options, and 24/7 support are accompanied by time-proven platform stability that guarantees the safety of assets and data.
TIPS FOR STEP TWO
1. When sending cryptocurrency for the first time, it’s a good idea to start with a small amount in case you make any errors entering an address in which case your currency will be lost.
STEP TWO – SET UP YOUR SECONDARY EXCHANGE ACCOUNT AT COINTIGER AND MOVE YOUR ETH FROM YOUR PRIMARY EXCHANGE TO YOUR COINTIGER WALLET.
PLEASE NOTE THAT COINTIGER IS NOT OPEN TO US RESIDENTS
IF YOU ARE IN THE USA YOU WILL NEED TO USE ANOTHER EXCHANGE THAT IS U.S. COMPLIANT
YOU CAN SEE ALL SECONDARY EXCHANGES SELLING UDOO AT https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/howdoo/trading_exchanges#panel
1. SET UP YOUR COINTIGER ACCOUNT
Before you can transfer your ETH to CoinTiger, you’ll first need to set up a CoinTiger account at https://www.cointiger.com/en-us/#/register/
You can do this using your mobile telephone number or email address as a password and you should also set up the 2-factor authentication.
2. CREATE AN ETH PUBLIC ADDRESS AT COINTIGER
Once set up, you’ll be able to click on the funds followed by deposit tabs and then select ETH to create your unique ETH address which you can copy by clicking where it says copy.
3. SEND YOUR ETH FROM YOUR PRIMARY EXCHANGE TO YOUR COINTIGER ACCOUNT
Now go back to your primary exchange and find your ETH wallet and click on the send button. You’ll then be asked to enter the address of the wallet that you wish to send your ETH to where you can then enter the address created by CoinTiger and press send.
The process can take anything up to an hour but you will then see the ETH in your CoinTiger Investment Account.
TIPS FOR STEP THREE
1. Depending on the trading volume of UDOO we recommend that you only use market orders for smaller amounts since they could increase the price you pay quite a bit depending on the sell orders in the order book. On the other hand, limit orders can take a long time to be filled or don't even have to reach your selected price. You can always cancel your limit order and set it up again.
STEP THREE – CHANGE YOUR ETHER TO UDOOS USING THE COINTIGER EXCHANGE
TO BUY UDOO ON COINTIGER YOU’LL THEN NEED TO TRANSFER YOUR ETH FROM YOUR COINTIGER WALLET (INVESTMENT ACCOUNT) TO THE EXCHANGE ITSELF.
1. MOVE YOUR ETH FROM YOUR COINTIGER INVESTMENT ACCOUNT TO YOUR COINTIGER WALLET
Click on the funds tab followed by the transfer button in your ETH wallet.
Then click on the funds/trading tab at the top of the page and when the exchange page opens enter UDOO in the top right-hand corner and click on UDOO and a new page will open up.
2. TRADE YOUR ETH FOR UDOO
You now have two options:
You can use a market order to specify how many UDOO tokens you want to buy. Your order will be filled immediately for the price available on the market. This means you might not decide on the price you pay for UDOO but your order will go through immediately.
Alternatively, you can set a limit order means that you specify how many UDOO you’d like to buy and the maximum price you want to pay. If there is an order that matches or is lower than this, it will be filled right away. if there is no match, it can take a while until your order is filled.
3. MOVE YOUR UDOO FROM THE COINTTIGER EXCHANGE TO YOUR COINTIGER INVESTMENT ACCOUNT
You'll then need to transfer them from the CoinTiger exchange to your CoinTiger Investment Account wallet.
TIPS FOR STEP FOUR
1. When you go to https://www.myetherwallet.com, always check that the domain is correct — no underlines, no points under letters or similar — and that the padlock secure symbol and "myetherwallet inc us" are visible before the url.
2, To familiarize yourself with myetherwallet, you can play around with opening several wallets and see which one suits you best before making a final decision and making a record of the password and recovery words (if required).
3. If the token you have sent to your wallet is not ETH then in order to see it on MEW, you’ll need to add it as a custom token using the symbol, contract address and the decimal count (the number of decimal places that the token uses which is 18). There are detailed instructions at:
https://kb.myetherwallet.com/en/tokens/how-to-add-custom-token/
4. If you send your tokens from MEW to another wallet such as Howdoo (see below), you’ll need to hold a small amount of ETH in your MEW for Gas (transaction) fees. Gas and the gas limit are set automatically based on network congestion. You can either buy ETH from your primary exchange and send it to your MEW public address or buy it through your MEW wallet. MEW suggests that you keep 0.1 ETH in your MEW wallet for every three transactions.
5. FAQ's can be seen at https://www.myetherwallet.com/#faqs
STEP FOUR – SET UP A PRIVATE WALLET USING MYETHERWALLET AND SEND YOUR UDOOS TO IT TO KEEP THEM SAFE
ALTHOUGH MOST ESTABLISHED EXCHANGES DEPLOY RIGOROUS SECURITY PROTECTION FEATURES, THERE HAVE BEEN CASES WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HACKED AND PEOPLE HAVE LOST THEIR TOKENS.
BECAUSE OF THIS WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU STORE YOUR NEW UDOOS IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL WALLET.
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR WALLETS IS MYETHERWALLET WHICH YOU CAN SET UP AT https://www.myetherwallet.com/
1. SETTING UP YOUR MYETHERNETWALLET (MEW) ACCOUNT
First, you’ll need to go to https://www.myetherwallet.com and to make sure that you are at the right site, check for the SSL certification that states ‘myetherwallet inc [US]’ in the url.
When you go to the create a new wallet section, you’ll see three options of setting up an address and storing your key.
2. USING MEW CONNECT
Mew connect is the recommended method by MEW and involves downloading the MEWconnect app on your smartphone, creating a password and opening a wallet. You can open the desktop version just by scanning the QR code onto your phone and you’ll then be able to manage your crypto using your desk or laptop, as opposed to on your phone.
You’ll need to create a backup by making a note of the 24 order-sensitive words. You’ll need to make a copy of these as well as your password and store them either on a USB password protected memory stick or on a paper copy (preferably both) but not on your computer in case you get hacked.
3. LOGIN TO THE MEW DASHBOARD AND NOTE YOUR PUBLIC ADDRESS, THEN SEND YOUR UDOO TO MEW
When you log in to your account, you’ll see your dashboard showing all your tokens and their current value, as well as your public address. You’ll need to make a note of your public address for when you want to ask someone to send you some tokens or if you are sending them to your MEW account say from an exchange.
You can then go back to CoinTiger, open up your Investment Account and send your Udoo to your MEW wallet in the same way that you did when you sent your ETH from your primary Exchange to CoinTiger.
HOW TO SEND YOUR UDOOS TO YOUR HOWDOO WALLET
WHEN THE HOWDOO PLATFORM IS LIVE, YOU CAN SEND YOUR UDOOS FROM AN EXCHANGE OR FROM MEW STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOWDOO WALLET
Just go to your wallet on the platform and click on the Udoo section, then click on Receive and you'll be able to copy your Howdoo Udoo address which you can insert in MEW or wherever you are sending the Udoos from.
HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR UDOOS' VALUE
SEVERAL OPTIONS EXIST BUT THE MOST POPULAR ONE IS AN APP CALLED BLOCKFOLIO WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO ENTER YOUR CRYPTO AND THE PRICE YOU HAVE PAID, AND THEN MONITOR ITS PERFORMANCE.
You can download a Blockfolio onto your smartphone via the App Store or Google Play. Once you have done this then simply click on the "+" sign and search for the token you wish to add. You can also enter how many tokens you have purchased and at what price and these, as well as the current value, will be shown on your home page whenever you open the app.