Buying Golem Crypto Coin GLM Using Coinbase
So I decided I wanted to buy some Golem coin [GLM] because I really believe in what they are doing. Instead of crypto mining squandering electricity, the Golem Network is actually putting the crypto miner’s computing resources to use. What a great idea! There is just one problem, though;
I could not freaking figure out how to buy the Golem cryptocurrency!!
After wasting hours chasing dead ends like setting up and funding a Cex.io and Binance account, I finally figured out how buy GLM coin without ever having to leave my trustworthy Coinbase ecosystem. Boom!
What you will need to follow this guide:
- A Coinbase account with some Ethereum in it.
- The Coinbase wallet app (this is different than the regular Coinbase App).
- 10 minutes of time.
The high-level overview of what we are trying to do:
- Move some Ethereum from your Coinbase account to your Coinbase Wallet on your phone.
- Use Uniswap in your wallet to convert your Ethereum to the Golem ERC-20 token [GLM coin].
Detailed Steps:
First, download the Coinbase Wallet app on your phone. You should be able to find it in the App Store. This is different than the main Coinbase app which you will not need for this operation. The Coinbase Wallet icon looks like this one on the right, not the regular Coinbase app on the left:
Got it? Good. OK, now we need to get your wallet address from the app. Open the Coinbase Wallet app and choose “Receive”:
Email yourself the address, or write it down, or somehow get it to your computer. Now head on over to Coinbase.com and send some Ethereum to your wallet address. On Coinbase.com look for the “Send / Receive” Button like the one below:
Put in your wallet ID and your amount and make sure you select Ethereum.
PRO TIP 1: I recommend doing a test first with a small amount like $20 so that if you screw something up, you won’t be crying.
Pro TIP 2: If you have traded crypto a few times, then you are used to paying small network fees for transactions. For Ethereum contracts, you need to provide network fees that they call “gas”. This amount can fluctuate based on a bunch of variables, which in my case, amounted to more than $7.00. This surprised me because my initial test of $5 couldn’t go through because I didn’t “have enough gas.” TL;DR: I would recommend doing at least $20 in your test transaction just in case gas is expensive when you try this.
The transaction will take ~10 minutes to hit your wallet. When it does, you’ll see the amount in your Coinbase Wallet app on your phone.
Ok. This was the easy part. Now for the part where I kept getting stuck. We need to convert some of your Ethereum to GLM. I had no idea how to do this safely. So Coinbase wallets use something called dApps to add features. The feature we want to use is a service called “Uniswap”. I’ll admit, I was a little mistrustful of hooking some random site named “Uniswap” to my wallet until I read this on coinbase.com:
So on the phone where you have your Coinbase wallet installed, visit app.uniswap.org. Also, I would recommend not trusting random links on Medium articles like the one above. Instead, find the app URL yourself. Maybe Google it from your phone browser. The Uniswap site should look like this:
Click “Connect Wallet”. Then choose Coinbase Wallet as in the screenshot below:
Don’t worry, the app isn’t going to ask for your wallet address and private key. I was happy to see my phone open my Coinbase Wallet with the Uniswap site in a dApp screen. At this point you should see something like this:
From here, we will be swapping some of our Ethereum for GLM. To do this, choose “Select a token” as shown above. Now here is the kicker: I wasn’t able to find GLM listed outright, but it gives you the option to “Search by contract address”. The contract address for Golem Coin [GLM] is
0x7DD9c5Cba05E151C895FDe1CF355C9A1D5DA6429
But don’t copy/paste random contract addresses you find in random Medium.com blog posts and use them. Instead, copy this address from the Golem Project Site here. When you plug that contract address in the search screen, it should come up like this:
Still with me? Great! We are almost home…In the next screen, we choose how much Ethereum we want to swap for GLM.
The next screens will have you confirm the transactions.
The last screen will be your transaction history showing the swap:
So here is where I freaked out a little bit. You know how Ethereum transaction take around 10 minutes? Well when you swap ETH for GLM, your wallet will show pretty much nothing for 10 minutes.
Ahhhh! Congratulations, you now own some GLM Golem crypto currency!
Cheers! If this tutorial saved you some time, consider throwing me a tip for the time it took to write this all up. Here’s my Ethereum Wallet address:
