Jan 6, 2022
Buy and store your first ADA!
Cardashift will exclusively accept ADA for its upcoming ICO. It’s a proof of our commitment to the Cardano ecosystem. This tutorial aims at enlarging the ADA holders community with new change makers coming from other horizons.
This tutorial will guide you step-by-step through the process of buying ADA.Please note the minimum amount to participate in our ICO is 200 ADA.
How to buy ADA?
The most common place to buy ADA is a crypto exchange.
Similar to stock trading platforms, crypto exchanges connect buyers and sellers. You can sell your USD or any other supported FIAT currency against multiple cryptos.
Some well-known exchanges include:
- Binance : world most popular one with lot of cryptocurrencies listed and limited fees, can be a bit confusing for new comers despite the “light” mode available
- Coinbase : the easiest interface for beginners but slightly higher fees
- Crypto.com : the easiest way to purchase ADA on your smartphone
- Kraken : the easiest way to purchase ADA on a web interface, but not as many references available as on Binance
Steps to buy ADA
- Create an account on an exchange regulated in your country
- Verify your identity to comply with your country’s regulation regarding cryptocurrencies
- Deposit cash on the exchange. Generally through wire transfer or credit/debit card (note that it can be more expensive using a card)
- Once your account is funded you can start trading your FIAT currency against ADA by choosing the corresponding pair (eg. USD/ADA)
- Congratulations, you just bought your first ADAs !
- Next and most important step is to store your cryptocurrencies.
Find here the complete tutorials for each platform: Binance, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Kraken
How to store ADA?
The best way to store your ADA and participate in any ICOs is within a crypto wallet.
You can keep your ADA on an exchange to participate in our ICO but you are more at risk if an issue happens!
So the question now is how to get a crypto wallet?
There are different types of wallets, here are 4 of them explained in brevity.
Our advice if it’s your first ADA:
Please note that we do not endorse any of these wallets and we can’t be accountable if some of them, or the network, get congested at certain times.
- Browser wallet
This type of wallet is either a web interface or a plugin. It is the easiest way to interact with Dapps as they both run on your browser.
It’s the least secure way to store crypto though. You should keep small amounts just to interact with your favourite Dapps.
Examples of Cardano wallets are GeroWallet and Nami.
- Mobile wallet
Just like a desktop wallet but for a smartphone. Easy to use with QR codes to make a transaction. Smartphones are generally connected to the internet so considered as less secure than a “cold” (offline) desktop wallet.
Yoroi is available on Android and iOS.
Need the safest solutions?
- Daedalus (Desktop wallet)
It’s a software wallet available on different operating systems, with full-node capabilities that add more security and anonymity.
However, with Daedalus, you have your own node, which implies regular updates and blockchain’s downloads. So, it’s not the most adapted wallet for new comers.
You can download the Daedalus wallet for Cardano.
- Hardware wallet
It’s like a USB stick you can plug to your computer. Some of them have can be linked to your smartphone via Bluetooth. As it’s not always connected to the Internet and is composed of dedicated secured pieces of hardware, it’s considered as the most secure way to store your cryptocurrencies.
You can use it in complement with Daedalus to maximize the level of security.
However, it’s not easy to apprehend for beginners and it costs around $100.
Most popular hardware wallets are Ledger and Trezor.
Something you don’t want to lose!
For all these wallets, you will have to back up a “secret” (generally a list of 12 or 24 words) called a seed phrase. Never share this with anyone as it’s the key to your funds! In case you accidentally break your hardware wallet or your smartphone dies, you will be able to recover your wallet on a new device thanks to this seed phrase, keep it safe!
Whichever wallet you choose, you will find just below a dedicated tutorial to create and manage it: https://cardashift.gitbook.io/cardashift/tutorials/how-to-buy-ada
You can also find on this gitbook all the answers you are looking for about Cardashift.
You are now ready to participate in our ICO, get ready it will be first come, first served!
Want to learn more?
If you are new to the cryptocurrency world, here is a short explanation of the functioning of this ecosystem.
Blockchains and tokens
Most blockchains are permissionless peer-to-peer networks, meaning anyone can join a network by running the corresponding software (eg. Bitcoin Core for Bitcoin or cardano-node for Cardano).
Blockchains are basically records of transactions, these transactions can represent simple tokens transfers between users or more complicated computations.
In order to transact on a blockchain network, you need to obtain the blockchain’s native asset to pay for fees (eg. bitcoins for Bitcoin or ADAs for Cardano).
Exchanges — What are they for?
Despite the decentralized nature of blockchains, we still need centralized entry points to be onboarded. Of course, you can ask a friend to send you some crypto in exchange for USD. However, it is neither the easiest nor the most frequently used way. Here is where exchanges come into use.
A digital wallet as a real-life wallet
Imagine you have $100 in your wallet and $100 in your bank account.
If the bank freezes your account you can lose your money but there is very little chance that you lose access to your wallet.
It’s the same for cryptocurrencies, it’s not safe to keep your cryptos on exchanges or other platforms that keep them for you.
If these platforms shut down or are hacked you are at risk of losing all your funds. Exchanges have fewer protections compared to banks in case of theft or hack.
