What is xUSDC? And How to Get it?
First of all, xUSDC is the version of USDC on the Proton Blockchain. This is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, as it is a stablecoin backed by US dollars, making it a good medium of exchange between various other cryptocurrencies. USDC is a native token to the popular (and pioneering!) Ethereum blockchain.
For the Freeos AirClaim, xUSDC is used for staking—a type of collateral in our system to mitigate against duplicate accounts and/or bots. Important in any democratic, equitable, economic system!
How to get xUSDC for Staking?
There are plenty of ways to get xUSDC and we will cover some of the most popular pathways.
Bridging
USDC can be bridged (moved) over to the Proton chain using the Proton Bridge linked here.
Fortunately Team Proton made a handy guide to do this. Check it out here.
There are many ways to purchase USDC to bridge over to the Proton Chain.
Just know that, because the original USDC (and most versions being offered for sale!) is on the Ethereum network, you are likely to pay gas fees to move this USDC over. Recently, these fees can cost a lot.
However, there are various versions of USDC on other blockchains, besides Ethereum. The Proton Swap bridge tool supports 3 different types:
- Ethereum (ERC20)
- Binance Smart Chain (BEP20)
- Stellar
A popular way to get USDC on Proton, is to get the version on the Binance Smart Chain. This version requires much lower gas fees than the version on the Ethereum Network.
Fortunately a Proton supporter has provided a video tutorial.
Exchanges (Centralised)
For a list of official exchanges that the USDC team officially recommends, see this list here.
RECOMMENDED: The fastest, and cheapest way to get xUSDC is to first get Proton’s native token, XPR and to “swap” it for XUSDC in Proton Swap.
If you don’t already have XPR tokens, the easiest way to purchase them is through one of the exchanges that sell XPR.
Once you have purchased XPR, you can “withdraw” it to your personal Proton account.
NOTE: Since XPR is faster to send than most other cryptocurrencies, it can be much faster than bridging USDC over to Proton to become xUSDC. And since there are no gas fees, it is usually much cheaper too!
XPR is natively listed on the following exchanges:
Proton UK detailed on how to transfer XPR from KuCoin to your WebAuth wallet in this handy guide.
NOTE: KuCoin is a very large exchange where you can buy cryptocurrencies with a credit card and then you should be able to trade them for XPR, and transfer to your WebAuth wallet’s account. To do this, the above guide by Proton UK would be helpful.
Once you have your XPR in your WebAuth wallet’s account, you can quickly and cheaply swap it for xUSDC using Proton Swap.
This covers some of the popular ways to get xUSDC to use for Freeos staking.
NOTE: We will keep updating this guide as we find better, cheaper and faster ways to purchase xUSDC.
In the meanwhile, please check our webpage for more info, or join us in our Telegram Community where you may ask more questions about how Freeos is intended to work.
