KuCoin Academy Lesson 6 | How to Own Your First Crypto Asset

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kucoinexchange

5 min readAug 16, 2020

New to crypto? Don’t worry. Keep up with KuCoin and soon you will become a crypto expert!

We are now launching the KuCoin Academy program, covering topics from crypto basics to trading knowledge. After learning each lesson, you will be able to complete a quiz to earn reward points!

In the first week, we said that the most convenient and easiest way to get crypto assets is to directly purchase them through an exchange. Well then, what is a cryptocurrency exchange? How do you buy crypto assets on an exchange? In KuCoin Academy lesson 6, we will demonstrate how to simply get your first crypto asset.

Contents:

*What’s a cryptocurrency exchange?

*What types of cryptocurrency exchanges are there?

*What’s a centralized exchange?

*What’s a decentralized exchange?

*How do I register and log into KuCoin?

1. What’s a cryptocurrency exchange?

A cryptocurrency exchange is a platform where you can purchase, sell, and exchange cryptocurrencies. Like a stock exchange, cryptocurrency exchanges provide users ways to trade assets. What’s different is that what you’re trading on cryptocurrency exchanges are crypto assets. Other differences include that cryptocurrency exchanges have a 24/7 trading rule, and that there are no price limits.

2. What types of cryptocurrency exchanges are there?

Cryptocurrency exchanges can be divided into centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges based on their operating mechanisms. Centralized exchanges are currently mainstream in the crypto market, but blockchain and cryptocurrency development allows us to see the potential of decentralization and the drawbacks to centralized systems. In turn, decentralized exchanges are starting to emerge to fit into this trend.

3. What’s a centralized exchange?

For most investors, centralized exchanges are one of the most important tools for cryptocurrency transactions. Centralized exchanges are online platforms where you can buy and sell cryptocurrency. They are the most common method for investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency assets.

The concept behind centralization is that a third party or middle man helps to facilitate trading. Both buyers and sellers trust this middleman to handle their assets. For example, stock exchanges in traditional financial markets and securities exchanges are all centralized exchanges.

Centralized exchanges have a rapid transaction speed and strong liquidity, but since investor assets are under the custody of the exchange, they also bear a significant responsibility. In the traditional financial field, all exchanges fall under strict government regulations; however, in the cryptocurrency market, regulatory policies are far from perfect, so market chaos is an inevitability. At present, there are more than 10,000 cryptocurrency exchanges, both large and small, in the world. Exchanges can be stolen from, exchanges and project parties can conspire to deceive investors, and exchanges can just up and disappear at any moment. This all means that you must choose a sufficiently secure exchange when investing in cryptocurrency.

4. What’s a decentralized exchange?

The core to decentralized exchanges is “assets on the chain”. In other words, during the trading process, no one, including centralized institutions, can use your assets.

Decentralized exchanges have many advantages, but they aren’t perfect. An obvious shortcoming is that the efficiency in executing transactions is not sufficient. Most decentralized exchanges run on public chains. Due to the limitations in blockchain technology, it can take a long time to confirm a transaction. Next, it is difficult for the blockchain network to process high-concurrent, real-time transactions, meaning that it is easy for transactions to congest.

These shortcomings have led to a serious problem: the lack of DEX liquidity. This greatly affects user experience. It is even more difficult for investors with high frequency trading and quantitative trading needs to accept. Finally, in a decentralized exchange, the assets are completely in the possession of users, so they must properly store their private keys, mnemonics phrase, etc. Once lost, the assets can never be retrieved.

5. How do I register and log into the KuCoin Exchange?

Registration:

1. Through an official KuCoin platform, go to the registration page. You can choose to register with your mobile number or email

2. Sign up with an email address

Input your E-mail address and click “Send”. Wait for the email verification code to be sent to your mailbox and enter the verification code you receive. Set the login password, read through and agree to the “Terms of Use”, and click the “Sign Up” button to complete your registration.

3.Sign up with a mobile phone

Select the country code, input your phone number, and click “Send”. Wait for the SMS verification code to be sent to your phone and enter the verification code you receive. Set your login password, read through and agree to the “Terms of Use”, then click “Sign Up” to complete your registration.

Login:

1. Go to the official KuCoin website, click “Login” in the upper right corner. Here you are offered two ways to log into your KuCoin account:

2. With Password

Enter your Email address/phone number and password. Then, click the “Log In” button.

3. With QR Code

Open the KuCoin App and scan the QR code to log in.

For more information on how to register and log into the KuCoin Exchange, you can browse the KuCoin Help Center article Register & Login Issues

Finished the article? Here’s a quiz to test how much you have learned from this lesson. Answering all the questions correctly will earn you 100 points.

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Reading our previous article here:

KuCoin Academy Lesson 6 | How to Own Your First Crypto Asset

Written by KuCoin Academy