+110.35% growth: How to Buy Proton (XPR) — A Step by Step Guide
What is XPR?
Launched in San Francisco, Proton (XPR) is a new public blockchain and smart contract platform designed for both consumer applications and peer-peer payments. Proton aims to provide a secure, verified identity account which is integrated with a financial settlements layer that allows users to directly link this identity with fiat accounts, pull funds and buy crypto, and use that crypto seamlessly in apps, all without sending any of the user’s private, sensitive information. Proton removes the concept of sharing private keys directly with merchants by creating a permission-less layer that exists on top of traditional card networks and banks. The user maintains the private key in confidence while permitting institutions who wish to authenticate the user to check with trusted institutions via public keys. The verification from the trusted institution will confirm the user’s identity without revealing the user’s associated private key.
Currently, XPR is being ranked 322 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged a hefty 110.35% at the time of writing.
XPR has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any large exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy XPR.
Step 1: Register on Coinbase
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, usually either Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). We will use Coinbase here as it is one of the largest crypto exchanges that accept fiat deposits. Use the link below to register at Coinbase and you will receive a free amount of $10 worth of BTC after buying $100 worth of cryptos.
Type your email and click ‘Get started’. Make sure you provide your real name as Coinbase will need it for account verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn’t vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, Coinbase is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy coins with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You will be charged higher fees when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees, such as iDeal in some European countries.
Now you are all set, click the ‘Trade’ button at the top left, choose the coin you want to buy and confirm your transaction…and congrats! You’ve just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer your cryptos to an Altcoin Exchange
But we are not done yet, since XPR is an altcoin we need to transfer our coins to an exchange that XPR can be traded, here we will use OKEx as our exchange. OKEx is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
After going through a similar process as we’ve done before with Coinbase, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you’re done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don’t worry, it’s basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying ‘BTC address’, this is a unique public address of your Bitcoin wallet at OKEx and you can receive Bitcoin by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought bitcoin on Coinbase to this wallet, click on ‘Copy Address’ or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to Coinbase, go to Portfolio page and click on Bitcoin on your asset list, then click on ‘Send’ on the right.
Under the Recipient field, paste the wallet address in your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both address are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
Click ‘Send’ to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to OKEx!
Now go back to OKEx and head to your exchange wallets, do worry if you haven’t seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from OKEx once your deposit has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase XPR!
Step 5: Trade XPR
Go back to OKEx, then go to ‘Exchange’. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let’s get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure “BTC” is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in “XPR”, you should see XPR/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of XPR/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says “Buy XPR”, inside of the box, choose the “Market” tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your BTC deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click “Buy XPR”. Voila! You have finally bought XPR!
Apart from the exchange(s) above, there are a few popular crypto exchanges where they have decent daily trading volumes and a huge user base. This will ensure you will be able to sell your coins at any time and the fees will usually be lower. It is suggested that you also register on these exchanges since once XPR gets listed there it will attract a large amount of trading volumes from the users there, that means you will be having some great trading opportunities!
Exchange
Last Step: Store XPR securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used with smartphone and tablet
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Trezor One White
- Thousands of tokens/cryptos supported
- Rich documentation online available
- Affordable
- Open-sourced firmware
If you are planning to keep(“hodl” as some may say, basically misspelt “hold” which get popularised over time) your XPR for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online(“Hot Wallets” as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of “Cold Wallets”, where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply “go online”) when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it’s basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger and Trezor and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Other useful tools for trading XPR
Cryptohopper
Cryptohopper is an automated trading bot for cryptocurrencies that trades for you, so you don’t miss any trading opportunities. It makes algo-trading cryptocurrencies easy. You can simply set up your configuration and you are ready to go.
Cryptohopper is the leader in the automated crypto trading industry. It allows users to automate trading strategies that will trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and any other that the exchange offers. The hopper will scan the market 24/7 to open positions according to your trading strategy or signaller. It scans the market for the lowest prices to place buy orders and sell when the trades have moved into considerable profits.
You can design one or more strategies that will keep your bot alert for all market movements. These strategies will tell cryptohopper when to buy and/or sell depending on the technical analysis. The visual-driven UI allows trader to easily drag and drop their technical indicators to build a complete strategy. Thus traders do not need to have any code/development knowledge; instead, they can just click on an indicator, set it for when to perform operations, configure and fine-tune, then save the strategy. There is also a chance and space for the experienced coders to edit the strategy through JSON. Cryptohopper also offers other automatic trading tools such as paper trading, trailing stop, and backtesting.
Brave Browser
Brave is a Free and an Open Source Web Browser built by a team of privacy focused, performance oriented pioneers of the web. The Web Page gets loaded quickly. Brave is in general faster than Chrome and Firefox. The Web Page gets loaded quickly. It is designed with privacy in mind so ad-blocking and untrusted cookie blocking are enabled by default, and you get to further customise the level of privacy as you like. Its “incognito” private mode has built-in Tor connection which makes it extremely safe to use. You also get the chance to earn reward (in BAT tokens which can be traded in Coinbase and other exchanges) by opting in to view privacy-respecting ads.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy XPR with cash?
There is no direct way to buy XPR with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase Bitcoin, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your bitcoin to respective AltCoin exchanges.
Buy Bitcoin from local sellers
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. LocalBitcoins is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can’t find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy XPR in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Paxful.
Popular online banks in Europe are Bunq, N26 and Revolut.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy XPR or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. Changelly is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.