How to buy siacoin

What is Siacoin?  

Siacoin is a cryptocurrency project that aims to challenge the cloud storage industry by using blockchain technology. It was created by a company called Nebulous Inc and is currently led by Luke Champine and David Vick.  

At the moment, cloud storage is dominated by centralized corporations such as Amazon and Google. This has led to expensive fees and weak security, which is something that Siacoin claims it has solved.  

By using the platform, anyone in the world can use Siacoin to rent online storage. Alternatively, anyone who wants to host files by contributing their spare hard drive space can earn Siacoin! 

The project is completely decentralized, meaning that no single person or authority controls the network. Instead, data transactions are verified by multiple nodes, which guarantees that the Siacoin servers will never fail, nor can they be hacked.  

Buy Siacoin For a Stake in the Future of Cloud Storage

Siacoin SC is not the newest coin on the block, but it’s also one of the projects with the greatest claim to real-world utility. You know how loads of crypto projects have multi-billion-dollar valuations, without a single working product (EOS, ADA – I’m looking at you!)? Siacoin has had a working platform for quite awhile, with adoption widespread and growing.

4 Quick Steps to Buy on Binance

  1. Click register and fill out the relevant fields.
  2. Set up 2FA on your account.
  3. Fund your account, either with credit card or crypto.
  4. Start trading on binance with either the basic or advanced exchange.

Buy with Binance

Binance is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges on the planet. It grew quickly after its launch in 2017 and now even has it’s own token, Binance Coin. It is one of the best places to buy and trade some of the more obscure altcoins, they have a huge range that is always changing with new coins being added and old ones being removed. For security reasons, we would always prefer to buy using a CFD provider like eToro.

How to Buy Siacoin From Bittrex

By now you may be more than ready to buy Siacoin at this low, low Siacoin price. But how? We’ll spend the rest of this Siacoin review laying out just how this can be accomplished, with a helpful FAQ to fill in the final details to follow.

Invest in smaller altcoins before price rises

Setting Up Your Siacoin Wallet

For those new to all of this, digital coins must be stored in a digital wallet. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bittrex have wallets built into their platforms that hold coins once you buy them, but you don’t want to store your coins there because exchanges sometimes get hacked and the coins within stolen. That’s no good, so before you buy a coin, always make sure you know how to store it on your personal device or a strong web-based solution (like MyEtherWallet) so you don’t have to rely on the exchanges.

For Siacoin, you’ll have to download the “Sia UI” from the Siacoin downloads page. Choose the right version for your operating system, download, and set it up just as you would any other piece of software.

Once you’re inside your new Siacoin wallet, you should find your address after clicking the button marked in red below. We’ll use this address later, so go ahead and copy it if you like, or just remember where it is.

How to Buy Bitcoins So You Can Buy Siacoin

In almost every case, you can’t simply buy Siacoin with a fiat currency like USD. You’ll first have to trade USD for Bitcoins (or Ethereum, just not for this example), which you can do a number of places including Coinbase, CEX.io, Changelly, and other good sources. Create the account at the source of your choosing, link your bank account or pay with card, and wait for your Bitcoins to appear.

How to Fund Your Bittrex Account With Bitcoins

Starting a Bittrex account uses a process much like any other internet platform you’ve used in the past. Create a login, unique password, and give Bittrex the information it asks for to confirm your account. Check your email for verification messages, and click the links where needed. Below, we’ll take you through these steps one by one.

Bittrex 

Bittrex was created in 2013 and is based in Seattle in the U.S. Just like Binance, they are one of the largest exchanges in the world for trading volume, meaning they always have lots of liquidity available! 

Until recently, Bittrex did not offer users a way to deposit or withdraw funds using real-world currency, however, that is slowly changing. At the end of May 2018, the exchange created a facility for corporate clients to deposit funds using USD! Although an exact date hasn’t been given yet, the exchange also plans to offer this to standard users too. 

The platform lists more than a hundred different cryptocurrencies, including Siacoin (of course)! Trading fees are fairly good at Bittrex, costing 0.25% for each trade you make. When you deposit or withdraw cryptocurrencies at the exchange, the only fee that you have to pay is the blockchain transaction fee. 

As you can probably guess, Bittrex take security seriously because they are based in the U.S. On the other hand, this means that every account needs to be verified before you can start trading, which according to some users can take up to two weeks! Therefore if you need to buy Siacoin quickly, it might be best to use a different exchange. 

Although it remains unclear how many users Bittrex has, in late 2017 they had to suspend new registrations as too many people were trying to join. However, they have since re-opened their doors. 

Before moving on to the next part of my ‘How to buy Siacoin’ guide, let me quickly summarize the advantages and disadvantages of using Bittrex. 

Advantages 

  • More than a hundred coins listed 
  • Trading fees are just 0.25% 
  • Top security 
  • Always lots of liquidity 

Disadvantages 

  • Fiat currency deposits for corporate clients only (soon to be offered to all) 
  • Verification can be very slow 
  • Some reports of poor customer service  

So, now that you know the good points and bad points of using Bittrex, the next part of my ‘How to buy Siacoin’ is going to look at OKEX. 

OKEX 

OKEX is a cryptocurrency exchange that was created in 2014. Originally based in China, they recently moved their offices to Malta (just like Binance!). Although the exchange was originally only available in Chinese, it is now available in English too.  

In terms of coin availability, OKEX has over 100 coins to buy, sell and trade.  The platform only allows fiat currency deposits for advanced traders who want to buy complex financial products, so you will need to deposit using a cryptocurrency.  

When it comes to trading fees at OKEX, you will pay anywhere between 0.02% and 0.2%. Ultimately, the more that you trade in 30 days, the cheaper the fees! 

One of the great things about trading at OKEX is that you only need to verify your identity if you plan on trading high amounts! At the time of writing, you can trade 100 BTC every 24 hours.  

Another good feature of using OKEX is that they have a live chat facility 24 hours a day. Although response times can be quite long, it is certainly quicker than having to wait for an email reply! 

Security is also good at OKEX, with users required to confirm a number that is sent to your registered mobile phone every time you want to log in to your account, trade or withdraw funds! 

Trading volumes are very high at OKEX, with the exchange quite often responsible for more than $1 billion in daily trades. As a result, this makes it a great exchange to buy Siacoin as there is always lots of liquidity.  

Before moving on to the next exchange in my ‘How to buy Siacoin’ guide, I’ll quickly summarize the advantages and disadvantages of using OKEX. 

Advantages 

  • Excellent range of cryptocurrencies listed 
  • Good trading fees, the lowest being 0.02% 
  • Very high trading volumes 
  • Good security – forces users to confirm their mobile phone regularly 
  • Allows anonymous trading (as long as less than 100 BTC per day) 
  • 24/7 live chat  

Disadvantages 

  • No real-world deposit methods for everyday users 
  • Platform a bit complicated for beginners 

Now that I’ve gone through the pros and cons of using OKEX, the next exchange in my ‘How to buy Siacoin’ guide is HitBTC! 

HitBTC 

Created in 2013, HitBTC is a cryptocurrency exchange based in the country of Estonia. On top of listing Siacoin, the platform offers more than 200 different cryptocurrencies that users can buy, sell and trade! 

If you are looking to buy Siacoin with USD (or other real-world currencies), then you are in luck! HitBTC has a good range of fiat currency payment methods, including SEPA (European customers) and SWIFT (Everybody else).  

Just remember that if you choose to deposit using real-world funds, you will first need to verify your identity. According to other users who have attempted to do this, the verification process can take a long time during busy periods.  

Bank account deposits can also take up to 3 days before they reach your account, so if you want to buy Siacoin immediately, you’re better off depositing using another cryptocurrency (such as bitcoin or Ethereum).  

Trading fees are also a good value at just 0.1%, but withdrawal fees can be expensive. The withdrawal fee depends on the coin you want to withdraw and they can change depending on the value of the cryptocurrency of choice. They don’t publish the cost of withdrawing Siacoin, so you will need to check this once you are logged in to your account.  

One thing to consider is that in 2015, the HitBTC servers were hacked, which meant some that users had their coins stolen. If you do decide to use HitBTC to buy Siacoin, make sure you set up two-factor authentication are never keep too much in your account. I recommend sending your Siacoin to a secure personal wallet. 

Before moving on to the final exchange of my ‘How to buy Siacoin’ guide, let me quickly discuss the pros and cons of using HitBTC. 

Advantages 

  • More than 200 different cryptocurrencies listed 
  • Very low trading fees 
  • Accepts bank account deposits 
  • Easy to use platform 

Disadvantages 

  • Expensive and unclear withdrawal fees 
  • Hacked in 2015 
  • Trading volumes on Siacoin sometimes low