How and where to Buy Neo – Step-by-step guide on buying Neo Currency by CoinTrust.com
Cryptocurrencies are being touted as the currency of the future and experts believe it is only a matter of time before cryptocurrencies phase out traditional fiat currencies worldwide. In fact, we might already be in the transitional stage as the popularity of cryptocurrencies such as the Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum and Litecoin continues to grow exponential along with their value. Being the more popular forms of cryptocurrency, people are rushing in to invest and buy into these coins. However, some of the lesser known crypto coins are not getting the same kind of attention and this might be the right time for smart investors to actually purchase such coins while the prices are still affordable. One such cryptocurrency is NEO.
Where to buy NEO
What is NEO?
NEO, like Ethereum, is a cryptocurrency blockchain that works by connecting smart contacts to verify transactions. It can be thought of as a digital identity system which supports the trade of digital assets. Prior to becoming NEO as we know it today. NEO was actually known formerly as Antshares and it was established in the year 2014. The company is based out of Chain and when it was introduced, it was China’s first ever blockchain technology. 2017 is when NEO really shone and shot up in value tremendously. Holders of NEO were smiling from ear to ear as this altcoin provided them with a return on investment of over a staggering 21,000%. At this time, NEO still has a market cap in excess of $1.45 billion US dollars.
The mission statement of the blockchain is to bring together digital economies and traditional economies to revolutionize commerce and mold it into its visions – “a smart economy”.
Despite its honorable vision, flexible yet robust technology and fail proof marketing plan, the success behind NEO can really be attributed to its active community and its dynamic, ever evolving development team.
What is the NEO smart economy?
Smart economy, according to NEO, is an economy wherein trading of digital assets is supported by the coming together of digital identities and smart contacts. Virtue of this smart economy, NEO is primarily focused on the internet of value – which is basically trade of assets with low to no friction.
Thanks to its public blockchain and decentralized hosting, the platform can support millions of transactions every single day and does not need the involvement of any third party middle men such as banks or any other type of financial institutions. Furthermore, being that the blockchain is public, there is complete transparency into transactions, policies, rules and protocols and assurance that everything is fair and equal for everyone.
What are NEO tokens?
NEO itself is the blockchain technology that allows for trading. This network or blockchain then has a native, in house currency, in fact it has two, namely, NEO and NeoGas (GAS).
The way it works is that the NEO network essentially levies GAS as fee for the use of the NEO blockchain. Just like a transaction fee or processing fee with regards to traditional fiat currencies. GAS tokens then provide the economic funds required to support daily operations on the blockchain like transactions, registering smart contacts, and in this way, it creates a reason for bookkeepers to keep verifying and adding transactions to the blockchain since there is something in it for them to.
This is just scratching the surface on how the NEO blockchain and NEO tokens work together to keep the smart economy going. If you are interested in the details and technicalities and would like to delve deeper into the logistics and ergonomics of the NEO network, you can get all the information you need, first hand, by reading the NEO white paper.
How to buy NEO – a step by step guide for the first time NEO buyer
Now that you are familiar with NEO blockchain, NEO tokens, the value of the NEO, its history and how it is fueling its own smart economy, the next question that you may inevitable have is – how do I get my hands on NEO? Read on below to understand what are the different ways in which you can buy NEO and a step by step guide as to how you can purchase NEO.
Step 1- a NEO wallet
Unlike fiat currencies, crypto currencies are not managed by banks. There is no bank account where you can store your cryptocurrencies. Instead, in the world of cryptocurrencies, we have something known as the crypto wallet and this is where you may store your crypto coins and you can even make and receive payments from and to this crypto wallet. Basically, a crypto wallet will have a private address and a public address. The private address or keys must be kept confidential (like the secret pin on a credit card or debit card) and it should only be used by you in order to access your wallet as the owner of the wallet. The public address on the other hand is what you can share with other people who can then use this address as the address to send payments to in order to pay you by funding your crypto wallet. Therefore, while purchasing NEO, you are going to need somewhere to store the NEO tokens you buy and this is why you will need to first sign up and get yourself a NEO wallet. There are multiple options in terms of NEO wallets.
Firstly, there is the official NEO wallet for desktops – this is developed by the NEO development team itself as the out – of – box NEO wallet. However, please note that at this time it only supports desktop computers and windows operating systems. Essentially, if you are looking for a mobile solution or if you use MAC or Linux operating systems, then this is not going to work for you.
NEON wallet is another desktop wallet which supports NEO tokens. Unlike the official NEO wallet, NEON supports Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. However, like the official NEO wallet, NEON too is only a desktop solution and is not supported on mobile devices. It can store both NEO tokens and GAS tokens. A handy feature being offered by this wallet (apart from the traditional send payment, receive payment stuff) is the ability for holders of the wallet to convert NEO to GAS on an ad – hoc basis as required.
Despite the fact that the NEON wallet was not developed by NEO officially and is instead the handiwork of the City of Zion, it is still the preferred wallet over the official wallet by many people because it is easier to use, provides better features and supports more than just windows.
NEO Wallet (Web) is another wallet being offered by the official NEO development team. Unlike the desktop version, this does not have to be downloaded and installed onto your machine. The NEO web wallet is like a web application so you can just navigate to the web page, login using your registered user name and password and use your wallet right on your browser itself. This is a lightweight version of the desktop wallet and might not encompass all of the features of the being offered in the desktop wallet, but is definitely quicker to setup and more than sufficient for the beginner. If need be, you can always transfer money from your web wallet to your desktop wallet at a later stage when you deem it necessary to move onto the desktop wallet.
The Official NEO Wallet (Mobile) this is the official mobile solution being offered by the NEO development team. However, it was actually developed by an outside vendor known as PeterLinX. At this time, the mobile wallet only supports Android. This may be because the company is based out of China where android is the preferred mobile device. However, there is reason to believe that a mobile wallet for iOS is in the pipeline as well.
NEO Paper wallet is a solution offered by a company known as Ansy. One of the main advantages of any paper wallet is that it is a way of cold storing your crypto coins. This is basically offline storage which is the most secure form of storage and is inaccessible by cyber criminals simply since it is not on the internet or any network at all. This is a great option when you don’t want to trade often and instead just purchase some crypto coins and store them for lengthy periods of time as a long-term investment. However, unlike the web and desktop wallets, you cannot easily interchange between NEO and GAS tokens using a paper wallet.
Step 2 – Register for an account on a crypto exchange
A crypto exchange is to crypto currency what a forex exchange is to traditional fiat currency. An exchange is where sellers and buyers can trade crypto currencies. Some currencies support both crypto currencies and fiat currencies and interchange between the two while some support only crypto currency. Being that you are interested mainly in buying NEO, you will have to find an exchange which supports NEO. Once you make a purchase of the NEO, you can link your NEO wallet to the exchange and the NEO tokens will be securely sent to your wallet for secure storage.
There are several exchanges all over the world wide web. The exchange that suits you best really depends on your personal preference, your location, and also the crypto currency trading pairs that you are interested in. There are also fees and times which will come into the equation when making your decision. When choosing an exchange, you really need to do your homework and research. It is always best to go with a well-established, popular and highly used exchange (in terms of trading value) since this is a sure shot way of ensuring that the exchange is legitimate. The fact of the matter is that there are several scam wallets and exchanges out there and so it is always best to be vigilant and read reviews from trusted sources prior to actually registering an account and putting funds into your exchange. To make things easy and simple, I have shortlisted some exchanges that support NEO tokens and these are all well-known exchanges that are being used on a daily basis by hundreds of thousands of users just like you.
Some exchanges that you might want to consider for buying NEO are –
- Bitfinex
- Bittrex
- HitBTC
- Cryptopia
Step 3 – withdrawing your funds
Once you have purchased your funds, it will be held in the exchange account. However, I do not recommend leaving it on there for an extender period of time. The best practice would be to withdraw the funds from your exchange account and have it sent to your NEO wallet at the earliest. Not only is this a safer way to store your NEO altcoins, but it also gives you full access and control as to what you want to do with the tokens from that point onwards. Once you have the NEO tokens in a wallet and you have the private keys to that wallet, you can essentially consider the process of purchasing NEO complete.
Conclusion
NEO proved to be one of the most valuable and profitable investments to make in 2017 in terms of cryptocurrencies and offered investors a return of 21,000%. While the ROI may not be as impressive going forward, you can rest assured that it will still yield great profits. NEO is a network backed by an active community and it is very secure and robust in its technology and at the same time it is flexible enough to adapt any changes and improvise.
If you are thinking about purchasing NEO, then I have already given you the simple steps to follow. All you need is a NEO wallet and an exchange that supports NEO tokens and voila! You are all set to make your first NEO purchase. Good Luck!
