Ethereum purchase: cryptocurrency exchanges or e-currency exchangers?
Investment in Ethereum
Cryptocurrency Ethereum (Ethereum, «Ether», ETH) appeared on the horizon quite recently—July 30th, 2015. But in this short period of time it has already become as famous as Bitcoin. In terms of market capitalization, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocoin after Bitcoin (at the time of writing, June 30th, 2017, both were capped at 28.1 billion USD and 41.3 billion USD respectively).
Until fairly recently, the price of «Ether» didn’t exceed 15 dollars a piece, but in March 2017, ETH started to soar rapidly, and on June 12th it reached 407.1 USD. The price of Ethereum has grown 30-fold and is still growing, which makes this virtual coin an excellent investment option.
Ethereum
The purchase of Ether in practice
Here are 2 of the most optimal ways of buying Ethereum—online cryptocurrency exchanges and electronic currency exchangers:
Cryptocurrency exchanges
You can buy and sell Ethereum (and other cryptocoins) on cryptocurrency exchanges. There are many such platforms in the world, and some of the most notable ones are Poloniex, Coinbase, Kraken, BTCChina, EXMO, etc. They have a lot more similarities than differences and work in the same fashion.
Cryptocurrency exchange EXMO
Exmo takes security very seriously, this is why its users can buy, sell and store cryptocurrency in their accounts without having second thoughts. In order to buy Ethereum on an exchange, you’ll need to create an account first:
Fill in the blanks, agree to the conditions and finish registration.
Registration page on cryptocurrency exchange EXMO
Capitalist (commission 0%);
Wire transfer (verification required);
Qiwi wallet (commission 5.9%);
AdvCash (commission 4%);
Yandex (commission 5%);
Payeer (commission 4%);
OKPAY (commission 3%);
MoneyPolo (commission 3%).
Account top-up page on cryptocurrency exchange EXMO
Having set up your account in a payment system, replenish your EXMO account.
Buy Ethereum in just a couple of clicks:
On 08.08.2017, 1000 USD could be converted into 3,77423468 ETH
You can buy Ethereum at the best possible price ever, but in order to do that you’ll need to either wait for nice ETH sell orders to come in or place your own ETH buy orders and wait until someone willing to sell Ether at your price comes along. To get the most out of cryptocurrency exchanges, you have to correctly interpret and quickly react to world events and trends in the cryptocurrency market.
Advantages: you decide on pricing, cryptocurrency can be bought at the best imaginable price, cryptocurrency trading is a thrilling experience, ETH reserves are always in abundance.
Disadvantages: cryptocurrency trading seems difficult at first, top-up/withdrawal commissions, withdrawal of funds takes time, exchanges are vulnerable to hacking, limited number of account top-up options.
Electronic currency exchangers
The easiest way to buy Ethereum is to get it in exchange for another currency with the help of an exchanger. Such services convert electronic currencies and cryptocurrencies into others and vice versa.
Here’s how exchangers work: «You give X — You get Y». This also applies to Newline.Online:
Electronic currency exchanger Newline.Online
Alright, we’ll give 1000 OKPAY USD in exchange for 3.384 ETH. Specify your Ethereum wallet number + e-mail address:
Exchange OKPAY USD—Ethereum page
Follow the remaining instructions and complete the exchange.
One thing needs to be mentioned specifically—exchanger monitors. Those are websites where information from many electronic currency exchangers is displayed: exchange rates, currency reserves, available currency pairs, mode of operation, etc. In other words, all crucial information about exchangers is displayed on a single page. The mission of monitors is to help users find and compare currency exchange rates from multiple exchangers, and thus track down the most favorable ones.
Let’s see how monitors work by taking exchanger monitor OKchanger as an example:
List of exchangers that convert OKPAY USD into Ethereum
Just like with exchangers, set currencies of interest in the fields «you give—you get» on the left. For example, say you have some funds in OKPAY but you need Ethereum. So, you choose OKPAY USD—Ethereum. In this case, the most favorable rate is offered by exchanger ALFAcashier:
Exchanger with the best OKPAY USD—Ethereum exchange rate
Click on its name and go to its website where you’ll need to enter all the necessary information, and complete the OKPAY USD to Ethereum ETH conversion:
Convert OKPAY USD—Ethereum page
You shouldn’t rely on the same exchangers over and over again: exchange rates change all the time, currency reserves get depleted from time to time, and so on. Manual monitoring of exchange services takes a lot of time. This is why, if you need to buy Ethereum through exchangers hassle-free, exchanger monitors are a silver bullet.
Currency converters operate fast and are easy-to-use. You can make money on exchangers too, not a whole lot, though. Unlimited Ethereum supplies are not guaranteed + not all exchange services are trustworthy. However, exchanger monitors were invented to minimize such problems.
Advantages: exchangers are easy-to-use and do not require registration, high order processing speed, monitors help find the most favorable rates, Ethereum is buyable with many different e-currencies.
Disadvantages: it’s hard to tell at first glance whether an exchanger is trustworthy or not, currency reserves are not always available, exchange rates may not be reasonable sometimes, exchangers charge fees and commissions.
Which way to go when buying Ethereum?
Exchanges or exchangers?
Each way has upsides and downsides. The most rational route would be to choose one that suits your needs best: if your goal is to buy Ethereum with no hassle, an exchanger monitor will take you to the most favorable exchange rate in no time. If you seek to get the most out of investment in ETH and are willing to spend some time analyzing the cryptocurrency market, go for cryptocurrency exchanges.
