Want to jump straight to the answer? You can buy MIOTA on eToro.
Cryptocurrency is an industry still in its infancy. While this makes investing in the asset class higher risk than traditional investments, it also provides the opportunity for higher returns than what you’d find in traditional markets. In the world of digital assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum are deemed as “Blue-Chip” cryptocurrencies, as they are more established and less risky than altcoins. One altcoin that offers a good risk to reward, IOTA, may be a good addition to your portfolio –– here’s how to buy IOTA in a few simple steps.
Brief History of IOTA and Crypto
There are 1,969 cryptocurrencies trading today. October 31, 2018 will mark the ten-year anniversary of the Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper that described “a version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” Most cryptocurrencies are created with the distributed ledger technology called blockchain which secures each block of an encrypted transaction with the next.
Historic blockchain transactions become more secure with each successive verified block. So far, many bitcoin lost has been through human error, with people asking themselves “Where did I put the alphanumeric code for my bitcoin?” Ethereum created by 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin in a whitepaper published in November of 2013, took blockchain beyond its most primitive use as an online currency. Mr. Buterin invented smart contracts the ability to add prearranged terms to a transaction.
Many of the cryptocurrencies launched via initial coin offering (ICO) in the last year have been written using the ERC20 protocol that underpins Ethereum. Smart contracts can allow for the exchange of an item of tangible value—a car, a house, a pizza—for a set amount of a cryptocurrency on a certain date.
So, What’s IOTA?
Iota is number twelve in the coinmarketcap.com rank of 400 cryptocurrencies by market value, is not tied to the blockchain. Rather than a chain of transaction blocks, Iota uses a tree of transactions called a tangle. Iota takes its name from the Internet of Things (IoT) where it finds promise for multiple applications.
Iota confirms each individual transaction by linking with two other transactions in its tangle. No mining is necessary because validators of transactions are rewarded with the ability to process a new transaction.
IOTA’s Tangle
Because Iota does not need to form blocks of transactions before validation, the Iota tangle is faster at processing individual transactions. The technical name for Iota’s mix of trunk, limbs, branches, and twigs is a directed acyclic graph (DAG).
Transactions with the longest and most often validated lengths to the root genesis transaction carry the most weight for validation of other transactions. Because Iota allows machine-to-machine communication, it holds promise for IoT applications like connecting washing machines to online repairmen or autonomous vehicles to computerized mechanics.
How To Buy IOTA In 2 Steps
Buying IOTA isn’t hard, but there are a couple of steps you need to take.
- Open an online account.
IOTA is a relatively small project, so not all exchanges have listed the digital asset for investors to buy and sell. The largest U.S based exchange that gives users access to IOTA is eToro. eToro has several great features and is a top crypto exchange for several types of investors. The platform also offers dozens of other cryptocurrencies, as well as unique features like CopyTrading large investors.
- Make your purchase.
All exchanges accept bitcoin for a deposit, so bitcoin can be used as the source of funds in order to purchase MIOTA. You can also fund an eToro account with other altcoins or a bank transfer. Once your account is funded, simply move the funds into USD and then select the IOTA/USD pair. After selecting the pair, go ahead and choose the amount you’d like to purchase and set either a market or limit buy order.
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Beware of Volatility
Fear of missing out can cause one to make a purely emotional investment, while fear, uncertainty, and doubt can stop one from taking advantage of an all but obvious opportunity. When making any investment for any period of time, it is important to have a strategy that anticipates all possible outcomes.
In stocks, an often used rule-of-thumb is to target a 20% gain and to beware of a 5% loss. But cryptocurrency is much more volatile than almost any other investment. Losing more than 100% is possible if an asset purchased with borrowed money becomes worthless. For real-time cryptocurrency prices, check out the table below.
Final Thoughts on IOTA
Outside factors may come into play after you invest. Even if Iota is making all the right moves to expand its acceptance as the common currency for the Internet of things, the cryptocurrency market can still have a negative impact on its price. An exchange could be hacked, a bitcoin “whale” could decide to sell or a gigantic ICO like EOS could fail. The world economy could enter a recession as it did in 1929 or 2009 and everyone, everywhere could decide to sell everything.
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