How to Buy Elrond (EGLD)
Beginner’s Guide
What Is Elrond (EGLD)?
Elrond is a blockchain protocol that seeks to offer extremely fast transaction speeds by using sharding. The project describes itself as a technology ecosystem for the new internet, which includes fintech, decentralized finance and the Internet of Things. Its smart contracts execution platform is reportedly capable of 15,000 transactions per second, six-second latency and a $0.001 transaction cost.
The Elrond network rewards the community and active participants with EGLD tokens. EGLD, or Electronic Gold, is Elrond’s native token. It acts as a store of value currency to pay for network usage. The coin also serves as a medium of exchange between platform users and validators. Users pay transaction fees in EGLD and validators provide services.
EGLD allows developers to deploy smart contracts, protocols, and dApps on the platform. It empowers participants to perform any network action. Through staking and validation rewards, as well as transaction fees, EGLD manages the Elrond network. Plus, EGLD is endowed with the functionality of a governance token, so its holders can vote on network decisions.
Elrond was first announced in August 2019, and its mainnet went live in July 2020.
How to Buy Elrond Summary
- Get a Terra Elrond wallet (e.g. Ledger, Trezor , Exodus, Guarda, AtomicWallet)
- Find an exchange that sells Elrond (e.g. , Binance ,OKX, Gate , Bitfinex , Kucoin)
- Deposit money and make the trade
- Withdraw the Elrond to your wallet
Buying Elrond in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 – Get a EGLD wallet
Elrond Hardware Wallets
Elrond is a fast, secure, and scalable blockchain platform that uses sharding to achieve high throughput and low latency. Hardware wallets are a popular and secure way to store cryptocurrencies, including Elrond. Here are some of the most popular hardware wallets that support Elrond:
Ledger Nano S: The Ledger Nano S is a hardware wallet that supports multiple cryptocurrencies, including Elrond. It offers a high level of security, with a secure chip and a PIN code to protect your assets. You can manage your Elrond assets using the Ledger Live app.
Ledger Nano X: The Ledger Nano X is a more advanced version of the Nano S, with a larger screen and Bluetooth connectivity. It also supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. Like the Nano S, you can manage your Elrond assets using the Ledger Live app.
Trezor Model T: The Trezor Model T is another popular hardware wallet that supports Elrond. It offers a touch screen display, easy-to-use interface, and a high level of security. You can manage your Elrond assets using the Trezor Wallet app.
Ellipal Titan: The Ellipal Titan is a hardware wallet that offers a high level of security, with an air-gapped design and a tamper-proof case. It also supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. You can manage your Elrond assets using the Ellipal app.
KeepKey: KeepKey is a hardware wallet that offers a sleek design and a large screen for easy use. It supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. You can manage your Elrond assets using the KeepKey client.
Overall, hardware wallets are a secure and reliable way to store your Elrond assets. Each of the hardware wallets listed above offer a high level of security and are user-friendly, making them a good choice for both beginners and experienced users.
The best option for storing any cryptocurrency would be to use a hardware wallet. These are pieces of hardware that store the private key to your coins offline.
Today, there are two leading hardware manufacturers to choose from – Ledger and TREZOR. Both companies have different models of hardware wallets that will get the job done.
If you want deeper insights on specific models, you can read my Ledger Nano X review or my TREZOR Model T review.
Elrond Software Wallets
Elrond is a fast, secure, and scalable blockchain platform that uses sharding to achieve high throughput and low latency. Software wallets are a popular and convenient way to store cryptocurrencies, including Elrond. Here are some of the most popular software wallets that support Elrond:
Maiar: Maiar is the official Elrond wallet, designed for mobile devices and available on both iOS and Android. It offers a simple and intuitive interface, with features such as sending and receiving Elrond, staking, and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also includes a built-in browser for accessing dApps on the Elrond network.
Trust Wallet: Trust Wallet is a popular mobile wallet that supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. It offers a user-friendly interface, with features such as sending and receiving Elrond, staking, and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also includes a built-in DEX for trading on decentralized exchanges.
Atomic Wallet: Atomic Wallet is a desktop and mobile wallet that supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. It offers a sleek and easy-to-use interface, with features such as sending and receiving Elrond, staking, and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also includes a built-in DEX for trading on decentralized exchanges.
Exodus Wallet: Exodus Wallet is a desktop and mobile wallet that supports Elrond, along with many other cryptocurrencies. It offers a user-friendly interface, with features such as sending and receiving Elrond, staking, and buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also includes a built-in exchange for trading on centralized exchanges.
MyEtherWallet: MyEtherWallet is a web-based wallet that supports Elrond, along with many other Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. It offers a simple and intuitive interface, with features such as sending and receiving Elrond, staking, and interacting with dApps on the Elrond network.
Overall, software wallets are a convenient and accessible way to store your Elrond assets. Each of the software wallets listed above offer a user-friendly interface and a range of features, making them a good choice for both beginners and experienced users. It’s important to remember that software wallets are generally less secure than hardware wallets, so it’s important to take appropriate security measures, such as using two-factor authentication and keeping your private keys secure.
Hardware wallets cost money, so if you’re not sure how serious you are about cryptocurrencies and just want to get a taste of what they feel like, perhaps you would be better off starting with a software wallet.
A software wallet is a free program that lets you store your coins on your computer or mobile phone.
The easiest Elrond software wallets to get started with are undoubtedly Exodus, Atomic Wallet and Guarda . All wallets are very intuitive. Exodus, Atomic Wallet and Guarda is available on desktop for Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as on mobile for both iOS and Android. If you want more information you can read my Exodus, AtomicWallet and Guarda review.
Step 2 – Find an Elrond Exchange
Buy Elrond through Binance
- Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software.
Buy Elrond through Okex
- OKX (Chinese: 欧易), formerly known as OKEx, is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives exchange. It was founded by Star Xu (徐明星) in 2017. OKX is owned by Ok Group, which also owns crypto exchange Okcoin. It is not available to US based investors. The company’s CEO is Jay Hao and CMO is Haider Rafique. Initially headquartered in Beijing, China, OKX is now under a blanket ban by Chinese regulators. On October 13, 2021, it issued a “Notice on Regulatory Policy in Mainland China”, announcing that it would continue its policy of “withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market” and would not establish an office or team in the region. However, according to Caixin, although the exchange officially announced that it would no longer set up an office in Mainland China, it still has a large number of R&D staff working in the region, including engineers, who continue to work for OKX in the form of third-party outsourcing companies.
Buy Elrond through Gate.io
- Gate.io is a crypto exchange founded in the fall of 2017. The platform is a part of Gate Technology Inc corporation, and has a registration address in Virginia, USA. The platform does not have an official license. Its interface is available for working in three versions: English, Chinese and Japanese.
Buy Elrond through Bitfinex
- Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange owned and operated by iFinex Inc registered in the British Virgin Islands.Their customers’ money has been stolen or lost in several incidents, and they have been unable to secure normal banking relationships.Bitfinex was founded in December 2012 as a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange, offering digital asset trading services to users around the world. Bitfinex initially started as a P2P margin lending platform for Bitcoin and later added support for more cryptocurrencies.
Buy Elrond through Kucoin
- Kucoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange for numerous digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Launched in September 2017, KuCoin has grown into one of the most popular crypto exchanges and already has over 8 million registered users from 700+ countries and regions. According to Alexa traffic ranking, KuCoin’s monthly unique ranking is in the top 5 globally. Known as the “People’s Exchange”, KuCoin operates in Seychelles, providing users with multi-language and 24/7 customer service. Meanwhile, KuCoin has established local communities all over the world in South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Turkey, Russia, India, and other regions, providing users with the most local services. Currently, 1 out of every 4 crypto holders in the world is with KuCoin.
Step 3 – Withdraw Your Elrond
Once you decide on an exchange, open an account and buy your Elrond . Make sure to withdraw the Elrond from the exchange to your personal wallet. Never leave coins on an exchange, as you risk losing them all if that exchange gets hacked or shuts down (which has happened in the past) and always double check address before send coins because you can send the coins to wrong address .
Overview
Who Are the Founders of Elrond?
Elrond is a blockchain platform founded by a team of entrepreneurs and developers. The project was founded by Beniamin Mincu, Lucian Todea, and Lucian Mincu.
Beniamin Mincu is the CEO of Elrond and has over a decade of experience in software development and entrepreneurship. He has previously co-founded several technology startups, including Metachain Labs, a blockchain R&D company.
Lucian Todea is the Chairman of the Board of Elrond and is a successful entrepreneur and investor. He has previously co-founded several technology companies, including Softelligence, a software development company.
Lucian Mincu is the Chief Architect of Elrond and is a seasoned software developer with over a decade of experience. He has previously worked for companies such as Adobe and has co-founded several technology startups.
Together, the founders of Elrond bring a wealth of experience and expertise in software development, entrepreneurship, and business to the project. Their vision is to create a blockchain platform that is fast, secure, and scalable, and that can be used to power a wide range of decentralized applications.
What Makes Elrond Unique?
Elrond is a blockchain platform that is designed to be fast, secure, and scalable. Here are some of the key features that make Elrond unique:
High throughput: Elrond uses a sharding architecture that enables it to process up to 15,000 transactions per second. This makes it one of the fastest blockchain platforms on the market, and allows it to support a wide range of decentralized applications.
Low latency: Elrond is designed to have low transaction latency, which means that transactions are confirmed quickly and efficiently. This is important for applications that require fast confirmation times, such as payment systems and gaming platforms.
Adaptive state sharding: Elrond’s sharding architecture is designed to be adaptive, which means that it can adjust to changes in network activity and ensure that the network remains efficient and secure. This is achieved through a mechanism called “sharding reconfiguration,” which allows the network to adjust the number of shards and validators based on current network conditions.
Secure consensus mechanism: Elrond uses a consensus mechanism called “Secure Proof of Stake” (SPoS), which is designed to be fast, secure, and energy-efficient. SPoS ensures that validators are chosen randomly and that they have a stake in the network, which incentivizes them to act in the best interests of the network.
User-friendly wallets: Elrond has developed a user-friendly wallet called Maiar that is designed to make it easy for anyone to use and interact with the Elrond network. The wallet has a simple and intuitive interface, and supports features such as sending and receiving tokens, staking, and buying and selling cryptocurrencies.
Overall, Elrond is a unique blockchain platform that is designed to be fast, secure, and scalable. Its high throughput, low latency, and adaptive sharding architecture make it well-suited for a wide range of decentralized applications, while its Secure Proof of Stake consensus mechanism ensures that the network remains secure and energy-efficient. Additionally, Elrond’s user-friendly wallet makes it easy for anyone to interact with the network and participate in the ecosystem.
How Does Elrond Work?
According to the Elrond crypto team, the project implements three types of segmentation: state, transactions, and network, using the parallel processing method to speed up the time and increase the number of transactions.
Elrond is a comprehensive software that uses Adaptive State Sharding to scale while sharing infrastructure to support a growing number of applications/transactions on the ledger. A variation of the traditional PoS operational protocol guarantees the connection to the platform of all sections of the network, separated during sharding. Hence, the integrated environment is involved in the development of dApps, which are imitations of products and services.
Elrond developers combined three sharding methods to create their own unique adaptive one. They divide the network into four shards: three shards are execution shards that process transactions, validating 5400 transactions per second, and Metachain is the fourth shard that coordinates and completes transactions.
Sharding types include: State sharding where the history of the network, or state, is distributed across different sections of the network, or shards. Segments have their own ledger, nodes store the state of each segment; Transaction sharding where transactions are mapped to segments and processed, segments process transactions in parallel and nodes capture the state of the entire network; Network sharding where the nodes are grouped into segments and then processed. Network slicing contributes to optimizing communications.
How Many Elrond (EGLD) Coins Are There in Circulation?
The Elrond economic model has a limited supply that starts at 20,000,000 EGLD, with new tokens minted to reward network validators. The maximum supply can never exceed 31,415,926 EGLD, but this number will decrease as more transactions are processed.
Elrond’s native token was first made available for purchase through a private sale, in which 19% of its initial supply was sold, with 7.5% made available immediately upon token generation and another 15.41% released every three months. Elrond also held an initial exchange offering on Binance, in which 25% was sold and made available immediately.
Of the remaining 56%, 7% was reserved for ecosystem rewards, with 50% released immediately and 50% after six months; 8.5% for marketing, grants and an accelerator pool for DApp developers, with 81.17% released immediately and 9.41% every six months; 2% for a community fund, with 33.3% released immediately, 33.3% after six months and 33.3% after 12 months; 2.5% for advisors, released after one year; 19% for Elrond’s founders and core team members, with 10% released after six months, 10% after 12 months, 15% after 18, 24, 30 and 36, and 20% after 42 months; and 17% for the company for ecosystem support, with 33.3% that can only be used for staking during the first year released immediately and 66.6% released in three equal installments over three years, starting after one year.
Elrond’s tokens were first issued on Binance Chain under the name ERD with a total supply of 20 billion. 500 million were burned in November 2019 and minted on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-20 tokens, and the company launched a token swap event in September 2020 for token holders to swap their ERC-20 and BEP-2 tokens for mainnet EGLD tokens. During the process, the total token supply was reduced from 20 billion to 20 million by setting the swap ratio at 1,000 ERD for 1 EGLD.
How Is the Elrond Network Secured?
The Elrond network is secured through a consensus mechanism called “Secure Proof of Stake” (SPoS), which is designed to be fast, secure, and energy-efficient. SPoS ensures that validators are chosen randomly and that they have a stake in the network, which incentivizes them to act in the best interests of the network. Here’s how it works:
Validators: The Elrond network is secured by a group of validators who are chosen randomly to validate transactions and create new blocks. Validators must have a stake in the network in order to participate, which ensures that they have an incentive to act in the best interests of the network.
Staking: In order to become a validator, users must stake a certain amount of Elrond’s native cryptocurrency, ERD. The more ERD a user stakes, the more likely they are to be chosen as a validator.
Random selection: Validators are chosen randomly from the pool of staked tokens. This ensures that no single validator can control the network, and that the network remains decentralized and secure.
Consensus: Once a validator is chosen, they must create a block that includes a set of transactions. The other validators in the network then verify the block and, if it is valid, they add it to the blockchain. This process ensures that the network reaches consensus on the state of the blockchain.
Rewards: Validators are rewarded for their participation in the network through transaction fees and block rewards. This incentivizes them to act in the best interests of the network and to maintain its security and integrity.
Overall, the Secure Proof of Stake consensus mechanism is designed to be fast, secure, and energy-efficient, while also ensuring that the network remains decentralized and secure. By incentivizing validators to act in the best interests of the network and by using a random selection process, the Elrond network is able to maintain its security and integrity, even as it continues to grow and expand.