How to Buy Threshold (T)
Beginner’s Guide
What Is the Threshold Network?
The Threshold Network is a blockchain-based protocol that aims to provide privacy-preserving smart contracts for decentralized applications (dApps). It utilizes a unique threshold signature scheme to ensure secure and private transactions.
Threshold signatures are a type of cryptographic signature that allows a group of users to jointly sign a transaction, without any one user having full control or access to the signing key. This makes it possible to create secure and private transactions, while also ensuring that no single entity has too much control over the process.
The Threshold Network also uses a privacy layer called “zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge” (zk-SNARKs) to enable confidential transactions on the blockchain. This means that transaction information can be kept private, while still being verified by the network.
The Threshold Network aims to provide a platform for building decentralized applications that prioritize privacy, security, and scalability. It has the potential to be used in a variety of industries, such as finance, healthcare, and supply chain management, where data privacy and security are critical concerns.
How to Buy Threshold Summary
- Get a Threshold wallet (e.g. Ledger, Trezor , Exodus, Guarda, AtomicWallet)
- Find an exchange that sells Threshold (e.g. Binance, Bybit ,OKX, Gate , Kucoin)
- Deposit money and make the trade
- Withdraw the Threshold to your wallet
Buying Threshold in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 – Get a T wallet
Threshold Hardware Wallets
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.
Threshold Software Wallets
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 Threshold 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 Threshold Exchange
Buy Threshold 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 Threshold through Bybit
- The exchange prides itself on delivering multilingual online support to its customers and is committed to providing a transparent and efficient trading experience. The products on the platform include BTC/USD, ETH/USD, LTC/USD, and XRP/USD perpetual contracts. A perpetual contract resembles a traditional futures contract in many ways. Its main difference, however, is that it doesn’t have an expiry date. Hence, traders are allowed to hold their positions for as long as they need to.Moreover, the exchange boasts a 100,000 TPS state-of-the-art matching engine. While many of its competitors have suffered from repeated overload problems, this high-performance matching engine makes it possible for Bybit to stand above the competition.The Bybit cryptocurrency broker platform is operated by the Bybit Fintech Limited which is registered on the British Virgin Islands, with headquarters in Singapore. The company was launched in March 2018, making it a fairly young player on the market.
Buy Threshold 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 Threshold 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 Threshold 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 Threshold
Once you decide on an exchange, open an account and buy your Threshold. Make sure to withdraw the Threshold 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
What is the T token?
The T token is both a utility token for the Threshold Network and a governance token for the Threshold DAO.
What is the T token used for?
The T token is primarily used to stake a node. Node operators receive fees from various applications that rely on the Threshold network’s cryptographic primitives. The T token is also a governance token and users can lock the token in coverage pools to earn yield in exchange for underwriting collateral risk in the network.
What are Threshold’s primitives and the use-cases?
Threshold provides a suite of cryptographic building blocks for privacy, access controls, and cross-chain bridges, including: * Proxy re-encryption (PRE) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_re-encryption) * Threshold signatures (TSS) (https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/threshold-signatures-explained) * Distributed key generation (DKG) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_key_generation) * Random beacon (RB) (https://blog.keep.network/whats-in-a-beacon-12c34b0bc078)
What is tBTC?
tBTC is Threshold’s flagship application. tBTC is tokenized Bitcoin that is completely permissionless (i.e. has no custodian), which allows anyone to tokenize their Bitcoin and use it in DeFi applications without sacrificing privacy or risking censorship.
Early History of Threshold
Keep and NuCypher were merged into the Threshold Network in a decentralized on-chain merger. The idea to merge the two networks was first proposed by the community in February of 2021. The first iteration of the proposal to merge was posted to the Keep Network forum in March. The final proposal rc0 defined the terms of the merger and was approved in June of 2021 by both communities, with a snapshot vote for Keep and NuCypher token holders.
T Supply Details
- 10B initial supply
- 4.5B allocated to NU holders
- 4.5B allocated to KEEP holders
- 1B allocated to Threshold DAO
Upgrading to T
The vending machine contracts, with static conversion ratios, will be available to NU and KEEP holders indefinitely. There is no time pressure or disadvantage in waiting to upgrade NU/KEEP into T, so please be safe, take your time, and confirm everything!
As a reminder, existing NU and KEEP stakers will not be able to use the vending machine contracts until their stakes unlock and become liquid. Legacy stakers will be grandfathered into Threshold via special staking adapters.