Finally, you’re ready to buy Chainlink (LINK) and you’ve managed to find THE guide to successfully navigate the purchase.
If you’re a complete newbie – don’t worry! This guide will cover all the details to keep you and your details safe and secure during the journey.
If you’ve bought a few cryptocurrencies before then you’ll still find loads of useful information in this guide. Including the best wallets to store your Chainlink, what Chainlink offers and much more.
Let’s start with a quick debrief of what Chainlink is and why it’s a solid percentage of my crypto holdings.
When I was tasked to review Chainlink I knew I had to go above and beyond. After all, it’s the 15th-largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market capitalization of $6bn (20/07/2021).
So what does Chainlink (LINK) do? Chainlink is one of the very first oracles in the cryptocurrency space, and it’s also the largest and most utilised in the ecosystem.
When you go to the Chainlink website it clearly explains what an oracle does in this context:
“Chainlink greatly expands the capabilities of smart contracts by enabling access to real-world data and off-chain computation while maintaining the security and reliability guarantees inherent to blockchain technology.”
Essentially Chainlink offers real-world prices that are not on the blockchain to other cryptocurrencies and services operating on the blockchain. For instance, if someone wishes to purchase a luxury watch through a blockchain service then Chainlink has a price feed for that.
Currently, Chainlink is the oracle for over $60bn worth of crypto – which is absolutely obscene when you compare their current market cap to their utilisation.
Chainlink was created by Sergey Nazarov who believes the decentralised finance (Defi) ecosystem could top $1 trillion by the end of 2022. If you think this is crazy then you’ll likely be surprised that gold has a market cap of $10 trillion alone.
One of the reasons Chainlink rose to fame is that during the last bear market (2017-2021) it “survived” and rose against the general downward trend. This is one of the main reasons it has a cult-like audience on social media who call themselves the “Link Marines”.
I could go into lots more depth, but let’s start with how to buy Chainlink.
How To Buy Chainlink? From A Trusted Crypto Exchange
After reading all of that you’ve convinced yourself that Chainlink is the best cryptocurrency for you to buy – wonderful!
These are the real-world (haha, see what I did there?) items that you’re going to need to successfully buy Chainlink (LINK).
Your notes app on your computer or laptop
A physical notebook and pen
An internet connection
Government-approved identification
Have you rounded up all of those items? Let’s start with our short guide to buying Chainlink.
Step 1: Get A Wallet That Supports Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is a super popular cryptocurrency so there are loads of different and safe storage options.
Unfortunately, Chainlink itself does not have any DeFi staking capabilities so I would definitely recommend storing the coins on a hardware wallet.
Yes! There are different types of wallets that provide different levels of security. ‘Hot’ wallets like web and mobile wallets are easy to use but also much easier to ‘hack’ through various phishing or crypto scams.
‘Cold wallets’ are physical devices where you have complete control over all of your transactions and have to authorise and authenticate every transaction. Trezor and Ledger are popular options but they do cost money.
Tip: Make sure that you write down your secure passphrase in private locations. Do NOT give this out to any person or site that asks for it.
Step 2: Head To One Of These Crypto Exchanges To Purchase Chainlink (LINK)
You’re now at the stage where you know where you’re going to store your Chainlink once you’ve bought it. So, the next step is to acquire some Chainlink to make that balance read anything but 0!
Chainlink, which released its whitepaper in 2017, is an incredibly popular cryptocurrency which means it’s available from a wide variety of exchanges.
Better yet, these exchanges allow you to purchase Chainlink directly from Fiat currency (USD, GBP, AUD, EUR). This is incredibly convenient if you’re looking to purchase Chainlink and it’s the method we’ll be following in this guide.
Here’s a list of popular crypto exchanges that I would buy Chainlink (Link) from:
Gate.io (no KYC but you’ll need to trade another crypto for it)
Note: If you’re buying large amounts of Chainlink, and you are based in the US, you’ll need to offer Government Identification to ‘KYC’ and activate your crypto exchange account.
The Start To Finish Guide on How To Buy Chainlink Using Fiat Money
Before getting started, please remember to have this list handy:
Your notes app on your computer or laptop
A physical notebook and pen
An internet connections
Government-approved identification
Once you’ve got everything, let’s start:
Step 1: Head to Binance and click on ‘Register Now’. You need to have your identification handy to verify your Binance account.
Step 2: How to verify? Once logged in, click the Profile icon in the top-right next to the ‘Bell’ icon. Click ‘Identity Verification’
Step 3: Binance offers 3 types of identity verification and I would just go ahead and commit to the advanced verification (this pretty much removes all limits)
Step 4: Once you are verified you’ll want to log in and head to the main menu where it says Buy Crypto.
Step 5: Hover over the menu button and click ‘Credit/Debit Card’
Step 6: Change the token from Bitcoin (BTC) to Chainlink (LINK)
Step 7: Change the fiat currency to the one you choose and input the amount you want to buy
Step 8: Click confirm purchase and click confirm again!
Step 3: Withdraw your Chainlink (LINK) directly to your crypto wallet
I would not keep Chainlink in any hot wallet or crypto exchange as there is no additional benefit to doing this.
In step 1 we went through the process of which wallet to choose to store your Chainlink. Head over to your newly created wallet.
Chainlink is an ERC-20 token meaning that you will just need to find your ethereum address to receive the tokens from Binance (or any other exchange).
An ethereum address is a long string of numbers and letters and is case sensitive, and starts with 0x. They look like this:
0x89205A3A3b2B69De6Fbf7f01ED13B2108B2c43e6
Once you’ve copied your ethereum address you’ll want to head back over to the crypto exchange of your choice. Navigate to your wallet balance and click ‘Withdraw’ on Chainlink.
Copy and paste your ethereum address into the crypto exchange, click ‘Max’ to transfer all of your Chainlink funds out and proceed. It’ll take a few minutes to appear in your own wallet but literally, that’s it.
Tip: Make sure to double-check the ethereum address you’re using to transfer. There should be a copy function within your wallet so ensure to always use this.
What To Do Next Now You’ve Bought Chainlink
Congratulations for finally getting your hands on some cryptocurrency, and an amazing one with great utility in Chainlink.
Crypto markets are very volatile as they’re still in their infancy. The total crypto market cap peaked at $1.7 trillion and when you compare that to the aforementioned Gold, which has a $10 trillion market cap, you start to realise how early you are.
Hopefully, you’ve stored your Chainlink in a hardware wallet and kept all the keys as safe as possible. The next step is to practice your diamond hands – this is defined as not selling when it dips!
Chainlink will continue to grow ferociously as it has very few worthwhile competitors. The best of the bunch being API3 and Band Protocol.
Frequently Asked Questions when buying Chainlink
Does Chainlink (LINK) have staking options?
Chainlink does not currently offer any staking options for LINK. However, this is in their roadmap and will be implemented further down the line.
If you have a large stack of Link and you are computer savvy, then you can set up a ‘node’ where you are paid in Link rewards for completing tasks for their blockchain.
Is Chainlink ERC-20 or BEP-20?
Chainlink was first built on the ERC-20 blockchain but it is also available to other blockchain services now, such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
If you have bought Chainlink as an ERC-20 token, then you can transfer it to your Binance account and then use their BEP-20 blockchain to transfer it to your BSC.
Why is Chainlink special?
Chainlink is special for a variety of reasons:
It provides real-world data and information and puts it on the blockchain
It is the top oracle out of all the cryptocurrencies
They will benefit greatly from Arbitrum, which will increase profitability for Chainlink
They have a strong cult-like community of Link Marines