DEX, CEX, Popular Exchanges, and Trading Cryptos - Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 7
1-) Choose any of the following exchanges and develop a basic guide on how to use it, indicating whether it is decentralised or centralised.
Huobi
KuCoin
Waves Dex
There are many exchanges that provide services that are mainly for cryptocurrencies. Without these exchanges, there wouldn't be a market for cryptocurrencies and the effect of this is that cryptocurrencies would have been able to exhibit their inherent value. This means that the cryptocurrency exchanges have helped to show the value of the crypto coins that are being created on different blockchains. They are generally grouped into Centralized and Decentralized exchanges.
For this exercise, we have been given a list of 3 exchanges and also, given the option to choose 1 to write about. I have made my choice and would be discussing it.
Huobi Exchange
Huobi is a platform that provides cryptocurrency exchange services at a fee. It is based in Seychelles. The company started in 2013 and has gone on to become one of the most recognized cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world, especially in the continent of Asia. The founder of the company is Leon Li. Leon Li studied financial technology and worked as a computer engineer at Oracle prior to launching Huobi.
When it started in 2013 its headquarters was located in China. However, in 2017 the Chinese government placed a ban on the exchange of Bitcoins within its country, this decision made Huobi stop making Bitcoin withdrawals. Eventually, they left China. Its initial aim was to dominate the Chinese market but since the ban by the Chinese government, Huobi has expanded to more than 130 countries. It has offices in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Brazil.
It has a large number of trading pairs that can be traded on the platform, this makes it one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in terms of trading volume. It is also one of the oldest cryptocurrency trading platforms, having started in 2013. In 2018, it became a public listed company in Hong Kong.
Huobi has a native token called Huobi Token (HT). The token was issued in January 2018 and is used to trade with other cryptocurrencies. The tokens aren't mined like most cryptocurrencies, they are bought or sold using any of the Huobi exchanges. Currently, Huobi is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, but plans are underway to make it a fully decentralized platform. When decentralized the name of the blockchain would be the Huobi chain and the Huobi Tokens would be integrated into the blockchain.
The exchange platform is user-friendly and attractive, which makes it easier for beginners to navigate through. Here is a basic guide on how to use the platform.
How to Use Huobi Exchange Platform
Step 1: You need to go to the platform's address huobi.com.
This is how the home page looks like. Then you need to register on the platform to get the full benefits. You can quickly input your email address or phone number in the field given or you can go ahead and sign up properly. For the latter, you click on Sign Up at the top right.
Step 2: Once you have signed up. You can gain access to the platform by logging in. So you click on Log In at the top-right close to sign up. Since you just registered on the platform, it would automatically log you into the platform.
When you log in the home screen turns to this. At the top is an items bar that lists all the services that the platform provides. I have listed the relevant items from 1-9. The rest can be explored by the user.
Now that you have registered and logged in you need to navigate through the list on the items bar to start getting used to the platform. I shall be going through each of the items on the list and giving a brief view of the options that they possess.
- No 1: This is the first item on the list. It is composed of three lines. When you click on it, this is the list of items that shows. On it, you have Exchange and Ecological services of Huobi Group. The exchange represents the different exchanges that users can log in to. While ecological services show all the services that are being provided by Huobi and how to reach them.
- No 2: The second item on the list is Buy Crypto. Over here a user can quickly get any cryptocurrency using fiat currency. You can either use any card services or you can do a bank transfer. In this example, the display interface is at Quick Buy/Sell. You can also change it to P2P (Peer-2-Peer) Market. In the P2P market, you have the option of getting cryptocurrencies from registered and trusted merchants on the platform.
- No 3: The third item on the list is Markets. When you click on it, a new page would display, on this page is a list of all the cryptocurrencies that are being traded on the platform. If you navigate through the page, you would find out that there are 5 categories that the cryptocurrencies are grouped into. They are Huobi main, Huobi new, Huobi Inno, Huobi NEXT, and Pioneer. This section is for the Exchange segment of the market, you can also access the Futures segment of the market by clicking on Futures at the top. By the right side of the page is an indicator that shows the Top gainers with their percentage change.
- No 4: This is where the items on the bar begin to get more interesting. This is the fourth item on the list and is Spot Trading. This is the option where most of the traders are concerned with. When you put the mouse, you get to see a drop-down list that includes Exchange, Margin, Trading Bot, and Brokerage (OTC). Exchange is where traders can buy and sell currencies with the number of coins at their disposal. The margin is an option where traders can trade with leverage. Trading Bot is an option where traders employ the use of trading algorithms to help them perform trades. Brokerage OTC is an over-the-counter service that is performed digitally on its platform.
- No 5: This is the fifth item on the list. It is Derivatives. When you place the icon of your mouse on it, it brings a drop-down list that a user can click on depending on the aim of the user. They are Coin-margined futures, Coin-margined Swaps, USDT-margined Swaps, and D-Warrants. The Derivatives option is for those who want to operate on the futures aspect of trading the cryptocurrency markets.
- No 6: This is the sixth item on the list. It is Finance and includes Staking, Primepool, Huobi Earn, ETH 2.0, and Crypto Loans. This is where decentralized financial services are being provided by Huobi. Users can stake their tokens here. They can also provide liquidity to the liquidity pool by locking their assets for a given time period in Primepool. There are a variety of products that users can use to earn extra income in Huobi Earn. Users can earn Ethereum in ETH2.0. Users can also receive loans on cryptocurrency through Crypto Loans. All these are put together to give a view of the decentralized financial services being provided by Huobi on their platform.
- No 7: This is the seventh item on the list. It is Balances. Over here users can view the details of their account. It includes Asset Overview, Exchange Account (Deposit and withdrawal), Margin Account, Derivative Account, Fiat Account, Quant, Huobi Earn Account, Pool Account, Collateral Account, Warrant Account, My Point Cards, and Buy With Credit Card. As can be seen there are different types of accounts that a user can open and operate on. Every account has its own characteristics, therefore they are different from each other. This also means that the details of the accounts are different so it is good for traders to have an idea of what is included in each of the accounts. For instance, the Exchange account option is where users can check the details of the account regarding their operations on the cryptocurrency market. Users can deposit funds to this account, they can also withdraw funds from this account. All these are done in a direct manner. While margin account is the one created specifically for trading cryptocurrency on a margin on the platform.
- No 8: This is the eighth item on the list. It is Orders. It shows the options of orders that have been permitted by the user. It shows the state of the order whether they have been executed or not, the cryptocurrency pair, the amount being placed, the price at which the order was placed, etc. It includes Exchange & Margin Orders, Fiat orders, Derivative Orders, Bot List, and Loan Orders. Depending on the type of order that has been placed by the user, they can get a full view here.
- No 9: This is the ninth item on the list. it shows a user-like icon. This is to show this item is strictly for the user who has an account on the platform. Over here the user can manipulate the account based on how he wishes to operate on the platform. It includes Account & Security, Identification, Fiat Settings, Fee Settings, My coupon, Invite Friends, API Management, Sub-account, and Sign Out. A user is supposed to improve the security of their accounts by using some of the options provided here. A user can also partake in the referral program being administered on the platform. He can o this by clicking on Invite Friends. When a user does this he gets rewarded for the efforts in bringing another person to the group. A user can also get to view his coupon number on the platform by clicking My coupon. They can manipulate the fee to how they like it by clicking on Fee Settings. When a user is done with his activities on the platform he can click on Sign Out to enable him to log out of the platform.
Trading Platform
Finally, we can't talk about an Huobi exchange platform without looking at the exchange portal on the platform. When you click on Exchange in item no. 4 and option 1, it takes you to the exchange portal. Below is the portal to the exchange on the platform. This is a brief description of the exchange portal on the Huobi exchange platform.
The image above is the exchange portal in Huobi exchange. It comprises the trading charts with the trading indicators in them. It has a list of cryptocurrencies that are used for trading found at the left-hand side of the portal. It also has the order book on the right-hand side.
Below the trading chart is the exchange interface that allows users to make trades among themselves. It has both the buy-side and sell-side, depending on what a user intends to achieve. Also is has optioned like Limit, Market, Stop-Limit, and Trigger Order. A user can use any of the stated options for his trading purposes.
At the top is the timeframe. A user can change the timeframe to suit his trading style and what he aims to achieve in the market.
Conclusion
Through exchange platforms, the masses have been able to get their hands on the cryptocurrency craze. This is done through the conversion of fiat currency to cryptocurrency. This very action is the reason why a cryptocurrency has value.
Also, conversion of funds from fiat currency to cryptocurrency is done at a relatively cheaper and faster rate. They also have the capacity to store the cryptocurrency of users on their platform like the way it is done with wallets.
One such cryptocurrency exchange is Huobi. They have been in the business for a long time and are well respected within the cryptocurrency community. They are a centralized entity, and their platform is very easy to use. users can go on their platform to engage in any trading operation.
However, trading is a very risky activity and prospective traders should be very careful when engaging in such activity.
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